Today in History for Nov. 22:
In 1718, the English pirate Blackbeard was killed during a battle off the Virginia coast. Blackbeard, whose real name was thought to be Edward Teach, and his gang of pirates had terrorized sailors on the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea for two years. They ambushed ships at dusk or dawn, when the pirates' ship was hard to see.
In 1784, Parrtown was made the capital of New Brunswick. The name was changed to Saint John the following year, and the capital was moved to Fredericton in 1786.
In 1806, "Le Canadien," the first all-French-language newspaper in Canada, and the Royal Gazette, the first newspaper in Newfoundland, were printed.
In 1852, Canadian Frederick Gisborne laid the first submarine cable in North America across the Northumberland Strait using an insulated wire that could not be damaged by salt water. It ran from Carleton Head, P.E.I., to Cape Tormentine, N.B.
In 1890, French president Charles de Gaulle was born in Lille, France.
In 1906, the "S-O-S" distress signal was adopted at the second International Radio Telegraphic Convention in Berlin, replacing the call sign "CDQ," sometimes explained as 'Come Damn Quick.' The letters "SOS" is not an abbreviation or acronym but were selected because they are easy to transmit. Over the years though, it had been used as a mnemonic associated with such phrases as "Save Our Ships" or "Save Our Souls."
In 1915, Canada issued a war loan of $50 million which was oversubscribed and later raised to $100 million.
In 1922, the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair first opened its gates in Toronto. It since has been held annually, except during the Second World War years. Considered the largest indoor agricultural show in the world, the fair also signalled the emergence of the Royal Horse Show, one of Canada's premier international equestrian events.
In 1935, a flying boat named the "China Clipper" took off from Alameda, Calif. It carried more than 100,000 pieces of mail on the first trans-Pacific airmail flight.
In 1943, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek met in Cairo to discuss Second World War strategy against Japan.
In 1957, the first ship passed through the Iroquois Lock of the St. Lawrence Seaway at Cornwall, Ont. It is the most westerly of the seaway's seven locks built on the 217-km stretch of the St. Lawrence river between Iroquois and Montreal. The other six were completed two years later when the seaway was officially opened by Queen Elizabeth on June 26, 1959.
In 1963, U.S. President John F. Kennedy was shot as he rode in a presidential motorcade in Dallas. He died minutes later in hospital and Lyndon Johnson was sworn in as president. The Warren Commission was appointed to investigate Kennedy's murder and concluded Kennedy was killed by a single bullet fired by Lee Harvey Oswald. Oswald himself was shot and killed two days after the assassination by Dallas nightclub owner Jack Ruby, while being transferred between jails.
In 1963, C.S. Lewis, Anglican scholar, novelist and Christian apologist, died. Lewis was well-known for his children's classic "The Chronicles of Narnia."
In 1967, the UN Security Council passed a resolution calling on Israel to withdraw from territories it captured during the Six Day War the previous June. Resolution 242 also implicitly called on Israel's adversaries to recognize the Jewish state's right to exist. The resolution remains the basis of Middle East peace proposals.
In 1969, a group of Harvard scientists chemically isolated a single gene for the first time.
In 1973, in a TV address, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau asked Canadians to voluntarily restrict their consumption of fuels and predicted an energy rationing program at the retail level would not be needed if Canadians co-operated.
In 1975, Juan Carlos was proclaimed King of Spain following the death of longtime dictator Francisco Franco.
In 1977 British and French Concorde airliners made their first flights with fare-paying passengers to New York.
In 1980, Jules Leger, governor general of Canada from 1974-79, died at the age of 67.
In 1981, the Edmonton Eskimos won the Grey Cup, defeating the Ottawa Rough Riders 26-23 to become the first team to win the CFL championship four years in a row. The Eskimos made it five in a row the following year, beating the Toronto Argonauts.
In 1986, Elzire Dionne, mother of the world famous Dionne quintuplets, died in North Bay, Ont., at the age of 77.
In 1986, Mike Tyson defeated Trevor Berbick by a knockout in the second round to win the World Boxing Council's heavyweight championship in Las Vegas. At age 20 years and five months, he was the youngest heavyweight champion in history.
In 1989, Lebanese President Rene Muawad was assassinated only 17 days after he was elected.
In 1990, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher announced her retirement after 11 years in the job. She had failed to win re-election to the Conservative party leadership on the first ballot by MPs. Thatcher was succeeded by John Major.
In 1993, a public inquiry into Canada's blood system opened under Justice Horace Krever. The inquiry was charged with discovering how more than 1,000 hemophiliacs and blood transfusion patients contracted the AIDS virus from contaminated blood between 1980 and 1985.
In 1994, Romeo LeBlanc was named the first Acadian Governor General of Canada and the first from the Atlantic provinces.
In 1995, the Senate passed Canada's toughest gun-control legislation, making it mandatory to register all firearms, ban the importation and sale of a variety of handguns and impose a minimum four-year jail sentence for serious crimes committed with a gun.
In 1998, the CBS News program "60 Minutes" aired videotape of Dr. Jack Kevorkian, an advocate of assisted suicide, administering lethal drugs to Thomas Youk, a terminally ill patient. (Kevorkian, who challenged prosecutors to charge him, was later convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 10 to 25 years in prison. He was released in 2007 after serving eight years.)
In 1999, skier Nancy Greene was voted Female Athlete of the Century in a survey of newspaper editors and broadcasters by The Canadian Press.
In 1999, Wayne Gretzky was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame along with former referee Andy Van Hellemond and former referee-in-chief Ian (Scotty) Morrison.
In 1999, Larry Fisher was found guilty in the 1969 sex slaying of Saskatoon nursing assistant Gail Miller -- a slaying for which David Milgaard was wrongly convicted and spent 23 years in prison. Fisher was later sentenced to life. (Fisher died in prison on June 9, 2015 at age 65.)
In 2001, Texas-based cosmetics magnate Mary Kay Ash died at age 83.
In 2003, the Montreal Canadiens and Edmonton Oilers played at Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton in the first-ever outdoor NHL game, with Montreal winning 4-3. Earlier in the day, retired players from each team faced off in a 30-minute "Heritage Classic" match won by Edmonton 2-0.
In 2004, Ralph Klein's Progressive Conservative party won its 10th consecutive majority in the Alberta general election but with 11 seats less than what they took in a 2001 vote. (Tories 63, Liberals 15, NDP 5, Alliance 0.)
In 2006, Prime Minister Stephen Harper introduced a motion in Parliament that would recognize the Quebecois as a nation in a united Canada. The motion easily passed on Nov. 27 by a vote of 222-16.
In 2010, a stampede by thousands of panic-stricken festival-goers on an island in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, left 353 dead and nearly 400 more injured. People who tried to flee over a narrow bridge were crushed underfoot or fell over its sides and into the Bassac River below.
In 2010, Cincinnati Reds first baseman Joey Votto, of Toronto, was named the National League MVP.
In 2013, 54 people, including three firefighters, were killed when sections of a supermarket's roof collapsed during late afternoon shopping in Riga, Latvia.
In 2013, the city of Dallas unveiled a new monument at Dealey Plaza marking 50 years to the day since the assassination of U.S. president John. F. Kennedy. The plaque features the last paragraph of the speech he was set to give at a luncheon.
In 2016, the Dow Jones industrial average closed above 19,000 for the first time.
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(The Canadian Press)
The Canadian Press
