Today in History for Oct. 14:
On this date:
In 1066, William of Normandy became the Conqueror with his victory over King Harold at the Battle of Hastings. During the fighting, Harold was hit by an arrow and then mowed down by the sword of a mounted knight. Two of his brothers were also killed. The English forces fled.
In 1644, William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania, was born in London. A convert to Quakerism who was often jailed, he was given territory in North America in exchange for a debt. He and several friends settled in Pennsylvania and he planned the city of Philadelphia.
In 1841, Queen's College (now Queen's University in Kingston, Ont.) obtained a royal charter as a Presbyterian institution of higher learning.
In 1844, John A. Macdonald was elected to the House of Assembly for Kingston.
In 1848, Sir Edmund Walker, founder of the Royal Ontario Museum, was born.
In 1885, the first Mormon settlers arrived in southern Alberta.
In 1914, Canada's first contingent in the First World War reached Plymouth, England.
In 1918, Private Thomas Ricketts of the Newfoundland Regiment won the Victoria Cross during a First World War battle near Ledeghem, Belgium. At 17, Ricketts was the youngest North American to win a V.C.
In 1926, "Winnie-the-Pooh," a collection of children's stories by British author A.A. Milne, was first published. "Winnie" was inspired by a bear named "Winnipeg," which Canadian soldiers had donated to the London Zoo. On Oct. 5, 2009, the first authorized sequel, "Return to the Hundred Acre Wood," was released.
In 1933, Germany left the League of Nations.
In 1935, Mackenzie King's Liberal party defeated R.B. Bennett's Conservatives. The Liberals took 171 of the 245 Commons seats, gaining what was then the largest majority since Confederation.
In 1939, during the Second World War, a German U-boat torpedoed and sank the "HMS Royal Oak," a British battleship anchored at Scapa Flow in Scotland's Orkney Islands; 833 of the more than 1,200 men aboard were killed.
In 1942, 137 people died when the ferry "Caribou" was sunk in the Cabot Strait during the Second World War.
In 1944, British and Greek troops liberated Athens from German forces during the Second World War.
In 1944, during the Second World War, German field marshal Erwin Rommel committed suicide rather than face trial and execution as a traitor to the Nazi regime.
In 1946, the federal government introduced Canada Savings Bonds -- offered in denominations of $50, $100 and $500 at an interest rate of 2.75 per cent.
In 1947, American air force Capt. Charles Yeager became the first person to fly faster than the speed of sound. He was testing a rocket-powered research plane, the "Bell X1," over Muroc, Calif. His plane, called "Glamorous Glennis," exceeded 1,222 km/h shortly after taking off.
In 1952, External Affairs Minister Lester B. Pearson was elected president of the United Nations General Assembly.
In 1957, External Affairs Minister Lester B. Pearson was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The award stemmed from his efforts during the 1956 Suez Crisis to create the United Nations Emergency Forces in Egypt as a means to halt the Israeli-British-French invasion. The recognition helped Pearson win the leadership of the Liberal party in 1958.
In 1957, Queen Elizabeth opened Canada's Parliament, the first time a reigning monarch had done so.
In 1964, American civil rights leader Martin Luther King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for advocating a policy of non-violence.
In 1964, Nikita Khrushchev was ousted as Soviet premier. He was replaced by Leonid Brezhnev the next day.
In 1966, Montreal's subway system was officially opened.
In 1968, the first live telecast from a manned U.S. spacecraft was transmitted from "Apollo 7."
In 1975, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau announced the imposition of wage and price controls to fight inflation.
In 1977, Queen Elizabeth began a Silver Jubilee visit to Canada during which she opened a session of Parliament.
In 1987, a real-life drama began in Midland, Texas, as 18-month-old Jessica McClure slid 22 feet down an abandoned well at a private day care centre. (Hundreds of rescuers worked 58 hours to free her.)
In 1991, tens of thousands of jubilant Bulgarians crammed the centre of Sofia to celebrate the end of the Communist party's four-decade grip on power.
In 1992, the Toronto Blue Jays defeated the Oakland Athletics 9-2 to become the first Canadian baseball team to reach the World Series. They went on to beat Atlanta, becoming the first team outside of the U.S. to win the World Series. The Blue Jays repeated in 1993 against Philaldelphia.
In 1992, Montreal-born Rudolph Marcus of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his calculations of how electrons move about in chemical reactions.
In 1992, the so-called "Rostav Ripper" was convicted of killing at least 52 women and children during a 12-year rampage in Russia. The next day, Andrei Chikatilo was sentenced to die by a pistol shot to the back of the head. (He was executed Feb. 14, 1994)
In 1994, Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, foreign minister Shimon Peres and PLO chairman Yasser Arafat were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their roles in forging the historic Israel-PLO peace pact.
In 1995, Alexa McDonough won the leadership of the federal New Democratic party.
In 1997, bestselling novelist Harold Robbins, author of "The Carpetbaggers" and "Where Love Has Gone," died at age 81.
In 1997, Canadian-born Myron Scholes shared the Nobel Prize in economics with American Robert Merton for their work on a new method to determine the value of derivatives.
In 2003, in Game 6 of the NL Championship Series, Cubs fan Steve Bartman inadvertently deflected an eighth-inning foul ball away from the outstretched glove of Chicago outfielder Moises Alou; the Florida Marlins, down 3-0 at the time, rallied to win the game and went on to win Game 7 and advance to the World Series, where they beat the New York Yankees.
In 2006, the United Nations Security Council voted unanimously to impose sanctions on North Korea, in response to its claim it had conducted a nuclear test.
In 2008, the federal election voter turnout was just 58 per cent, the lowest in Canadian history. The Conservatives won 143 seats and the Liberals were reduced to 76; the Bloc Quebecois took 50 seats while the NDP were elected in 37 ridings and two Independent candidates also won. The highest voter turnout of 79.4 per cent happened in 1958.
In 2008, Indian-born author Aravind Adiga won the prestigious Man Booker prize for his first novel "The White Tiger."
In 2010, the New Delhi Commonwealth Games wrapped up, bringing an end to the problem-plagued project. Canada finished fourth with 75 medals, including 26 gold, the first time in 48 years it failed to crack the top three.
In 2012, Felix Baumgartner became the first skydiver to break the speed of sound, coming down safely in the eastern New Mexico desert about nine minutes after jumping from his capsule 39,044 metres, or roughly 38.6 kilometres, above Earth.
In 2015, Jose Bautista hit a dramatic seventh-inning three-run home run - punctuated with an emphatic bat flip - as the Toronto Blue Jays rallied for a 6-3 win over the Texas Rangers in Game Five of the ALDS to advance to the American League Championship Series.
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(The Canadian Press)
The Canadian Press
