Today in History for Sept. 30:
In 1399, King Henry IV ascended the throne of England. He had usurped the crown from Richard II, beginning the Lancastrian dynasty and planting the seeds of the "Wars of the Roses."
In 1846, ether was used as an anesthetic for the first time. Dr. William Morton, a Massachusetts dentist, used the gas experimentally to make Eben Frost unconscious so he could extract an ulcerated tooth.
In 1871, British garrison troops throughout Canada were called home, to be replaced by Canadian militia.
In 1880, the first photograph was taken of a nebula, or space cloud.
In 1901, car registration in France became compulsory for vehicles driving over 28 km/h.
In 1907, Alexander Graham Bell formed the Aerial Experiment Association at Baddeck, N.S. The group built several successful gasoline-powered biplanes. McCurdy made the first manned flight in Canada on Feb. 23, 1909. The group also worked on hydrofoil boats.
In 1924, American novelist and short-story writer Truman Capote was born in New Orleans.
In 1927, Babe Ruth of the New York Yankees hit his 60th homer of the season, establishing a record that stood for 34 years.
In 1929, the first British Broadcasting Corporation television broadcast took place in London.
In 1938, the Munich agreement, which ceded a large section of Czechoslovakia to Germany, was signed by the leaders of Britain, France, Germany and Italy. British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain said it would guarantee "peace in our time," but it did not prevent Adolf Hitler from seizing the rest of Czechoslovakia in March, 1939.
In 1944, Canadian troops captured the port of Calais, France, during the Second World War.
In 1946, an international military tribunal in Nuremberg, Germany found 22 top Nazi leaders guilty of war crimes.
In 1947, Canada was elected to the United Nations Security Council to fill one of the elected two-year terms vacated by Australia, Poland and Brazil. In addition to the 10 elected, non-permanent members, the Council has five permanent members -- Britain, China, Russia, the United States, and France.
In 1949, the Berlin Airlift officially ended.
In 1950, the Canadian government announced its decision to free the exchange rate of the Canadian dollar. The dollar was pegged at 92.5 cents US in 1962, then allowed to float again about a decade later.
In 1953, John Galt's Canada Co. was formally liquidated at London, England. Chartered in 1826, the company played an important role in colonizing the western part of Upper Canada.
In 1953, McGill University in Montreal, announced the development of a radar defence system for North America.
In 1954, in Bonn, nine of the world's most powerful nations agreed on the arming of West Germany.
In 1954, the first nuclear-powered submarine, the "USS Nautilus," was commissioned by the U.S. Navy.
In 1963, the republic of Nigeria was proclaimed.
In 1966, the Bechuanaland Protectorate became independent and was renamed the Republic of Botswana.
In 1966, Canadian-born Lord Thomson of Fleet bought control of the "Times of London" newspaper.
In 1966, the Republic of Botswana became an independent and sovereign member of the Commonwealth.
In 1970, Telesat Canada and Hughes Aircraft Co. of California signed a $31- million contract to build Canada's first telecommunications satellite.
In 1974, RCMP officers prevented about 200 natives, members of the Native People's Caravan, from entering Parliament. The natives had attempted to break through a single line of police stationed 50 metres in front of Parliament. The Caravan, which began Sept. 15 in Vancouver, demanded settlement of territorial claims and better social conditions for native people.
In 1981, the International Olympic Committee chose Calgary as the site of the 1988 Winter Olympic Games.
In 1985, the Calgary-based Northland Bank collapsed -- the second failure of a western bank in a month. The Edmonton-based Canadian Commercial Bank closed its doors on September 1st.
In 1988, Carolyn Waldo won a gold medal in solo sychronized swimming at the Seoul Olympics. Two days later she won gold in the duet competition, becoming the first Canadian female to win two golds at a Summer Olympics.
In 1993, Canada's Supreme Court voted 5-4 to deny a Victoria woman's bid for a doctor-assisted suicide. The high court ruled Criminal Code sanctions against assisting in a suicide did not infringe on the rights of Sue Rodriguez. The following February, Rodriguez -- who had Lou Gehrig's disease -- committed suicide with the help of an unidentified doctor.
In 1993, the most deadly earthquake to strike India in half a century, hit across several villages across Maharashtra state in southwestern India, killing more than 20,000 people.
In 1994, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled a man accused of sexual assault could use the defence that he was too drunk to know what he was doing.
In 1997, France's Roman Catholic Church apologized for its silence during the systematic persecution and deportation of Jews by the pro-Nazi Vichy regime.
In 2000, at the Sydney Games, Marion Jones of the U.S. won Olympic gold in the women's 1,600-metre relay and bronze with the 400-metre squad — making her the first woman to win five track medals at one Olympics. (However, in 2007, Jones forfeited the three gold and two bronze medals after she admitted taking a designer steroid.)
In 2004, Merck & Co. Inc. pulled its arthritis drug Vioxx from pharmacies worldwide after discovering, in a new clinical trial, that the drug increased the risk of heart attack and stroke.
In 2004, the Russian government approved the Kyoto climate-change accord, which after ratification in parliament, would bring the treaty into legal force for member nations.
In 2004, Air Canada emerged from 18 months of bankruptcy protection.
In 2009, at least 1,100 people died in Indonesia after two large earthquakes hit 240 kilometres south of Padang, on Sumatra Island, in two days.
In 2009, Guy Laliberte, the creator of the famed Cirque de Soleil, became Canada's first "space tourist" aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. Laliberte paid $35 million for the privilege and hoped his 12-day stay aboard the International Space Station would help raise awareness of drinking water problems around the world. He hosted the first multimedia event from the station on Oct. 9 to highlight that crisis.
In 2010, Fisher-Price recalled more than 10 million tricycles, toys and high chairs over safety concerns.
In 2011, notorious serial child killer Clifford Olson died in prison of cancer. He was 71. The self-proclaimed "Beast of British Columbia" tortured and killed 11 victims before he was caught in the summer of 1981. Olson pleaded guilty the following year after a controversial deal that saw police pay his wife $100,000 in exchange for help in finding victims' bodies. He was also reviled for continuing to taunt his victims' families from prison.
In 2011, in a precedent-setting ruling on the division of federal and provincial powers, the Supreme Court of Canada unanimously ruled against Ottawa's effort to close British Columbia's right to operate a supervised injection site for drug addicts.
In 2011, Ottawa and Quebec finally signed a $2.2 billion tax-harmonization deal in compensation for the province agreeing to combine the GST with its provincial sales tax nearly 20 years ago.
In 2012, Barbara Ann Scott, the only Canadian to win the Olympic women's figure skating gold medal, died at her Amelia Island, Fla. home at age 84. She won Olympic gold at the 1948 Winter Games at St. Moritz, Switzerland. Scott won the Lou Marsh Trophy as Canada's top athlete in 1945, 1947 and 1948. She was inducted into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame in 1955 and the Canadian Figure Skating Hall of Fame in 1991.
In 2013, the Kingston Penitentiary, Canada's most notorious federal prison, formally shut its doors after 178 years. It was designated a national historic site in 1990.
In 2015, the Toronto Blue Jays beat the Baltimore Orioles 15-2 to win the American League East Division title for the first time since 1993.
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(The Canadian Press)
The Canadian Press
