IT HAPPENED ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

— In 1520, in Wittenberg, northeast of Leipzig in present-day eastern Germany, religious reformer Martin Luther publicly burned the papal edict demanding that he recant or face excommunication. — In 1884, Mark Twain’s novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was first published, in Canada as well as England. Notably, though, the book was not released in the United States until Feb. 1885. — In 1896, the Swedish chemist and philanthropist Alfred Nobel died of a cerebral hemorrhage in San Remo, Italy, at the age of 63. The Nobel Prize awards were established under his will. — In 1898, the Spanish-American War came to an official end with the signing of a treaty in Paris that ceded the Philippines, Puerto Rico and Guam to the United States. — In 1901, the Nobel prizes were first awarded, on the fourth anniversary of the death of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel. — In 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt became the first American to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, for helping mediate an end to the Russo-Japanese War. — In 1931, Jane Addams became the first American woman to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize (the co-recipient was Nicholas Murray Butler). — In 1944, Canadian troops stormed the Lamone River defences in Italy during the Second World War. — In 1948, the UN General Assembly issued the Declaration of Human Rights. — In 1954, the 1,280-metre Canso Causeway was completed between mainland Nova Scotia and Cape Breton. — In 1957, Liberal MP Lester Pearson received the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway. While serving the previous year as Canada’s external affairs minister, he led efforts at the United Nations to set up an international peacekeeping force and end the attack by Israeli, British and French forces on Egypt.