IT HAPPENED ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

— In 1547, Henry VIII, who split the church of England from Rome and presided over the founding of the Anglican church, died. He was succeeded by his nine-year-old son, Edward VI. — In 1807, London’s Pall Mall became the first street in the world to be lit by gas. — In 1822, Alexander Mackenzie, Canada’s second prime minister, was born in Scotland. — In 1870, the ship City of Boston sailed from Halifax and disappeared with 191 passengers. — In 1878, the first commercial telephone switchboard went into operation in New Haven, Conn. There were 21 subscribers. — In 1914, suffragette leader Nellie McClung staged a mock parliament in which men had to ask women for the right to vote. — In 1915, the United States Coast Guard was created as U.S. President Woodrow Wilson signed a bill merging the Life-Saving Service and Revenue Cutter Service. — In 1918, Col. John McCrae, the Canadian doctor and poet who wrote In Flanders Fields died of pneumonia in Boulogne, France. He was 45. — In 1928, the first cellulose self-adhesive tape went on sale. Scotch tape, as it came to be known, was developed by 3M as a masking tape for the spray-paint workshops of auto-manufacturing plants. — In 1962, Transport Minister Leon Balcer announced in the House of Commons that the transport department’s 241-ship fleet henceforth would be known as the Canadian Coast Guard. — In 1980, Canadian diplomats daringly smuggled six American diplomats out of Tehran. The Americans hid at the Canadians’ homes for more than two months after the U.S. embassy was seized by Iranian students. The six escaped Iran using Canadian passports. Canadian ambassador Ken Taylor left a few hours later, after closing the embassy. — In 1983, Progressive Conservative Party convention delegates voted 66.9 per cent against a review of Joe Clark’s leadership. But Clark said the mandate was not clear enough and called a leadership convention. He lost the ensuing contest to Brian Mulroney. — In 1986, the space shuttle Challenger exploded 73 seconds after liftoff from Cape Canaveral, Fla., killing all seven crew members. On June 10, a panel