IT HAPPENED ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

— In 1546, Martin Luther, the leader of the Protestant Reformation in Germany, died. — In 1564, Michelangelo Buonarroti, the Italian Renaissance artist whose works include the frescoes in the Sistine Chapel, died in Rome. — In 1678, Puritan preacher John Bunyan published The Pilgrim’s Progress, the best-selling book (apart from the Bible) in history. — In 1685, French explorer La Salle established the first white settlement in what would become the state of Texas. — In 1688, the Quaker community in Germantown, Pa., issued the first formal North American protest of slavery. — In 1885, Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was published in the U.S. for the first time. The book had made its debut the previous year in Canada and Britain. — In 1915, Germany officially began its submarine blockade of Britain during the First World War. — In 1930, photographic evidence of Pluto (now designated a dwarf planet) was discovered by Clyde W. Tombaugh at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Ariz. — In 1953, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz signed the most lucrative TV contract to date -- three years of I Love Lucy for $8 million. — In 1970, the Chicago Seven defendants were found innocent of conspiring to incite riots at the 1968 U.S. Democratic Party convention. Five were later convicted individually of seeking to incite a riot, but those convictions were overturned on appeal. — In 1980, Pierre Trudeau's Liberals were re-elected with a majority government after nine months out of office. Only a few weeks earlier, Trudeau had announced he was retiring as Liberal leader. — In 1984, Italy and the Vatican signed an agreement under which Roman Catholicism ceased to be the state religion of Italy. — In 1995, Russian President Boris Yeltsin banned alcohol and tobacco advertising in an effort to reduce the country's death and illness rates. — In 2001, seven-time NASCAR champion Dale Earnhardt Sr. died in a crash during the final lap of the Daytona 500. He was 49. — In 2002, Sears said its Eatons stores would be closed or converted to Sears outlets, spelling the end of the 133-year-old Eatons brand. — In 2002, longtime CTV News anchor Harvey Kirck died in Toronto at age 73. — In 2003, a mentally-ill man ignited a blaze in a subway car in Daegu, South Korea’s third-largest city, killing an estimated 194 people and injuring 146. The man survived and was sentenced to life in prison. The conductor apparently fled the scene without making sure the doors were open. — In 2009, the Montreal Canadiens organization played its 6,000th game, including 150 in the National Hockey Association from 1910-17. The franchise was founded on Dec. 4, 1909. — In 2010, Canadian Christine Nesbitt overcame a poor start to capture the Olympic gold medal in the women's 1,000-metre long-track speedskating race at the Vancouver Games. — In 2010, the Supreme Court of Canada rejected a $10-million damage award for widows of the miners slain during Yellowknife’s bitter 1992 Giant Mine dispute, striking down earlier rulings that found government, unions and private security forces all bore some responsibility for one of Canada's worst outbreaks of labour violence. — In 2010, John Babcock, the last known veteran of Canada's First World War army, died in Sopkane, Wash., where he had lived since 1932. He was 109. — In 2011, Mark Edward Grant was convicted of second-degree murder in the 1984 freezing death of 13-year-old Candace Derksen. In 2013, the Manitoba Court of Appeal overturned the conviction. In March 2015, the Supreme Court of Canada upheld the appeal court ruling and the Crown elected to seek a new trial, which began on Jan. 16, 2017.