A LOOK BACK AT LIFE ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

— In 1815, Napoleon escaped from the island of Elba. Within three weeks, France had rallied to its former emperor. The battle of Waterloo on June 18 ended Napoleon’s last bid for power and the British government banished him to the Atlantic island of St. Helena. He died there in 1821 at the age of 52. — In 1867, the British House of Lords passed the British North America Act establishing the Dominion of Canada. — In 1870, an experimental air-driven subway, the Beach Pneumatic Transit, opened in New York City for public demonstrations. (The tunnel was only a block long, and the line had only one car.) — In 1905, the Panama Canal Commission recommended the construction of a sea-level canal, to cost more than $230 million. — In 1915, flame throwers were used in battle for the first time, by German troops during the First World War. — In 1919, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson signed a measure establishing Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona. — In 1935, Babe Ruth was released by the New York Yankees and signed by the Boston Braves. — In 1936, Adolf Hitler opened the first Volkswagen plant in eastern Germany. — In 1942, the federal government used the War Measures Act to order the removal of all JapaneseCanadians within 160 kilometres of the Pacific coast. About 22,000 people were stripped of all their non-portable possessions, interned and deported to the B.C. Interior, Alberta and Manitoba. — In 1951, an amendment to the U.S. Constitution limited a president to two terms. — In 1952, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill announced his country had developed its own atomic bomb. — In 1960, Anne Heggtveit of Ottawa became the first Canadian to win an Olympic skiing gold medal. She won the slalom in Squaw Valley, Calif. — In 1980, Egypt and Israel established diplomatic relations. — In 1991, during the Persian Gulf War, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein announced that he had ordered his forces to withdraw from Kuwait. — In 1993, a bomb built by Islamic extremists exploded in the parking garage under New York's World Trade Center, killing six and injuring more than 1,000 people. Four were convicted the following year and sentenced to life in prison. — In 2001, Bernard Landry became leader of the Parti Quebecois, succeeding Lucien Bouchard. — In 2004, a Delaware judge blocked Conrad Black’s deal to sell control of Hollinger International Inc. to the Barclay brothers of Britain, who wished to add Hollinger's London Telegraph to their British media holdings. — In 2006, the Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, ended with Canada winning 24 medals.