IT HAPPENED ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

— In 1702, the first British daily newspaper, The Daily Courant, appeared. — In 1756, the Marquis de Montcalm was appointed field commander of French forces in New France. He was killed during the 1759 British conquest of Quebec City. — In 1818, British author Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein was first published. — In 1835, the first formal police force in Canada was established in Toronto. — In 1848, Louis LaFontaine and Robert Baldwin were sworn in to form the first responsible government of the two united Canadas. It was the second administration headed by the two men, known as the “Great Administration.” — In 1850, Richard Blanshard arrived on Vancouver Island and read the proclamation establishing a colony, with himself as its first governor. — In 1908, Prime Minister Sir Wilfrid Laurier created the National Battlefields Commission, largely to prevent the Plains of Abraham in Quebec City from falling into the hands of speculators. — In 1917, a four-day revolt by the Russian armed forces began. It forced Czar Nicholas II to abdicate. — In 1927, the world’s largest movie theatre opened in New York. The Roxy cost $10 million to build and seated more than 6,200. — In 1931, Quebec extended civil rights to women, although it still withheld the right to vote. — In 1935, the Bank of Canada began operating after a royal commission recommended the establishment of a central bank. Initially privately owned, the bank was nationalized by 1938.The bank issues paper currency, sets the bank rate, controls the amount of money in circulation and acts as banker for the federal government. — In 1942, as Japanese forces continued to advance in the Pacific during the Second World War, General Douglas MacArthur left the Philippines for Australia. MacArthur, who vowed “I shall return,” kept that promise two-and-a-half years later. — In 1947, Toronto gave newly crowned world figure skating champion Barbara Ann Scott a ticker-tape parade. — In 1982, Israel and Egypt ended more than 30 years of official hostilities. Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat signed a peace treaty in Washington. — In 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev, at 54, the youngest member of the ruling Politburo, became the leader of the Soviet Union following the death of Konstantin Chernenko. — In 1990, Mohawks erected a barricade across a dirt road barring access to land they claimed near Oka, Que. — In 1992, Environment Canada began issuing weekly ozone warnings.