A LOOK BACK AT LIFE ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

— In 1650, the Jesuits closed their mission in Huronia, now Midland, Ont., which had been established in 1623. They returned to Quebec carrying the bleached bones of two martyrs, Fathers Jean de Brebeuf and Jerome Lalament, who had been tortured and killed by the Iroquois. — In 1692, during the Salem, Mass., witch trials, Bridget Bishop became the first of 19 suspected witches to be hanged. — In 1791, the Constitutional Act was passed, providing for the provinces of Upper and Lower Canada, each with a separate government. — In 1884, Louis Riel left a teaching post in Montana for Canada to lead what was to become the Northwest Rebellion. He had been teaching at the Catholic mission of St. Peter’s on the Sun River for about a year. — In 1925, the United Church of Canada held its inaugural service in Toronto. The church was formed by the merger of the Methodist, Presbyterian and Congregationalist churches. — In 1930, the Winnipeg Rugby Football Club was founded. It was the forerunner of the CFL’s Winnipeg Blue Bombers. — In 1935, Alcoholics Anonymous was founded in Akron, Ohio, by William Wilson and Dr. Robert Smith. — In 1937, Sir Robert Borden, Canada's prime minister from 1911-20, died of heart failure at age 82. — In 1940, Italy declared war on France and Britain. The same day, Canada declared war on Italy. — In 1957, John Diefenbaker's Conservatives ended 22 years of Liberal rule in Ottawa with a stunning election victory. Diefenbaker formed a minority government 11 days later. — In 1971, Canada and the U.S. agreed in principle on a joint attack on pollution in the Great Lakes. The same day, Ottawa established the Department of the Environment. — In 1985, Canadian publishing magnate Conrad Black bought 14 per cent of London’s Daily Telegraph newspaper for $17 million. Black later purchased majority control of the paper. — In 1985, socialite Claus von Bulow was acquitted by a jury in Providence, R.I., at his retrial on charges he had tried to murder his heiress wife, Martha “Sunny” von Bulow. — In 1992, Canada won a contentious boundary dispute with France over waters off southern Newfoundland. The International Court of Arbitration confined French territory to a 24-nautical-mile patch of ocean around the islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon. France was also given a narrow, 200-mile-long corridor stretching south. The ruling gave France only about 18 per cent of what it was seeking. — In 1998, a study found the level of arsenic contamination in the soil around Nova Scotia’s Sydney Tar Ponds was 18 times higher than the national average. — In 2002, mob boss John Gotti died in prison.