A LOOK BACK AT LIFE ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

— In 1100, Henry I ascended the throne of England, three days after his brother, King William II, was killed in a hunting accident. — In 1620, the Pilgrim ships, The Mayflower and The Speedwell sailed from England. — In 1689, the little settlement of Lachine, just west of Montreal, was attacked by 1,500 Iroquois in a pre-dawn raid.Twenty-four settlers were killed and more than 60 were taken prisoner. — In 1797, Napoleon defeated the Austrians at Castiglione. — In 1833, The Royal William, the first Canadian ship to cross the Atlantic entirely under steam power, left Quebec. It first travelled to Pictou, N.S., and from there took 25 days to cross the ocean to Gravesend, England with a load of coal. — In 1858, American businessman Cyrus Field finished laying out the first trans-Atlantic telegraph cable between Newfoundland and Ireland. However, after several weeks of use, the cable burned out. — In 1884, the cornerstone of the Statue of Liberty was laid on Bedloe’s Island, later renamed Liberty Island, in New York harbour. The copper and iron statue, presented to the United States by France, was unveiled in 1886. — In 1891, the first traveller's cheque, devised by American Express, was cashed. — In 1913, in Victoria, John Bryant became the first air-crash fatality in Canada. — In 1915, British nurse Edith Cavell, matron of a Red Cross hospital in Brussels, was arrested by the Germans for helping 200 Allied soldiers escape to the Netherlands. Cavell, accused of being a spy, admitted helping the Allied soldiers to escape to neutral Holland. Before her execution on Oct. 12, she said, “Patriotism is not enough,” which became one of the rallying cries of the First World War. — In 1924, the comic strip "Little Orphan Annie," by Harold Gray, made its debut. — In 1928, Saskatoon’s Ethel Catherwood won the women's high jump at the Amsterdam Olympics. She remains Canada’s lone Olympic women's track and field gold medallist. — In 1951, daredevil William (Red) Hill Jr. was killed as he attempted to go over Niagara Falls in a contraption of rubber inner tubes, canvas and fishnet. A crowd estimated at between 100,000 and 200,000 watched Hill go over the falls. In 1952, Satchel Paige, 47, became the oldest pitcher in major-league baseball history to pitch a complete game or shutout when he beat Virgil Trucks and the Detroit Tigers 1-0 in 12 innings.