A LOOK BACK AT LIFE ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

— In 1099, the armies of the First Crusade defeated the Saracens at the Battle of Ascalon, a historic Palestinian city on the Mediterranean coast, one month after they had captured Jerusalem. — In 1561, Mary Queen of Scots returned from France to her homeland and became the Roman Catholic monarch of a country rapidly becoming Presbyterian. — In 1631, John Dryden, English poet, translator and dramatist, was born. — In 1692, five women were hanged for witchcraft in Salem, Mass. Their trials had begun after a book by Cotton Mather, a Congressionalist pastor in Boston, stirred up the clergy and their parishioners following its publication in 1689. In 1693, the governor of Massachusetts ordered the release of all those held on witchcraft charges. — In 1809, the first Canadian-built steaboat, The Accommodation was launched on the St. Lawrence River at Montreal. Owned by the brewer and banker John Molson, it carried 10 passengers to Quebec City from Montreal on its maiden voyage. — In 1812, the USS Constitution — also known as Old Ironsides — defeated the British frigate Guerriere in a battle east of Nova Scotia during the War of 1812. — In 1839, the development of daguerreotype photography was announced in France. — In 1871, inventor Orville Wright was born in Dayton, Ohio. — In 1880, French acrobat Blondin walked a tight rope across the Niagara Gorge with his manager on his back. — In 1914, Canada declared war on Germany and Austria-Hungary at the start of the First World War. — In 1914, the British navy torpedoed the German battleship Westfalen during the First World War. — In 1921, Star Tre creator Gene Roddenberry was born. — In 1942, 5,000 Canadian troops, supported by the British, carried out the disastrous raid on the French port of Dieppe. It was termed a dress rehearsal for the eventual invasion of Nazi-occupied France. For Canada, it was the costliest day of the Second World War. More than 3,300 troops were killed, wounded or captured. — In 1960, two dogs, Belka and Strelka, survived an Earth orbit aboard a Soviet Sputnik spacecraft, becoming the first living creatures to circle the Earth and come back alive. — In 1966, more than 2,500 people died during an earthquake in eastern Turkey. — In 1974, Rev. Wilbur Kenneth Howard was elected the first black moderator of the United Church of Canada. — In 1977, comedian Groucho Marx died in Los Angeles. He was 86.