A LOOK BACK AT LIFE ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
• In 1066, William of Normandy became the Conqueror with his victory over King Harold at the Battle of Hastings. During the fighting, Harold was hit by an arrow and then mowed down by the sword of a mounted knight.
• In 1841, Queen’s College (now Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont.) obtained a royal charter as a Presbyterian institution of higher learning.
• In 1844, John A. Macdonald was elected to the House of Assembly for Kingston.
• In 1914, Canada’s first contingent in the First World War reached Plymouth, England.
• In 1918, Private Thomas Ricketts of the Newfoundland Regiment won the Victoria Cross during a First World War battle near Ledeghem, Belgium. At 17, Ricketts was the youngest North American to win a VC.
• In 1926, Winnie-the-Pooh, a collection of children’s stories by British author A.A. Milne, was first published. “Winnie” was inspired by a bear named “Winnipeg,” which Canadian soldiers had donated to the London Zoo.
• In 1939, during the Second World War, a German U-boat torpedoed and sank the “HMS Royal Oak,” a British battleship anchored at Scapa Flow in Scotland’s Orkney Islands; 833 of the more than 1,200 men aboard were killed.
• In 1942, 137 people died when the ferry Caribou was sunk in the Cabot Strait during the Second World War.
• In 1944, during the Second World War, German field marshal Erwin Rommel committed suicide rather than face trial and execution as a traitor to the Nazi regime.
• In 1946, the federal government introduced Canada Savings Bonds — offered in denominations of $50, $100 and $500 at an interest rate of 2.75 per cent.
• In 1947, American air force Capt. Charles Yeager became the first person to fly faster than the speed of sound. He was testing a rocketpowered research plane, the “Bell X1,” over Muroc, Calif. His plane, called “Glamorous Glennis,” exceeded 1,222 km/h shortly after taking off.
• In 1957, External Affairs Minister Lester B. Pearson was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The recognition helped Pearson win the leadership of the Liberal party in 1958.
• In 1957, Queen Elizabeth opened Canada’s Parliament, the first time a reigning monarch had done so.
• In 1964, American civil rights leader Martin Luther King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for advocating a policy of non-violence.
• In 1964, Nikita Khrushchev was ousted as Soviet premier. He was replaced by Leonid Brezhnev the next day.
• In 1968, the first live telecast from a manned U.S. spacecraft was transmitted from “Apollo 7.”
• In 1975, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau announced the imposition of wage and price controls to fight inflation.
• In 1977, Queen Elizabeth began a Silver Jubilee visit to Canada during which she opened a session of Parliament.
• In 1987, a real-life drama began in Midland, Texas, as 18-month-old Jessica McClure slid 22 feet down an abandoned well at a private day care centre. (Hundreds of rescuers worked 58 hours to free her.)