TODAY IN HISTORY: “Can we all get along?”

— In 1960, Cold War tensions reached one of their highest levels when an American spy plane piloted by Francis Gary Powers was shot down over the Soviet Union. Powers was later sentenced to 10 years in prison, but was released in a spy exchange 18 months later. — In 1986, Canada's first artificial heart transplant was performed at the Ottawa Civic Hospital. The 41year-old patient, Noella Leclair, received a human heart a week later. (She died Nov. 11, 2006) —In 1992, on the third day of the Los Angeles riots, beaten motorist Rodney King appealed for calm, asking, "Can we all get along?” —In 1994, Brazilian Formula One racing champion Ayrton Senna was killed during a crash during the San Marino Grand Prix. — In 1996, Deputy Prime Minister Sheila Copps resigned her Commons seat over her 1993 election promise to quit if the GST was not abolished. She regained the seat in a June 17th byelection in Hamilton East. —In 1997, Tony Blair led Britain's Labour Party to a landslide election victory, ending 18 years of Conservative rule. —In 1998, singer Celine Dion was inducted into the Order of Canada within 24 hours of receiving a similar honour from the government of Quebec. —In 2002, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was freed after being confined for more than four months at his West Bank headquarters in Ramallah. —In 2003, the B.C. appeal court overturned a Supreme Court decision banning same sex marriage, saying laws preventing same-sex marriage were discriminatory. In its decision, the court gave the federal government until July 12, 2004 to change the law preventing gays and lesbians from marrying. —In 2003, U.S. President George W. Bush declared major hostilities in the Iraq war officially over. Bush stood on the deck of the aircraft carrier “USS Abraham Lincoln” in front of a banner that trumpeted Mission Accomplished and declared: “Major combat operations in Iraq have ended.” “Operation Iraqi Freedom” had lasted six weeks. Bush did not, however, declare the war in Iraq to be over. More than 4,000 members of the U.S. military died in Iraq. The U.S. did not count Iraqi casualties. —In 2004, eight former Communist countries, Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, officially joined the European Union, expanding th e EU to 25 countries with a total population of 450 million. —In 2007, the House of Commons unanimously apologized to former students of Canada's Residential Schools for the trauma they suffered as a result of policies intended to assimilate Indian, Inuit and Metis children into mainstream society. —In 2008, the legal age of sexual consent in Canada was raised to 16 from 14, the first time it had been raised since 1892. —In 2010, police found an “amateurish” but potentially powerful bomb in a smoking sport utility vehicle in New York’s Times Square, then cleared the streets of thousands of tourists milling through the landmark district so they could dismantle it.