TODAY IN HISTORY

On this day in 1867

Queen Victoria gave royal assent to the British North America Act. Canada became the first Dominion of the British Empire the following July 1st. In 1947, the British government amended the act to allow Canada to draft its own constitution, but it was not patriated until 1982.

Also on this day, in 1939, dictators Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini signed the Act of Steel, an alliance between Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy.

In 1945, the Canadian government announced that Japanese incendiary balloons had been found in Western Canada.

In 1960, a magnitude 9.5 earthquake, the strongest on record, struck southern Chile. According to the U.S. Geological Survey website, the quake claimed approximately 1,655 lives, injured 3,000 people, left two million homeless and caused $550 million worth of damage.

In 1979, the Progressive Conservatives under Joe Clark won the federal election, ending the 11-year tenure of Liberal Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. But Clark’s minority government lost a Commons budget vote the following December, and the ensuing election to Trudeau’s Liberals.

In 1987, in Vancouver, 29-year-old Rick Hansen completed his 26-month “Man in Motion” tour. Pumping his wheelchair 3,600 times an hour through 34 countries, he raised millions of dollars for spinal cord research.

In 1992, in one of the most publicized departures in TV history, Johnny Carson appeared for the last time as host of “The Tonight Show.” He had taken over the show from Jack Paar in October 1962.