TODAY IN HISTORY: Air India

In 1896, the Liberals under Wilfrid Laurier won Canada’s eighth federal election. Laurier, the first prime minister of French descent, remained in office for 15 years.

In 1908, fire destroyed half the city of Trois-Rivieres, Quebec. The blaze left 1,000 people homeless and caused $2 million in damage.

In 1923, Manitoba voted for government control of liquor and repealed the “Prohibition Act” of 1916 by a narrow margin.

In 1931, aviators Wiley Post and Harold Gatty took off from New York on the first flight around the world in a single-engine plane that lasted eight days and 15 hours. In 1943, Trans-Canada Airlines (now Air Canada) inaugurated transatlantic service.

In 1972, U.S. President Richard Nixon and his chief of staff, H.R. Haldeman, agreed on a plan to use the CIA to obstruct the FBI’s Watergate probe. Revelation of the White House tape recording of this discussion sparked Nixon’s resignation in 1974.

In 1978, the House of Commons passed legislation giving everyone the right to a trial in either French or English. In 1985, 329 people, including 280 Canadians, were killed when a bomb exploded aboard an Air India jet off the Irish coast. The flight had originated in Toronto and stopped at Montreal before heading to London and Bombay. Two men were eventually arrested and went on trial 20 years later but were acquitted after an investigation and prosecution that cost an estimated $130 million.