TODAY IN HISTORY

On this day in 1610

English explorer Henry Hudson discovered Hudson Bay. In his ship “Discovery,” Hudson explored the eastern shore of the bay and then wintered in the extreme south of James Bay. His crew mutinied the following spring, and Hudson was set adrift in an open boat with his son and several ill crewmembers. Nothing is known of their fate.

In 1786, James Strange claimed Vancouver Island for Britain.

In 1858, British Columbia was constituted as a Crown colony. The first permanent European settlement came in the early 19th century with the development of the fur trade but gold rushes in 1858 and 1862 brought thousands of settlers into the colony.

In 1934, Adolf Hitler was installed as dictator of Germany. With the death of President Paul von Hindenburg, Hitler combined the vacant office with his own, that of chancellor, and declared himself Der Fuhrer. With absolute power, Hitler began a campaign against all opposition, even within his own party. Hundreds of influential Nazis were killed and soon he was arming troops for the European invasions that would bring about the Second World War.

In 1939, Albert Einstein wrote to U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt telling him atomic bombs were possible and that German physicists were working to develop one. Einstein’s letter resulted in the Manhattan Project, which developed the atomic bombs dropped on Japan.

In 1990, Iraq invaded the tiny, oil-rich nation of Kuwait following the collapse of talks on oil and territorial claims. In January, 1991, a U.S.-led United Nations force began attacks on Baghdad. The war ended a month later with the explusion of Iraqi forces from Kuwait.