TODAY IN HISTORY

In 1793, John Graves Simcoe, accompanied by a party of officers, soldiers and officials, reached Lac Au Claire and renamed it Lake Simcoe in memory of his father.

In 1829, London’s reorganized police force, which became known as Scotland Yard, went on duty.

In 1877, the first spike was driven for the Canadian Pacific Railway.

In 1901, Italian-born U.S. physicist Enrico Fermi was born in Rome.

In 1950, the U.S. Bell Telephone Company tested the first automatic telephone answering machine.

In 1956, Hal Patterson of the Montreal Alouettes set a CFL record with 338 pass receiving yards in a game in Hamilton.

In 1957, the New York Giants played their last game at the Polo Grounds before moving to San Francisco for the 1958 season.

In 1962, Canada became the third nation to have a satellite in space with the launch of “Alouette 1” from Cape Kennedy, Fla. The satellite cost $3 million and weighed 146 kilograms. It spent a decade studying the ionosphere from an altitude of onethousand kilometres before being deactivated.

In 1992, a Canadian helicopter and a U.S. sightseeing chopper collided in the sky near Horseshoe Falls, at Niagara Falls. The Canadian helicopter made an emergency landing while the U.S. helicopter crashed, killing the pilot and three passengers.

In 1996, John Lennon’s son Julian revealed he was the mystery buyer of Paul McCartney’s recording notes for “The Beatles” classic “Hey Jude.” McCartney wrote the song for Julian, originally calling it “Hey Jules.” Lennon paid about C$53,000 for the notes at a London auction.