TODAY IN HISTORY: First edition of The National Post

In 1746, William Tennent, a Scottish Presbyterian pastor and theologian, obtained a charter for the College of New Jersey, later to be called Princeton University. He had founded the school 20 years earlier as a seminary for the gospel ministry.

In 1795, the United States and Spain signed the Treaty of San Lorenzo (also known as ‘Pinckney’s Treaty’), which provided for free navigation of the Mississippi River. In 1806, Napoleon captured Berlin. In 1829, a patent for the baby carriage was granted in the United States.

In 1854, Florence Nightingale began a voyage to an army hospital in the Crimea, where she brought great respect to the nursing profession.

In 1856, the Grand Trunk Railway opened its Montreal-to-Toronto line. The railway had been incorporated to build this key rail link in Eastern Canada. It was intended to serve all important cities in Quebec and Ontario and to link up with U.S. rail lines.

In 1858, Theodore Roosevelt, the 28th U.S. president, was born in New York.

In 1883, Sir John A. Macdonald appealed for financial help for the CPR, which was then almost bankrupt.

In 1904, the first rapid transit subway, the I.R.T., was inaugurated in New York City.

In 1905, after the dissolution of the union between Sweden and Norway, King Oscar II formally abdicated the crown of Norway.

In 1917, a 16-year-old violin prodigy, Jascha Heifetz, made his American debut at New York's Carnegie Hall.

In 1918, Canadian aviator Billy Barker won the Victoria Cross during the First World War. The Dauphin, Man.-native downed four German planes despite being wounded three times himself. Barker died in a training accident in 1930.

In 1920, the League of Nations moved its headquarters from London to Geneva.

In 1936, Wallis Simpson was granted a divorce in England. She later married King Edward VIII, who gave up the throne for her.

In 1938, Nazi Germany began the mass deportation of Polish-born Jews.

In 1938, Du Pont announced it had coined a name for its new synthetic yarn — nylon. The first nylon stockings went on sale on May 15, 1940.

In 1951, cobalt radiation treatment for cancer was used in Canada for the first time in London, Ont.

In 1959, a hurricane killed over 1,000 people in Mexico.

In 1961, the Victoria Rifles of Canada celebrated its centennial. It is the oldest regiment in Montreal.

In 1968, Canada won its only gold medal of the Mexico City Olympics. Tom Gayford, Jim Day and Jim Elder took the equestrian team jumping title on the Games’ final day. It was Canada’s last Summer Olympic gold for 16 years.

In 1971, La Presse, the largest Frenchlanguage daily in North America, announced the suspension of publication in Montreal. The paper, with a circulation of 225,000, shut down because of the threat of increasing violence in a labour dispute. It resumed publication in February 1972.

In 1977, Canada’s longest kidnapping ended when Charles Marion was released. Marion, the loans officer for a credit union in Sherbrooke, Que., spent 83 days in captivity. He was released when a $50,000 ransom was paid.

In 1978, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin were awarded the Nobel Peace prize for their progress toward a Middle East accord.

In 1980, Steve Peregrine Took, percussionist with the 1960s British flower power band, T. Rex, choked to death in London at the age of 31.

In 1984, 19-year-old John McCollum of Indio, Calif., shot himself in the head with a pistol after listening to an ode to suicide by British heavy metal rocker Ozzy Osbourne. The coroner concluded that McCollum took his life “while listening to devil music.” McCollum’s father sued Osbourne and CBS Records, but the suit was dismissed.

In 1997, Johnny Cash announced that he was cancelling all appearances because he had Parkinson’s disease. Two days earlier, the country legend had revealed his affliction to a concert audience in Flint, Mich.

In 2008, the body of Julian King, the seven-year-old nephew of singer-actress Jennifer Hudson, was found in an SUV three days after Hudson’s mother and brother were found shot to death in the Chicago home they had shared. The estranged husband of Hudson's sister, William Balfour, was charged in the killings. (In 2012, he was found guilty and sentenced to three terms of life in prison.)

In 2014, former provincial politician John Tory won Toronto's mayoral election, defeating Doug Ford, who entered the race when his scandal-plagued younger brother dropped his bid for reelection. Rob Ford opted to run for a council seat after being diagnosed with cancer and was easily elected. (Rob Ford died March 22, 2016.)