TODAY IN HISTORY: Calgary gets Games
In 1399, King Henry IV ascended the throne of England. He had usurped the crown from Richard II, beginning the Lancastrian dynasty and planting the seeds of the “Wars of the Roses.”
In 1846, ether was used as an anesthetic for the first time. Dr. William Morton, a Massachusetts dentist, used the gas experimentally to make Eben Frost unconscious so he could extract an ulcerated tooth.
In 1871, British troops throughout Canada were called home, to be replaced by Canadian militia. In 1880, the first photograph was taken of a nebula, or space cloud.
In 1901, car registration in France became compulsory for vehicles driving over 28 km/h.
In 1944, Canadian troops captured the port of Calais, France, during the Second World War.
In 1947, Canada was elected to the United Nations Security Council to fill one of the elected two-year terms vacated by Australia, Poland and Brazil. In addition to the 10 elected, non-permanent members, the Council has five permanent members — Britain, China, Russia, the U.S. and France.
In 1950, the Canadian government announced its decision to free the exchange rate of the Canadian dollar. The dollar was pegged at 92.5 cents US in 1962, then allowed to float again about a decade later.
In 1970, Telesat Canada and Hughes Aircraft Co. of California signed a $31- million contract to build Canada’s first telecommunications satellite.
In 1974, RCMP officers prevented about 200 natives, members of the Native People’s Caravan, from entering Parliament. The natives had attempted to break through a single line of police stationed 50 metres in front of Parliament. The Caravan, which began Sept. 15 in Vancouver, demanded settlement of territorial claims and better social conditions for native people.
In 1981, the International Olympic Committee chose Calgary as the site of the 1988 Winter Olympic Games.
In 1985, the Calgary-based Northland Bank collapsed — the second failure of a western bank in a month. The Edmonton-based Canadian Commercial Bank closed its doors Sept. 1.
In 1993, Canada’s Supreme Court voted 5-4 to deny a Victoria woman’s bid for a doctor-assisted suicide. The high court ruled Criminal Code sanctions against assisting in a suicide did not infringe on the rights of Sue Rodriguez. The following February, Rodriguez — who had Lou Gehrig’s disease — died by suicide with the help of an unidentified doctor.
In 1993, the most deadly earthquake to strike India in half a century, hit across several villages across Maharashtra state in southwestern India, killing more than 20,000 people.
In 2011, notorious serial child killer Clifford Olson died in prison of cancer. He was 71. The self-proclaimed “Beast of British Columbia” tortured and killed 11 victims before he was caught in the summer of 1981.
In 2011, in a precedent-setting ruling on the division of federal and provincial powers, the Supreme Court of Canada unanimously ruled against Ottawa’s effort to close British Columbia’s right to operate a supervised injection site for drug addicts.