TODAY IN HISTORY: Expo ’86 draws to a close

In 1812, British and Canadian forces under General Sir Isaac Brock defeated the U.S. army at Queenston Heights on the Niagara frontier. Brock was killed during the fighting. Almost 1,000 Americans were taken prisoner while the victors lost only 28 killed and 77 wounded. The victory helped to raise the morale of the inhabitants of Upper Canada and convince them that they could resist conquest by their larger neighbour.

In 1866, fire destroyed 2,500 buildings in Quebec City.

In 1943, Italy declared war on Germany, its former Axis partner.

In 1953, Sir Winston Churchill was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature.

In 1970, External Affairs Minister Mitchell Sharp announced the resumption of diplomatic relations with China. The Nationalist Chinese government in Taiwan severed ties with China after the Beijing government was recognized.

In 1972, a charter plane carrying 45 people -- members of an amateur Uruguayan rugby team, plus friends and relatives -- crashed in the Andes Mountains. Ten weeks later, two of the 18 survivors reached civilization and the others were rescued shortly after. The story became the subject of the Piers Paul Read book, “Alive,” and at least two movies.

In 1974, longtime television host Ed Sullivan died in New York City at age 72.

In 1975, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau announced what came to be known as the “six-and-five” program. The federal Anti-Inflation Act established a three-year control system on wages and prices. It was Canada’s only peacetime experience with such controls, instituted to rein in rampant inflation.

In 1982, the International Olympic Committee agreed to restore the pentathlon and decathlon gold medals American athlete Jim Thorpe won at the 1912 Stockholm Games. Thorpe was stripped of the medals because he had played semi-pro baseball in 1911.

In 1984, the “Challenger” and its seven-member crew glided to a perfect landing at Cape Canaveral, Fla. The landing capped two historic firsts during its eight-day mission: Marc Garneau became the first Canadian to fly in space and Kathy Sullivan became the first woman to walk in space.

In 1986, Expo 86 closed in Vancouver after a 172day run. It drew 22 million people.

In 1987, Frank McKenna’s New Brunswick Liberals won all 58 seats in a provincial election, defeating Richard Hatfield’s Conservatives, who had been in power for 17 years.

In 1992, Toronto author Michael Ondaatje became the first Canadian to win the Booker Prize for Commonwealth Literature, sharing the prize with British author Barry Unsworth. Ondaatje was honoured for his novel “The English Patient.”

In 1993, Canadian biochemist Dr. Michael Smith and U.S. scientist Kary Mullis were awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry for their contributions in the field of DNA-based chemistry.

In 1997, in what is believed to be the worst road accident in Canada, 43 seniors from Saint-Bernardde Beauce, near Quebec City, and their young driver from Sherbrooke died when their bus plunged into a ravine on a hairpin curve in the mountainous region of Charlevoix, about 110 kilometres northeast of Quebec City. In June 1974, 13 people were killed in an accident on the same hill.

In 1998, it was announced that carbon-dating had proved the “Shroud of Turin” was not the cloth in which Christ was buried. For centuries, Catholics had regarded the shroud as a sacred relic. Tests put the shroud at around 700 years old.

In 2016, former Alberta premier Jim Prentice was among the four people killed in a plane crash shortly after taking off from the Kelowna airport. Prentice, 60, also a former federal cabinet minister, quit politics in May 2015 after the Alberta NDP swept the Progressive Conservatives from power.