TODAY IN HISTORY: Manitoba joins Confederation

In 1099, the Muslim citizens of Jerusalem surrendered their city to the armies of the First Crusade. The Crusaders then proceeded to massacre thousands of unarmed men, women and children.

In 1789, King Louis the 16th of France was told his authority had collapsed with the fall of the Bastille prison the previous day.

In 1823, in Rome, the church known as St. Paul's Outside the Walls was destroyed by a fire. Its original edifice was erected in AD 324 by the Roman emperor Constantine.

In 1846, the first issue of the Hamilton Spectator newspaper was published.

In 1868, Louisa May Alcott completed her classic novel, "Little Women."

In 1870, Manitoba was admitted to Confederation as Canada’s fifth province, and the Northwest Territories were transferred to Canada.

In 1878, the first telephone exchange in the British Empire was opened in Hamilton. It was only the ninth in the world.

In 1883, Charles Sherwood Stratton died. The performer with the P.T. Barnum circus, who was billed as “General Tom Thumb,” was 40 inches tall.

In 1900, Ontario-born runner George Orton became Canada's first Olympic champion, winning the 2,500-metre steeplechase at the Paris Games. Orton, who competed for the U.S. because Canada did not send a team, also won a bronze medal in the 400-metre hurdles the same day.

In 1916, Boeing Co., originally known as Pacific Aero Products Co., was founded in Seattle.

In 1918, the “Second Battle of the Marne,” resulting in an Allied victory, began during the First World War.

In 1920, British Columbia passed a bill making right-hand-side-of-the-road driving effective in 1922.

In 1945, about $20 million in cheques were mailed as the federal government made its first family allowance payments.

In 1972, Criminal Code changes provided life sentences for airplane hijackings and abolished the lash as a form of punishment.

In 1986, explorers from an oceanographic institute in Massachusetts used a small submarine to reach the wreck of the Titanic. They launched a robot camera that gave them a view of the interior. The luxury cruise ship, which sank on its maiden voyage in 1912, had been discovered off Newfoundland in September 1985.

In 1997, the Queen and Prince Philip celebrated 50 years of marriage with a garden party at Buckingham Palace. It was attended by about 4,000 couples from all over the world, including 30 from Canada.

In 1997, 50-year-old Italian fashion designer Gianni Versace was gunned down outside his Miami Beach home.

In 2004, Yukon became the fourth jurisdiction in Canada to allow gays and lesbians to marry legally.

In 2008, seven hours of video footage of CSIS agents’ visit to Guantanamo Bay to talk to Omar Khadr were released after a series of Canadian court orders. The video was the first footage ever shown of a CSIS interrogation.