TODAY IN HISTORY: U.S. gives women the vote

In 1227, Mongol emperor Genghis Khan died. He became one of the most significant and successful military leaders in history. He united the Mongol tribes and founded the Mongol Empire (1206-1368), the largest contiguous empire in world history. He was reputed to have killed 20 million people.

In 1587, in Roanoke, N.C., Virginia Dare became the first child born to settlers in the New World.

In 1670, Jean Talon arrived at Quebec for his second term as France’s Intendant of Justice, Police and Finance in the new colony. Talon conducted the first census in Canada, in the winter of 166566. During his tenure he instituted the “filles du roi” program, bringing single women to Canada to marry the single men here. Along with increasing the population, he diversified the colony’s economy, established factories, shipyard, brewery and lumber trade.

In 1869, William Hamilton was granted the first Canadian patent. It was for a fluid meter that measured gasses and liquids.

In 1914, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed American neutrality in the First World War - the same day Germany declared war on Russia.

In 1920, the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which guaranteed the right of all American women to vote, was ratified as Tennessee became the 36th state to approve it.

In 1932, Scottish aviator Jim Mollison made the first westbound trans-Atlantic solo flight, from Portmarnock, Ireland to Pennfield, N.B.

In 1944, a three-day battle began in which Major David Currie of the South Alberta Reconnaissance Regiment won the Victoria Cross. The Saskatchewan native led a successful effort to stop German troops from breaking through Canadian lines at St-Lambert-sur-Dives, France. Currie later served for 17 years as the House of Commons’ sergeant at arms. He died in 1986.

In 1960, the first commercially-produced oral contraceptive, “Enovid 10,” was launched.

In 1964, South Africa was banned from the Olympic Games because of its apartheid policies. It returned to competition in 1992.

In 1968, more than 100 women and children were killed when a landslide swept two sightseeing buses into a river on Japan’s Honshu Island.

In 1970, the top architectural award at Expo ’70 in Osaka, Japan, was given to the Canadian pavilion, designed by Arthur Erickson of Vancouver.

In 1981, the Kent royal commission on Canada’s newspaper industry recommended action be taken to curb concentrated ownership of Canadian media. The commission said giants should be forced to divest themselves of holdings in some regions. The Trudeau government rejected the suggestion.

In 1991, hardline Soviet communists launched a coup aimed at toppling President Mikhail Gorbachev. Gorbachev and members of his family were effectively imprisoned until the coup collapsed three days later in the face of a popular uprising led by Boris Yeltsin. The coup attempt led to the end of the Soviet Union four months later.

In 1997, war criminal Konrad Kalejs was deported from Canada to Australia after an immigration adjudicator ruled he had committed crimes against humanity during the Second World War.

In 1998, Izzy Asper announced a $950-million deal to buy 11 television stations, making his CanWest Global Canada’s biggest private broadcaster.