TODAY IN HISTORY: History’s first airline fatality

In 1908, Thomas E. Selfridge, a 1st Lieutenant in the U.S. Army Signal Corps, became the first person to die in the crash of a powered aircraft, the Wright Flyer. The accident, which also seriously injured pilot Orville Wright, occurred at Fort Myer, Va., just outside Washington, D.C.

In 1915, Manfred Von Richtofen, known as Germany's "Red Baron," shot down the first of his 80 airplane "kills" in the First World War.

In 1949, the Canadian Steamship Lines passenger vessel Noronic caught fire at her dock in Toronto, killing 119 people. The fire broke out at midnight while most of the 542 passengers were sleeping. The Noronic, which was the largest Canadian passenger vessel ever put into service on the Great Lakes, was destroyed by the blaze.

In 1967, The Doors performed Light My Fire on The Ed Sullivan Show." Sullivan had requested that lead singer Jim Morrison change the line, "Girl, we couldn't get much higher," but Morrison refused.

In 1970, a 10-day civil war began in Jordan between King Ibn Talal Hussein's troops and Palestinian forces under Yasser Arafat.

In 1978, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin signed the Camp David peace accord in Washington.

In 1983, fledgling actress-singer Vanessa Williams of New York became the first black contestant to be crowned Miss America. The following July, she also became the first Miss America to resign after it was disclosed she had posed nude in Penthouse.

In 1984, Conservative Brian Mulroney was sworn in as Canada's 18th prime minister. Mulroney’s 40-member cabinet became Canada's largest in history. He was prime minister for nine years. His most significant — and controversial — act was negotiating a free trade deal with the United States.

In 1985, the "tainted tuna" scandal erupted as the CBC public affairs program "The Fifth Estate" revealed that a million cans of rancid and decomposed tuna had been distributed to Canadian supermarkets. The scandal rocked the Conservative government as it was learned the tuna had been approved by Fisheries Minister John Fraser after inspectors had ruled it unfit for human consumption. The government recalled the tuna two days later. Fraser later resigned.

In 1995, an armed standoff between police and natives occupying a private ranch in Gustafsen Lake, B.C. came to an end after a medicine man was allowed into the native camp. In all, 17 people were charged.

In 1996, Spiro Agnew, former U.S. vice-president who resigned in disgrace in 1973, died at age 77.

In 2007, Canada formalized a landmark $1.9-billion compensation deal for an estimated 80,000 former students of 130 residential schools run by churches and funded by the federal government from the 1870s until the mid-1970s, for the sexual, physical and psychological abuse they endured

In 2010, daytime soap opera “As the World Turns” aired its final episode, concluding a run that began in April 1956. It was the first daytime drama to have a 30-minute (instead of 15-minute) running time.

In 2019, the Liberals launched into damage control mode after a photo was published by Time magazine showing party leader Justin Trudeau in “brownface” makeup at a 2001 costume party. The picture was taken at an "Arabian Nights" party at a B-C private school.

In 2021, U.S. federal regulators approved a drug from Eli Lilly for a new use in preventing disease in people who have been recently exposed to COVID-19. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted emergency use of the drug for adults and children older than 12 who may have an infection and are at high risk for getting severe COVID-19. Previously the drug was authorized for high-risk patients with confirmed COVID-19.