Today in history
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In 1942, the British steamer “Nicoya” was sunk in the St. Lawrence near Anticosti Island, Que., by a German submarine “U-S53.” Six of the Nicoya's crew were killed.
In 1946, the first CARE package arrived in Europe. The relief agency's name stood for Co-operative for American Remittances to Europe.
In 1949, Israel was admitted to the United Nations as the world body's 59th member.
In 1949, Siam changed its name to Thailand.
In 1960, Israeli security forces captured Adolf Eichmann in Buenos Aires, Argentina. An S.S. lieutenantcolonel, he was chief of the Jewish office of the Gestapo during the Second World War and implemented the Final Solution -- which aimed for the total extermination of European Jewry. He was put on trial in Israel, found guilty and executed in 1962 -- the only time Israel has carried out a death sentence.
In 1965, a wind storm in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) killed 17,000 people.
In 1971, Cleveland's Steve Dunning hit a grand slam off Oakland's Diego Segui. He became the last American League pitcher to hit a grand slam before designated hitters were introduced in 1973.
In 1984, a federal law created the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, CSIS, to replace the RCMP when dealing with espionage and terrorism.
In 1985, a flash fire swept through a packed soccer stadium in Bradford, England. As millions watched in horror on TV, 56 people were killed.
In 1987, Philippine voters elected a national legislature, and candidates supported by President Corazon Aquino swept to victory.
In 1988, master spy Kim Philby died in Moscow at age 76. Philby worked for the Soviets from within the highest levels of British security for 30 years before fleeing to the Soviet Union in 1963.
In 1996, an Atlanta-bound Valujet DC-9 caught fire shortly after takeoff from Miami and crashed into the Florida Everglades, killing all 110 people on board.
In 1997, an IBM super-computer became the first machine to beat a reigning world chess champion in a classical match. “Deep Blue” defeated Russian grandmaster Gary Kasparov in the deciding game of their six-game series in New York. Each won one game, with
In 2003, Team Canada won the world hockey championship in Helsinki, Finland, defeating Sweden 3-2 in overtime. It was Canada's first world championship since 1977.
In 2003, the U.S. declared Saddam Hussein's Baath Party dead in a radio broadcast to Iraqis.
In 2010, in his most thorough admission of the church's guilt in the clerical sex abuse scandal, Pope Benedict XVI said the greatest persecution of the institution “is born from the sins within the church,” and not from a campaign by outsiders.
In 2010, Conservative leader David Cameron, 43, became Britain's youngest prime minister in almost 200 years after Gordon Brown stepped down and ended 13 years of Labour government. Cameron, whose party was 21 seats shy of a majority in the previous week's national election, also reached a deal with the thirdplace Liberal Democrats that delivered Britain's first full coalition government since the Second World War.
In 2011, B.C. Premier Christy Clark, who was victorius in February's Liberal leadership race, won the byelection in former premier Gordon Campbell's Vancouver-point Grey riding by 600 votes, and broke a 30-year losing streak for B.C. governments in byelections.
In 2011, Michael Ignatieff bade farewell to politics after a final Liberal caucus meeting with his colleagues _ many of whom were following him into private life after a crushing defeat in the May 2 federal election.
In 2012, a London, Ont., jury found Michael Rafferty guilty of first-degree murder, sexual assault causing bodily harm and kidnapping in the killing of eightyear-old Victoria “Tori” Stafford of Woodstock in 2009.
In 2013, former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his Muslim League-n party won nationwide elections in Pakistan. Parliament elected Sharif prime minister on June 5, marking the first time in Pakistan's 65-year history that a civilian government had completed its full term and handed over power in democratic elections.
In 2015, the NFL suspended Super Bowl MVP quarterback Tom Brady for the first four games of the 2015 season, fined the New England Patriots $1 million and took away two draft picks as punishment for the “Deflategate” scandal, where under-inflated footballs were used in the AFC title game against Indianapolis. (Brady's suspension was overturned on appeal, but in April, 2016 a higher court reinstated the suspension.)