Today in history

United States conducted atomic bomb testing after the Second World War. Reard said his suit was “itself explosive, a blast.” In 1948, Britain's National Health Service Act went into effect, providing government-financed medical and dental care. In 1950, the Canadian destroyers HMCS Cayuga, Athabasca and Sioux left Vancouver escorted by the cruiser Ontario for Pearl Harbour during the Korean conflict. In 1958, the Stephen Leacock Memorial Home was opened in Orillia, Ont. Leacock, an economics professor at Mcgill University, was a leading humourist in the 1910s and 1920s. He wrote over 60 books, including “Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town,” in which he immortalized Orillia as Mariposa. The book was written in the home. In 1965, restoration began on the Wolfe Monument in Quebec, destroyed by separatists in 1963. In 1967, Gov. Gen. Roland Michener was invested by the Queen with the first ribbon and pendant star of the Order of Canada. In 1975, journalist and politician Joey Smallwood was elected leader of the newly formed Liberal Reform Party of Newfoundland and Labrador. In 1986, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers recorded the highest shutout in CFL history, downing the visiting Saskatchewan Roughriders 56-0. In 1990, Vaclav Havel became Czechoslovakia's first freely elected president in 55 years.

In 1993, a sweeping publication ban was imposed on the trial of Karla Homolka in the sex slayings of two Ontario schoolgirls. Justice Frank Kovacs barred the general public and American reporters from the St. Catharines courtroom and banned publication of the plea and evidence. Kovacs said the ban was needed to ensure a fair trial for Paul Bernardo, Homolka's estranged husband, who faced first-degree murder charges in the deaths of Kristen French and Leslie Mahaffy. Homolka pleaded guilty the next day to manslaughter and received two concurrent 12-year prison terms. Bernardo was later convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. In 1994, the report from a provincial inquiry into the Montreal police force concluded the department was poorly supervised, insufficiently trained and racist. In 2000, an Ontario judge upheld the right of parents to spank their children but suggested Parliament should amend the Criminal Code -- which allows using reasonable force to discipline children -- to guide parents, teachers and law enforcement officials as to what constitutes reasonable force and what is criminal abuse. In 2015, U.S. capatin Carli Lloyd scored three times in the opening 16 minutes to lead the Americans to a 5-2 victory over Japan in the FIFA Women's World Cup final in Vancouver.