Today in history

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In 1956, actor Bela Lugosi died at age 73. He was buried in his Dracula cloak.

In 1960, Britain ceded control of the crown colony of Cyprus.

In 1963, a Canadian-united States agreement on nuclear warhead storage was announced.

In 1972, the Canadian National Exhibition opened in Toronto with the first Western exhibit from the Peoples' Republic of China.

In 1974, a ceasefire between Turkish and Greek Cypriot forces took effect, leaving about one-third of Cyprus in Turkish hands.

In 1974, Cindy Nicholas, 16, of Toronto swam Lake Ontario in 15 hours, 18 minutes, breaking the record by almost three hours.

In 1977, the King of Rock N' Roll, Elvis Presley, was found dead at his Graceland mansion in Memphis. He was 42. He began his singing career in 1954 and quickly became an international sensation. His hits included “Blue Suede Shoes,” “Love Me Tender,” “Heartbreak Hotel” and “Return to Sender.” He also starred in 33 films and is regarded as a 20th century pop culture icon.

In 1979, former prime minister John Diefenbaker died in Ottawa at age 83. Diefenbaker and the Tories won an upset victory over Louis St. Laurent's Liberals in 1957 and held power until 1963.

In 1980, Rev. Lois Wilson became the first woman moderator of the United Church of Canada when she was elected at the church's general council in Halifax. In 1983, she was elected one of seven presidents of the World Council of Churches.

In 1987, 156 people were killed when Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashed while trying to take off from Detroit.

In 1993, Stewart Granger, the international box-office star known for playing swashbucklers and safari hunters, died at age 80.

In 1994, the Canadian Medical Association rejected euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide.

In 1996, Lunenburg, N.S., was designated a world heritage site.

In 2000, Japanese scientists announced the birth of a successfully cloned pig. It was heralded as a breakthrough that could some day provide a plentiful supply of laboratory organs for human transplants.

In 2003, Idi Amin, one of modern history's bloodiest dictators, died in exile in Saudi Arabia. Some 300,000 people were killed during his eight-year rule in Uganda before he fled the country in 1979.

In 2005, a chartered airliner carrying vacationers home to the French Caribbean island of Martinique plummeted into farmland in western Venezuela after reporting engine trouble. All 160 people aboard were killed.

In 2009, Usain Bolt ran the 100 metres in a world record 9.58 seconds at the IAAF World Championships in Berlin, obliterating the previous world record of 9.69 he set at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. It was the biggest change in the record since electronic time was introduced in 1968.

In 2011, Ottawa restored the historic names of the navy and air divisions of the Canadian Forces to Royal Canadian Navy and the Royal Canadian Air Force. Land Force Command was renamed the Canadian Army.

In 2012, Ecuador granted political asylum to Wikileaks founder Julian Assange on humanitarium grounds two months after he took refuge in its London embassy to avoid extradition to Sweden to face questioning for alleged sexual misconduct.

In 2016, Mauril Belanger, a Liberal MP for more than two decades and a lifelong advocate for francophone rights in English Canada, died after a very public battle with the neurodegenerative disease ALS, commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease.