Today in history

Scotia election.

In 1935, the Social Credit swept into power in Alberta, led by William Aberhart. The founder of the Prophetic Bible Institute in Calgary gained a wide audience through his weekly religious broadcasts on a province-wide radio network. He espoused the economic theories of Scottish engineer Clifford Douglas, who believed that conventional capitalism would founder because private control of credit would cut mass purchasing power. Aberhart died in office in 1943, but his party retained power in Alberta until 1971, when it lost to the Progressive Conservatives under Peter Lougheed.

In 1943, the Communist Party of Canada, banned under the War Measures Act, became the Labour-progressive Party.

In 1950, the first Canada-wide railway strike involving 17 unions paralyzed rail and telegraph service. About 125,000 railroad and telegraph workers walked off their jobs, causing one of the most serious transportation crises in Canadian history. The strike ended Aug. 30, when Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent's government passed back-to-work legislation.

In 1950, Althea Gibson became the first black tennis player to be accepted in competition for the U.S. national championship.

In 1968, Pope Paul VI arrived in Bogota, Colombia, on the first-ever papal visit to Latin America.

In 1978, a record-setting 97 misprints appeared in five-and-a-half column inches of “The London Times” article on Pope Paul VI.

In 1979, former prime minister John Diefenbaker was buried on the University of Saskatchewan campus in Saskatoon.

In 1985, 55 people died when fire broke out aboard a British Airtours charter jet on a runway at Manchester Airport in England.

In 1989, Black Panthers co-founder Huey P. Newton was shot to death in Oakland, Calif. Gunman Tyrone Robinson was later sentenced to 32 years to life in prison.

In 1991, the Supreme Court of Canada struck down the rape shield law, which said the previous sexual conduct of a rape victim could not be used in court.

In 2001, tests on a dead crow found near Windsor, Ont., confirmed the first case of a bird carrying the West Nile virus in Canada.

In 2003, more than 24,000 residents of Kelowna, B.C., nearly one-third of the population, were driven from their homes by a forest fire that was started by lightning. It eventually destroyed 248 homes in outlying neighbourhoods.

In 2003, a rocket exploded on its launch pad while undergoing prelaunch tests, killing 16 people, mostly civilian technicians, at the Alcantara space base in northeastern Brazil.

In 2008, Ontario health officials announced an outbreak of dangerous listeriois after a positive connection was made between confirmed cases across Canada and a recall of deli meats produced at a Maple Leaf Foods plant in Toronto. The outbreak claimed 22 lives across Canada.

In 2008, Usain Bolt helped Jamaica win the men's 4x100-metre relay final in 37.10 seconds for his third gold medal and third world record of the Beijing Olympics. (In 2017, the Jamaican team was stripped of the medal over a doping case involving teammate Nesta Carter.) (In 2012 at the London Olympics, Jamaica, anchored by Bolt, won the gold and set a new world record at 36.84 seconds.)

In 2009, legendary Nova Scotia peace activist Muriel Duckworth, best known as one of the founding members of the national peace group Voice of Women, died in Magog, Que., at age 100. Duckworth co-founded a variety of social action groups and played crucial roles in several humanitarian organizations, including Oxfam Canada, where she served on the board of directors in the 1970s.

In 2009, Cpl. Darby Morin, 25, from Big River First Nation in northern Saskatchewan, a soldier serving with the U.S. army, was killed when his vehicle rolled over while he was serving in Afghanistan.

In 2011, federal NDP Leader Jack Layton died after a battle with cancer, just months after leading his party to an unprecedented 103 seats in the May 2 federal election. He was 61. His death came a month after he appeared at a news conference, looking frail and gaunt, to announce he was suffering from a new, unspecified cancer and would temporarily step down as head of the official Opposition. Layton's death touched off an extraordinary outpouring of national grief. People set up makeshift memorials at his Toronto home and constituency office and thousands filed by to pay their respects after Layton's flagdraped coffin was carried into Parliament on Aug. 24 and lay in state for two days. A state funeral was held in Toronto on Aug. 27.

In 2015, 11 people were killed when a vintage jet fighter slammed onto a highway after it failed to pull out of a loop manoeuver during the Shoreham Airshow in southern England, plowing through cars on the road and exploding in a huge fireball.