Today in History

Today in History for Oct. 1: On this date:

In 1674, Francois de Montmorency-laval was officially named Bishop of Quebec by Pope Clement X.

In 1764, civil law replaced military rule in Canada.

In 1800, Spain sold Louisiana to France by a secret treaty.

In 1853, the “Toronto Globe” was issued as a daily newspaper.

In 1867, Karl Marx published the first volume of “Das Kapital” in London.

In 1869, the first postcards were printed and put on sale by the Austrian government.

In 1876, the first western Canadian wheat was shipped to Ontario.

In 1884, the first women were admitted to University College at the University of Toronto.

In 1903, the Pittsburgh Pirates defeated the host Boston Pilgrims 7-3 in the first World Series game. Boston won the series 5-3.

In 1908, Henry Ford’s “Model T” was introduced to the car-buying public. Ford revolutionized the auto industry with the “Model T” being the first car produced on a moving assembly line. Between 1908 and 1927, over 15 million “Model Ts” were produced. The basic cost of the “Tin Lizzie” was $850. The “Model T” topped an international poll for the award of the world’s most influential car of the 20th century.

In 1918, British soldier T. E. Lawrence, known as Lawrence of Arabia, formally occupied Damascus with his Arab forces during the fighting against Turkey in the First World War.

In 1936, at Burgos, Spain, Francisco Franco became the head of a national government.

In 1943, Allied forces captured Naples during the Second World War.

In 1946, the World Literature Crusade, now called Every Home for Christ, was founded in Saskatchewan by Rev. Jack Mcalister, who served as president from 1946-79. The mission is engaged primarily in Bible distribution, church planting and Bible correspondence courses in about 100 countries.

In 1947, the Governor General was given authority to exercise all royal powers and executive authority of the Crown in relation to Canada.

In 1949, Communist Party chairman Mao Tsetung proclaimed the People’s Republic of China in Beijing.

In 1951, Charlotte Whitton became mayor of Ottawa, Canada’s first woman mayor of a major city.

In 1958, Canada House in New York was officially opened.

In 1958, the American Express charge card made its official debut.

In 1960, Nigeria gained its independence from Britain.

In 1960, the O’keefe Centre for the performing arts was opened in Toronto. (It is now called the Sony Centre).

In 1961, Roger Maris of the New York Yankees hit his 61st home run of the season to break Babe Ruth’s record of 60 homers set in 1927. Maris did it in 162 games, Ruth in 154. Maris’s record was first broken by Mark Mcgwire in 1998 (70), which in turn was surpassed by Barry Bonds in 2001 (73).

In 1961, the Canadian Television Network (CTV) was inaugurated with newly licenced stations in Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Winnipeg, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and Halifax.

In 1966, the CBC began colour television broadcasting.

In 1966, Nazi war criminals Albert Speer and Baldur von Schirach were released after serving 20-year prison terms.

In 1969, Andrei Gromyko, the first Soviet foreign minister to visit Canada, arrived in Ottawa. Talks with External Affairs Minister Mitchell Sharp revolved around the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia and the 1966 Canada-soviet wheat agreement.

In 1970, Soviet vessels were banned from fishing off the west coast of Vancouver Island after collisions with Canadian ships.

In 1971, Walt Disney World opened in Orlando, Fla.

In 1974, the Watergate trial began.

In 1980, Soviet cosmonauts set, at the time, a space endurance record as they spent their 176th day aboard a “Salyut” space station. They returned to Earth on Oct. 11.

In 1980, a Warsaw court gave legal approval to Poland’s first six independent trade unions.

In 1985, Israeli jets attacked Palestine Liberation Organization headquarters in Tunisia in retaliation for the Sept. 25 slaying of three Israelis in Cyprus by the PLO.

In 1988, super-heavyweight Lennox Lewis won Canada’s first Olympic boxing gold medal in 56 years.

In 1989, six homosexual couples took vows of fidelity in Copenhagen to become the first legally recognized gay partners in the world. The civil ceremonies, sanctioned by the Danish parliament, gave the partnerships virtually all the rights and responsibilities of married heterosexual couples.

In 1990, for the first time in seven decades, Soviets were free to worship. The Supreme Soviet approved legislation to officially end state atheism and to grant freedom of worship.

In 1994, the NHL postponed the opening of the regular season and locked out its players in a contract dispute. The lockout dragged on for months — an abbreviated season began the following Jan. 20th.

In 1995, Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman and nine other militant Muslims were convicted in New York of conspiring to carry out a terrorist campaign of bombings and assassinations intended to destroy United Nations and New York landmarks and force the U.S. to abandon its support for Israel and Egypt.

In 2003, Jay Handel, a former fish farmer from Quatsino, B.C., was found guilty of first-degree murder of all six of his young children and sentenced to six life terms, with no parole for 25 years.

In 2007, Steven Point was sworn in as British Columbia’s first aboriginal lieutenant-governor.

In 2008, searchers found the wreckage of Steve Fossett’s plane and his remains. The millionaire adventurer vanished on a solo flight over California’s rugged Sierra Nevada in September 2007.

In 2010, University of Waterloo academic David Johnston was sworn is as Canada’s 28th Governor General, taking over from Michaelle Jean who embarked on a new career as United Nations envoy to Haiti, her earthquake-battered homeland.

In 2010, Robert Dudley took over as CEO of British Petroleum, replacing Tony Hayward, who announced his departure in the wake of BP’S massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. He became the first American to lead the oil giant in its centurylong history.

In 2011, Alison Redford won the Alberta Progressive Conservative leadership race, becoming the province’s first female premier. She was sworn in Oct. 7. (In the 2012 provincial election, she led the PCS to its 12th straight majority government, but resigned in 2013 amid an expense scandal.)

In 2013, Tom Clancy, whose high-tech, Cold War thrillers such as “The Hunt for Red October” and “Patriot Games” made him the most widely read and influential military novelist of his time, died in his hometown of Baltimore. He was 66.

In 2015, a gunman opened fire inside a classroom at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Ore., killing nine people and injuring seven others before committing suicide after being wounded in a shootout with police.

In 2017, in the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history, 58 people were killed - four of them Canadian - and nearly 500 were injured after a gunman opened fire from the 32nd floor of a Las Vegas hotel-casino tower. A crowd of 22thousand had gathered below for an outdoor country music festival. The gunman killed himself before SWAT teams stormed his room.

In 2017, Ontario NDP deputy leader Jagmeet Singh won the party’s federal leadership race in a first ballot vote, becoming the first noncaucasian leader of a federal political party.

In 2017, the Catalonia region held a disputed independence referendum to secede from the rest of Spain. Results showed 92 per cent favoured secession but a Spanish court later declared the referendum illegal. Ousted Catalan president Carles Puigdemont and four members of his cabinet fled to Brussels but faced extradition back to Spain for allegedly plotting a rebellion.

(The Canadian Press)