TODAY IN HISTORY: The Halifax Explosion
In 1752, a government pamphlet in Halifax became the first book published in Canada.
In 1873, the first international intercollegiate football game was played in New Haven, Conn. Yale defeated Eton (England) 2-1.
In 1907, the worst mining disaster in U.S. history occurred as 362 men and boys died in a coal mine explosion in Monongah, West Virginia.
In 1907, the first recorded flight in Canada took place when Thomas Selfridge rose about 51 metres into the air in a kite designed by Alexander Graham Bell.
In 1917, much of Halifax was destroyed after the French munitions ship "Mont Blanc" exploded in Halifax harbour. More than 1,800 died and 9,000 were injured in the explosion, which occurred after the Norwegian relief ship "Imo," running relief missions to Belgium, collided with the "Mont Blanc," which was carrying a cargo of some 2,250 tonnes of explosives. Property damage was estimated at $35 million, with windows being shattered as far as 100 kilometres away in Truro, N.S.
In 1921, Agnes Macphail, a 30-year-old teacher, became Canada's first female member of Parliament.
In 1957, the first American attempt at putting a satellite into orbit blew up on the launch pad at Cape Canaveral, Fla.
In 1971,Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and U.S. President Richard Nixon met in Washington to discuss economic policy.
In 1988, rock balladeer Roy Orbison died in Hendersonville, Tenn., of a heart attack at age 52. His death came at a time of renewed popularity. His single, You Got It from the album Mystery Girl, was a posthumous top 10 hit in the US — his first in 25 years.
In 1989, Marc Lepine, 25, went on a shooting rampage at the University of Montreal, killing 14 women and wounding nine others. He then shot himself. The "Montreal Massacre" prompted a toughening of Canada's gun control laws.
In 1992, Ralph Klein was elected leader of the Alberta Progressive Conservative Party.
In 2009, Weezer lead singer Rivers Cuomo suffered three cracked ribs and internal injuries after the band’s tour bus skidded on ice across the New York State Thruway and struck a guide rail and slid into a ditch west of Albany.
In 2003, members of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada voted 90 per cent in favour of a union with the Canadian Alliance for a new party called the Conservative Party of Canada.
In 2010, Saskatchewan farmer Robert Latimer was granted full parole. In 1994, he was convicted of second-degree murder in what he said was a mercy killing of his severely disabled daughter, Tracy. But that conviction was overturned on appeal, but was again found guilty in 1997. While a judge originally set aside the mandatory sentence, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled in 2001 that he must serve the minimum sentence of 10 years in prison.