TODAY IN HISTORY:
Heath Ledger dies
In 1807, Canada’s first curling club, the Montreal Curling Club, was founded. The club’s first game was played on the St. Lawrence River on April 11th of that year.
In 1864, the first session of the B.C. legislative council opened.
In 1901, Queen Victoria died at age 82, ending her nearly 64-year reign.
In 1905, a peaceful march in St. Petersburg that marked the beginning of the Russian Revolution turned violent. “Bloody Sunday” saw more than 500 Russian workers killed by Czarist troops.
In 1944, during the Second World War, Allied forces began landing at Anzio, Italy.
In 1959, 12 workers were killed in the Knox Mine Disaster in Port Griffith, Pa., when a mine became flooded with water from the Susquehanna River.
In 1973, in its Roe versus Wade decision, the U.S. Supreme Court legalized abortions during the first six months of pregnancy.
In 1991, the Commons voted 217-47 to endorse a UN resolution calling for military action against Iraq. Most New Democrats voted against it.
In 1992, Dr. Roberta Bondar became Canada’s first woman in space when she and six other astronauts blasted off aboard the shuttle Discovery. The cargo included slime mould, mouse embryos, and wheat and oat seeds as specimens for scientific experiments. The eight-day mission was a success and the Sault Ste. Marie, Ont.-born neurologist raved about the view from space.
In 1995, Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy died at the family compound at the age of 104.
In 2006, Los Angeles Laker superstar Kobe Bryant scored a phenomenal 81 points — the second-highest total in NBA history — in a 122-104 victory over the Toronto Raptors. Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points on March 2, 1962 as his Philadelphia Warriors defeated the New York Knicks 169-147.
In 2007, the multiple murder trial of Vancouver-area pig farmer Robert Pickton began in New Westminster. He was charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of 26 women from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. But he went on trial on just six of the charges after the case was split into two. After a 10-month trial, Pickton was convicted of six counts of second-degree murder on Dec. 9th. Two days later, he was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years.
In 2008, actor Heath Ledger was found dead in his apartment in Manhattan. He was 28. The official cause of death was listed as an accidental overdose of prescription drugs.
In 2016, a 17-year-old gunman killed two teen brothers at a home in La Loche, Sask., then went to the community school and killed a male teacher and a female aide and wounded seven others before he was apprehended there by RCMP.