TODAY IN HISTORY: Envelopegate

In 1815, Napoleon escaped from the island of Elba. Within three weeks, France had rallied to its former emperor. The battle of Waterloo on June 18 ended Napoleon’s last bid for power and the British government banished him to the Atlantic island of St. Helena. He died there in 1821 at the age of 52.

In 1919, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson signed a measure establishing Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona.

In 1932, singer Johnny Cash, one of the most influential American musicians of the 20th century, was born in Kingsdale, Ark.

In 1935, Babe Ruth was released by the New York Yankees and signed by the Boston Braves and the Curse of the Bambino was born.

In 1936, Adolf Hitler opened the first Volkswagen plant in eastern Germany.

In 1942, the federal government used the War Measures Act to order the removal of all Japanese-Canadians within 160 kilometres of the Pacific coast. About 22,000 people were stripped of all their non-portable possessions, interned and then deported to the B.C. Interior, Alberta and Manitoba.

In 1960, Anne Heggtveit of Ottawa became the first Canadian to win an Olympic skiing gold medal.

In 1993, a bomb built by Islamic extremists exploded in the parking garage under New York’s World Trade Center, killing six and injuring more than 1,000 people. Four were convicted the following year and sentenced to life in prison.

In 2013, a hot air balloon carrying tourists over Luxor, Egypt, caught fire, and some passengers leaped to their deaths before the craft crashed in a field; 20 tourists perished. (One tourist and the balloon’s pilot survived).

In 2017, At the 89th Academy Awards ceremony, “Moonlight” eventually won Best Picture but not before “La La Land” was mistakenly announced the winner and its producers were nearly finished their acceptance speeches. Presenters Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway — visibly shaken — were handed an envelope which read “Emma Stone, La La Land.”