TODAY IN HISTORY

Winston Churchill retires at 80

In 1614, in Virginia, Indian chief Powhatan’s daughter, Pocahontas, married English colonist John Rolfe. She was one of the first North American native converts to Christianity. She went by the name Lady Rebecca.

In 1669, New France governor Jean Talon introduced bonuses for large families. Canada’s first baby bonus amounted to 300 livres to families of 10 children and 400 to families of 12.

In 1753, the British Museum was founded in London.

In 1792, George Washington cast the first U.S. presidential veto, rejecting a congressional measure for apportioning representatives among the states.

In 1861, a bill calling for “representation by population” was introduced in the Canadian parliament. Under the 1941 Act of Union, Canada West (Ontario) and Canada East (Quebec) were given an equal number of representatives in Parliament at a time when Quebec had the greater population. But after the census of 1851 revealed that Canada West had the greater population, politicians there were vocal in their calls for a change.The question was not settled until Confederation, in 1867.

In 1875, an Act of Parliament created the Supreme Court of Canada.

In 1887, British historian Lord Acton wrote in a letter, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.”

In 1895, Oscar Wilde lost his libel case against the Marquess of Queensberry, who had accused the Irish playwright of homosexual practices. Wilde was later prosecuted and jailed.

In 1908, the first rotary telephones in Canada for general use were put into service in Edmonton.

In 1951, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg became the first American citizens sentenced to death in an espionage case. They were executed on June 19, 1953.

In 1955, Winston Churchill retired as British prime minister at the age of 80.

In 1963, a “hot” telephone line between Washington and Moscow was accepted by the Soviets.

In 1976, reclusive American billionaire Howard Hughes died of kidney failure during a flight from Acapulco, Mexico, to Houston for medical treatment. Hughes was 72.

In 1984, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar of the Los Angeles Lakers became the NBA’s all-time scoring leader when he reached 31,432 points in a game against the Utah Jazz. Jabbar played five more seasons.

In 1989, the Polish government legalized the Solidarity union and introduced democratic reforms.

In 1999, in Laramie, Wyo., Russell Henderson pleaded guilty to kidnapping and felony murder in the death of Matthew Shepard, a gay college student. Henderson was later sentenced to life in prison.

In 2005, an estimated one million people waited in line for hours to pay their last respects as the body of Pope John Paul lay in state.

In 2010, 115 Chinese miners were pulled out alive after being trapped for over a week in a flooded coal mine in northern China, surviving an accident that had killed 38.

In 2012, legislation abolishing the federal long-gun registry was given royal assent. Quebec won a court injunction barring destruction of data from that province while it fought to preserve the information to start its own registry.