Battle of Bloody Run

In 1498, Christopher Columbus landed at Trinidad.

In 1556, St. Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus — the Jesuit order of Catholic priests and brothers — died in Rome.

In 1687, Fort Niagara was built by Gov. Jacques Rene de Brisay de Denonville at the mouth of the Niagara River.

In 1763, the British, besieged by natives at Detroit, suffered heavy losses in the battle of “Bloody Run” against Chief Pontiac. While he failed to oust the British from native lands, Ottawa chief Pontiac led one of the most successful fights against the European invasion in Canadian history and forced British authorities to recognize native rights.

In 1790, the first U.S. patent was issued to Samuel Hopkins of Vermont for the chemical formula for potash used in making soap and glass.

In 1836, the first Canadian railway opened. The track of the Champlain and St. Lawrence Railway, which ran 24 kilometres between the St. Lawrence and Richelieu rivers, was built of a wooden base and wooden rails covered with a protective metal strip. The Earl of Gosford, the governor general of Lower Canada, led 300 guests aboard for the trial run of the train.

In 1868, the Imperial Parliament passed the Rupert’s Land Act, allowing Canada to acquire the Northwest Territories.

In 1874, the first Mennonites arrived in Quebec. They eventually settled in Manitoba.

In 1877, Thomas Edison patented the first sound-recording device.

In 1910, a British doctor sought for the grisly murder and mutilation of his wife, was arrested near Rimouski, Que. The arrest of Hawley Harvey Crippen marked the first use of radio in tracking down a criminal. (Crippen was later convicted by a British court of murdering his wife and executed).

In 1913, Alys McKey Bryant made Canada’s first solo flight by a woman, at a Vancouver racetrack.

In 1917, the third battle of Ypres, also known as Passchendaele, began in Belgium during the First World War. The Canadian Corps under Lt.-Gen. Sir Arthur Currie were part of an Allied contingent fighting in appalling muddy conditions. The Canadians captured Passchendaele Ridge on Nov. 7 after earlier attempts by the Australians, New Zealanders and British had failed. The Canadians suffered over 15,000 dead and wounded in the battle and were awarded nine Victoria Crosses for bravery.

In 1928, Leo the Lion roared for the first time at the beginning of MGM’s first talking picture, “White Shadows in the South Seas.”

In 1950, the Canadian destroyers “Cayuga,” “Sioux” and “Athabaskan” arrived in Tokyo to join UN forces in the Korean War.

In 1953, 20 people died when a bus struck a stalled truck and plunged into a canal at Morrisburg, Ont.

In 1955, 17-year-old Marilyn Bell of Toronto became the youngest person, at the time, to swim the English Channel. Bell was already a household name in Canada for her much-covered swim across Lake Ontario at the age of 16, almost a year before the English Channel swim. The schoolgirl, who had already completed one long swim in Atlantic City, wasn’t supposed to be in the lake swim, a gimmick sponsored by the Canadian National Exhibition, who had invited a well-known American swimmer to do it for $10,000. Bell, who wanted to prove to the CNE that a Canadian was worthy of consideration, and three other swimmers also dove into the water at Youngstown, N.Y. on Sept. 8, 1954. Bell was the only swimmer to make it. It took her 20 hours and 59 minutes.

In 1964, country star Jim Reeves, piloting his own plane, died when the aircraft crashed near Nashville. He was 39. Also killed in the crash was Reeves’s pianist, Dean Manuel. Several of Reeves’ hits, including “Four Walls” in 1957 and “He’ll Have to Go” in 1960, scored well on both the pop and country charts.In 1971, American astronauts David Scott and James Irwin took the first motorized tour of the Moon.

In 1971, a 22-year-old security guard was stabbed to death by an ex-convict at Forest Hills Stadium in New York just before a show by “The Who.” The ex-con, Kerry Flaherty, had allegedly been denied admission to the concert.

In 1981, major league baseball players ended a 49-day strike.

In 1987, tornadoes cut through Edmonton during the afternoon rush hour, killing at least 27 people, injuring 250 and causing $150 million damage.

In 1990, Nolan Ryan of the Texas Rangers became the 20th major league pitcher to win 300 games, leading his team to an 11-3 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers.

In 1992, a Thai Airways jetliner slammed into the Himalayan foothills killing all 113 people aboard, including two Canadians.

In 1996, Casino Rama, Canada’s largest native-run casino, opened in Orillia, Ont.

In 2003, the man in charge of looking for evidence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq told the U.S. Senate that search teams had not found a single stockpile of weapons.

In 2009, a federal jury ordered Boston University student Joel Tenenbaum to pay US$675,000 to four record labels for illegally downloading and sharing 30 songs. On July 9, 2010, a federal judge reduced the amount to $67,500, but the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated the penalty. In 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear Tenenbaum’s appeal.