TODAY IN HISTORY: Downie’s final show

In 1866, U.S. President Andrew Johnson formally declared the Civil War over, months after fighting had stopped. In 1882, the first CPR train arrived in Regina. In 1883, the first session of the legislative council of the Northwest Territories was held at Regina.

In 1887, pitcher Dan Casey of the Phillies struck out in the ninth inning of a game against the Giants — inspiring Ernest Thayer’s poem, “Casey at the Bat.”

In 1914, the Germans invaded Brussels during the First World War.

In 1918, the Allies began their final First World War offensive against Germany.

In 1940, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill paid tribute to the Royal Air Force, saying, “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.”

In 1953, the Soviet Union publicly announced it had tested a hydrogen bomb on Aug. 12.

In 1960, six mice and two dogs survived an Earth orbit aboard a Soviet "Sputnik" spacecraft.

In 1968, more than 200,000 Soviet troops invaded Czechoslovakia. The Soviets demanded an end to reforms initiated under Czech leader Alexander Dubcek. Czechoslovakia promised to abandon the reforms and accepted an indefinite Soviet military occupation.

In 1970, a tornado struck Sudbury, Ont., leaving four people dead, 192 injured and damage estimated at $10 million.

In 1976, Gordon Lightfoot’s “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,” about an ore carrier that sank on Lake Superior, was released as a single. The song, from the album “Summertime Dream,” made it to No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100.

In 1989, entertainment executive Jose Menendez and his wife, Kitty, were shot to death in their Beverly Hills mansion by their sons, Lyle and Erik. (In 1996, they were sentenced to life in prison without parole.) In 1991, Estonia declared its independence from the Soviet Union.

In 1992, the federal government, provinces, territories and the four major aboriginal groups in Canada reached unanimous agreement on native self-government at constitutional talks in Ottawa.

In 1995, at least 300 passengers were killed when an express train near Firozabad in northern India rammed into another train that had stopped suddenly after hitting a cow.

In 1998, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled Quebec cannot separate unilaterally. But the high court also said Ottawa would have to negotiate terms of Quebec independence if the “Yes” side won a referendum. In 1999, the T. Eaton Company filed for bankruptcy after 130 years in the department store business in Canada. In 2000, Tiger Woods won the PGA Championship at Louisville, Ky., becoming the first golfer since Ben Hogan in 1953 to win three major golf championships in a season and the first to defend the PGA Championship since 1937. Woods added the Masters title the following April to become the first player to hold all four major titles at the same time. In 2008, the government of Newfoundland and Labrador signed the final agreement for the $5 billion Hebron offshore oil project, setting off a construction engineering boom. It was estimated the province would gain $20 billion in royalties and up to 3,500 jobs. In 2009, millions of Afghans braved militant attacks to cast ballots in Afghanistan's first democratic presidential election run in more than three decades. Hamid Karzai was later declared the victor. In 2016, iconic Canadian rockers The Tragically Hip played their final show to a sold-out crowd at the K-Rock Centre in the band’s hometown of Kingston, Ont. It was broadcast live by the CBC and more than 400 public screenings were held across the country. In late 2015, frontman Gord Downie was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer and died Oct. 17, 2017. (Their 10city tour raised more than $1 million for brain cancer research in Canada.)