Today in history

First Terry Fox Run held

In 1503, artist Michelangelo began work on his "David," which would become one of the most famous sculptures in the world.

In 1775, Laura Secord, heroine of the War of 1812, was born.

In 1788, the U.S. constitutional convention authorized the first national election in the United States, and declared New York City the temporary national capital.

In 1882, Ottawa Valley timber magnate John Booth opened his own railway line, The Canada-Atlantic, from Coteau Junction, N.B., to Ottawa.

In 1884, Canada's first official participants in an overseas war — the Nile Voyageurs — set sail for Egypt.

In 1886, the Canadian Pacific Telegraph began operation.

In 1886, The Volta, an electric boat constructed in London, crossed the English Channel and back in four hours, powered only by its batteries.

In 1899, the first death caused by a car occurred when a Henry Bliss was run over when he stepped off a bus in New York City.

In 1905, Russia and Japan signed a truce ending war in Korea and Manchuria.

In 1907, The Lusitania completed its maiden voyage across the Atlantic. Eight years later in 1915, the ship, owned by the Cunard Steamship Line Shipping Co., was torpedoed by the German submarine U-20 off the coast of Ireland during the First World War, killing 1,198 people.

In 1907, Phil Edwards, the first Canadian to win five Olympic medals, was born in Guyana. Edwards moved to Montreal before the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics, where he won a bronze relay medal. At the 1932 Los Angeles Games, Edwards added three more bronze medals in track and his fifth Olympic bronze came in the 800 metres in Berlin in 1936. He died Sept. 6, 1971.

In 1915, the Canadian Corps was established when the 2nd Canadian Division arrived at the front in France. Brig. Arthur Currie was promoted to general in command of the 1st Division. Under his leadership, the Canadian Corps preserved its identity and became one of the most feared attack forces during the First World War.

In 1940, Buckingham Palace was hit by a bomb during a German raid. In an earlier attack, the Germans dropped a time bomb on the palace on Sept. 8 and the bomb exploded two days later. Bombs also struck the palace on Sept. 10 and Sept. 15. The Royal Family was uninjured in the attacks.

In 1942, 113 people died in a German submarine attack on the Canadian destroyer Ottawa in the Atlantic. In 1943, Chiang Kai-shek became president of China. In 1965, the new Toronto city hall was formally opened. In 1966, John Vorster was sworn in as prime minister of South Africa.

In 1971, 33 prisoners and nine guards died when police stormed a prison in Attica, N.Y., to quell a riot.

In 1980, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and the provincial premiers broke off stalemated talks on constitutional reform.

In 1981, the Soviet Union trounced Canada 8-1 in Montreal to win the Canada Cup hockey tournament. It was the only time Canada lost the tournament, which was played five times between 1976 and 1991.

In 1981, thousands of people from more than 880 Canadian communities took part in the first Terry Fox Memorial Run, raising money for cancer research. It was the first anniversary of the day the one-legged runner had to call off his Marathon of Hope run across Canada after cancer was discovered in his lungs. The annual event to raise funds for cancer research now draws hundreds of thousands of participants around the world.

In 1991, Montreal's Olympic Stadium was closed after a 55-tonne concrete beam fell from the structure. No one was injured but the Expos were forced to move all their home games for the rest of the season.

In 1993, Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization signed a peace accord in Washington, calling for mutual recognition of Jewish and Palestinian states and laid the foundations for Palestinian self-rule.

In 1996, Bishop Hubert O'Connor was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison for sexual assaults he committed 30 years earlier while he was principal of Williams Lake Indian residential school in B.C.

In 1997, Mother Teresa was buried in Calcutta, India, after a state funeral.

In 1999, a bomb blast flattened an eight-storey apartment building in Moscow, killing 118 people. It was the latest and most deadly of a series of terrorist attacks blamed on Chechen separatists.

In 2000, Michel Auger, a crime reporter for Le Journal de Montreal, was shot and wounded outside the newspaper's office. Auger recovered from his injuries, which came one day after his analysis of recent mob killings in Montreal was published.

In 2001, U.S. officials named Osama bin Laden “suspect No. 1” in the Sept. 11 attacks against the World Trade Center and Pentagon.

In 2006, 25-year-old Kimveer Gill went on a shooting rampage at Dawson College in Montreal, killing one student, 18-year-old Anastasia DeSousa, and wounding 20 others. He killed himself after being shot by police.

In 2007, the UN General Assembly adopted the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which sets out global human rights standards for indigenous populations, despite opposition from Canada and three other countries.

In 2008, hurricane Ike slammed ashore in southeast Texas with winds of 175 km/h and heavy rain that caused widespread flooding along the Gulf of Mexico. Stretching 965 kilometres in width, the storm made landfall at the island city of Galveston. Thousands of homes were flooded and roads were washed out.