TODAY IN HISTORY: Nuremberg trials
In 1789, New Jersey became the first state to ratify the U.S. Bill of Rights. In 1841, Wilfrid Laurier, Canada’s seventh prime minister, was born. He was Canada’s first prime minister of French ancestry, serving from 1896-1911. In 1871, John and David McDougall arrived in Alberta to become the province’s first farmers. In 1877, Edmonton obtained its first telegraph service. In 1893, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the Great Lakes and their connecting waters constituted the “high seas.” The U.S. and Canada signed a treaty in 1909, which guaranteed the lakes be free and open to both countries on equal terms. In 1903, the Saskatchewan city of Moose Jaw was incorporated. In 1910, revolution broke out in Mexico, led by Francisco I. Madero. In 1925, future U.S. attorney general and senator Robert F. Kennedy was born in Brookline, Mass. He was assassinated in 1968. If he were alive today, he would be 93.
In 1945, the Nuremberg war crimes trials of 22 major Nazi figures opened in Germany. Judges from Great Britain, France, the Soviet Union, and the United States presided over the hearings, which lasted for 218 days. When verdicts were announced on Oct. 1, 11 prominent Nazis were sentenced to death, seven others received prison sentences and three were acquitted. Martin Bormann was tried in absentia and also sentenced to death. It was not confirmed until 1972 that he had died before the trial began.
In 1946, Alberta’s oil boom began when the initial drilling was done at the famous Leduc well south of Edmonton. Leduc began producing Feb. 13, 1947. Four-fifths of Canada’s sedimentary basins in which petroleum is found are located in the Prairies, especially Alberta.
In 1947, Britain’s future queen, Princess Elizabeth, married navy Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten, Duke of Edinburgh, at Westminster Abbey.
In 1959, the United Nations issued its “Declaration of the Rights of the Child.”
In 1960, Lester Pearson was presented with Medallion of Valour of the State of Israel for his “outstanding role in the deliberations of the United Nations which led to the judicious considerations between the State of Israel and the Arab nations.” Earlier in 1957, he received the Nobel Peace Prize for his proposal of a UN peacekeeping force to ease the British and French out of Egypt.
In 1968, the Supreme Court of Canada struck down a portion of the “Indian Act” which said it was illegal for aboriginals to be drunk off their reserve. The ruling on the case of Joseph Drybones was a victory for the 1960 Bill of Rights, which said Canadian laws should not violate the rights or freedoms listed in it. In this case, the rule on drunkenness only applied to aboriginals.
In 1971, Isaac Hayes’ “Theme From Shaft” became the No. 1 record on the Billboard Hot 100. It won the Oscar for Best Original Song.
In 1973, writer and comedian Allan Sherman died of respiratory ailments at the age of 48. Sherman’s comedy record “Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah,” set to the music of Ponchielli’s “Dance of the Hours,” went to No. 2 on the Billboard chart in 1963 and won Sherman a Grammy Award for best comedy record.
In 1977, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat became the first Arab leader to address Israel’s parliament.
In 1978, the Progressive Conservatives won 11 of 16 seats in the first Yukon election contested by political parties.
In 1980, China began the trial of 10 radicals, including Mao Tse-tung’s widow Jiang Qing, on charges of attempting to kill Mao, staging an armed rebellion in Shanghai, attempting to overthrow state power and persecuting thousands of Chinese during the Cultural Revolution in the mid-1960s.
In 1985, the first version of Microsoft’s Windows operating system, Windows 1.0, was officially released.
In 1986, Canadian-based Bata Ltd., one of the world’s largest shoemakers, announced it was selling its operations in South Africa to foreign investors.
In 1989, more than 200,000 people in Prague, Czechoslovakia, rallied to demand democratic reforms and the ouster of the country’s Communist leaders. The government fell a few days later.
In 2017, Nebraska regulators approved an alternate route through the state for TransCanada's proposed Keystone XL pipeline. It was the last major regulatory hurdle facing the $10-billion,1,897-kilometre project.