TODAY IN HISTORY: Cocoanut Grove fire

In 1902, the Quebec Symphony Orchestra gave its first concert at Tara Hall with violinist J. Alexandre Gilbert as soloist. The Quebec Symphony is Canada’s oldest surviving major orchestra.

In 1942, almost 500 people died in a flash fire at Boston’s Cocoanut Grove nightclub. Nightclub singer Bill Payne saved 10 patrons by leading them into a huge icebox in the building’s basement.

In 1956, Canada granted $1 million and free passage to victims of the revolution in Hungary.

In 1974, John Lennon made his final public appearance at a Madison Square Garden concert by Elton John. They performed three songs together — “Whatever Gets You Through the Night,” (Lennon’s only solo No. 1 hit during his lifetime), “I Saw Her Standing There” and “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds.”

In 1979, an Air New Zealand jetliner crashed into the side of a volcano in Antarctica. The plane, carrying 257 people, was on a scenic flight from Auckland to the Antarctic coast and back. All 257 people, including three Canadians, were killed.

In 1990, Margaret Thatcher resigned as prime minister of Britain, handing over her seal of office during an audience with the Queen. Thatcher, first elected in 1979, was Britain’s longest-serving prime minister of the 20th century. She earned the nickname “Iron Lady” for her steely resolve on matters like the Argentine invasion of the Falkland Islands in 1982.

In 2016, RCAF pilot Capt. Thomas McQueen was killed when his CF-18 fighter jet crashed during a routine training mission over the Cold Lake Air Weapons Range at the Alberta-Saskatchewan boundary. In 2016, a chartered plane carrying members of Brazil’s Chapecoense first division soccer team crashed into a Colombian mountainside near the Medellin airport, killing 71 people. Three soccer players, two crew members and a journalist survived. Aided by dramatic cockpit recordings, investigators determined the jet apparently ran out of fuel.

In 2017, Karim Baratov, a Canadian citizen born in Kazakhstan, pleaded guilty in a San Francisco court to nine charges stemming from a massive breach at Yahoo that authorities said was directed by Russian intelligence agents and affected about 500 million user accounts.

In 2017, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau apologized for past state-sanctioned discrimination against members of the LGBTQ2 community in Canada. The apology was accompanied by a $145 million settlement of a class-action lawsuit