TODAY IN HISTORY: Elvis Presley born
In 1324, explorer Marco Polo died in Venice at age 70.
In 1889, Dr. Herman Hollerith of New York patented the first electrically operated computer to process information. The company he formed to market the invention would become IBM.
In 1935, the “King of Rock 'n’ Roll,” Elvis Presley, was born in Tupelo, Miss. He was found dead in his Graceland Mansion in Memphis on Aug. 16, 1977. If he was alive today, he would be 84.
In 1948, William Lyon Mackenzie King became the Commonwealth’s longest serving prime minister, with 7,825 days in office. He retired later in the year.
In 1954, the first crude oil reached Sarnia, Ont., through a pipeline from Edmonton.
In 1963, U.S. President John F. Kennedy officiated at the unveiling of Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa at the National Gallery of Art in Washington. It was the first time France had lent the painting to another country.
In 1982, Statistics Canada announced that Canada’s jobless rate at the end of 1981 was 8.6 per cent — matching a post-war record. In 1991, Steve Clark, guitarist for Def Leppard, was found dead in his London home. He was 30. A coroner ruled Clark “was a very heavy drinker who seemingly had abused drugs and regrettably paid the price.” In 1993, the Elvis Presley postage stamp went on sale in the U.S. on what would have been the singer’s 58th birthday. The U.S. postal service printed 500 million of the 29-cent stamps — the most ever for a commemorative issue. In 1996, Fisheries Minister Brian Tobin announced he was quitting federal politics to run for the job of Newfoundland premier. He served as premier from 19962000, later returning to the federal cabinet as industry minister in 2000. In 1998, a state of emergency was declared in more than 18 Ontario municipalities, including Ottawa-Carleton, and in Montreal due to the worst ice storm in living memory. The storm, which began Jan. 5, knocked out power to 1.3 million households in Quebec and Eastern Ontario, some of them until early February. It also caused more than two dozen deaths and over $1-billion in insurance claims. In 2002, Dave Thomas, who founded the Wendy’s hamburger restaurant chain, died at age 69.
In 2003, a U.S. Airways Express commuter plane crashed at the Charlotte, N.C., airport, killing all 21 people on board.
In 2003, a Turkish Airlines jet crashed in Turkey, killing 75 people.
In 2004, Libya agreed to compensate family members of victims of a 1989 bombing of a French passenger plane over the Niger desert that killed 170 people.
In 2007, Graham James, the junior coach convicted in 1997 of sexually abusing his players in a case that rocked the hockey world from house leagues to the NHL, was pardoned by the National Parole Board. It didn’t become public knowledge though until April 2010, when a previously unknown accuser contacted Winnipeg police.
In 2009, three Canadians set a world record for the fastest journey across Antarctica to the South Pole. Ray Zahab, Kevin Valley and Richard Weber arrived at the South Pole after trekking 1,130 km on skis, snowshoes and on foot through the frozen continent. It took the men 33 days, 23 hours and 30 minutes to complete the journey from Hercules Inlet on the Ronne Ice Shelf to the pole.