Today in history

Man makes contact with moon

In 236, Fabian was elected pope of the early Christian Church. He served until 250, when he became the first martyr under Decius, the emperor who initiated the Roman Empire-wide persecution of Christians.

In 1645, William Laud, archbishop of Canterbury and a persecutor of the Puritans during the reign of King Charles I, was executed in the Tower of London for treason.

In 1776, Thomas Paine anonymously published his influential pamphlet, “Common Sense.”

In 1799, residents of Lower Canada (now Quebec) celebrated their first Thanksgiving.

In 1810, Napoleon I, Emperor of the French, divorced his wife, Josephine. In 1815, Britain prohibited American citizens from settling in Canada. In 1842, Sir Charles Bagot arrived in Upper Canada to take up his post as governor general of British North America.

In 1850, explorers Robert McClure and Richard Collinson began the extensive search for the Arctic explorer Sir John Franklin and his expedition. It has been described as the greatest search mission in the history of exploration. While looking for Franklin, the expedition discovered the Northwest Passage. It is likely that Franklin found it first, but none of his crew lived to report the discovery.

In 1863, the London Underground, the oldest subway system in the world, opened. The first trains —using steam locomotives that burned coke and later coal — began running from Paddington to Farringdon, totalling seven stops over 6.4 kilometres.

In 1882, O. P. Brigg, an American, received a patent for barbed wire.

In 1901, a gusher at Beaumont, Texas, started the Texas oil boom.

In 1910, Henri Bourassa published “Le Devoir” in Montreal.

In 1917, American plainsman, scout and showman William “Buffalo Bill” Cody, died at age 70.

In 1918, the U.S. House of Representatives voted for female suffrage. In 1920, the Treaty of Versailles, ending the First World War, took effect. The Treaty also established the League of Nations, at which Canada and the other British Dominions could speak for themselves on international affairs. The United States never joined.

In 1942, the Quebec Bar admitted its first female lawyers, Elizabeth Monk and Suzanne Filion.

In 1946, the United Nations General Assembly met for the first time in London.

In 1946, the first man-made contact with the moon was made as radar signals were bounced off the lunar surface. In 1951, the world’s first jet passenger trip took place as an Avro jetliner flew from Chicago to New York in 102 minutes. In 1957, Harold Macmillan became prime minister of Britain, following the resignation of Anthony Eden. In 1967, Massachusetts Republican Edward W. Brooke, the first black elected to the U.S. Senate by popular vote, took his seat. In 1969, the Saturday Evening Post ceased publishing after 147 years. In 1977, Canada expelled five Cubans, including three diplomats, following an RCMP spy investigation. In 1984, the United States and the Vatican established full diplomatic relations for the first time in more than a century. In 1985, Daniel Ortega was inaugurated as president of Nicaragua. In 1989, Cuba began withdrawing its troops from Angola, more than 13 years after its first contingents arrived.

In 1990, Chinese premier Li Peng announced the lifting of martial law in Beijing.

In 1994, U.S. President Bill Clinton announced at a NATO meeting in Brussels that Ukraine, the world's third most powerful nuclear-armed state, was set to give up its warheads and intercontinental missiles in a three-way deal with the United States and Russia.

In 1996, King Hussein of Jordan arrived in Tel Aviv on his first official visit to Israel.

In 1999, Walter Harris, the federal finance minister who introduced RRSPs, died at age 94.

In 2000, America Online proposed a $160 billion takeover of Time Warner Inc. which would create the largest corporate merger in history.

In 2002, James Bartleman, a member of the Minjikanig First Nation, became the first native lieutenant-governor of Ontario.

In 2003, North Korea withdrew from a nuclear arms control treaty.

In 2004, police seized the biggest indoor marijuana operation ever found in Canada at a closed-down Molson's brewery in Barrie, Ont.

In 2008, on his first trip to the West Bank, U.S. President George W. Bush called on Israel to end its 40year-old occupation of Palestinian territories and to compensate Palestinian refugees.

In 2010, The Simpsons became the longest-running comedy in TV history, marking its 20th anniversary as a series with its 450th episode.