TODAY IN HISTORY: Cassius Clay beats Sonny Liston

In 1924, Douglas Jung — the first ChineseCanadian elected to Parliament — was born in Victoria. Jung represented Vancouver Centre for the Conservatives from 1957-62. He was also the first Chinese-Canadian lawyer accepted to the British Columbia bar, the first to appear before the B.C. Court of Appeal, and the first to represent Canada at the United Nations. Jung died in Vancouver on Jan. 4, 2002.

In 1940, the New York Rangers beat the Montreal Canadiens 6-2 at Madison Square Garden in the world’ s first televised hockey game. It was aired on Westinghouse station W2XBS. In 1948, Communists seized power in Czechoslovakia.

In 1964, Cassius Clay, who later changed his name to Muhammad Ali, became world heavyweight boxing champion by defeating Sonny Liston in Miami Beach.

In 1981, singer Christopher Cross was the big winner at the Grammy Awards, picking up Album of the Year for his self-titled debut and his hit “Sailing” was named Song and Record of the Year. It famously beat “The Wall” by Pink Floyd as Album of the Year in what’ s now considered one of Grammy’ s biggest mistakes.

In 1986, after 20 years of rule, Philippines president Ferdinand Marcos resigned. Corazon Aquino, widow of the assassinated Benigno Aquino, succeeded Marcos.

In 1993, The Supreme Court of Canada ruled 4-3 that gay and lesbian couples aren’ t families under the Canadian Human Rights Act. The judges said Parliament never intended to include homosexual couples when it amended the human rights law in 1983 to prevent employers from discriminating against people based on family status. However, Justice Antonio Lamer wrote that he might have voted differently if the act had prohibited discrimination against homosexuals. Justice Minister Kim Campbell had introduced amendments to do just that in December.

In 1997, multimillionaire John du Pont was found guilty of murder in the fatal shooting of Olympic champion wrestler David Schultz, but a jury decided he was mentally ill.

In 2005, notorious Holocaust denier Ernst Zundel gave up his fight to stay in Canada. The 65-year-old white supremacist was put on a plane in early March to return to Germany where he faced charges for spreading hate there. He spent five years in a German prison.