TODAY IN HISTORY: Biggie gunned down

In 1945,

U.S. Air Force Superfortress bombers, 279 in number, dropped tonnes of incendiary bombs on Tokyo. The bombing caused a massive fire storm which destroyed thousands of homes and killed about 120,000 people, making it the most deadly raid of the war, including the atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Osaka, Kobe and Nagoya were devastated by similar raids in the ensuing days.

Parliament approved the incorporation of TransCanada Pipelines Ltd. The company was to build and operate a 5,000-km gas pipeline system from Alberta's oilfields to Montreal.

Mattel’s Barbie doll, created by Ruth Handler, made its public debut at the American International Toy Fair in New York.

In 1951, In 1959, In 1961,

the Soviet Union sent the first dog into space aboard “Sputnik.”

Canada’s first Arctic Winter Games were officially opened in Yellowknife by Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. The Games, held every two years, are open to residents of the Canadian North, Alaska and Greenland. Events include hockey, curling, badminton, volleyball, and aboriginal activities such as dog-sledding and drum-dancing.

Canada and the U.S. announced a ban on saccharin as a food and drug sweetener, after tests showed it caused cancer in laboratory rats.

“Tears Are Not Enough” by Northern Lights, the Canadian record in aid of Ethiopian famine relief, was released. The song was written by Bryan Adams and his regular songwriting partner, Jim Vallance. Soloists were Gordon Lightfoot, Burton Cummings, Anne Murray, Joni Mitchell, Dan Hill, Neil Young, Adams, Corey Hart, Bruck Cockburn, Liberty Silver, Geddy Lee and Mike Reno.

Elvis Stojko won his second consecutive world figure skating championship, in Birmingham, England.

rapper The Notorious B.I.G. was gunned down in a drive-by shooting in Los Angeles. He was 24. The rapper, whose real name was Christopher Wallace and was also known as “Biggie Smalls,” was the second high-profile rapper to be gunned down in six months. Tupac Shakur had been killed in Las Vegas the previous fall. Wallace was shot while sitting in his vehicle outside a party following the Soul Train Music Awards. Wallace built his gangsta rap persona around his real-life past as a crack dealer in Brooklyn, N.Y. His debut album, “Ready to Die,” sold more than a million copies, and the follow-up, “Life After Death... ‘Til Death Do Us Part,” released two weeks after he was killed, was a chart-topper. Wallace and Shakur were East Coast-West Coast rivals, and their deaths added fuel to reports of a deadly feud between the two camps.

Health Canada approved Pfizer’s anti-impotence drug Viagra after a two-year safety review.

Conservative MPs staged the largest abstention in Canadian parliamentary history, sitting in the House of Commons without casting a single vote as Liberals passed their budget over the objections of the BQ and the NDP.

the space shuttle Discovery ended its career as the world’s most flown spaceship, returning from orbit after a twoweek stint at the International Space Station. In 27 years, NASA’s oldest shuttle had flown 39 missions, 238.17 million kilometres, 5,830 orbits of Earth, and spent 365 days in space. Discovery is on display at the the James S. McDonnell Space Hangar at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chanitlly, Va.

hockey trailblazer Herb Carnegie died in a Toronto hospital at age 92. Many said Carnegie should have been the Jackie Robinson on the NHL. He took up hockey and earned a reputation as a play-making centre, but no blacks played in the NHL when he started his playing career. He and his older brother, Ossie, made it to the then Quebec Provincial League, with Herb winning multiple MVP awards with the Sherbrooke Saints.

a B.C. judge rejected a challenge of Canada’s polygamy laws that was launched after two men were found guilty of the offence in British Columbia. Winston Blackmore and James Oler were found guilty in B.C. Supreme Court last July of having multiple wives, but a lawyer for Blackmore argued the law infringes on the charter right to freedom of religion and expression.

In 1970, In 1977, In 1985, In 1995, In 1997, In 1999, In 2005, In 2011, In 2012, In 2018,