TODAY IN HISTORY: Douglas MacArthur leaves The Philippines

In 1829, German composer Felix Mendelsson sparked a revival of interest in the music of J.S. Bach after he conducted the St. Matthew Passion, almost a century after the date of its first performance. More than 1,000 people couldn't get tickets.Two further concerts were added.

In 1888, a blizzard swept most of the U.S. eastern seaboard, claiming 400 lives. In New York City, snowdrifts were six metres high. Thousands of people were marooned in their homes, the stock exchange shut down, telegraph communications were halted and rail travel ground to a standstill. In 1903, bandleader Lawrence Welk was born in Strasburg, N.D. He had a No. 1 song in 1969 “Calcutta” and a TV show which ran from 19511982. Welk died on May 17, 1992.

In 1908, Prime Minister Sir Wilfrid Laurier created the National Battlefields Commission, largely to prevent the Plains of Abraham in Quebec City from falling into the hands of speculators.

In 1942, as Japanese forces continued to advance in the Pacific during the Second World War, General Douglas MacArthur left the Philippines for Australia. MacArthur, who subsequently vowed, "I shall return," kept that promise more than two-and-a-half years later.

In 1947, Toronto gave newly crowned world figure skating champion Barbara Ann Scott a ticker-tape para In 1990, Mohawks erected a barricade across a dirt road barring access to land they claimed near Oka, Que.

In 2011, Sen. Raymond Lavigne, 65, was found guilty of fraud and breach of trust for misusing Senate resources and pocketing expenses that were actually run up by his staff. The disgraced Liberal MP resigned his Senate seat on March 21 and was sentenced to six months in jail and six months of house arrest.

In 2012, sixteen Afghan villagers, mostly women and children, were shot dead as they slept by U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, who later pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

In 2010, a Nunavut jury found Pingoatuk Kolola guilty of first-degree murder for shooting RCMP Const. Doug Scott in the head while the officer sat in his police truck on the night of Nov. 5, 2007, in Kimmirut on Baffin Island.