TODAY IN HISTORY: Dionne quintuplets born
In 1533, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer, declared the marriage of England’s King Henry VIII to Anne Boleyn valid.
In 1808, Canadian explorer Simon Fraser began a trip down the British Columbia river that would bear his name.
In 1898, the Shroud of Turin was photographed for the first time. Many believe the shroud shows the negative image of the crucified Jesus Christ.
In 1927, the Canadian Old Age Pension Plan was approved by the House of Commons. It was to be paid to those in need over the age of 70, in co-operation with participating provinces.
In 1934, the Dionne quintuplets were born in Callander, Ont. Annette, Emilie, Yvonne, Cecile and Marie were the first quints to survive more than a few days. The Ontario government placed them in a specially-built hospital, where the children were put on public display. More than three million people came to watch them play behind a one-way screen. Their mother fought for nine years to regain custody, but the family reunion in 1943 was not successful. In 1998, the three surviving sisters and their families received $4 million compensation from the Ontario government for their childhood mistreatment.
In 1937, Neville Chamberlain became prime minister of Britain.
In 1954, U.S. president Dwight D. Eisenhower signed a bill which added the words “under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance.
In 1959, American space officials recovered two monkeys who splashed down after a 2,700kilometre flight in the nose-cone of a Jupiter rocket.
In 1972, the Duke of Windsor — who abdicated the British throne in 1936 to marry American Wallis Simpson — died of cancer at age 77.
In 1977, more than 160 people died when fire raced through the Beverly Hills Supper Club in Southgate, Ky.
In 1987, Mathias Rust, a 19-year-old West German pilot landed a private plane in Moscow’s Red Square after evading Soviet air defences.
In 1988, the Canadian aerosol industry announced it would ban CFCs (chloro-fluorocarbons) from spray cans. The man-made chemicals were the main cause of damage to the ozone layer.
In 1989, Global TV reporter Doug Small and four others were charged with possession of stolen goods, and two were charged with theft, in connection with the leak of the federal budget.
In 1995, Jacques Villeneuve became the first Canadian winner of the Indianapolis 500.
In 1998, Canadian-born actor Phil Hartman was found shot to death in his California home in a murder-suicide. His wife Brynn killed herself as police were removing the couple’s two children from the home after reports of gunfire.
In 2010, the iPad was finally available at Canadian stores. The tablet computer was first released in the U.S. about eight weeks earlier.