TODAY IN HISTORY: Kidnapping ignites Quebec crisis

In 1710, Canada's first Anglican church service was held in Chebucto, N.S.

In 1864, the Fathers of Confederation met in Quebec to discuss the feasibility of a political union of British North America. The 33 delegates from Upper and Lower Canada, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island passed 72 resolutions as an outline to the proposed federal union. These eventually formed the core of the 1867 British North America Act.

In 1886, a tail-less dress coat was first worn at the Tuxedo Club in Tuxedo, N.Y.

In 1911, Sir Robert Borden succeeded Sir Wilfrid Laurier as prime minister of Canada.

In 1913, the Panama Canal was effectively completed as U.S. President Woodrow Wilson sent a signal from the White House by telegraph, setting off explosives that destroyed a section of the Gamboa dike.

In 1938, Nazi Germany completed its annexation of Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland.

In 1949, Radio Corp. of America made the first public showing of its all-electronic television system.

In 1967, the Outer Space Treaty, which prohibits the placing of weapons of mass destruction on the moon or elsewhere in space, entered into force.

In 1970, Quebec labour minister Pierre Laporte was kidnapped by FLQ terrorists in Montreal. He was found dead a week later.

In 1970, Fiji became independent after nearly a century of British rule.

In 1971, Britain's historic London Bridge, transported across the Atlantic, opened as a tourist attraction in Arizona.

In 1973, U.S. Vice-President Spiro Agnew resigned after an investigation found he'd been involved in criminal activity while governor of Maryland. Agnew pleaded no contest to income tax evasion.

In 1974, Harold Wilson's Labour party won a narrow majority in Britain's general election.

In 1982, Pope John Paul II proclaimed Maximilian Kolbe a saint of the Roman Catholic Church. The Polish priest volunteered to die in the place of another inmate at the Auschwitz death camp.

In 1985, two entertainment legends died — Orson Welles at age 70 and Yul Brynner at age 65. Welles was the man behind the radio play War of the Worlds and the classic film Citizen Kane. Brynner made his mark as the King of Siam in the stage and screen productions of The King and I.

In 1997, Israel apologized to Canada for using Canadian passports in its spy operations.

In 2000, the former prime minister of Sri Lanka, Sirimavo Bandaranaike, who 40 years earlier became the world's first female prime minister, died at the age of 84.

In 2003, Iranian lawyer and human rights advocate Shirin Ebadi, won the Nobel Peace Prize for her focus on human rights. She was the first Iranian and the first Muslim woman to win. Ebadi was one of the first women judges in Iran, but was forced to resign following the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

In 2004, Superman star Christopher Reeve died at age 52. He became a force for spinal cord research after a 1995 horse-riding fall left him a quadriplegic.

In 2006, the Yukon Party won the territorial election, taking 10 of 18 ridings, double that of the Opposition Liberals. The NDP won three ridings.

In 2013, in a split decision, B.C.'s Court of Appeal reversed a lower court ruling that said Canada's assisted-suicide ban violated the charter rights of gravely ill Canadians.