TODAY IN HISTORY: Heavens and Earth created

In 4004 BC, according to the sacred timeline worked out by Archbishop James Ussher, “the heavens and the earth” were created on this date at 9 a.m. Ussher’s Chronologies of the Old and New Testaments were first published 1650-54.

In 1239, in England, the main cathedral at Wells, begun in 1186, was consecrated. The most striking interior feature of the cathedral are the inverted arches (14th century) by which the piers of the tower are strengthened.

In 1707, the first Parliament of Great Britain, created by the Acts of Union between England and Scotland, held its first meeting.

In 1837, a meeting at St-Charles, Que., marked the beginning of the Rebellion of 1837 in Lower Canada.

In 1847, telegraph service was opened from Montreal to Albany and New York.

In 1864, the Canadian militia arrested 14 U.S. fugitives after the men robbed three banks in Vermont of $200,000 and killed one person before heading north to Canada. The men were escaped prisoners of the Civil War and had been hiding out in Montreal before they went to St. Albans, Vt., to rob the banks. They returned to Canada with some of the loot, but only $19,000 was recovered.

In 1874, Harvard beat McGill in the first inter-collegiate football game in Canada.

In 1885, artist Lawren Stewart Harris, a member of the Group of Seven, was born in Brantford, Ont. An heir to the Massey-Harris fortune, he was the social convener of the group -- he started the Arts and Letters club where many of them met. He formed the idea of the Studio Building, where they could all work, and paid for most of it. He also outfitted a boxcar as a studio on wheels, complete with living and sleeping areas, and took all his artist friends on all-expensespaid trips to Algoma where they found the landscape that inspired many of their works.

In 1910, Blanche S. Scott became the first woman to make a solo, public airplane flight. She reached an altitude of four metres over a park in Fort Wayne, Ind.

In 1915, 25,000 women marched in New York City demanding the right to vote.

In 1924, Ontarians voted, by a narrow margin, to maintain Prohibition in the province. It lasted from 1916 until 1927.

In 1950, University of Toronto researchers announced the development of an electronic heart pacemaker.

In 1952, Canadians fought their heaviest battle of the Korean War on Little Gibraltar Hill.

In 1956, students and workers in Budapest began an unsuccessful revolt against the Soviet Union. The country had been occupied by forces of the Soviet Union since the end of the Second World War. Opposition to the communists started building in 1956 and street demonstrations by students began Oct. 23. The protests spread spontaneously, and became national with insurgents occupying public buildings and production centres. Soviet forces counter-attacked on Nov. 4 and fighting was intense for about a week before the revolution was quelled.

In 1958, a deep underground explosion wrecked the No. 2 Cumberland Coal Mine in Springhill, N.S. The disaster at the deepest coal mine in North America killed 75 miners; 100 survived. Twelve men were brought to the surface alive Oct. 30 and seven more were found alive two days later. The last body was recovered Nov. 6. In 1966, Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson announced the federal government would pay 50 per cent of post-secondary education costs. In 1967, Brenda Robertson became the first woman elected to the New Brunswick legislature.

In 1973, U.S. President Richard Nixon agreed to turn over White House tape recordings subpoenaed by the Watergate special prosecutor to Judge John J. Sirica.

In 1977, the Toronto Argonauts’ Zenon Andrusyshyn set a CFL record with a 108-yard punt against Edmonton.

In 1980, the “Globe and Mail” became Canada’s first newspaper to use satellite technology.

In 1981, Pearl McGonigal became Manitoba’s first female lieutenant governor.

In 1991, Prince Charles and Princess Diana arrived in Toronto for a week-long visit to Canada.

In 1998, Buffalo- area abortion provider Dr. Barnett Slepian was slain by a sniper at his home.