TODAY IN HISTORY: Graham James gets a pardon

In 1324, explorer Marco Polo died at age 70.

In 1438, the Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches met at the Council of Ferrara-Florence in an effort to form an alliance that would save Constantinople from the Turks. A temporary union was reached, but Constantinople fell anyway in 1453, ending the Byzantine Empire.

In 1642, astronomer Galileo Galilei died in Arcetri, Italy, at the age of 70.

In 1800, the first soup kitchens were opened in London, England, for the relief of the poor.

In 1815, because transatlantic communications were so slow, an American force commanded by Andrew Jackson defeated British troops at the Battle of New Orleans, two weeks after the Treaty of Ghent was signed in Belgium to end the War of 1812.

In 1869, the first suspension bridge over the Niagara Gorge was opened to traffic at Queenston, Ont.

In 1889, Dr. Herman Hollerith of New York patented the first electrically operated computer to process information. The company he formed to market the invention would become IBM.

In 1908, the first coin is struck at the new Royal Mint building in Ottawa, ending years of importing Canadian currency from England.

In 1912, the African National Congress was founded by Pixley Seme in Cape Province, South Africa.

In 1918, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson outlined his 14 points for a post-First World War peace settlement.

In 1941, the federal government announced the RCMP would register all Japanese Canadians in British Columbia for security reasons. They were later moved inland to detention camps.

In 1948, William Lyon Mackenzie King became the Commonwealth's longest serving prime minister, with 7,825 days in office. He retired later in the year.

In 1954, the first crude oil reached Sarnia, Ont., through a pipeline from Edmonton.

In 1959, Gen. Charles de Gaulle was inaugurated as president of France's Fifth Republic.

In 1963, U.S. President John F. Kennedy officiated at the unveiling of Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa" at the National Gallery of Art in Washington. It was the first time France had lent the painting to another country.

In 1969, a panel of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences agreed there was no evidence that UFO's are intelligently guided spacecraft from beyond Earth.

In 1982, Statistics Canada announced that Canada's jobless rate at the end of 1981 was 8.6 per cent — matching a post-war record.

In 1990, Canada formally joined the Organization of American States as its 33rd member.

In 1998, a state of emergency was declared in more than 18 Ontario municipalities,and in Montreal due to the worst ice storm in living memory. The storm, which began Jan. 5, knocked out power to 1.3 million households in Quebec and Eastern Ontario.

In 2007, Graham James, the junior coach convicted in 1997 of sexually abusing his players, was pardoned by the National Parole Board. It didn't become public knowledge until April.