TODAY IN HISTORY: Etch A Sketch first produced

In 1543, England’s King Henry VIII married his sixth and last wife, Catherine Parr, who outlived him.

In 1750, Quebec’s first medical code imposed a mandatory exam for doctors and set fines for those not qualified.

In 1776, Captain Cook sailed from Plymouth, England, on a voyage to Vancouver Island.

In 1812, American Gen. William Hull invaded Canada from Detroit with 2,500 men in the opening campaign of the War of 1812. He expected to be welcomed as a liberator, but was beaten back three times at Duck River and hurried back to Detroit a month later. In August, Hull surrendered at Detroit to Gen. Issac Brock.

In 1843, Mormon church founder Joseph Smith announced that he had received a divine revelation sanctioning polygamy among his newly-organized religious followers.

In 1849, famed Canadian doctor Sir William Osler was born in Bond Head, Ont. Osler studied and taught medicine in Toronto, Montreal, England and the United States. Called the “most influential physician in history,” Osler pioneered medical training that combined clinical observation with lab research. His 1892 textbook, “The Principles and

Practice of Medicine,” was considered authoritative for more than 30 years. Osler died in 1919.

In 1920, author and historian Pierre Berton was born in Whitehorse. He died on Nov. 30, 2004. In 1920, the Panama Canal was formally opened, providing a shipping route between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

In 1950, three Canadian destroyers arrived at Pearl Harbor to join the U.S. naval task force to take action against the Communists in Korea.

In 1955, the state of Georgia’s education board approved a lifetime ban for any teacher instructing a mixed-race class.

In 1957, Prince Karim became the Aga Khan upon the death of his grandfather. The late Aga Khan had bypassed his two sons in naming the 20-yearold prince, then a student at Harvard, as spiritual leader of the world’s 20 million Ismaili Muslims.

In 1960, the Etch A Sketch Magic Screen drawing toy was first produced.

In 1981, the B.C. forest industry was shut down when 48,000 woodworkers went on strike.

In 1993, Canadian senators voted 80-1 with two abstentions to rescind the $6,000 increase in expense allowance they voted themselves on June 23. The earlier vote ignited a national furor.

In 1993, the Federal Court of Appeal ruled 3-0 that a section of the Income Tax Act requiring married people to pay higher income tax than common-law couples was not discriminatory under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

In 1993, a 7.8-magnitude earthquake hit northern Japan. The resulting firestorms and tsunamis left up to 250 people dead or missing on the islands of Okushiri and Hokkaido.

In 1996, Prince Charles and Princess Diana agreed on terms of a divorce ending their 15-year marriage. Diana received a financial settlement worth about $32 million and kept her title of Princess of Wales, but lost the designation of Her Royal Highness.The divorce became final on Aug. 28.

In 2005, the Alberta government announced provincial health-care reforms under which patients would be able to buy extra services.

In 2010, award-winning director Roman Polanski was freed after the Swiss government rejected a U.S. extradition request. He was arrested in Zurich on Sept. 26, 2009 and was later put under house arrest at his chalet in Gstaad. He had fled the U.S. in 1978, a year after pleading guilty to unlawful sexual intercourse with a 13-year-old girl.