TODAY IN HISTORY: B.C. becomes a province

In 1576, English explorer Martin Frobisher discovered the bay off Baffin Island that now bears his name. He thought it was a passage dividing America from Asia.

In 1648, the Westminster Larger Catechism was adopted by the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland at Edinburgh. This and the Shorter Catechism have both been in regular use among Presbyterians, Baptists and Congregationalists ever since.

In 1845, 300 buildings in New York City were destroyed by fire.

In 1859, in the first baseball game for which admission was charged, 1,500 people paid 50 cents each to see New York play Brooklyn.

In 1871, British Columbia became Canada’s sixth province. Gold rushes of 1858 and 1860 had brought thousands of settlers to B.C., but the colony was always on the verge of bankruptcy. One condition for joining Canada was the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway within 10 years.

In 1883, the first rail for the Pacific section of the CPR was laid at Port Moody, B.C.

In 1885, the trial of Louis Riel, leader of the Metis and founder of Manitoba, began. Riel was charged with treason for his role in two Metis rebellions. He refused to plead insanity, as his lawyer suggested, and was convicted. He was hanged later that year.

In 1969, “Apollo 11” astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin became the first men to set foot on the Moon. Armstrong stepped onto the lunar surface at 10:56 p.m. ET and proclaimed, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” Aldrin and Armstrong collected nearly 22 kilograms of lunar rock and soil before blasting off 21 hours, 36 minutes and 21 seconds after they landed and rejoining crewmate Michael Collins orbiting above. American astronauts would land on the Moon five more times in the following three years.

In 1976, the “Viking 1” space robot made the first landing on Mars. It sent back the first pictures ever taken on the planet’s surface.

In 1984, reigning Miss America Vanessa Williams was asked by pageant officials to resign because of nude photos of her that appeared in “Penthouse” magazine. She gave up her title three days later.

In 2011, NASA announced that the Hubble Space Telescope found a fourth moon circling dwarf planet Pluto.

In 2012, a gunman opened fire inside a crowded movie theatre in Aurora, Colo., during a midnight showing of “The Dark Knight Rises,” killing 12 people and wounding 58 others. (In 2015, James Holmes was convicted of 165 counts of murder, attempted murder and other charges. He was sentenced to life without parole.)

In 2020, Scientists at Oxford University said their experimental COVID-19 vaccine produced a good immune response in its early trial on 1,000 people.