TODAY IN HISTORY: Seaway construction begins

In 1535, Jacques Cartier entered the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

In 1840, Canada's first known balloon flight took place in Saint John, N.B.

In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell made the first long-distance call.

In 1935, Lord Tweedsmuir was appointed Governor General of Canada.

In 1943, Prime Minister Mackenzie King, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt met with military planners at Quebec City to discuss the invasion of France and Pacific campaigns.

In 1949, the first commercial jet plane to fly in the Western Hemisphere made its maiden flight over the Malton airport (now Pearson International) outside Toronto.

In 1950, Canada and U.S. signed the Niagara River Pact approving an increase in power output from the Niagara River.

In 1953, Louis Saint-Laurent's Liberals were re-elected, winning an overwhelming majority in the federal election.

In 1954, construction of the St. Lawrence Seaway began at Cornwall, Ont.

In 1960, the Canadian Bill of Rights became law.

In 1966, nine workers were killed and 59 injured when a span of the partially completed Heron Road Bridge collapsed into the Rideau River in Ottawa.

In 1976, hurricane Belle smashed into the New York-New Jersey-Connecticut coastline, leaving millions of dollars in property damage. It eventually ended in the Gaspe region of Quebec after drenching New Brunswick.

In 1981, transatlantic air traffic was thrown into confusion when some Canadian air traffic controllers refused to handle flights to and from the United States.

In 1982, Claude Ryan resigned as leader of the Quebec Liberal Party.

In 1990, Canada announced it would send three ships and 800 sailors to the Persian Gulf as part of a multinational force massed to prevent Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein from invading Saudi Arabia and to force him to withdraw from Kuwait.

In 1995, a Guatemalan jet carrying 65 people, including three Canadians, crashed into a volcano in central El Salvador, killing all on board.

In 1999, Ontario was named the second worst polluter in North America after Texas.

In 2008, massive explosions and fire at a propane storage facility in north-end Toronto neighbourhood forced the evacuation of thousands of residents and closure of highways and subway stations. One employee of the plant died. A firefighter who responded to the emergency call on his day off, also died after collapsing at the site. A 2010 report by the Ontario Fire Marshal's Office blamed the blast on a leak during an illegal propane transfer.

In 2010, in B.C. Supreme Court, Taser International lost its bid to quash the Robert Dziekanski public inquiry report that found its products can kill.

In 2018, four people were killed, including two police officers, when a gunman opened fire in a quiet residential corner of Fredericton, N.B. Police said they shot a suspect who was taken to hospital for treatment of serious wounds. Matthew Vincent Raymond, 48, was later charged with four counts of first-degree murder.

In 2018, a Canadian gold mining company won the right to go after Venezuela's prized U.S.-based oil refineries and collect $1.4 billion it lost in a takeover by the government.

In 2019, wealthy American financier Jeffrey Epstein was found dead in a New York jail after apparently committing suicide.

In 2020, the federal government named Winnipeg lawyer Isha Khan to be the new head of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights.