TODAY IN HISTORY: Pierre Trudeau visits Cuba

In 1500, the mouth of the Amazon River in South America was discovered by Vicente Yanez Pinzon, a veteran of Christopher Columbus’ first voyage to the New World.

In 1564, the Vatican-appointed, counter-reformation Council of Trent, meeting in northern Italy, issued the “Tridentinum,” which established a distinction between Roman Catholicism and Protestantism.

In 1776, the U.S. Congress ratified the appointment of Eustache Chartier de Lothbiniere, a Canadian priest, as the first chaplain of the U.S. Army.

In 1784, in a letter to his daughter, Benjamin Franklin expressed unhappiness over the choice of the eagle as the symbol of America, and expressed his own preference – the turkey.

In 1788, the first European settlers in Australia, led by Capt. Arthur Phillip, landed in present-day Sydney.

In 1925, Academy Award-winning actor Paul Newman was born in Shaker Heights, Ohio. The blue-eyed leading man starred in “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” “Cool Hand Luke,” “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” “Hud” and “The Sting.” He died on Sept. 26, 2008 after a battle with cancer.

In 1500, India became a sovereign democratic republic – the first within the Commonwealth.

In 1961, Hockey Hall-of-Famer Wayne Gretzky was born in Brantford, Ont. He held or shared 61 NHL records in his career.

In 1962, the Catholic Diocese in Buffalo, N.Y., banned the dance the Twist from its schools, parishes and youth events.

In 1976, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau became the first Canadian leader to pay an official visit to Cuba. Trudeau and President Fidel Castro developed a close personal relationship and remained friends for years.

In 1977, Peter Green, former guitarist for Fleetwood Mac, was committed to a British mental hospital. He had fired a gun at a delivery boy who was bringing a royalty cheque to him. Green became a recluse after leaving the band in 1970 because of his religious beliefs. In 1998 he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

In 1980, Prime Minister Joe Clark said Canada would boycott the Summer Olympics in Moscow if Soviet troops were not out of Afghanistan by Feb. 20. Canada skipped the Games.

In 1990, a royal commission report exonerated Nova Scotia native Donald Marshall – nearly 19 years after he was falsely convicted of the 1971 Sydney murder of Sandy Seale. The report said Nova Scotia’s justice system was riddled with racism, ineptitude and unfairness. It added Marshall was victimized, at least in part, because he was a Mi’Kmaq. Marshall was later compensated with a lifetime pension worth $1.5 million. He returned to the headlines in 1999, when a legal challenge he launched produced a landmark Supreme Court of Canada ruling on native fishing rights. Marshall died in August 2009.

In 2013, a Cairo judge sentenced 21 defendants to death for their roles in a soccer riot in Port Said’s main stadium on Feb. 1, 2012, that left 74 dead. The verdict sparked violence in Port Said where 44 people died over the next few days. In 2020, Los Angeles Lakers great Kobe Bryant died along with his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, and seven others when their helicopter went down in Calabasas, Calif., due to bad weather. The NBA legend was 41 years old. The helicopter company was not certified to fly in foggy conditions.