TODAY IN HISTORY: Uber service comes to Edmonton

In 1756, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, whose works mark one of the great peaks in music history, was born in Salzburg, Austria. He was a child prodigy, whose father taught him to play the harpsichord, violin and organ. Mozart is said to have begun composing before he was five years old. By the age of 13, he had written concertos, sonatas, symphonies and an operetta. In 1781, Mozart moved to Vienna, where he met Franz-Joseph Haydn, and the two composers began a life-long friendship. Mozart became the court composer to the Austrian emperor in 1787, but the pay was poor and he struggled financially for the rest of his life. In 1791, he was commissioned by a wealthy nobleman to compose a requiem mass. But Mozart was unable to complete the work before he died at the age of 35.

In 1943, some 50 bombers struck Wilhelmshaven in the first all-American air raid against Germany during the Second World War.

In 1967, three American astronauts (Virgil I. “Gus” Grissom, Edward H. White and Roger B. Chaffee) were killed in a flash fire during a routine test aboard the “Apollo 1” spacecraft at Cape Kennedy (now Cape Canaveral), Fla.

In 1973, a ceasefire went into effect in Vietnam after the signing of a peace treaty in Paris.

In 1977, the Vatican reaffirmed the Roman Catholic Church’s ban on female priests, declaring a priest must bear a “natural resemblance” to Christ, who “was and remains a man.”

In 1984, Michael Jackson suffered burns to his scalp when a special effects explosion during the filming of a Pepsi commercial at the Shrine Auditorium, accidentally set his hair on fire. The ad was assembled from alternate takes, and was soon on the air.

In 1986, fierce winds and a stubborn hatch bolt forced NASA to again scrub the launch of the space shuttle “Challenger.” The shuttle lifted off the next day, with catastrophic results. It broke apart 73 seconds into its flight, killing seven crew members.

In 1991, Whitney Houston performed “The Star-Spangled Banner” at the Super Bowl game – sort of. What the crowd heard was a pre-recorded version while Houston and an orchestra performed on the field. A blend of Houston’s live vocals and the prerecorded version, released as a single, became a hit because of patriotism sparked by the Persian Gulf War.

In 2012, a federal judge in Seattle sentenced “Barefoot Bandit” Colton Harris-Moore to 6 1/2 years in prison for his infamous two-year, international crime spree of break-ins and boat and plane thefts.

In 2016, Edmonton city council passed a bylaw that made the Alberta capital the first Canadian city to legalize ride-sharing services such as Uber. It came into effect on March 1.

In 2018, Scott Moe was elected leader of the Saskatchewan Party, replacing threeterm premier Brad Wall who announced his retirement in August 2017.

In 2019, a big jump in the WTA rankings for Canadian teenager Bianca Andreescu. The 18-year-old from Mississauga, Ont., moved up 38 spots to Number 68 in the world after she earned her first WTA tournament title, defeating American Jessica Pegula 0-6, 6-4, 6-2 at the Oracle Challenger Series.

In 2020, the National Microbiology Lab in Winnipeg confirmed Canada’s first case of what was then known as “the new coronavirus.” At the time of the confirmation, the man was in quarantine in Toronto’s Sunnybrook Hospital. Dr. Barbara Yaffe, Ontario’s associate chief medical officer of health, said the testing process was being repeated for the man’s wife.