TODAY IN HISTORY: Alcatraz emptied of prisioners

In 1617, Pocohontas, an Indian princess who married English settler John Rolfe, one of the founders of a colony in Virgina, died in England at the age of 22.

In 1871, American journalist Henry Morton Stanley began his legendary expedition to Africa to locate the missing Scottish missionary David Livingstone. Stanley found him — frail and short of supplies, but alive — on Nov. 13 on the edge of Lake Tanganyika.

In 1891, an inter-family marriage ended the infamous American feud between the Hatfields and McCoys. The wedding came after 150 family members had been killed.

In 1963, the Alcatraz federal prison island in San Francisco Bay was emptied of its last inmates at the order of Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy.

In 1965, a five-day civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Ala., began. Led by Rev. Martin Luther King, 8,000 people set out to cover the 80-km walk for equality and desegregation.The area had been torn by racial violence and Rev. James Beeb of Boston had died in a demonstration in Selma 10 days before the march to Montgomery began.

In 1969, John Lennon and Yoko Ono began their “Bed-In For Peace” in the presidential suite of the Amsterdam Hilton one day after being married in Gibraltar. In May, they attempted to resume their bed-in in the U.S., but American authorities wouldn't let them into the country because of their arrest on drug charges in October 1968. So the bedin continued in a suite at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal. “Give Peace a Chance” was recorded in the suite.

In 1980, the most famous cliffhanger in television history aired. “A House Divided,” the final episode of “Dallas” for Season 3 concluded with J.R. Ewing being shot.

In 1985, wheelchair athlete Rick Hansen of Vancouver started his "Man in Motion" world tour to raise funds for spinal cord research. Hansen, who arrived back in Vancouver on May 22, 1987, raised $20 million and travelled through 34 countries.

In 1991, the Supreme Court of Canada upheld a B.C. ruling that an unborn child is not a person and cannot be considered one until it leaves its mother's body.

In 2001, Canadians Jamie Sale and David Pelletier won the world pairs figure skating championship in Vancouver.

In 2005, a high school student in Red Lake, Minn., killed his grandfather and the man's girlfriend at their home and then seven people at his school, before killing himself after exchanging gunfire with police.

In 2010, the Vancouver Winter Paralympics came to a close. Canada's overall medal count was 10 gold and 19 overall (five silver and four bronze).

In 2018, breaking five days of silence, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg apologized for a “major breach of trust,” admitted mistakes and outlined steps to protect user data in light of a privacy scandal involving the Trump-connected data-mining firm Cambridge Analytica.

In 2019, Ichiro Suzuki was showered with cheers and chants while taking what appeared to be his final bow as the Seattle Mariners beat Oakland 5-4 in 12 innings in Tokyo. The 10-time all-star began his career in Japan in 1992 before embarking on a stellar major-league career mostly with Seattle. He had over 3,000 career hits and was American League MVP in 2001.

In 2020, the first Torontonian died of COVID-19. He was a man in his 70s who recently travelled to the UK.