Americans burn down what is now Toronto

In 1509, Pope Julius II excommunicated everyone in the entire Italian state of Venice, from the Doge right down to the common gondolier.

In 1521, Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan was killed by natives in the Philippines.

In 1570, Pope Pius V excommunicated Queen Elizabeth I.

In 1644, wheat was planted in Canada for the first time near what is now Montreal.

In 1667, Puritan poet John Milton, blind, bitter and poor, sold the copyright for Paradise Lost for 10 pounds.

In 1791, Samuel Morse, inventor of the telegraph and Morse code, was born in Massachusetts.

In 1813, a force of 1,800 Americans landed at York (now Toronto) and the outnumbered British garrison withdrew. The town was sacked and the parliament buildings were burned down. In retaliation for this action and the destruction of Newark (now Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont.), the British raided Buffalo and Washington and set fire to the White House.

In 1831, the first Canadian steamboat to cross the Atlantic entirely under steam power, the “Royal William,”

was launched at Quebec City.

In 1838, martial law was revoked in Lower Canada. It was imposed the previous year because of the Papineau rebellion.

In 1865, the steamer “Sultana” exploded on the Mississippi near Memphis, killing more than 1,400 Union prisoners of war from the recently-ended U.S. Civil War.

In 1928, Prince Edward Island changed to driving on the right-hand side of the road.

In 1942, in a national plebiscite, Canadians voted in favour of conscription for overseas service.

In 1965, broadcast journalist Edward R. Murrow died in Pawling, N.Y., two days after turning 57.

In 1967, the Expo World’s Fair was opened in Montreal by Prime Minister Lester Pearson.

In 1973, acting FBI Director L. Patrick Gray resigned after it was revealed that he had handed over bureau files on the Watergate burglary to the Nixon White House.

In 1977, the Parti Quebecois government proposed legislation to make French the working language in almost all phases of Quebec life.

In 1982, the trial of John Hinckley Jr., who shot four people in 1981 -- including U.S. President Ronald Reagan -- began in Washington. Hinckley was acquitted by reason of insanity and sent to a mental institution.

In 1987, the American Justice Department barred Austrian President Kurt Waldheim from entering the United States. It said he aided in the deportation and execution of thousands of Jews and others while serving as a German army officer during the Second World War.

In 1992, Lina Haddad, 27, gave birth in Montreal to the first quintuplets ever born in Quebec.

In 1992, Russia and 12 other former Soviet republics won entry into the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

In 2000, Nova Scotia allowed its black community mandatory representation on anglophone school boards.

In 2005, Hockey Hall of Fame defenceman Red Horner died at age 95.

In 2006, Canada’s Supreme Court, in a 4-3 decision, upheld key provisions of the national DNA databank that stores genetic profiles of sexual and dangerous offenders.