TODAY IN HISTORY

In 1958, Prime Minister John Diefenbaker led the Conservatives to a then-record 208 seats in a federal election. (That feat was topped in 1984, when Brian Mulroney’s Tories won 211 seats.)

In 1960, a law was passed to allow First Nations people the right to vote without the condition of giving up their treaty rights and Indian status. The law went into affect July 1st.

In 1979, a mass evacuation was ordered from the area near the Three Mile Island nuclear plant near Harrisburg, Pa. A potentially explosive bubble of hydrogen gas developed inside a crippled reactor. But only small amounts of radioactivity escaped.

In 1981, the Newfoundland Court of Appeals, in a unanimous decision, ruled that the federal government did not have the right to amend the constitution without the consent of the provinces.

In 1982, Canada’s first fibreoptic manufacturing facility opened in Saskatoon.

In 1984, in St. John’s Harbour, Nfld., one-legged runner Steve Fonyo began his cross-Canada run to raise money for cancer research.

In 1990, hundreds of people were injured when rioting erupted in London over Britain’s so-called poll tax.

In 1991, Communists won Albania’s first, multi-party elections while voters in the Soviet republic of Georgia endorsed independence. And the Warsaw Pact saw its last day of existence as a military alliance.