TODAY IN HISTORY

In 1896, the Imperial Privy Council gave the Canadian government power over fisheries.

In 1896, 55 occupants of a streetcar died when a bridge collapsed in Victoria.

In 1906, the city of Saskatoon was incorporated.

In 1908, the first major oil strike in the Middle East occurred in Masjid-i-Suleiman, Persia (Iran).

In 1913, the first woman magistrate in Britain was appointed.

In 1913, the Actors’ Equity Association was organized.

In 1919, actor Jay Silverheels was born Harold J. Smith on the Six Nations Reserve near Brantford, Ont. Silverheels, who was also a star boxer and lacrosse player, gained fame as “The Lone Ranger’s” sidekick “Tonto” on television and in movies during the 1950s. He died on March 5, 1980.

In 1940, the evacuation of allied troops from Dunkirk, France, began during the Second World War.

In 1943, Quebec passed a law requiring free and compulsory education in the province.

In 1946, physicists Janos Von Neumann and Klaus Fuchs were granted a patent for the fusion or “H-bomb.”

In 1966, British Guiana became independent and took the name Guyana.

In 1969, the “Apollo 10” astronauts returned to Earth after an eight-day dress rehearsal for the first manned moon landing by the U.S.