TODAY IN history

In 451, nearly 600 bishops of the Christian church began meeting at the Second Ecumenical Council. After several days of debate, the Chalcedonian creed, which affirmed that Christ was both fully divine and human, was adopted.

In 1492, Christopher Columbus sighted land on his first voyage to the New World — an island in the Bahamas chain, was named San Salvador and was claimed in the name of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain.

In 1810, the German festival Oktoberfest was first held in Munich to celebrate the wedding of Bavarian Crown Prince Ludwig and Princess Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen.

In 1860, Elmer Sperry, inventor of gyroscopic flying instruments, was born in New York.

In 1871, American President Ulysses S. Grant condemned the Klu Klux Klan and ordered the arrest of several hundred people believed to be involved in Klan activities.

In 1915, after admitting she helped 200 patriots escape from occupied Belgium, British nurse Edith Cavell was executed as a spy by the Germans during the First World War.

In 1917, Prime Minister Sir Robert Borden announced the formation of a Unionist government, made up of 12 Conservatives, nine Liberals and one Labor representative. Borden formed the government in order to stand by the conscription bill his Conservative government had passed.