Today In History

On this date:

In 1066, William of Normandy became the Conqueror with his victory over King Harold at the Battle of Hastings. During the fighting, Harold was hit by an arrow and then mowed down by the sword of a mounted knight. Two of his brothers were also killed. The English forces fled.

In 1644, William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania, was born in London. A convert to Quakerism who was often jailed, he was given territory in North America in exchange for a debt. He and several friends settled in Pennsylvania and he planned the city of Philadelphia.

In 1841, Queen’s College (now Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont.) obtained a royal charter as a Presbyterian institution of higher learning.

In 1844, John A. Macdonald was elected to the House of Assembly for Kingston.

In 1848, Sir Edmund Walker, founder of the Royal Ontario Museum, was born.

In 1885, the first Mormon settlers arrived in southern Alberta.

In 1914, Canada’s first contingent in the First World War reached Plymouth, England.

In 1918, Private Thomas Ricketts of the Newfoundland Regiment won the Victoria Cross during a First World War battle near Ledeghem, Belgium. At 17, Ricketts was the youngest North American to win a V.C.

In 1935, Mackenzie King’s Liberal party defeated R.B. Bennett’s Conservatives. The Liberals took 171 of the 245 Commons seats, gaining what was then the largest majority since Confederation.