TODAY IN history

In 1665, the London Gazette was published for the first time. In 1781, the last public burning by the Spanish Inquisition took place in Seville.

In 1793, during the French Revolution, Christianity was abolished. Reason was deified, and as many as 2,000 churches were destroyed throughout France.

In 1807, the Lewis and Clark expedition sighted the Pacific Ocean at the mouth of the Columbia River.

In 1836, three men from Britain flew 770 kilometres from London to Germany in a balloon. The trip took 18 hours.

In 1873, the Liberals formed their first federal government under Alexander Mackenzie. John A. Macdonald’s Conservatives had resigned two days before due to a bribery scandal.

In 1874, the Republican Party was symbolized as an elephant in a cartoon drawn by Thomas Nast in Harper’s Weekly.

In 1893, the state of Colorado granted its women the right to vote.

In 1900, three Canadian cavalrymen won Victoria Crosses as part of a Canadian detachment that covered a British retreat during the Boer War.

In 1944, U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt won an unprecedented fourth term in office, defeating Thomas E. Dewey. A later amendment to the U.S. Constitution bars presidents from serving more than two consecutive terms.