Today in history

In 1856, the Buffalo and Lake Huron Railway was opened from Fort Erie to Stratford, Ont. It would later become the Grand Trunk.

In 1859, the Nor’ Wester became the first newspaper published in the Prairies.

In 1869, Newfoundland voted against joining Canada.

In 1894, French army officer Alfred Dreyfus was convicted of treason in a court-martial that triggered worldwide charges of anti-semitism. (Dreyfus was eventually vindicated.)

In 1913, the first modern crossword puzzle appeared in Fun, a supplement of the New York “World.” The paper’s other claim to fame is that it sponsored a baseball championship — the World Series.

In 1917, the federal government announced that no liquor or beverage containing more than two per cent alcohol could be imported into Canada.

In 1938, a coelacanth, a fish thought to have been extinct for 65 million years, was caught off the coast of South Africa.

In 1952, Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent announced government plans to establish a national library.

In 1967, while discussing proposed changes to the Criminal Code, federal justice minister Pierre Trudeau stated, “There is no place for the state in the bedrooms of the nation.” (Note: the quote actually first appeared in a Globe and Mail editorial.)