Today in history

In A.D. 548, the Jerusalem church observed Christmas on this date for the last time as the Western church moved to celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ on Dec. 25.

In 1412, St. Joan of Arc was born at Domremy in the French countryside.

In 1643, Paul de Chomedy, Sieur de Maisonneuve, planted a cross on Mount Royal in what is now Montreal. It was his way of offering thanks that the settlement of Ville-marie was saved from flooding.

In 1786, the first sitting of the New Brunswick legislature took place in Saint John.

In 1838, Samuel Morse made the first public demonstration of his telegraph in Morristown, N.J.

In 1877, Canada’s first flour mill, Maclean’s, began operation in Manitoba.

In 1884, Gregor Mendel, an Augustine monk who pioneered the study of heredity by crossing garden peas, died in Brno in present-day Czech Republic.

In 1898, the first telephone message was sent to land from a submerged submarine.

In 1912, New Mexico was made the 47th U.S. state.

In 1920, delegates from provincial farm political groups organized the Progressive Party in Winnipeg.

In 1936, Barbara Hanley became Canada’s first woman mayor when she was elected in the Northern Ontario town of Webbwood.