TODAY IN HISTORY

In 1691, Englishman George Fox, founder of the Society of Friends, or Quakers, died.

In 1695, satirist Jonathan Swift, author of “Gulliver’s Travels,” was ordained an Anglican priest in Ireland.

In 1837, a fire destroyed almost half of the business district of Saint John, N.B.

In 1849, the Hudson’s Bay Company signed a lease with the British government acquiring control of Vancouver Island — for seven shillings a year.

In 1885, Alfred Carl Fuller, who founded the Fuller Brush Company, was born in Nova Scotia.

In 1906, the first advertisement for a radio, a Telimco selling for $7.50, appeared in the magazine “Scientific American.” Not until the 1920s, though, would commercial radio be widespread.

In 1915, a major earthquake in Avezzano, Italy, left about 30,000 people dead.

In 1920, the “New York Times” ridiculed aviation pioneer Robert Goddard for saying that rockets would work in outer space. The paper issued an apology and retraction after the 1969 “Apollo 11” Moon landing.

In 1941, Irish writer James Joyce died in Zurich, Switzerland, less than a month before his 59th birthday.

In 1966, African-american Robert C. Weaver was named U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development by President Lyndon B. Johnson — making him the first-ever black Cabinet member.