TODAY IN history

On this date:

In 1542, the fifth wife of England’s King Henry VIII, Catherine Howard, was executed for adultery.

In 1633, Galileo Galilei arrived in Rome for trial before the Inquisition. More than three centuries later, in 1992, the Vatican acknowledged that the excommunicated Italian astronomer correctly said the Earth revolves around the sun, not vice versa.

In 1759, Nova Scotia became the first legislature in British territory to use a secret ballot.

In 1838, William Lyon Mackenzie fled to the United States after he led an abortive uprising against the establishment families that virtually ruled Toronto.

In 1841, Kingston, Ont., was temporarily made the capital of Canada.

In 1868, the first session of the New Brunswick legislature was opened.

In 1945, Allied bombing raids began against the German city of Dresden. The Soviets captured Budapest, Hungary, from the Germans.

In 1946, the world’s first electronic computer, “ENIAC,” was switched on. The Electronic Numerical Integration and Computer weighed several tonnes and contained 1,800 tubes, but wasn’t nearly as powerful as today’s pocket calculator.

In 1960, France exploded its first atomic bomb, in the Sahara Desert.