TODAY IN history

In 1664, England’s King Charles II granted an area of land in present-day North America known as New Netherland to his brother James, the Duke of York.

In 1795, William Lyon Mackenzie, who led the 1837 rebellion in Upper Canada, now Ontario, was born in Toronto. He became the city’s rst mayor in 1834.

In 1820, Alexander Mackenzie, the rst explorer to reach the Pacific Ocean over land, died in Scotland at age 56.

In 1821, John Abbott, Canada’s third prime minister, was born in St-andre-est, Lower Canada — now Quebec. He died in 1893.

In 1832, Charles Boycott was born in England. In 1880, as an estate agent in Ireland, he issued eviction notices to a group of tenants who had requested lower rents. The tenants retaliated by refusing to deal with him, and the term boycott was born.

In 1879, Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald introduced his National Policy. It included protective tariffs, plans to complete the transcontinental railway and encouraging immigrants to settle in Western Canada.

In 1883, the rst steel arrived in Port Moody, B.C., for construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway.

In 1903, the third session of the ninth Parliament opened; measures included authority for the Grand Trunk Railway to build a transcontinental line and putting a head tax of $500 on Chinese immigrants.

In 1908, Canadian Frederick Baldwin became the rst British subject to y an airplane.