TODAY IN history

On this date:

In 1884, construction began on the first skyscraper, a 10-storey structure in Chicago built by the Home Insurance Co. of New York.

In 1888, Lord Stanley of Preston became Canada’s governor general. He donated hockey’s Stanley Cup in 1893.

In 1912, Canada’s first $5 note was issued.

In 1921, the Quebec government took control of the sale of liquor in the province. For a time, Quebec was the only jurisdiction in North America that did not have prohibition.

In 1941, the Orson Welles film “Citizen Kane” premiered in New York.

In 1961, Fidel Castro declared Cuba a socialist nation and abolished elections.

In 1996, Deputy Prime Minister Sheila Copps resigned her Commons seat over her 1993 election promise to quit if the GST was not abolished. She regained the seat in a June 17th byelection in Hamilton East.

In 2003, U.S. President George W. Bush declared major hostilities in the Iraq war officially over. Bush stood on the deck of the aircraft carrier “USS Abraham Lincoln” in front of a banner that trumpeted Mission Accomplished and declared: “Major combat operations in Iraq have ended.” “Operation Iraqi Freedom” had lasted six weeks. Bush did not, however, declare the war in Iraq to be over. More than 4,000 members of the U.S. military died in Iraq. The U.S. did not count Iraqi casualties.