TODAY IN history

In 1855, the “Reciprocity Treaty’’ between Canada and the U.S. took effect.

In 1871, British Columbia was authorized to become Canada’s sixth province.

In 1929, the first Academy Awards were handed out. “Wings’’ was named Best Picture, Emil Jannings won Best Actor and Janet Gaynor won the Best Actress Oscar.

In 1930, uranium was discovered in a mine in Ontario. The mine was to produce the fuel for the atom bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during the Second World War. The province’s uranium mines were closed by the late 1990s, mainly for economic reasons. By then, thousands of miners had been exposed to excessive amounts of radiation.

In 2001, Gordon Campbell led British Columbia’s Liberals to the largest electoral landslide in the province’s history. The Liberals won 77 seats, compared to just two for the NDP under Premier Ujjal Dosanjh.

In 2011, space shuttle Endeavour took off on its final voyage and the penultimate flight of NASA’S 30-year-old shuttle program. The mission commander was Mark Kelly, the husband of wounded Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who watched the launch in private from the Kennedy Space Center.

In 2013, U.S. gossip website Gawker and The Toronto Star reported they had seen a cellphone video that appeared to show Toronto Mayor Rob Ford smoking crack cocaine.