TODAY IN history

On this date:

In 1509, England’s King Henry VIII married his first wife, Catherine of Aragon.

In 1638, the first earthquake recorded in Canada was felt in Quebec.

In 1770, Capt. James Cook discovered Australia’s Great Barrier Reef by accidentally grounding his ship on it.

In 1917, the Conscription Act was introduced in the House of Commons. The election that followed passage of the bill was one of the most divisive in Canadian history. Quebec looked on conscription as an attempt to anglicize French-canadians and throw them into an English war. Sir Robert Borden’s coalition government was returned and given the mandate to put conscription into effect. But the measure was a military failure, producing very few men for the front lines.

In 1917, the Canadian Board of Grain Commissioners was formed in Regina.

In 1940, Princess Juliana of the Netherlands arrived in Canada during the Second World War.

In 1955, in the worst accident in motor racing history, 82 people died when three cars crashed and plowed into spectators in Le Mans, France.

In 1966, Dave Bailey of Toronto became the first Canadian to break the four-minute mile.

In 1978, 12 students and a teacher drowned on Lake Timiskaming on the Ontario-quebec border. They were from St. John’s school in Claremont, Ont., and were on a canoeing expedition.