TODAY IN HISTORY:

The Conscription Act

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 1949, Hank Williams made his debut on the Grand Ole Opry. His performance, with the audience demanding several encores of “Lovesick Blues,” is still considered one of the Opry’s greatest moments. The success of his recording of that song had led to the Opry contract, and he remained with the show until August 1952, when he was fired for perpetual drunkeness. Williams died on New Year’s Day in 1953 of a heart attack brought on by excessive drinking. He was 29.

In 1969, David Bowie released “Space Oddity” as a single, to coincide with the first lunar landing.

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.

In 1983, Brian Mulroney was elected leader of the federal Conservative party. It was his second attempt to lead the party he had lost to Joe Clark in 1976. Mulroney gained his first seat in the House of Commons through a byelection in the riding of Central Nova and then in 1984 led the Conservatives to the greatest majority in Canadian history, winning 211 seats in the House of Commons.

In 1985, Karen Ann Quinlan died in a New Jersey nursing home at age 31. Ten years earlier, she slipped into a coma and remained in a persistent vegetative state. Her parents requested that doctors take her off life support systems, prompting a legal battle over the right to die.

In 1987, British prime minister Margaret Thatcher won a historic victory in a general election. It was the first time in 161 years that a British leader had won a third consecutive term.

In 1992, Lulu’s Roadhouse, a Kitchener, Ont., nightclub that billed itself as the world’s largest bar, closed after declaring bankruptcy. The 3,000-seat club owed more than $3.5 million to its creditors. During its eight years, Lulu’s hosted such legends as “The Everly Brothers,” Fats Domino, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings. The club re-opened several weeks later under new owners. It was never the same.

In 1990, Stan Waters, elected by Albertans as their nominee to the Senate, was named to the upper chamber by Prime Minister Brian Mulroney. Waters died of cancer the following year.

In 1998, Hockey Hall of Fame player Frank Mahovlich was appointed to the Senate by Prime Minister Jean Chretien.

In 1998, forest company giant MacMillan Bloedel announced it would phase out clear-cut logging over five years.

In 2001, Timothy McVeigh was executed by injection in Indiana for the 1995 bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City which killed 168 people.

In 2003, former leader of the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations David Ahenakew was charged with promoting hatred of Jews. He was convicted, but in

2006, the ruling was overturned and a second trial was ordered. He was acquitted in February 2009.

In 2007, Canadian soldier Darryl

Caswell, 25, died and two others were wounded in a roadside bombing near Kandahar, Afghanistan.

In 2008, Prime Minister Stephen Harper offered an apology in the House of Commons to former students of native residential schools for the sexual and physical abuse that occurred at the now-defunct network of federally financed, church-run residential schools that also wiped out aboriginal languages and culture in the name of assimilation. It was the first time a Canadian prime minister had formally apologized for the abuse of about 150,000 First Nations, Inuit and Metis children who were removed from their communities throughout most of the last century and forced to attend residential schools.