TODAY IN HISTORY: Unemployed trek to Ottawa
In 1097, Crusaders recaptured the ancient Christian city of Antioch, in present-day Turkey, from Muslim rule.
In 1621, the Dutch West Indies Co. was founded to promote trade and colonization in the Americas.
In 1668, French explorer and fur trader Medard Chouart des Groseilliers sailed from England on a voyage that led to the forming of the Hudsons Bay Co.
In 1778, the first issue of the Montreal Gazette was published.
In 1789, fur trader Alexander Mackenzie left Fort Chipewyan in northern Canada on the trip which saw him discover the Mackenzie River on June 29.
In 1799, the Island of St. John was proclaimed as Prince Edward Island.
In 1888, Ernest Thayer’s poem, “Casey at the Bat,” was first published in the “San Francisco Daily Examiner.”
In 1909, future prime minister William Lyon Mackenzie King became Canada’s first labour minister.
In 1918, air mail service was inaugurated between New York, Boston, and Montreal.
In 1934, Canadian Dr. Frederick Banting, a co-discoverer of insulin, was knighted by King George V.
In 1935, the French liner “Normandie” broke speed records on her maiden voyage, crossing the Atlantic in four days, 11 hours.
In 1935, during the Great Depression, about 1,000 unemployed men from Western Canada began their “On to Ottawa Trek” to confront Prime Minister R.B. Bennett over his government’s operation of relief camps.
In 1937, the Duke of Windsor and Wallis Simpson were married in southern France. The former King Edward VIII had abdicated the British throne six months before to marry the American divorcee.
In 1947, Britain said it planned to partition India into Muslim and Hindu states, which became Pakistan and India later that year.
In 1963, Pope John XXIII died at age 81 after leading the Roman Catholic Church since 1958. He was succeeded by Pope Paul VI.
In 1965, Edward White became the first American to walk in space during the “Gemini 4” mission.
In 1968, pop artist Andy Warhol was shot and critically wounded in his New York film studio, known as “The Factory,” by Valerie Solanas, an actress and self-styled militant feminist.
In 1968, the Royal Canadian Mint announced that nickel would replace silver in Canada’s coins.
In 1975, Ozzie Nelson, whose “Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet” ran on radio or television for 22 years, died at age 69.
In 1981, Pope John Paul II was released from a Rome hospital after being wounded in a May 13 assassination attempt in St. Peter’s Square.
In 1982, Israel’s ambassador to Britain was critically wounded by a would-be assassin in London. The shooting of Shlomo Argov triggered Israel’s invasion of Lebanon.
In 1987, Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and the 10 premiers signed the Meech Lake constitutional accord. It called for Quebec to have special status within Canada, plus more powers for the other provinces. But the deal died in June 1990 when the Manitoba legislature failed to approve it within a three-year time limit.