Canadian football shaped by rule change

In 1759, for the first time, Pope Clement XIII permitted the Bible to be translated and made available in the languages of all peoples in the Roman Catholic states.

In 1849, the ship “California” arrived in San Francisco carrying the first of the gold seekers.

In 1854, about 50 people opposed to slavery met at a schoolhouse in Ripon, Wis., to call for a new political organization. The group would later take the name of the Republican Party.

In 1860, an oil gusher was discovered in Enniskillen, Ont., a town later re-named Petrolia.

In 1876, the Parliamentary Library in Ottawa opened. The building’s architectural beauty and grandeur was proclaimed around the world, however, it was obvious from the start that it did not have enough space for all of the books in the Parliamentary collection. The building escaped a fire that hit the original Centre Block in 1916, but had to be restored after a 1952 fire that burned for 10 hours.

In 1877, the University of Manitoba was founded.

In 1931, the Canadian Rugby Union adopted the forward pass in football.

In 1944, Dutch Christian Corrie ten Boom and her family were arrested by Nazi secret police for harbouring Jews, who managed to escape. Corrie was the only member of her family to survive the Holocaust.

In 1953, scientists James D. Watson and Francis H.C. Crick announced they had discovered the double-helix structure of DNA, the molecule that contains the human genes.

In 1956, a restaurant in Chatham, Ont., was fined $50 for refusing to serve two Black students.

In 1964, the Toronto International Airport terminal building was opened.

In 1971, the male voters of Liechtenstein defeated a referendum on giving women the vote.

In 1975, 41 people were killed when a London subway train crashed into the end of a tunnel.

In 1977, Parliament created Via Rail Canada to operate the country’s passenger rail service.

In 1983, the European Community agreed to a two-year ban on the importation of seal pup skins.

In 1983, the final episode of “M.A.S.H.” attracted, at the time, the largest TV audience in U.S. history. The series’ two-and a-half-hour finale was watched by 106 million people.