B.C. couple have rare natural triplets

In 1288, women in Scotland were given the legal right to propose to men.

In 1904, U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt appointed a seven-member commission to facilitate completion of the Panama Canal.

In 1940, the epic Gone with the

Wind won eight Oscars at the Academy Awards ceremony in Los Angeles, including Best Picture.

In 1944, British and Indian troops drove the Japanese from Burma during the Second World War.

In 1960, the first Playboy Club, featuring waitresses clad in bunny outfits, opened in Chicago. Hugh Hefner closed the corporate-owned clubs in 1986, calling them passe.

In 1968, the discovery of the first pulsar, a star which emits regular radio waves, was announced by Dr. Jocelyn Bell Burnell in England.

In 1980, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau announced that Jeanne Sauve would become the first woman Speaker of the House of Commons. Sauve, a journalist and policitian, later served as Canada’s first female governor general. She died in 1993.

In 1984, after a meditative walk in a snowstorm the previous night, Pierre Trudeau arrived on Parliament Hill and announced he had again decided to retire. Trudeau first stepped down in 1979 but agreed to run again when the Liberals defeated the fledgling Joe Clark government. He was returned with a majority.

In 1988, B.C. New Democrat Svend Robinson became the first MP to make public his homosexuality.

In 1996, choreographer James Kudelka was named the new artistic director of the National Ballet of Canada.

In 2000, Sparky Anderson, the only manager to win World Series titles in both leagues, was elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame by the veterans committee.

In 2008, rare identical triplets were born to a B.C. couple. The chance of having naturally conceived identical triplets is estimated at one in 200-million.