Canadian navy stops sailors’ ration of rum

In 1809, the Labrador Act gave Labrador to Newfoundland. This was later disputed by Quebec and a final decision was not made until 1927.

In 1842, ether was first used as an anesthetic by Dr. Crawford Long in Jefferson, Ga. His patient paid $2 for it before having a cyst removed.

In 1853, artist Vincent Van Gogh was born in the Netherlands. He committed suicide in France in 1890.

In 1858, the first pencil with an attached rubber eraser was patented by Hyman L. Lipman of Philadelphia.

In 1867, U.S. Secretary of State William H. Seward reached agreement with Russia to purchase the territory of Alaska for $7.2 million, a deal ridiculed as “Seward’s Folly.”

In 1870, the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, giving all citizens the right to vote regardless of race, was declared in effect by Secretary of State Hamilton Fish.

In 1874, Louis Riel arrived in Ottawa to claim the Manitoba Commons seat of Provencher, to which he’d been elected that year. Riel, a fugitive since the 1869 Red River Uprising, took the oath of office but never entered the Commons.

In 1901, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that marriages of Catholics by Protestant clergymen were valid.

In 1917, all imperial lands, as well as lands belonging to monasteries, were confiscated by the Russian provisional government.

In 1935, Newfoundland changed its time to three hours west of Greenwich Mean Time.

In 1939, Prime Minister Mackenzie King said Canada would not conscript men for foreign service. That commitment was scrapped in 1944.

In 1945, the Soviet Union invaded Austria during the final months of the Second World War.

In 1954, the Yonge Street subway, the first subway line in Canada, was opened in Toronto.

In 1972, Canadian sailors got a daily rum ration for the last time, ending a navy tradition dating back to 1667.

In 1973, the U.S. military role in Vietnam formally ended when the last American prisoner was released and the last soldier withdrew.

In 1978, the Ontario government banned advertising that portrayed the drinking of alcohol as a desirable thing to do and reduced the amount of advertising a company could place.

In 1981, U.S. President Ronald Reagan was shot while leaving a Washington hotel. The gunman, 25-year-old John Hinckley, said he hoped to attract the attention of actress Jodie Foster.

In 1987, Vincent Van Gogh’s “Sunflowers,” painted in 1889, was sold at auction for the C$55 million.

In 1998, Judy Buenoano died in the electric chair in Florida, the state’s first execution of a woman since 1848. Prosecutors dubbed her the “Black Widow” after she poisoned her husband, drowned her paralyzed son and tried to blow up her fiancee.