Canada’s parliament gets call for ‘rep by pop’

In 1614, in Virginia, Indian chief Powhatan’s daughter, Pocahontas, married English colonist John Rolfe. She was one of the first North American native converts to Christianity. She went by the name Lady Rebecca.

In 1669, New France governor Jean Talon introduced bonuses for large families. Canada’s first baby bonus amounted to 300 livres to families of 10 children and 400 to families of 12.

In 1792, George Washington cast the first U.S. presidential veto, rejecting a congressional measure for apportioning representatives among the states.

In 1842, the Gesner Museum, Canada’s first public museum, opened in Saint John, N.B.

In 1861, a bill calling for “representation by population” was introduced in the Canadian parliament. “Rep by pop” was an idea espoused by a couple of the fathers of Confederation, including George Brown. Under the 1941 Act of Union, Canada West (Ontario) and Canada East (Quebec) were given an equal number of representatives in Parliament at a time when Quebec had the greater population. But after the census of 1851 revealed that Canada West had the greater population, politicians there were vocal in their calls for a change. The question was not settled until Confederation, in 1867.

In 1875, an Act of Parliament created the Supreme Court of Canada. The court sat for the first time on Jan. 17, 1876.

In 1887, in Tuscumbia, Ala., teacher Anne Sullivan achieved a breakthrough as her blind and deaf pupil, Helen Keller, learned the meaning of the word “water” as spelled out in the Manual Alphabet.

In 1887, British historian Lord Acton wrote in a letter, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.”

In 1895, Oscar Wilde lost his libel case against the Marquess of Queensberry, who had accused the Irish playwright of homosexual practices. Wilde was later prosecuted and jailed.

In 1908, the first rotary telephones in Canada for general use were put into service in Edmonton.

In 1951, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg became the first American citizens sentenced to death in an espionage case. They were executed on June 19, 1953.

In 1955, Winston Churchill retired as British prime minister at the age of 80.