Today in history

In 1960, a Northwest Territories council meeting was held at Resolute Bay, the most northerly point for any legislative meeting.

In 1960, Harper Lee's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” was first published.

In 1962, the first trans-atlantic television transmission was sent from Andover, Maine, to Pleumeur Bodou, France, via the “Telstar 1” satellite.

In 1966, George Ignatieff was appointed Canadian ambassador to the United Nations.

In 1975, archaeologists working near the ancient Chinese city of Xian uncovered a huge collection of 6,000 terracotta warriors. They were built to guard the tomb of an ancient emperor.

In 1978, the Indianapolis Racers of the World Hockey Association signed a 17-year-old centre from Sault Ste. Marie of the Ontario Hockey League. His name was Wayne Gretzky.

In 1978, 216 people were immediately killed when a tanker truck overfilled with propylene gas exploded on a coastal highway south of Tarragona, Spain.

In 1979, after six years of orbiting the Earth, the U.S. space “Skylab” broke up and scattered debris over the South Atlantic, Indian Ocean and western Australia.

In 1980, L'anse aux Meadows, on the northern tip of Newfoundland where Vikings formed a settlement more than 1,000 years ago, was declared the first World Heritage Site by a special United Nations committee. Norwegian explorer Helge Ingstad found the site in 1960 after searching for the Vikings' trail along Newfoundland's coast for months, relying on 16th-century maps and ancient descriptions of Leif Ericsson's transatlantic voyage.

In 1985, Houston's Nolan Ryan struck out Danny Heep of the New York Mets to become the first baseball player to record 4,000 career strikeouts.

In 1989, Vickie Keith of Kingston, Ont., became the first person to swim the English Channel using the butterfly stroke.

In 1989, Sir Laurence Olivier, considered the greatest Shakespearean actor of the 20th century and a winner of the Academy Award for both acting and directing, died at age 82.

In 1991, the British government asked cigarette manufacturers to put the label “smoking kills” and “smoking causes cancer” on packages.

In 1991, a Nationair DC-8 chartered to a Nigerian company crashed soon after takeoff from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, killing all 261 people, including the Canadian crew of 14.

In 1991, a solar eclipse cast a blanket of darkness from Hawaii to South America.

In 1996, Justice Archie Campbell's independent report on the Paul Bernardo sex-killings investigation accused police of bungling and gross incompetence. It said the investigation into the schoolgirl slayings was hampered by police rivalries, poor co-ordination between forces, failure to analyze DNA and other matters.

In 2000, Halifax became the first Canadian city to ban pesticides on lawns -- a measure to be phased in over four years.

In 2004, American Meg Mallon won the BMO Financial Group Canadian Open, becoming the first woman to win the U.S. Open and Canadian Open titles in the same year.

In 2006, in an abrupt reversal, the Bush administration said that all detainees held by American forces at Guantanamo Bay and around the world would be granted protection under the Geneva Convention.

In 2006, eight bombs hit seven trains on the commuter rail network in Mumbai, India, during evening rush hour, killing more than 200 people and wounding some 700 in the terrorist attack.

In 2010, Spain's place among world soccer's all-time greatest teams was assured when Andres Iniesta scored in extra time to beat the Netherlands 1-0 and clinch his country's first World Cup. Spain became just the third team to be both world and European champions at the same time. The 14 yellow cards (nine for Netherlands and five for Spain) made it the dirtiest World Cup final of all time.

In 2015, Serena Williams dispatched Garbine Muguruza 6-4, 6-4 for her sixth Wimbledon title and 21st major overall.