Today in history

Trans-canada Highway, the St. Lawrence Seaway and the Canada Council.

In 1954, construction of the St. Lawrence Seaway began at Cornwall, Ont. A ground-breaking ceremony was held at Cornwall and Massena, N.Y. The waterway took five years to complete, was considered a monumental engineering and construction feat and opened ports on the Great Lakes to ocean traffic.

In 1966, nine workers were killed and 59 injured when a span of the partially completed Heron Road Bridge collapsed into the Rideau River in Ottawa.

In 1969, Leno and Rosemary Labianca were murdered in their Los Angeles home by members of Charles Manson's cult, one day after actress Sharon Tate and four other people were slain.

In 1981, a 42-day post office strike ended as workers voted to accept a twoyear contract that gave them a 12.5-percent raise. The post office became a Crown corporation a month later.

In 1981, transatlantic air traffic was thrown into confusion when some Canadian air traffic controllers refused to handle flights to and from the United States. The controllers claimed a strike by U.S. air traffic controllers had made the skies unsafe. Normal operations resumed two days later.

In 1982, Claude Ryan resigned as leader of the Quebec Liberal Party.

In 1990, Canada announced it would send three ships and 800 sailors to the Persian Gulf as part of a multinational force massed to prevent Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein from invading Saudi Arabia and to force him to withdraw from Kuwait.

In 1995, a Guatemalan jet carrying 65 people, including three Canadians, crashed into a volcano in central El Salvador, killing all on board.

In 1999, Ontario was named the second worst polluter in North America (after Texas) in a NAFTA report.

In 2003, temperatures hit a record 37.7 C in London for the first time in recorded history. Throughout Europe, the summer of 2003 broke heat records, with some parts seeing temperatures soaring six degrees above normal. The weather was estimated to have caused the deaths of tens of thousands.

In 2008, massive explosions and fire at a propane storage facility in north-end Toronto neighbourhood forced the evacuation of thousands of residents and closure of highways and subway stations. One employee of the plant died. A firefighter who responded to the emergency call on his day off, also died after collapsing at the site. A 2010 report by the Ontario Fire Marshal's Office blamed the blast on a leak during an illegal propane transfer. In 2013, Sunrise Propane and directors Shay Ben-moshe and Valery Belahov were found guilty of nine provincial-offences charges. In 2016, a judge imposed $5.3 million in fines against the company and its directors.

In 2010, the World Health Organization declared the swine flu pandemic officially over. The WHO said at least 18,449 people had died worldwide since the outbreak began in April 2009.

In 2010, in B.C. Supreme Court, Taser International lost its bid to quash the Robert Dziekanski public inquiry report that found its products can kill.

In 2011, the price of gold surpassed US$1,800 an ounce for the first time as investors continued to pull their money out of stocks and snap up precious metals contracts.