IT HAPPENED ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

— In 1535, the printing of the first English-language Bible was completed in London. — In 1669, Dutch painter Rembrandt died. — In 1824, the Federal Republic of Mexico was proclaimed. — In 1830, Belgium seceded from the Netherlands. — In 1851, a freak gale off the coast of Prince Edward Island destroyed 100 U.S. fishing vessels and killed at least 130 fishermen. — In 1905, Orville Wright made the first flight of over 30 minutes. — In 1910, Portugal became a republic when a revolution forced King Manuel II to flee. — In 1920, the Canadian Air Board, forerunner of the Royal Canadian Air Force, began its first flight across Canada. Wing Cmdr. Robert Leckie flew from Halifax to Winnipeg, arriving Oct. 11. From there, Air Commodore A. K. Tylee and three other pilots flew to Vancouver, arriving Oct. 17. Total elapsed time was 45 hours, 20 minutes. — In 1931, the comic strip Dick Tracy, created by Chester Gould, debuted. — In 1939, Quebec Premier Maurice Duplessis declared in an election campaign that a vote for him would be a “vote for autonomy against conscription.” — In 1952, the first external pacemaker was fitted to David Schwartz to control his heartbeats. The first internal pacemaker was fitted in 1958. — In 1957, Jimmy Hoffa was elected president of the Teamsters Union. — In 1957, the Soviet Union put the first spacecraft into orbit around earth. Sputnik I, the first man-made object to enter space, orbited from a height of 902 kilometres at a speed of 29,000 km/h. The 83-kilogram, 58-centimetre-thick satellite carried radio equipment. — In 1958, British Overseas Airways Corp. began transatlantic jet passenger service with a New Yorkto-London flight. — In 1963, hurricane Flora killed 5,000 people in Haiti and 1,000 in Cuba. — In 1968, the government of Alexander Dubcek in Czechoslovakia acceded to Soviet demands to abolish liberal reforms and station Soviet troops within the country. — In 1971, it was announced that oil and natural gas had been discovered on Sable Island, N.S. — In 1978, funeral services were held at the Vatican for Pope John Paul I, who died five days earlier. — In 1988, nine Canadians who were unknowing guinea pigs during CIA-financed brainwashing experiments in the 1950s reached an out-of-court settlement, sharing $750,000. — In 1991, in Madrid, 26 countries signed the Antarctic Treaty, which imposed a 50-year ban on oil exploration and mining in Antarctica. — In 1992, 43 people died when an El Al cargo jet crashed into an apartment complex in Amsterdam. — In 1993, activists closed their anti-logging protest camp at Clayoquot Sound on Vancouver Island for the winter after a three-month demonstration.