TODAY IN HISTORY: Niagara agreement
In 1872, Canada and the U.S. exchanged telegraphic weather reports for the first time.
In 1884, a railway collision at the Humber River, just west of Toronto, took 31 lives.
In 1908, the Royal Canadian Mint opened on Sussex Drive in Ottawa as a division of Britain’s Royal Mint. The first coin struck was a 50-cent piece. In its early years, it produced gold sovereigns, Canadian coins, refined gold and even gun parts for Britain during the First World War. It was renamed the Royal Canadian Mint in 1931.
In 1929, bush pilots Wilfrid Reid (Wop) May and Vic Horner left Edmonton to fly diphtheria vaccines to Fort Vermilion, Alta, 1,600 kilometres north. It had taken a 12-day journey by dogsled to bring news of the emergency to the nearest telegraph. The flyers made the journey in an open aircraft, with oil burners to keep the vaccine from freezing. They were met by 10,000 people when they returned to Edmonton.
In 1929, Canada and the United States reached an agreement of joint action to preserve Niagara Falls. The deal limited the daytime diversion of water through hydro-electric stations to keep the spectacle for tourists.
In 1935, Bruno Richard Hauptmann went on trial in Flemington, N.J., for the kidnapping and murder of Charles Lindbergh Jr. He was convicted the following month and executed in April 1936.
In 1935, at the height of the Depression, Prime Minister R.B. Bennett began a series of live radio speeches outlining a “New Deal” for Canada.
In 1942, a declaration of the United Nations was signed by Canada and 27 other nations at war with the Axis powers. They pledged not to make a separate armistice or peace.
In 1942, the Philippine capital of Manila was captured by Japanese forces during the Second World War.
In 1951, federal Trade Minister C.D. Howe announced that a $30-million atomic facility would be built at Chalk River, Ont.
In 1959, the Soviet Union launched its space probe “Luna 1,” the first man-made object to fly past the moon, its apparent intended target.
In 1960, Sen. John Fitzgerald Kennedy of Massachusetts announced his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination.
In 1971, in one of the worst sports disasters in Britain’s history, 66 soccer fans, including two Canadians, were killed in a stampede at the end of a soccer game at Ibrox Park stadium in Glasgow, Scotland. Another 200 were injured. The steel crowd-channeling barriers collapsed under the weight of fans pressing to leave the match.
In 1974, U.S. President Richard M. Nixon signed legislation requiring states to limit highway speeds to 55 mp/h. Federal speed limits were abolished in 1995.
In 1979, former “Sex Pistols” bassist Sid Vicious went on trial for the murder of his girlfriend, Nancy Spungen. He didn’t live to hear the verdict; he died of a heroin overdose exactly one month later.
In 1980, New Orleans-born R&B singer Larry Williams, despondent over his fading popularity, committed suicide. His song Bony Moronie reach No. 4 on the Billboard charts. The Beatles were great admirers of Williams’ music, and recorded several of his songs, including “Slow Down,” “Bad Boy” and “Dizzy Miss Lizzy.”
In 1983, the HIT musical play “Annie,” closed on Broadway after 2,377 performances.
In 1988, Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and U.S. President Ronald Reagan signed the Canada-U.S. free trade agreement.
In 1989, a ferry overloaded with New Year’s travellers sank off Guatemala’s east coast after running out of fuel, leaving 67 dead and 14 missing.
In 1995, Fernando Henrique Cardoso was sworn in as Brazil’s 38th President.
In 1996, AT&T announced it would cut 40,000 jobs, more than 24,000 of which would be management positions, as it prepared for a three-way split.
In 1997, former Western Hockey League coach Graham James was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison for sexually assaulting two former players. In the wake of the scandal, the Canadian Hockey Association said it would screen all new coaches for records of pedophilia. (In December 2011, he pleaded guilty to sexually abusing two other former players. Charges related to a third complainant were stayed.)
In 1998, Mel Lastman was inaugurated as the first mayor of the amalgamated city of Toronto.
In 2006, a skating rink roof caved in after a heavy snowfall in Germany, killing 15 people, including seven children.
In 2006, a methane gas explosion at the Sago Mine in West Virginia claimed the lives of 12 miners, but one miner, Randal McCloy, Jr., was eventually rescued.
In 2007, Ontario’s highest court ruled that an Ontario boy can legally have two mothers (in a same-sex relationship) and one father.
In 2007, a state funeral was held in Washington’s National Cathedral for former U.S. President Gerald Ford, who died Dec. 26, 2006, at age 93.
In 2009, Canadian soldier Capt. Robert Semrau was charged with second-degree murder in the death of an unarmed Taliban insurgent on Oct. 19 in Helmund province, where he was serving as a mentor and role mode
In 2015, Little Jimmy Dickens, the diminutive singer-songwriter who was the oldest cast member of the Grand Ole Opry, died at a Nashville-area hospital of cardiac arrest after suffering a stroke on Christmas Day. He was 94. His novelty songs, including “May the Bird of Paradise Fly Up Your Nose,” earned him a spot in the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1983.