TODAY IN HISTORY: The Model T

In 1800, Spain sold Louisiana to France by a secret treaty.

In 1853, the “Toronto Globe” was issued as a daily newspaper.

In 1867, Karl Marx published the first volume of “Das Kapital” in London.

In 1869, the first postcards were printed and put on sale by the Austrian government. In 1876, the first western Canadian wheat was shipped to Ontario.

In 1884, the first women were admitted to University College at the University of Toronto. In 1903, the Pittsburgh Pirates defeated the host Boston Pilgrims 7-3 in the first World Series game. Boston won the series 5-3.

In 1908, Henry Ford’s “Model T” was introduced to the car-buying public. Ford revolutionized the auto industry with the “Model T” being the first car produced on a moving assembly line. Between 1908 and 1927, over 15 million “Model Ts” were produced. The basic cost of the “Tin Lizzie” was $850. The “Model T” topped an international poll for the award of the world’s most influential car of the 20th century.

In 1918, British soldier T. E. Lawrence, known as Lawrence of Arabia, formally occupied Damascus with his Arab forces during the fighting against Turkey in the First World War.

In 1943, Allied forces captured Naples during the Second World War.

In 1947, the Governor General was given authority to exercise all royal powers and executive authority of the Crown in relation to Canada.

In 1949, Communist Party chairman Mao Tse-tung proclaimed the People’s Republic of China in Beijing.

In 1951, Charlotte Whitton became mayor of Ottawa, Canada’s first female mayor of a major city.

In 1958, Canada House in New York was officially opened.

In 1960, the O’Keefe Centre for the performing arts was opened in Toronto. (It is now called the Sony Centre).

In 1961, Roger Maris of the New York Yankees hit his 61st home run of the season to break Babe Ruth’s record of 60 homers set in 1927. Maris did it in 162 games, Ruth in 154. Maris’s record was first broken by Mark McGwire in 1998 (70), which in turn was surpassed by Barry Bonds in 2001 (73).

In 1961, the Canadian Television Network (CTV) was inaugurated with newly licenced stations in Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Winnipeg, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and Halifax.

In 1966, the CBC began colour television broadcasting.

In 1966, Nazi war criminals Albert Speer and Baldur von Schirach were released after serving 20-year prison terms.

In 1969, Andrei Gromyko, the first Soviet foreign minister to visit Canada, arrived in Ottawa. Talks with External Affairs Minister Mitchell Sharp revolved around the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia and the 1966 Canada-Soviet wheat agreement.

In 1970, Soviet vessels were banned from fishing off the west coast of Vancouver Island after collisions with Canadian ships.

In 1971, Walt Disney World opened in Orlando, Fla. In 1974, the Watergate trial began. In 1980, Soviet cosmonauts set, at the time, a space endurance record as they spent their 176th day aboard a “Salyut” space station. They returned to Earth on Oct. 11. In 1985, Israeli jets attacked Palestine Liberation Organization headquarters in Tunisia in retaliation for the Sept. 25 slaying of three Israelis in Cyprus by the PLO. In 1988, super-heavyweight Lennox Lewis won Canada’s first Olympic boxing gold medal in 56 years. In 1989, six homosexual couples took vows of fidelity in Copenhagen to become the first legally recognized gay partners in the world. The civil ceremonies, sanctioned by the Danish parliament, gave the partnerships virtually all the rights and responsibilities of married heterosexual couples.

In 1994, the NHL postponed the opening of the regular season and locked out its players in a contract dispute. The lockout dragged on for months — an abbreviated season began the following Jan. 20th.

In 1998, Quebec singer Pauline Julien committed suicide in Montreal following a lengthy illness. She was 70. Julien was a staunch supporter of Quebec independence. In 1998, Musician John Fogerty received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 2001, Janet Jackson cancelled a European tour because of safety fears after the previous month's terror attacks in the U.S. In 2003, Jay Handel, a former fish farmer from Quatsino, B.C., was found guilty of first-degree murder of all six of his young children and sentenced to six life terms, with no parole for 25 years.