TODAY IN HISTORY: World’s oldest mom
In 1905, the Ottawa Silver Seven routed the visiting team from Dawson City, Yukon, 23-2 to win the Stanley Cup. Ottawa’s Frank McGee scored 14 goals in the most lopsided game in Stanley Cup history.
In 1939, the first “Superman” comic strip by Toronto-born Joe Shuster appeared.
In 1956, the first jet flight was made across Canada from Vancouver to Dartmouth, N.S.
In 1958, Lester Pearson became leader of the federal Liberal party, succeeding Louis St. Laurent.
In 1965, Prime Minister Lester Pearson and U.S. President Lyndon Johnson signed the Canada-U.S. Automotive Agreement. The Auto Pact, as it became known, provided a large measure of free trade in motor vehicles and parts between the two countries. It also produced a major boost for the Canadian auto industry over the next 35 years. The Auto Pact died Feb. 19, 2001, after the World Trade Organization ruled it violated international trade laws.
In 1972, Justin Pierre James Trudeau, the first prime ministerial baby born in more than 100 years, was baptized at Notre-Dame Basilica in Ottawa.
In 1976, Peter Frampton’s “Frampton Comes Alive!” was released. It reached No. 1 on the Billboard albums charts on April 10 and was the best-selling album of 1976. It was nominated for Album of the Year at the Grammys (losing to “Songs in the Key of Life” by Stevie Wonder) and remains one of the top-selling live and double albums of all-time. It included “Show Me the Way,” “Baby I Love Your Way” and “Do You Feel Like We Do,” all top-15 hits.
In 1979, singer-actress Aaliyah was born Aaliyah Haughton to a musical family in Brooklyn, N.Y. After a brief stage debut at age six in a production of “Annie,” she polished her talent to the point where she was invited by Gladys Knight — who was once married to Aaliya’s father — to perform with her in Las Vegas. She burst onto the music scene at age 15 in 1994 when her debut album, “Age Ain’t Nothing But a Number,” sold more than one million copies. Her career had barely begun to peak when she and eight others were killed in a plane crash in the Bahamas on Aug. 25, 2001.
In 1979, the marriage of Cher and Greg Allman was dissolved, four years after the couple split up. They stayed together only nine days after exchanging vows.
In 1992, Eric Clapton taped an allacoustic concert for the MTV series “Unplugged.” His chart-topping album, released Aug. 10, won five Grammy Awards including Album of the Year plus Song and Record of the Year for “Tears in Heaven,” a song dedicated to the memory of his four-year-old son Conor. There was also an uptempo remake of “Layla.”
In 1991, the Persian Gulf War began when jet fighters from the U.S.-led coalition bombed Baghdad. A defiant Iraqi president Saddam Hussein promised to wage “the mother of all battles.”
In 1998, 21 sailors drowned and four were rescued from a Cypriot-registered ship, “Flare,” that broke in half and sank in the stormy North Atlantic, southwest of St. Pierre and Miquelon.
In 2003, the space shuttle “Columbia” blasted off. On board was Israel’s first astronaut, Ilan Ramon. The mission ended in tragedy on Feb. 1, when the shuttle broke up during its return descent, killing all seven crew members.
In 2005, a 66-year-old Romanian woman gave birth to a baby girl, becoming the oldest mother ever.
In 2010, Sgt. John Faught, 44, of the 1st Battalion Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry based in Edmonton, was killed in the Panjwaii district of Afghanistan after stepping on an IED.
In 2016, Taiwan elected Tsai Ing-wen as its first female president, handing her proindependence party its first majority in the national legislature.
In 2019, British Prime Minister Theresa May survived a no-confidence vote in Parliament — but saw more of her power ebb away as she battled to keep Brexit on track after lawmakers demolished her European Union divorce deal. May won a narrow victory on an opposition motion seeking to topple her government and trigger a general election.