TODAY IN HISTORY:

In 1836, the first Canadian railway opened. The track of the Champlain and St. Lawrence Railway, which ran 24 kilometres between the St. Lawrence and Richelieu rivers, was built of a wooden base and wooden rails covered with a protective metal strip. The Earl of Gosford, the governor general of Lower Canada, led 300 guests aboard for the trial run of the train.

In 1868, the Imperial Parliament passed the Rupert’s Land Act, allowing Canada to acquire the Northwest Territories.

In 1874, the first Mennonites arrived in Quebec. They eventually settled in Manitoba.

In 1877, Thomas Edison patented the first sound-recording device.

In 1913, Alys McKey Bryant made Canada’s first solo flight by a woman, at a Vancouver racetrack.

In 1917, the third battle of Ypres, also known as Passchendaele, began in Belgium during the First World War. The Canadian Corps under Lt.-Gen. Sir Arthur Currie were part of an Allied contingent fighting in appalling muddy conditions. The Canadians captured Passchendaele Ridge on Nov. 7 after earlier attempts by the Australians, New Zealanders and British had failed. The Canadians suffered over 15,000 dead and wounded in the battle and were awarded nine Victoria Crosses for bravery.

In 1928, Leo the Lion roared for the first time at the beginning of MGM’s first talking picture, “White Shadows in the South Seas.”

In 1955, 17-year-old Marilyn Bell of Toronto became the youngest person, at the time, to swim the English Channel. Bell was already a household name in Canada for her much-covered swim across Lake Ontario at the age of 16, almost a year before the English Channel swim. The schoolgirl, who had already completed one long swim in Atlantic City, wasn’t supposed to be in the lake swim, a gimmick sponsored by the Canadian National Exhibition, who had invited a well-known American swimmer to do it for $10,000. Bell, who wanted to prove to the CNE that a Canadian was worthy of consideration, and three other swimmers also dove into the water at Youngstown, N.Y. on Sept. 8, 1954. Bell was the only swimmer to make it. It took her 20 hours and 59 minutes.

In 1957, the Distant Early Warning Line defence system officially went into operation in northern Canada.

In 1971, American astronauts David Scott and James Irwin took the first motorized tour of the Moon.

In 1981, major league baseball players ended a 49-day strike.

In 1987, tornadoes cut through Edmonton during the afternoon rush hour, killing at least 27 people, injuring 250 and causing $150 million