TODAY IN HISTORY: Negative-billing revolt works

In 459, St. Simeon Stylites, who lived at the top of an 18-metre pillar in the Syrian desert nonstop for 36 years, died on it.

In 1066, Edward the Confessor, the only English king ever canonized a saint by the Catholic Church, died. Builder of Westminster Abbey, he was buried there the following day.

In 1757, R.F. Damiens stabbed French King, Louis XV, but did not puncture the thick royal robes. The would-be assassin was drawn and quartered in public.

In 1795, the first parliament of Lower Canada imposed licensing requirements on pedlars, public houses and retailers of wine and brandy.

In 1809, the Treaty of the Dardanelles, which ended the Anglo-Turkish War, was concluded by the United Kingdom and the Ottoman Empire.

In 1839, a gallows was erected in London, Ont., for the first hanging in the province.

In 1874, Winnipeg held its first civic election. There were 331 votes cast, although only 308 voters were registered.

In 1896, German physicist Wilhelm Roentgen announced the development of the x-ray.

In 1898, the first bobsled race was held at St. Moritz, Switzerland.

In 1910, le club athletique Canadien hockey team played its first game in Montreal.

In 1914, American carmaker Henry Ford doubled the salaries for assembly-line workers to $5 for an eight-hour shift.

In 1920, the Boston Red Sox sold Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees for $125,000.

In 1925, Nellie Taylor Ross became governor of Wyoming, the first woman to serve as a U.S. governor.

In 1940, FM Radio was demonstrated for the first time by American Edwin Howard Armstrong.

In 1943, the Supreme Court of Canada upheld the War Measures Act,which conferred emergency powers on the federal cabinet. Passed in 1914, it allowed the government to govern by decree when it perceived the existence of “war, invasion or insurrection, real or apprehended.” The Act was invoked during both world wars and during the October Crisis of 1970. It was replaced in 1988 by a more limited emergency law.

In 1956, actress Grace Kelly announced her engagement to Prince Rainier of Monaco.

In 1958, Sedgefield General Hospital in England revealed that 424 coins and more than two kilos of wire had been removed from the stomach of a 54-year-old man.

In 1964, Pope Paul VI met with Patriarch Athenagoris of the Eastern Orthodox Church. It was the first meeting of the heads of the two churches in more than 500 years.

In 1971, Paul and Jacques Rose, Francis Simard, and Bernard Lortie, members of Front de Liberation du Quebec (FLQ), were charged with the kidnapping and non-capital murder of Quebec Labour Minister Pierre Laporte.

In 1981, 35-year-old truck driver Peter Sutcliffe was charged as Britain's “Yorkshire Ripper” and later pleaded guilty to killing 13 women.

In 1995, Rogers Cablesystems bowed to complaints from customers and revised the way it planned to charge for new specialty channels. Customers were furious about so-called negative-option billing — unless customers told Rogers they didn't want the channels, they would automatically be billed for them.