TODAY IN HISTORY: Puritans execute England’s king

In 570, according to tradition, the Muslim Prophet Muhammad was born.

In 1200, Zen Master Dogen, an important figure in Japanese Buddhism, was born.

In 1649, King Charles I was executed after being convicted of treason under a Puritan-influenced English Parliament. Charles, a devout Anglican with Roman Catholic sympathies had staunchly defended the "divine right of kings" while oppressing the Puritans.

In 1649, Canada's first execution took place in Quebec. The prisoner was a 16-year-old girl accused of theft. Her executioner was a pardoned criminal.

In 1840, American explorer Capt. Charles Wilkes discovered Antarctica.

In 1885, a U.S. patent was issued for the roller coaster.

In 1915, the first air raids on England were staged by German Zeppelins.

In 1915, a U.S. patent was issued for the neon sign.

In 1937, millionaire Howard Hughes set a transcontinental air record when he flew from Los Angeles to Newark, N.J., in seven hours, 28 minutes and 25 seconds.

In 1943, Princess Margriet of the Netherlands was born in an Ottawa hospital. Crown Princess Juliana, wand her two oldest daughters, fled from the Nazi occupation of The Netherlands in 1940 and eventually came to Canada.

In 1955, U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower held his first televised presidential news conference.

In 1958, the Canadian Football Council was renamed the Canadian Football League.

In 1962, the Canadian government announced changes to immigration laws designed to prevent discrimination based on race or national origin and allowing greater immigration from Asia, Africa and the Middle East.

In 1966, Indira Gandhi was elected India's first woman prime minister.

In 1967, Herr Kari Tausch of Hesse, Germany, wrote the shortest valid will. It read, "All to my wife."

In 1977, Jean Jaebone of Winnipeg was revived by doctors after her heart had stopped beating for three hours and 32 minutes.

In 1981, U.S. President Jimmy Carter announced the signing of an agreement by the U.S. and Iran to free 52 Americans held hostage for 444 days in Iran in return for the U.S. unfreezing $8 billion in Iranian assets. The hostages returned the next day, as president Ronald Reagan was inaugurated.

In 1987, Erik Nielsen, former deputy prime minister, resigned as MP for the Yukon after almost 30 years in federal politics.

In 1990, Dr. Roberta Bondar, a neurologist from Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., was selected as Canada's first woman in space when she was named to a mission aboard the space shuttle “Discovery” in 1992.

In 1991, Canadian CF-18 jet fighters flew an offensive mission in the Persian Gulf war, marking the first time Canadian forces had engaged in battle since the Korean War.

In 1993, the Israeli parliament abolished a law that had forbidden Israeli citizens from meeting members of the Palestinian Liberation Organization.

In 2009, Shawn Hennessey and Dennis Cheeseman, who admitted helping James Roszko kill four RCMP officers near Mayerthorpe, Alta., in 2005, pleaded guilty to manslaughter.