TODAY IN HISTORY: 10-month Pickton trial begins

In 1690, the Iroquois signed a peace treaty with the British government and the Great Lakes tribes.

In 1807, Canada’s first curling club, the Montreal Curling Club, was founded. The club’s first game was played on the St. Lawrence River on April 11th of that year.

In 1864, the first session of the B.C. legislative council opened.

In 1878, Canada was given the right to decide whether it wanted to be included in British treaties.

In 1901, Queen Victoria died at age 82, ending her nearly 64-year reign — the second-longest in British history. She was succeeded by her eldest son, who became King Edward VII.

In 1905, a peaceful march in St. Petersburg that marked the beginning of the Russian Revolution turned violent. “Bloody Sunday” saw more than 500 Russian workers killed by Czarist troops.

In 1922, Pope Benedict XV died. He was succeeded by Pius XI.

In 1944, during the Second World War, Allied forces began landing at Anzio, Italy.

In 1949, Chinese Nationalists surrendered Beijing to the Communists in the country’s civil war.

In 1964, Canada and the U.S. agreed to develop former president Franklin Roosevelt’s summer home on Campobello Island, off New Brunswick, into an international park.

In 1964, the Columbia River Agreement was signed by the U.S. and Canada.

In 1970, the Boeing 747 made its first commercial flight when a Pan Am jumbo jet flew from New York to London.

In 1973, in its Roe versus Wade decision, the U.S. Supreme Court legalized abortions during the first six months of pregnancy.

In 1991, the Commons voted 217-47 to endorse a UN resolution calling for military action against Iraq. Most New Democrats voted against it.

In 1992, Dr. Roberta Bondar became Canada’s first woman in space when she and six other astronauts blasted off aboard the shuttle “Discovery.” The cargo included slime mould, mouse embryos, and wheat and oat seeds as specimens for scientific experiments. The eight-day mission was a success for the Sault Ste. Marie, Ont.-born neurologist.

In 1995, Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy died at the Kennedy compound at Hyannis Port, Mass., at the age of 104.

In 1998, the Law Society of Upper Canada stripped disgraced hockey lawyer Alan Eagleson of his right to practise law for unbecoming conduct.

In 1998, ‘Unabomber’ Theodore Kaczynski avoided a possible death sentence by pleading guilty in Sacramento, Calif., to an 18-year terror campaign. He killed three people and injured 23 with mail bombs aimed mainly at those he considered technocrats. He later received a life sentence.

In 2007, the multiple murder trial of Vancouver-area pig farmer Robert Pickton began in New Westminster, B.C. He was charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of 26 women from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. But he went on trial on just six of the charges after the case was split into two. After a 10-month trial, Pickton was convicted of six counts of second-degree murder on Dec. 9. Two days later, he was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years. In 2010, the other 20 firstdegree murder charges were formally stayed.