TODAY IN HISTORY: Fire destroys Centre Block

In 1690, the first paper money in the American colonies was issued by Massachusetts — to pay soldiers fighting a war against Quebec.

In 1865, the Canadian legislature resolved in an address to the Queen to ask for the union of the provinces of British North America.

In 1916, fire destroyed the centre block of Canada’s Parliament Buildings. Seven people were killed in the blaze. The Parliamentary Library and its priceless collection of books was saved because someone had closed the metal doors which separated it from the rest of the Centre Block. Many people initially believed that the fire was a deliberate act of sabotage by the Germans, with whom Canada was at war. Reconstruction of the building, which contains the Commons and Senate chambers, was completed in 1920.

In 1927, the United States appointed William Phillips as its first ambassador to Canada.

In 1959, Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson died when their small plane crashed in a cornfield near Mason City, Iowa.

In 1961, Ottawa approved the merger of Imperial Bank of Canada and Canadian Bank of Commerce.

In 1966, an unmanned Soviet satellite, “Luna 9,” became the first man-made spacecraft to make a soft landing on the moon.

In 1967, Prime Minister Lester Pearson announced the formation of a Royal Commission on the Status of Women. Chaired by journalist Florence Bird, it was the first such panel headed by a woman. Its 1970 report made 167 recommendations aimed at ending sexual inequality in Canada, including paid maternity leave.

In 1969, Yasser Arafat was elected chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s executive committee during a council meeting in Cairo, Egypt.

In 1985, Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu was installed as the first black bishop of Johannesburg’s Anglican diocese.

In 1994, the Federal Court of Canada upheld a human rights tribunal ruling that the Canadian Forces’ mandatory retirement policy violated human rights law. The court said the military should develop a fitness standard instead of relying on an arbitrary age rule.

In 2009, vehicle sales in China for January surpassed those in the United States for the first time ever, underscoring the depth of the automotive slump in North America.