TODAY IN HISTORY: Jury blames O.J. for murders

In 1783, Britain declared a formal cessation of hostilities with its former colony, the United States.

In 1789, George Washington was elected the first president of the United States.

In 1846, Mormon settlers left Nauvoo, Mo., to begin the settlement of the American West.

In 1858, gold was discovered along the Fraser River, attracting thousands to B.C. Hundreds of ships, jammed with gold-seekers, worked their way across the Strait of Georgia to the Fraser, then made the dangerous trip up the swift-running river.

In 1866, Mary Baker Eddy, founder of Christian Science, is alleged to have cured her injuries by opening a Bible.

In 1880, armed men brutally murdered James Donnelly, his wife Johannah, sons Thomas and John, and his niece Bridget Donnelly in their farmhouse near the southwestern Ontario village of Lucan. Two witnesses, one of them another Donnelly son, claimed to have identified six of the murderers, who were subsequently brought to trial and found not guilty. The most credible theory for the murders was that the killings were the result of a feud originating in Ireland.

In 1915, the first Canadian contingent landed in Europe during the First World War and proceeded to the Flanders region of Belgium.

In 1938, German dictator Adolf Hitler assumed personal command of his country's army.

In 1945, Allied leaders met at Yalta, in Crimea, to plan the final defeat of Nazi Germany. Britain's Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt of the U.S. and the Soviet Union's Josef Stalin called for Allied occupation of Germany, the collection of war reparations and founding the United Nations.

In 1947, the lowest recorded temperature in Canada’s history occurred at Snag, Yukon, –62.8 C.

In 1974, newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst was kidnapped in Berkeley, Calif., by the Symbionese Liberation Army.

In 1997, a civil jury found O.J. Simpson criminally responsible for the 1994 murders of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman. The jury later ordered the former football star to pay US$32.5 million in damages.