TODAY IN HISTORY: Ross Rebagliati wins Olympic gold

In 1587, Mary, Queen of Scots, was beheaded. After attempting to restore Catholicism to Scotland and two disastrous marriages, she was forced to abdicate and fled to England in 1567. She was immediately arrested and held in custody until she was condemned for plotting against Queen Elizabeth I.

In 1690, Mohawk natives and French troops attacked Schenectady, N.Y., killing 60 people and capturing 30.

In 1879, Canadian engineer Sandford Fleming advocated adoption of Universal Standard Time during a Toronto speech. Standard Time, which divides the world into 24 equal time zones, took effect Jan. 1, 1885.

In 1894, Canadian fighter pilot Billy Bishop was born in Owen Sound, Ont. He was the top scoring Canadian and Imperial ace of the First World War, being credited with 72 victories. He was also the first Canadian airman to win a Victoria Cross, for a 1917 solo attack on a German airfield. Bishop died in Florida in 1956.

In 1924, the first execution by gas in the United States took place at the Nevada State Prison in Carson City as Gee Jon, a Chinese immigrant convicted of murder, was put to death.

In 1952, Queen Elizabeth II took the oath of accession to the throne, following the death two days earlier of her father, King George VI. She was crowned in a public ceremony in June 1953.

In 1960, the U.S. Congress opened hearings on payola, whereby a radio station or its employees, usually a disc jockey, accept payment for broadcasting records. Among those accused were DJ’s Dick Clark and Alan Freed. Clark was called the most influential person in the popular music industry because of his interests in music publishing and record companies. But he denied any wrongdoing and escaped the inquiry virtually unscathed. Alan Freed was not so fortunate. He had few friends in the music business because of his practice of playing records by black artists rather than white cover versions. When the investigation started, Freed was blackballed. And when he finally came to trial in 1962, he was a broken man. Freed pleaded guilty to two counts of commercial bribery, was fined $300 and received a suspended sentence. He never worked in radio again and died in January 1965.

In 1986, 23 people died when a nine-car Via passenger train and a CN freight train collided head on near Hinton, Alta. The 118-car freight train went through a closed switch. The crews in both trains died in the collision.

In 1990, rock ’n’ roller Del Shannon killed himself at his home in Santa Clarita. He was 50. His body, a rifle nearby, was found by his wife. His first and biggest hit was “Runaway,” which went to No. 1 in 1961. Billy Joel sang “Runaway” as the second song of his set at a show in Auburn Hills, Mich.

In 1998, at the Nagano Olympics, Ross Rebagliati of Whistler won the first Olympic men’s snowboarding gold medal. He was originally stripped of his gold medal due to testing positive for a small amount of cannabis. His medal was restored two days later.

In 2010, Col. Russell Williams, 46, the top commander at CFB Trenton, Ont., was arrested and charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of two eastern Ontario women and sexual assaults on two others. (Williams pleaded guilty and was formally sentenced on Oct. 21 to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years. The next day, he was stripped of his rank and thrown out of the military).

In 2017, Canada’s latest census numbers showed the country’s population reached 35,151,728 in 2016, an increase of 1.7 million over 2011.

In 2010, Dr. Conrad Murray, personal physician to Michael Jackson, was charged with involuntary manslaughter in connection with the pop star’s death in June 2009. He was found guilty in November 2011 and sentenced to the maximum term of four years behind bars.

In 2020, mainland China said the death toll associated with the novel coronavirus surpassed SARS fatalities in the 2002-2003 outbreak. China reported the death toll rose to 811. The outbreak of SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, killed 774 people – including 44 in Canada.