TODAY IN history

In 1893, the first electric car appeared. Built by Dickson’s Toronto, it could travel about 25 kilometres before getting its batteries recharged.

In 1954, Canada announced the recall of its remaining troops from Korea.

In 1976, the first four Canadian women Rhodes Scholars were chosen.

In 1988, defrocked U.S. televangelist Jim Bakker was indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of fraud.

In 2003, Canadian Alliance members voted 96 per cent in favour of joining forces with the Progressive Conservatives for a new party called the Conservative Party of Canada.

In 2007, a nuclear reactor shutdown in Chalk River, Ont., caused a worldwide shortage of radioactive isotopes, a key ingredient in radiation therapy.

In 2013, former South African president Nelson Mandela, who became one of the world’s most beloved statesmen and a colossus of the 20th century when he emerged from 27 years in prison to negotiate an end to apartheid, died at age 95.