TODAY IN HISTORY
In 1542, the fifth wife of England’s King Henry VIII, Catherine Howard, was executed for adultery.
In 1633, Galileo Galilei arrived in Rome for trial before the Inquisition. More than three centuries later, in 1992, the Vatican acknowledged that the excommunicated Italian astronomer correctly said the Earth revolves around the sun, not vice versa.
In 1741, Andrew Bradford of Pennsylvania published the first American magazine.
Titled “The American Magazine, or A Monthly View of the Political State of the British Colonies,” it lasted three issues.
In 1759, Nova Scotia became the first legislature in British territory to use a secret ballot.
In 1804, theologian and philosopher Immanuel Kant, author of “The Critique of Pure Reason,” died in Konigsberg, East Prussia, now Kaliningrad, Russia. According to reports, his last words were “Es ist gut,” -- it is good.
In 1838, William Lyon Mackenzie fled to the United States after he led an abortive uprising against the establishment families that virtually ruled Toronto.
In 1841, Kingston, Ont., was temporarily made the capital of Canada.