TODAY IN HISTORY

In 1816, St. John’s, Nfld., was nearly wiped out by a fire.

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In 1554, Lady Jane Grey, who had been queen of England for nine days, was beheaded after being charged with high treason.

In 1809, two men who would go down in history were born — Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin.

In 1908, the first around-the-world automobile race began in New York. Six cars — three French, one American, one Italian and one German — were entered in the race that ended in Paris on July 26. The American car won.

In 1912, Pu Yi, the last emperor of China, abdicated, marking the end of the Qing Dynasty.

In 1954, the operations of a blackmarket baby ring were disclosed by Montreal police. More than 1,000 illegitimate babies were said to have been smuggled from the Montreal area for adoption in the U.S.

In 1954, the first suggestion that cancer could be linked to smoking was put forward after a study by a British government advisory panel.

In 1970, a three-month-old baby was the recipient of Canada’s first successful liver transplant, at Montreal’s Notre-Dame Hospital.

In 1973, the first American prisoners from the Vietnam war were released.

In 1993, the murder of a two-yearold British toddler shocked the world. James Bulger was lured away from his mother at a Liverpool shopping mall and beaten to death on nearby railway tracks. Two 10-year-old boys, Jon Venables and Robert Thompson, were convicted of abduction and murder. They were released from prison in June 2001 and given new identities and moved to secret locations.

In 2000, cartoonist and “Peanuts” creator Charles Schulz died of colon cancer at the age of 77. Schulz had recently announced his retirement, and his final “Peanuts” strip appeared the day after his death.