TODAY IN HISTORY

In 1979, Saddam Hussein became president of Iraq. He remained in office until 2003, when he was deposed by the United States and its allied forces. In 2006, he was convicted of the executions of 148 Shi’ites and sentenced to death by hanging.

Also on this date:

In 622, Prophet Mohammad fled from Mecca, where he was despised and persecuted, to the northern city of Medina, marking the day of beginning of Hegira, the Islamic calender. The word “hegira” is Arabic for flight.

In 1054, the Great Schism between the Western and Eastern churches began over rival claims of universal pre-eminence. In 1965, 911 years later, Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras I met to declare an end to the schism.

In 1439, kissing was banned in England to help prevent the spread of germs.

In 1536, French explorer Jacques Cartier arrived in France from his second voyage to the New World.

In 1790, a site along the Potomac River was designated the permanent seat of the United States government; the area became Washington D.C.

In 1880, Dr. Emily Howard Stowe became the first woman licensed to practise medicine in Canada. She’d been practising since 1867, when she graduated from the New York Medical College. At that time, no Canadian medical college would accept a female student.

In 1925, Saskatchewan voted for government control of liquor, repealing the Prohibition Act of 1916.

In 1969, Apollo 11, carrying U.S. astronauts Neil Armstrong, Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin and Michael Collins blasted off from Florida on the first manned mission to the Moon’s surface. Armstrong and Aldrin landed four days later.

In 1981, a 530 million-year-old fossil deposit in B.C.’s Yoho National Park was named Canada’s fifth UNESCO World Heritage Site.