Today in History for Oct. 6:
On this date:
In 1520, German reformer Martin Luther published his Prelude on the Babylonian Captivity of the Church, his famous writing which attacked the entire sacramental system of the Catholic Church.
In 1744, James McGill, a merchant who donated land to found McGill University, was born in Scotland.
In 1769, Sir Isaac Brock, hero of the War of 1812, was born.
In 1866, Reginald Aubrey Fessenden, one of the world's foremost inventors of radio technology, was born near East Bolton, Que. He discovered the so-called heterodyne principle, the basis for all modern broadcasting. In 1906, he achieved two-way voice transmission by radio between Machrihanish, Scotland and Brant Rock, Mass. On Christmas Eve 1906, he made the first public broadcast of music and voice. After losing control of his company in 1910, he lived in relative seclusion. He died in 1932.
In 1889, American inventor Thomas Edison showed a 13-second motion picture film in his New Jersey lab.
In 1890, the Mormon church officially abolished polygamy.
In 1891, Charles Stewart Parnell, champion of Irish home rule, died in Brighton, England.
In 1892, English poet Alfred Lord Tennyson, best known for "The Charge of the Light Brigade," died at age 83.
In 1911, the Laurier government resigned after having been in power since 1896.
In 1927, the era of sound motion pictures was ushered in when "The Jazz Singer," starring Al Jolson, opened in New York City.
In 1928, Chiang Kai-shek became China's president.
In 1937, the League of Nations condemned Japan's aggression in China.
In 1942, Tim Buck and other Canadian Communists won conditional release from internment.
In 1944, Soviet troops invaded Hungary during the Second World War.
In 1948, a delegation from Newfoundland arrived in Ottawa to discuss the terms of union with Canada. Earlier that year, on July 22, Newfoundlanders had voted in a plebiscite to become Canada's 10th province. An agreement consummating the union was signed Dec. 11 and became effective March 31, 1949.
In 1949, U.S. president Harry Truman signed the Mutual Defence Assistance Act for military aid to NATO countries.
In 1959, Russia's rocket "Luna 3" circled the moon.
In 1964, the Confederation Centre of the Arts was officially opened in Charlottetown by Queen Elizabeth.
In 1969, Montreal police and firefighters began a strike that led to widespread rioting, looting, arson and vandalism. Members of both unions were ordered back to work by the Quebec legislature on Oct. 8.
In 1969, the New York Mets won the first-ever National League Championship Series, defeating the Atlanta Braves, 7-4, in Game 3; the Baltimore Orioles won the first-ever American League Championship Series, defeating the Minnesota Twins 11-2 in Game 3.
In 1973, Egypt and Syria launched what became known as the Yom Kippur War by attacking Israel.
In 1979, Pope John Paul II became the first pontiff to visit the White House.
In 1981, Egyptian president Anwar Sadat was assassinated by a group of soldiers who attacked his reviewing stand with hand grenades and automatic gunfire as he watched a military parade.
In 1983, B.C. Opposition Leader Dave Barrett became the first leader of a Canadian political party to be forcibly ejected from a legislature when he was dragged from the house for defying a ruling over government restraint bills.
In 1986, Garry Kasparov retained the world chess championship when challenger Anatoly Karpov conceded a draw in the 23rd game of their title series.
In 1986, a crippled Soviet nuclear submarine sank in the Atlantic Ocean about 2,000 kilometres east of New York after a fire and explosion aboard the sub three days earlier.
In 1989, ex-federal cabinet minister Ray Hnatyshyn was appointed governor general.
In 1992, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution establishing its first-ever war-crimes commission to investigate atrocities in the former Yugoslavia, mainly Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia.
In 2000, NHL player Marty McSorley was found guilty of assault with a weapon (his hockey stick). He was granted a conditional discharge and was told to use his influence to clean up the game. He was charged in February 2000 after his attack from behind on Vancouver Canucks forward Donald Brashear in the dying seconds of a game won by the Canucks 5-2. Brashear was briefly knocked unconscious by the blow, suffering a Grade 3 concussion.
Also in 2000, Yugoslav strongman Slobodan Milosevic conceded defeat in his country's Sept. 24th presidential election after mass protests by opposition supporters.
In 2001, the largest crowd to watch a hockey game, at the time, saw Michigan St. tie Michigan 3-3 at Spartan Stadium in East Lansing. The game attracted 74,554 people.
In 2003, Jordin Tootoo cracked the Nashville Predators' line-up making him the first player of Inuit descent to play in the NHL.
In 2007, RCMP Const. Christopher John Worden, 30, was shot and killed in Hay River, N.W.T., while responding to a call at a home for police assistance.
In 2007, Pakistan's Gen. Pervez Musharraf won the presidential election for another five-year term in a vote boycotted by nearly all of Pakistan's opposition parties.
In 2007, British adventurer Jason Lewis finally returned to Greenwich, England, completing a 13-year, 74,000-km human-powered circumnavigation of the globe.
In 2008, falling oil prices and investor fears of a global recession pounded the Canadian stock market, dragging the TSX composite index 572 points lower and wiping out more than $100 billion of stock value.
In 2008, Harald zur Hausen of Germany and Francoise Barre-Sinoussi and Luc Montagnier of France, won the Nobel prize for medicine for discovering the viruses that cause cervical cancer and AIDS.
In 2009, Canwest Global Communications Corp., owners of Global Television and the National Post newspaper, filed for creditor protection in a deal with a key group of lenders, as it sought court approval to restructure a mountain of debt.
In 2009, Willard S. Boyle, a scientist born in Amherst, N.S., shared the Nobel Prize in Physics with George E. Smith and Charles Kao for their work in developing the sensor that is widely used in digital cameras.
In 2009, Ontario Health Minister David Caplan resigned one day before the release of a report into spending scandals at the agency tasked with creating electronic health records in the province.
In 2010, Richard Heck, Ei-ichi Negishi and Akira Suzuki won the Nobel Prize in chemistry for finding new ways to bond carbon atoms together, methods now widely used to make medicines and even slimmed-down computer screens.
In 2011, the Nobel Prize in literature was awarded to Tomas Transtromer, a Swedish poet whose surrealistic works about the mysteries of the human mind won him acclaim as one of the most important Scandinavian writers since World War II.
In 2011, Dalton McGuinty became Ontario's first three-term Liberal premier in more than a century but fell one seat short of a majority, resulting in the province's first minority government in 26 years. The Liberals won 53 seats, the Progressive Conservatives 37 and the NDP 17. Voter turnout was a record low 47.6 per cent.
In 2011, a software error that occurred during a routine manoeuvre triggered Telesat's Anik F2 satellite to shut down, causing many Canadians to lose communications for much of the day.
In 2011, Quebec's Congregation of Holy Cross agreed to pay up to $18 million for sexual abuse committed at three different Roman Catholic institutions over a span of five decades. At least 85 people were thought to be eligible for compensation in what lawyers believed was the biggest amount ever awarded in Quebec.
In 2014, Quebecor signed a $316 million-deal to sell Sun Media Corp.'s English-language operations to Postmedia Network Canada Corp. (The Competition Bureau approved the deal in March 2015.)
In 2016, RCMP Commissioner Bob Paulson delivered an emotional apology and announced a $100-million settlement of two class-action lawsuits stemming from the harassment allegations from former female officers and employees dating back as long as four decades.
In 2017, James Neal scored both goals as the expansion Vegas Golden Knights opened their inaugural NHL season with a 2-1 road win against the Dallas Stars.
In 2017, the federal government agreed to pay a maximum $750 million to survivors of the '60s Scoop for the harm suffered by Indigenous children who were robbed of their cultural identities by being placed with non-native families. Ottawa would also set aside a further $50 million for a new Indigenous Healing Foundation.
In 2020, John Turner was laid to rest at a state funeral at Toronto's St. Michael's Cathedral Basilica. Canada's 17th prime minister was praised as a gifted politician with a strong social conscience. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Turner's closest family were among the limited guests for the service. Turner died on Sept. 19 at the age of 91.
In 2020, guitar virtuoso Eddie Van Halen, who had battled cancer, passed away at the age of 65. Van Halen, whose blinding speed, control and innovation propelled his band into one of hard rock's biggest groups, also supplied the unmistakable grinding solo in Michael Jackson's hit "Beat It."
In 2021, Pope Francis expressed "shame'' for himself and the Roman Catholic Church for the scale of child sexual abuse within the church in France and acknowledged failures in putting the needs of victims first. The pontiff spoke to an audience at the Vatican about a report released a day earlier estimating 330,000 French children were abused by clergy and other church authority figures dating back to 1950.
In 2021, the Nobel Prize for chemistry was awarded to two scientists for a tool to build molecules. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced the winners were Germany's Benjamin List and Scotland-born American David W.C. MacMillan from Princeton University. They were cited for their independent work back in 2000 developing a new way for building molecules known as "asymmetric organocatalysis.''
In 2021, the military re-assigned Maj.-Gen. Peter Dawe following outrage from survivors of sexual misconduct. Dawe was suspended as commander of Canada's special forces in April after he wrote a reference for a convicted sex offender. He was then quietly given a new job collecting and reviewing ways to eliminate military sexual misconduct.
In 2021, federal workers would be put on unpaid administrative leave if they weren't fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by the end of October.
In 2021, Elections Canada confirmed another election victory for the Liberals, giving the minority government one more seat in the House of Commons. The agency said following a recount that incumbent Brenda Shanahan would be returning to Parliament for the Chateauguay-Lacolle riding, edging out the Bloc's Patrick O'Hara.
In 2022, police in Thailand said more than 30 people, primarily children, were killed in a shooting at a child-care centre in the country's northeast. Thai media reported that the gunman also used knives in the attack and then fled the building before eventually taking his own life.
In 2022, U.S. President Joe Biden announced a pardon for anyone convicted under federal law of possessing marijuana.
In 2022, members of Alberta's United Conservative Party chose Danielle Smith to replace Jason Kenney as leader and premier. There were almost 85,000 votes cast. Smith had close to 54 per cent of the vote on the sixth ballot. Travis Toews, the finance minister under Kenney, was second at just over 46 per cent.
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The Canadian Press