Today in History for Sept. 1:
On this date:
In 1159, the only English pope in history, Adrian (or Hadrian) IV, died.
In 1422, Henry VI, an infant, became King of England on the death of his father, Henry V.
In 1535, Jacques Cartier visited and described the area now known as Tadoussac, Que. Cartier died exactly 22 years later -- on Sept. 1, 1557.
In 1557, Jacques Cartier, explorer of the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the St. Lawrence River, died. He was born in 1491 in the English Channel port of St-Malo, France. He had been commissioned by French King Francis I to "discover certain islands and lands where it is said there is a large amount of gold and other riches to be found" and, if possible, find the route to Asia.
In 1715, King Louis XIV of France died of gangrene. His 72-year reign was the longest in European history.
In 1858, the British government took over the subcontinent of India from the East India Company.
In 1860, the cornerstone of the Parliament Buildings in Ottawa was laid by Prince Albert, Queen Victoria's husband.
In 1864, the wheels of Canadian Confederation were set in motion as the Charlottetown conference opened. New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and P.E.I. planned the conference to discuss a maritime union. But representatives from the province of Canada, who had asked to attend, persuaded the eastern colonies to work toward a general union of British North America. The meeting led to the Quebec Conference one month later.
In 1864, Union army Gen. William Sherman captured Atlanta, Ga., during the American Civil War.
In 1875, Edgar Rice Burroughs, the American novelist who wrote "Tarzan of the Apes," was born in Chicago. He died March 19, 1950.
In 1878, the first female telephone operator began working in Boston.
In 1879, the Provincial Workman's Association of Springhill, N.S., became the first legal trade union in Canadian coal mines.
In 1890, the Metropolitan Street Railway Co. of Toronto began running its first electric streetcar at 19 km/h.
In 1904, Montreal policeman Etienne Desmarteau became the first individual Olympic champion to represent Canada when he won the 56-pound weight throw in St. Louis. Desmarteau was fired for going to the Games, but reinstated when he returned with the gold medal. He died of typhoid the next year at age 32. Ontario's George Orton had won the 2,500-metre steeplechase at the 1900 Games in Paris, but competed for the U.S. because Canada did not send a team.
In 1905, Alberta and Saskatchewan entered Confederation as Canada's eighth and ninth provinces.
In 1909, tinsmiths repairing an eavestrough in the west block of the Ontario legislature in Toronto caused a fire which destroyed that section of the building, leaving the central block untouched.
In 1914, "Martha," the last passenger pigeon in existence, died at the Cincinnati Zoo.
In 1917, The Canadian Press was formed as a co-operative to exchange news among Canadian newspapers.
In 1922, the first broadcast of a daily news program debuted on WBAY radio in New York.
In 1923, more than 142,000 people died in an earthquake that destroyed 575,000 homes in Yokohama and Tokyo, Japan.
In 1923, Canadian businessman and financier Ken Thomson was born in Toronto. He developed his father's media empire into a global information giant. He died June 12, 2006.
In 1937, Trans-Canada Air Lines made the first passenger and first international flight from Vancouver to Seattle.
In 1939, Nazi Germany under Adolf Hitler invaded Poland, starting the Second World War. One day earlier, Germany had concluded a non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union. Hitler was then free to attack Poland, following his earlier demands for the return of Danzig and the Polish Corridor. Italy proclaimed its neutrality. Britain and France declared war against Germany two days later, while Canada followed suit on Sept. 10.
In 1944, Canadian troops liberated the French port of Dieppe, the scene of a disastrous Canadian raid two years earlier in the Second World War.
In 1947, a CNR transcontinental passenger train collided with a passenger special train at Dugald, Man., killing 31 people.
In 1948, the Communist North China People's Republic was founded.
In 1961, Leslie Frost's Conservative government in Ontario introduced a three-per-cent sales tax. It became known as the "Frost Bite."
In 1969, King Idris of Libya was deposed in a coup by a group of army officers headed by Col. Moammar Gadhafi. With Gadhafi as chairman, a revolutionary council was formed and Libya was proclaimed a republic. The council was abolished in 1977, when a constitutional government resumed.
In 1971, British Columbia banned alcohol and tobacco advertising.
In 1972, Bobby Fischer became the first American world chess champion, defeating Russia's Boris Spassky in a 24-game match in Rejkavik, Iceland.
In 1979, the U.S. spacecraft "Pioneer 2" transmitted data to Earth after passing within 20,000 kilometres of Saturn.
In 1980, one-legged runner Terry Fox was forced to quit his cross-Canada "Marathon of Hope" near Thunder Bay, Ont. Cancer had spread to his lungs. Fox lost his right leg to the disease several years earlier and began his "Marathon of Hope" to raise funds for cancer research. He died in June 1981.
In 1981, the federal and Alberta governments signed an energy agreement calling for a two-tiered pricing system for oil. The agreement called for one price for oil produced from existing fields and a higher price, approaching the world level, for oil produced from new fields, oil sands and frontier areas.
In 1983, 269 people, including 10 Canadians, died when Korean Air Lines Flight 007 was shot down by a Soviet jet fighter after the jet entered Soviet airspace en route between Alaska and South Korea.
In 1985, the Canadian Commercial Bank folded.
In 1988, the CBC became the first Canadian broadcaster to use so-called "people meters" to measure its audience.
In 1989, baseball commissioner Bartlett Giamatti died of a heart attack at age 51. A week prior to his death, he banned Cincinnati Reds and all-time hits leader Pete Rose from baseball for life over allegations he bet on the sport.
In 1990, the Toronto Argonauts and B.C. Lions set a CFL record by combining for 111 points in a 68-43 Toronto victory at SkyDome (now Rogers Centre). The game also included a record 50 points -- 27 by Toronto -- in the second quarter.
In 1994, Quebec police picked up more than 100 people in a raid on Chambly, including the town's entire police force. They were suspected of smuggling, prostitution and racketeering. Most of the suspects were released.
In 1995, Paul Bernardo was convicted of first-degree murder in the sex-slayings of Ontario schoolgirls Leslie Mahaffy and Kristen French. A jury also found him guilty of seven other charges, including kidnapping and sexual assault. He was sentenced to life in prison.
In 1985, a joint American-French expedition found the wreckage of the British luxury liner "Titanic" about 900 kilometres off Newfoundland. The wreckage was located by a robot submarine four kilometres down in an ocean canyon. The "Titanic," touted as unsinkable, went down in April 1912, on its maiden voyage after it struck an iceberg.
In 1999, French President Jacques Chirac, visiting Canada, said France would not recognize Quebec immediately after a "Yes" vote in a referendum.
In 1999, at least 16 children suffered minor injuries when a Canadian National Exhibition ride in Toronto, "Wave Swinger," malfunctioned and dropped more than two metres. It was the biggest accident on a CNE ride in 40 years.
In 1999, 22 of baseball's 68 permanent umpires found themselves jobless, the fallout from their union's failed attempt to force an early start to negotiations for a new labour contract.
In 2000, Rogers Communications bought 80 per cent of the Toronto Blue Jays baseball club from Belgian brewers Interbrew for US$112 million.
In 2003, the Netherlands became the first country to make marijuana available as a prescription drug, allowing pharmacies to sell it to chronically ill patients.
In 2008, Thomas Bata, descendent of generations of Eastern European cobblers and builder of the Bata shoe empire, died in Toronto at age 93. Born in what became the Czech Republic, Bata, the son of the founder of the company, expanded the business in Canada, opening a plant in Batawa, Ont., and building a Canadian retail chain.
In 2008, hurricane Gustav slammed into the heart of Louisiana's fishing and oil industry with 176 km/h winds, delivering only a glancing blow to New Orleans.
In 2011, Lloyd Robertson, 77, ended his career as the longest national news anchor in North America. He had spent 35 years with "CTV National News" and six years prior to that at the helm of CBC's nightly news broadcast. Robertson was replaced by Lisa LaFlamme.
In 2019, the most powerful hurricane to hit the Bahamas left at least 50 people dead, including a 27-year-old woman from Windsor, Ontario. Alishia Liolli (lee-oh-lee) moved to the Bahamas in 2013 to volunteer at a vocational school for autistic children. Dorian also destroyed 45 per cent of the homes in Grand Bahama and Abaco and left tens of thousands without food or drinking water. Government officials said hurricane Dorian devastated the health infrastructure in Grand Bahama island and massive flooding rendered the main hospital unusable. Dorian hit the neighbouring Abaco Islands with sustained winds of 295 kph and gusts up to 355 kph, a strength matched only by the Labor Day hurricane of 1935. The storm then hovered over Grand Bahama for a day and a half before moving off to North and South Carolina.
In 2020, the federal government recognized residential schools as a National Historic Event. Jonathan Wilkinson, minister responsible for historic sites and monuments, said history has to tackle tough subjects as well as happy events. Chief Dennis Meeches of the Long Plain First Nation said the band hopes to open a national residential school museum near Portage la Prairie, Man.
In 2021, the federal Liberals released a re-election platform highlighting $78 billion in new spending. That's more than three times the direct new revenues promised over the next five years. Overall, the Liberal platform added more than $70 billion to the deficit over the next five years, but the party said the debt-to-GDP ratio would still be lower than predicted in last spring's federal budget.
In 2021, the federal Conservatives introduced an infrastructure plan they said would kick-start the Canadian economy. Leader Erin O'Toole said the Liberals under Justin Trudeau had failed to deliver on their infrastructure promises. The Conservatives said they would be partners on key transit projects across the country, including Ontario's transit plan for the Greater Toronto Area and the extension of Vancouver's SkyTrain to Langley.
In 2022, Health Canada approved Moderna's new COVID-19 booster vaccine. The bivalent vaccine targeted both the original strain of the novel coronavirus and the Omicron variant.
In 2022, the United Nations accused China of serious human rights violations in a long-awaited report examining the crackdown on Uyghurs and other mostly Muslim ethnic groups. Human rights groups have accused Beijing of sweeping a million or more people from the minority groups into detention camps where many have said they were tortured or sexually assaulted. China denounced the assessment as a fabrication cooked up by western nations.
In 2022, a United Nations inspection team arrived at Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant on a mission to safeguard it from catastrophe. Their visit was delayed by heavy shelling earlier in the day.
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The Canadian Press