Today in History for Sept. 5:
In 1534, Jacques Cartier arrived in France after his first voyage to Canada.
In 1638, Louis XIV of France was born.
In 1698, Peter the Great of Russia imposed a tax on beards.
In 1755, the deportation of 14,000 Acadians from Nova Scotia began. The British forced the French farmers to leave because they refused to swear allegiance to England. The British army destroyed their homes and forced the Acadians into exile in the 13 colonies from Massachusetts to Georgia. Many ended up in Maine and Louisiana, where there are still vibrant Acadian communities. Many returned secretly over the years, and then openly after 1764, when they were granted permission to return.
In 1781, the French fleet defeated the British outside Chesapeake Bay during the American Revolution.
In 1847, outlaw Jesse James was born near Kearney, Mo. With his brother Frank, James led a gang that executed daring bank and train robberies throughout the midwestern United States from 1866. Jesse James was killed on April 3, 1882, when he was shot by one of his own gang members, Robert Ford.
In 1857, Charles Darwin first outlined his theory of natural selection and evolution.
In 1877, Sioux Chief Crazy Horse, who led the Oglala Sioux and the Cheyennes against Lt.- Col. Custer at the "Battle of the Little Big-horn," was killed by U.S. army troops at Fort Robinson, Neb.
In 1881, forest fires in Ontario and Michigan killed an estimated 500 people in 20 villages near Lake Huron.
In 1896, beef sold for $48 a pound in Circle City, Alaska, during the Klondike gold rush.
In 1905, the Russo-Japanese War ended.
In 1910, Madame Marie Curie demonstrated the transformation of radium ore to metal at the Academy of Sciences in Paris.
In 1914, future baseball legend Babe Ruth hit his first professional home run -- the only one he ever hit in the minors -- in Toronto. Ruth connected in the sixth inning as his Providence Grays blanked the Toronto Maple Leafs 9-0. Ruth, a budding southpaw pitcher, also tossed a one-hitter that day.
In 1914, the First Battle of the Marne, resulting in a French-British victory over Germany, began during the First World War.
In 1916, Canadian comedian Frank Shuster was born in Toronto. He was the sunnier, subtler and taller half of the Wayne-and-Shuster comedy team that performed for more than half a century. He died on Jan. 13, 2002, and his feisty sidekick Johnny Wayne died in 1990.
In 1939, the United States proclaimed its neutrality in the Second World War.
In 1939, Gen. Jan Smuts formed a new government for South Africa.
In 1945, Soviet cipher clerk Igor Gouzenko defected from the Soviet embassy, bringing with him documents containing information that helped expose the existence of an espionage network operating in North America. His defection resulted in 20 espionage trials and nine convictions. Gouzenko lived in Canada under an assumed name with police protection until his death in 1982.
In 1945, Canada's first atomic reactor began operating at Chalk River, Ont.
In 1957, leading "beat" author Jack Kerouac published "On the Road."
In 1971, TVA became Canada's first French-language private television network when it opened stations in Montreal, Quebec City and Chicoutimi.
In 1972, the Munich hostage crisis began at the Olympic Games in Germany. Two Israeli athletes died when eight Palestinian gunmen invaded the Israeli dormitory at the Olympic village. Nearly 24 hours later, nine Israeli hostages and five terrorists died in an airport shootout with police. The three remaining terrorists were arrested, but freed later in the year to end the hijacking of a German plane.
In 1975, Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme, a disciple of Charles Manson, tried to assassinate U.S. President Gerald Ford in California.
In 1978, the Camp David summit on Middle East peace began with U.S. President Jimmy Carter, Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egypt's President Anwar Sadat. The summit eventually led to a peace treaty between Israel and Egypt in 1979.
In 1979, La Banque Provinciale du Canada merged with the Banque Canadienne Nationale to become the Banque Nationale du Canada.
In 1979, Canada's first gold bullion coin, the Maple Leaf, went on sale. Five million of the coins, each containing 28.35 grams of gold, were produced over three years at an estimated cost of $1.23 billion to stimulate Canada's gold mining industry. The coin was also sold in the United States and Europe.
In 1983, the U.S. space shuttle "Challenger" landed safely at Edwards Air Force Base in California after a successful six-day mission, the first such landing attempted in darkness.
In 1983, the Canadian government suspended all flights of the Soviet Aeroflot airline into Montreal for 60 days, as a protest over the shooting down of a South Korean jet.
In 1985, the Macdonald Royal Commission recommended free trade with the United States.
In 1986, 21 people were killed and dozens wounded after four hijackers who had seized a Pan Am jumbo jet in Karachi, Pakistan, opened fire when the lights inside the plane failed.
In 1988, Prime Minister Brian Mulroney signed an agreement in principle, giving the Dene and Metis people of the Western Arctic $500 million and 10,000-square kilometres of land, as well as special rights to another 180,000-square kilometres. The largest land transfer in Canadian history followed 13 years of negotiations.
In 1991, the Soviet Union's parliament, the Congress of People's Deputies, voted itself out of existence.
In 1995, Newfoundlanders voted 54 per cent to support the government's plan to curb church control over the province's school system.
In 1995, France carried out the first of a series of bitterly disputed nuclear weapons tests at Mururoa Atoll in the South Pacific.
In 1997, in a rare live television broadcast, the Queen addressed Britain and the Commonwealth and paid tribute to Diana, Princess of Wales, who was killed in a car crash in Paris on Aug. 31.
In 1997, Nobel Peace Prize-winning Mother Teresa, the Roman Catholic nun who devoted her life to the destitute, died in Calcutta, India, at the age of 87. (On Sept. 4, 2016, Pope Francis declared her a saint.)
In 1999, French President Jacques Chirac became the first head of state to visit the new Canadian territory of Nunavut.
In 1999, Mike Weir of Brights Grove, Ont., won the Air Canada Championship in Surrey, B.C., and became the first Canadian to win a PGA Tour event on home soil since 1954.
In 1999, "Candid Camera" creator Allen Funt died in Pebble Beach, Calif., at age 84.
In 2000, representatives of four major churches formally apologized to the aboriginal people of Newfoundland and Labrador for 500 years of assimilation and discrimination at a ceremony in St. John's. But the Innu leader said the apology had to be more specific.
In 2001, Peter Bray became the first person to cross the Atlantic unassisted in a kayak. The Briton made landfall in Ireland after leaving Newfoundland in June.
In 2005, an Indonesian jetliner crashed seconds after takeoff, killing at least 149 people, including 47 on the ground as the fiery wreckage plowed into busy street and several houses in Medan, north Sumatra, Indonesia.
In 2007, former television journalist David Onley, 55, was sworn in as Ontario's 28th lieutenant-governor.
In 2007, Katie Couric debuted as anchor of "The CBS Evening News." Her first newscast ended with photos of the baby of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, who had eluded paparazzi for months. (Her final broadcast was May 19, 2011.)
In 2014, the U.S. and 10 of its key allies — including Canada — agreed the Islamic State group is a significant threat to NATO countries, deciding to squeeze their financial resources and to go after them with military force.
In 2017, U.S. President Donald Trump announced his administration would be phasing out the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program that allowed over 800,000 people brought to the U.S. as children to stay in the country.
In 2018, Lise Payette, a former Parti Quebecois cabinet minister who was responsible for creating Quebec's no-fault automobile insurance plan and who ended up playing a key role in the 1980 referendum campaign, died at the age of 87.
In 2018, Alvin "Ab" Brian McDonald, the first captain in Winnipeg Jets history, died at age 82.
In 2018, British officials announced they had charged two officers of Russian military intelligence in the nerve agent poisoning of ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in the English city of Salisbury. The Kremlin rejected accusations that Russian President Vladimir Putin was ultimately responsible for the poisoning and said Russia would not investigate the suspects.
In 2019, Rod Coneybeare, who was the puppeteer and provided the voices of Rusty the Rooster and Jerome the Giraffe on the CBC-TV children's series "The Friendly Giant," died at age 89. His son, filmmaker Wilson Coneybeare, said his father died in Lindsay, Ontario, surrounded by family. He'd been suffering from pneumonia. Coneybeare, who was born in Belleville, Ont., also produced, wrote and acted in CBC Radio's horror-fantasy series "Out of This World" in the 1950s.
In 2019, Canadian teenager Bianca Andreescu became the first Canadian to reach a singles final at the U.S. Open, defeating Switzerland's Belinda Bencic 7-6 (3), 7-5 in the semifinals. The 19-year-old Andreescu had never been past the second round at a major. She was the first woman to reach the final in her first appearance in the main draw at Flushing Meadows since Venus Williams did it in 1997.
In 2020, a makeshift memorial of flowers, candles and stuffed toys began piling up outside a home in Oshawa, Ont., that was the scene of a horrific mass shooting. Police said 48-year-old Mitchell Lapa shot and killed a man and three young people — two under 18 — before turning his gun on himself. A 50-year-old woman survived with non-life-threatening injuries. Investigators said Lapa was a relative of the victims and was an ''uninvited person'' to the residence.
In 2021, Conservative Leader Erin O'Toole appeared to have flip-flopped on his intention to scrap a 2020 order-in-council by the Liberals that bans many weapons. O'Toole said they would transparently review weapons classifications, but would not remove the 2020 ban.
In 2022, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss would become Britain's next prime minister. The governing Conservative Party announced that Truss had defeated Rishi Sunak, winning the most votes from party members to succeed Boris Johnson as party leader and prime minister. Truss had promised to increase defence spending and cut taxes, while refusing to say how she would address the cost-of-living crisis.
In 2022, RCMP said one of two suspects in a deadly stabbing rampage in Saskatchewan was found dead. They said the body of 31-year-old Damien Sanderson had been found, after a more than 24-hour search for him and his brother, 30-year-old Myles Sanderson.
In 2023, Tim Hortons started selling a new line of clothing with a retro feel. The fast-food chain launched an online store where buyers can get novelty crewnecks in bright pink and electric blue and even Timbits-inspired ensembles.
In 2023, the trial for "Freedom Convoy'' organizers Tamara Lich and Chris Barber got underway.
In 2023, the Williams Lake First Nation purchased a former British Columbia residential school site with the help of the provincial government.
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The Canadian Press