Today in History for Sept. 14:
On this date:
In 1321, Italian poet Dante Alighieri died.
In 1752, the Gregorian calendar was officially adopted by the British Empire and its colonies in America.
In 1812, the Russians set fire to Moscow before Napoleon's triumphant march into the city. Three-fourths of the city was destroyed in the next few days. Napoleon remained in Moscow for about a month while cold and hunger decimated the Grande Armee.
In 1814, the poem "Defence of Fort McHenry" (later becoming the lyrics to "The Star-Spangled Banner") was written by Francis Scott Key following the British shelling of Fort McHenry in Maryland. The morning after, Key saw the American flag still flying over the fortress and wrote his poem. It was set to the tune of an English drinking song and it was designated as the U.S. national anthem in 1916 by President Woodrow Wilson, and his order was confirmed by an act of Congress in 1931.
In 1847, U.S. troops captured Mexico City during the Mexican War.
In 1868, golf's first recorded hole-in-one was scored by Scotsman Tom Morris at Prestwick's 166-yard 8th hole during the Open Championship (known in North America as the British Open).
In 1882, the steamer "Asia" sank in Georgian Bay during a fierce gale, claiming 126 lives.
In 1901, Theodore Roosevelt became president of the United States after President William McKinley died eight days after being shot by an anarchist in Buffalo, N.Y.
In 1926, the federal Liberal party, led by William Lyon Mackenzie King, defeated the Conservatives under Arthur Meighen in a general election.
In 1927, modern dance pioneer Isadora Duncan died when her scarf became entangled in the wheels of her sports car. She was 50.
In 1936, Canadians Harry Richman and Robert Merrill completed the first Atlantic round-trip by air.
In 1936, Dorothea Palmer, a nurse, was arrested and charged with distributing birth control medicine and information in Eastview, Ont., a predominantly French-speaking, low-income suburb of Ottawa. Her lawyers argued that her work was not for profit but "for the public good." She was acquitted of all charges.
In 1959, the Soviet space probe "Luna 2" became the first man-made object to reach the moon as it crashed onto the lunar surface.
In 1959, Gov. Gen. Vincent Massey, the first Canadian-born governor general, delivered his farewell address on national radio and TV networks.
In 1962, 29 people escaped to the West through a tunnel under the Berlin Wall.
In 1967, shareholders of the Bank of Western Canada voted in Winnipeg to wind up the bank.
In 1969, the American oil tanker "SS Manhattan" became the first commercial vessel and the first large ship to navigate the Northwest Passage.
In 1972, Pope Paul VI barred women from even the smallest formal role in the ministry of the Roman Catholic Church.
In 1982, Princess Grace of Monaco, formerly U.S. actress Grace Kelly, died of head injuries when the car she was driving plunged off a mountain road after the brakes failed. Her daughter, Stephanie, who was in the front passenger seat, escaped with minor injuries. Grace was 52. She became an actress despite the opposition of her family and first appeared in 1951's "Fourteen Hours." She became a favourite of director Alfred Hitchcock, starring in three of his films. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress for "The Country Girl" in 1955 but she retired from acting in 1956 after her marriage to Prince Rainier. The couple had three children.
In 1983, singer Harry Belafonte and tennis star Arthur Ashe announced the formation of Artists and Athletes Against Apartheid, and called for an athletic and cultural ban on South Africa.
In 1984, Pope John Paul held a special mass for 50,000 Polish-Canadians at Toronto's Canadian National Exhibition. Toronto was the first stop on his 12-day visit to Canada.
In 1985, the Soviet Union ordered the expulsion of 25 British diplomats, journalists and businessmen in retaliation for the British expulsion of 25 Soviet nationals for spying.
In 1987, the Toronto Blue Jays hit 10 home runs in an 18-3 romp over the visiting Baltimore Orioles, setting a major league record for most home runs in a nine-inning game. The previous record was eight by the 1939 New York Yankees and equalled by six other teams.
In 1989, the RCMP replaced striking Dartmouth, N.S., police officers in maintaining law and order.
In 1989, Metis Dan Morris was appointed by the federal government as the first native commissioner to the Northwest Territories.
In 1990, Ottawa and Newfoundland joined forces in the $5.2-billion Hibernia oil project. Ottawa contributed $2.7 billion in cash and loan guarantees, the rest of the money was to come from the province and a consortium of four oil companies led by Mobil Oil Canada. On Feb. 14, 2005, Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams signed an agreement with Prime Minister Paul Martin that set out new revenue-sharing rules for the province’s offshore energy industry. Later that day, Martin signed a similar deal in Nova Scotia.
In 1993, Quebec Premier Robert Bourassa announced he would quit politics.
In 1994, the major league baseball season was cancelled after 34 days of a players' strike. For the first time in 90 years, there was no World Series.
In 1998, Air Canada pilots voted 83 per cent to ratify a contract ending a 13-day strike. The strike cost an estimated $200 million to Air Canada.
In 1999, nearly three million people from Florida to the Carolinas were forced from their homes ahead of hurricane Floyd in what was considered the biggest evacuation in U.S. history. At least 49 deaths from the Bahamas to New England were blamed on the storm.
In 2009, Patrick Swayze, the hunky actor who danced his way into moviegoers' hearts with "Dirty Dancing" and then broke them with "Ghost," died after a battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 57.
In 2011, a key U.S. federal report blamed poor management, key missteps and a faulty cement job by BP and others for the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history and the deaths of 11 rig workers following the April 20, 2010, Deepwater Horizon tragedy in the Gulf of Mexico.
In 2017, Halimah Yacob was elected unopposed as Singapore's first female president.
In 2017, Liberal MP Arnold Chan died of nasopharyngeal carcinoma. He was 50.
In 2018, a slow-moving Hurricane Florence made landfall in North Carolina with sustained winds of 145 kph winds, causing catastrophic flooding in some areas and leaving 800,000 people without power. Florence had been downgraded to a tropical storm by the time it moved into South Carolina later in the day but continued to dump torrential rain on both states. Authorities said at least 46 people were killed, most of them in North Carolina where some areas got up to a metre of rain. The economic research firm Moody's Analytics estimated the hurricane caused around US$44 billion in damage and lost output.
In 2020, Canadian author Margaret Atwood was honoured with a lifetime achievement award from the Dayton Literary Peace Prize celebrating literature's power to foster peace, social justice and global understanding. Her best-selling 1985 novel "The Handmaid's Tale" has drawn new readers in the wake of the award-winning television adaptation. The book takes place in a dystopian future in which women are subjugated after an overthrow of the U.S. government.
In 2020, the Bloc Quebecois caucus, including leader Yves-Francois Blanchet, entered self-isolation after a member of Blanchet's staff tested positive for COVID-19.
In 2020, Sonia Furstenau became the new leader of British Columbia's Green party. The legislature member from Vancouver Island defeated candidates Cam Brewer and Kim Darwin after two ballots. She succeeded former Green leader Andrew Weaver, who stepped down in January to sit as an Independent.
In 2020, New Brunswick's Progressive Conservatives won a majority government, concluding a highly unusual election race — the first in Canada since the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic. Premier Blaine Higgs delivered a victory speech to about 50 mask-wearing, physically distancing supporters. Liberal Leader Kevin Vickers announced he's stepping down, after losing his bid for a seat in the riding of Miramichi.
In 2021, an Ontario judge found Linda O'Leary not guilty in a boat crash that killed two people -- ruling prosecutors failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that she was operating the boat without due care or consideration for others. The wife of celebrity businessman Kevin O'Leary was charged following the August 2019 crash on Lake Joseph, north of Toronto.
In 2021, Canadian-born comedian Norm Macdonald, best known for his tenure on "Saturday Night Live," died at 61 after a private battle with cancer. The Quebec City-raised standup didn't share his health struggles with the public. Macdonald was known for his wry, deadpan delivery in the anchor chair of SNL's "Weekend Update'' in the mid-1990s.
In 2022, police north of Toronto said an officer died after an early morning collision. The chief of York Regional Police said 38-year-old Const. Travis Gillespie was on his way to work when he was killed in the crash. Gillespie was pronounced dead at the scene and the other driver, a 23-year-old man, was taken to hospital.
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The Canadian Press