Today-History-Jun07

Today in History for June 7:

On this date:

In 1329, Scotland's national hero, Robert the Bruce, died of leprosy he had contracted during his campaigns against the English.

In 1502, Pope Gregory XIII was born Ugo Buoncompagni in Bologna, Italy. He introduced the new style of calendar that is named for him.

In 1576, English explorer Martin Frobisher set out on a voyage during which he named Frobisher Bay after himself.

In 1654, Louis XIV was crowned King of France.

In 1753, Britain's King George II gave his assent to an Act of Parliament establishing the British Museum.

In 1862, the United States and Britain executed a treaty for suppression of the slave trade.

In 1886, Elzear-Alexandre Taschereau was appointed Canada's first cardinal by Pope Leo XIII.

In 1887, Wilfrid Laurier was elected leader of the federal Liberal Party. Born near Montreal in 1841, Laurier won a seat in the Quebec legislature at the age of 30, then switched to federal politics three years later. In 1896, he became Canada's first prime minister of French descent. Knighted the next year by Queen Victoria, Sir Wilfrid remained in power for 15 years and died in 1919.

In 1909, "The Violin Maker of Cremona," a short film directed by D.W. Griffith and featuring Canadian Mary Pickford in her first notable screen role, was released.

In 1917, Allied engineers, many of them Canadians, won their greatest victory of the First World War at Messines, Belgium. They used underground explosives to destroy the German trench system, allowing infantry to capture a ridge overlooking the town of Ypres in about three hours.

In 1929, the Papal state, non-existent since 1870, was revived as the Vatican state.

In 1939, King George VI became the first reigning British monarch to visit the United States. He and Queen Elizabeth crossed the border from Canada at Niagara Falls.

In 1942, what's regarded as the most decisive battle in the Pacific during the Second World War ended in a major American victory over the Japanese in the "Battle of Midway."

In 1956, a series of rockfalls sent two-thirds of a huge power plant tumbling into the Niagara River gorge, about a kilometre below the Falls. The plant had been built in 1895 on the site of an earlier power plant, and the sides of the gorge had been walled in. Over the years, water had seeped behind the walls and undermined the rock face behind the plant. One worker was killed when the southern part of the plant fell into the water.

In 1966, the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Canada voted in favour of the ordination of women ministers.

In 1980, author Henry Miller died at age 88.

In 1993, a New York judge handed down a ruling in the Woody Allen-Mia Farrow custody case. Farrow won custody of a biological son, Satchel, and two adopted children, Dylan and Moses.

In 2000, a U.S. federal judge ordered the breakup of Microsoft into two companies, one for the Windows operating system and the other for applications, Internet business and everything else. (An appeals court later threw out the breakup order; the Justice Department, under the Bush administration, said it would no longer seek a breakup of Microsoft.)

In 2001, a landslide victory in Britain's general election made Prime Minister Tony Blair the first Labour leader to win successive majority governments.

In 2002, the Quebec government extended full parental rights to homosexual couples. It was the first time in Canada that gay and lesbian couples were legally recognized as the legitimate parents of the children they raise.

In 2005, General Motors Corp. announced plans to eliminate 25,000 manufacturing jobs in the United States by 2008 and close plants as part of a strategy to revive North American business. GM filed for bankruptcy protection on June 1, 2009.

In 2006, Iraqi al-Qaida leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who waged a bloody campaign of suicide bombings and beheadings of hostages, was killed in a U.S. air raid near Baghdad.

In 2008, Capt. Jonathan Snyder, 26, of Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry based in Edmonton, died after falling down a deep well during night patrol in the Zhari district of Kandahar province in Afghanistan.

In 2008, Jim McKay, the sports broadcaster and ABC reporter who covered 10 Olympic Games including the 1972 Munich Games and broke the news of a terrorist attack on Israeli athletes, died in Monkton, Md., at age 86.

In 2009, Roger Federer won the French Open for the first time, finally completing a career Grand Slam. He became only the sixth player to achieve that feat. Federer also tied Pete Sampras' record of 14 major singles titles and equalled Ivan Lendl's record of reaching 19 Grand Slam finals. A few weeks later, Federer broke both records when he won Wimbledon.

In 2009, Ontario Health Minister David Caplan fired the head of the electronic health records agency eHealth Ontario amid a multi-million-dollar contracts scandal.

In 2010, an Indian court convicted seven former senior employees of Union Carbide's Indian subsidiary for their roles in the 1984 Bhopal toxic gas leak that left an estimated 15,000 people dead. It was the world's worst industrial accident. They each received two year prison sentences.

In 2010, 89-year-old Helen Thomas, the grand dame of the White House press corps, abruptly retired as a columnist for Hearst News Service -- felled not only by her own controversial remarks about Israel, but also by the YouTube-era technology that ensured those comments spread with lightning speed.

In 2012, up to 475,000 litres of crude oil from a Plains Midstream Canada pipeline spilled into Jackson Creek, a tributary of the rain-swollen Red Deer River system, near the community of Sundre, Alta.

In 2013, CFB Edmonton was the first Canadian military base to raise a Gay Pride flag as a symbol of Armed Forces principles of inclusiveness, equality and dignity.

In 2018, Doug Ford and his PC Party rode a populist wave to a majority victory in the Ontario election, ending 15 years of scandal-plagued Liberal rule. The PCs won 76 seats, Andrea Horwath's NDP took 40 while Kathleen Wynne's Liberals plunged to seven and lost official party status. Wynne won her riding but promptly resigned as party leader. Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner captured the party's first-ever seat in Ontario.

In 2018, the Washington Capitals won their first Stanley Cup championship with a 4-3 Game 5 win over the Vegas Golden Knights. Capitals captain Alexander Ovechkin won the Conn Smythe trophy as the playoffs MVP.

In 2020, New Zealand temporarily eradicated COVID-19 in the country. Health officials said the final person known to have contracted the virus had recovered. It had been 17 days since the last new case was reported in New Zealand. Experts said a number of factors helped the nation of five-million wipe out the disease, including its isolated location and the leadership of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. Confirmed cases would emerge again in June, and continue doing so throughout the year, albeit at much lower levels than in other developed countries.

In 2020, as anti-police violence protests sweep the globe, a northern Alberta First Nations chief says his face was left bruised and bloodied during a dispute with an RCMP officer over expired tags on his truck. Athabasca Chipewyan Chief Allan Adam described his March arrest as like being hit with a "clothesline'' wrestling move before falling to his knees. The Mounties said Adam was resisting arrest and their officers had to use force.

In 2020, a film about a "trainer turned whistleblower'' at Ontario's Marineland aquatic park won the top audience prize at Hot Docs. "The Walrus and the Whistleblower," directed by Nathalie Bibeau, won the Hot Docs Audience Award for a feature film, which is awarded based on audience votes. The Canadian documentary film festival was held online due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2021, police in London, Ont., said four people were killed after several pedestrians were struck by a car. Police said one woman was pronounced dead at the scene. Two adults and one teenaged child died later in hospital. The other child was in serious but non-life-threatening condition. Police say a 20-year-old London, Ont., man was arrested shortly after the incident.

In 2023, the Bank of Canada hiked its trendsetting rate a quarter of a percentage point as it tried to get ahead of the country’s hot economy. The increase brought the rate to 4.75 per cent – its highest level since 2001.

In 2023, Quebec adopted a new law that expanded access to medical aid in dying and allows early requests for the procedure. The law permits people with a serious and incurable diseases such as Alzheimer's, to apply for a doctor-assisted death before their condition deteriorates and prevents them from consenting to one.

-----

The Canadian Press