Today in History for Feb. 9:
In 249, legends say the woman who later became St. Appolonia, the patron saint of dentistry, was tortured and killed for being a Christian. Her tormentors broke her teeth with iron points and extracted the roots with tongs.
In 1404, Constantine Palaeologus, the last emperor of the Byzantine Empire, was born. He died defending Constantinople against the armies of the Muslim Ottoman Turks in 1453.
In 1855, people in snow-covered Cornwall, England, discovered a strange trail of single-track cloven hooves that ran for 160 kilometres over roofs, through walls and under bushes.
In 1870, Louis Riel established a provisional government at Red River, Man.
In 1879, the North Shore Railway was completed, connecting Montreal and Quebec.
In 1881, novelist Fyodor Dostoyevsky, a devout Russian Orthodox Christian and author of "Crime and Punishment" and "The Brothers Karamazov," died.
In 1883, Ontario's first free public library opened in Guelph.
In 1893, what has been described as the world's first striptease took place at the Moulin Rouge. An artist's model named Mona gradually disrobed as part of an impromptu beauty competition with another woman. Her subsequent arrest and 100-franc fine sparked a riot in the French capital.
In 1909, in Brandenburg, Germany, a military band played "God Save The King" 17 times while waiting for King Edward VII to emerge from a train. The portly King had difficulty fitting into a German field marshal's uniform.
In 1931, the Earl of Bessborough was appointed Governor-General of Canada.
In 1941, British prime minister Winston Churchill appealed for American aid in one of his most dramatic speeches during the Second World War. The speech contained the now-famous phrase, "Give us the tools and we will finish the job." Churchill also promised, "We shall not fail or falter; we shall not weaken or tire . . ."
In 1943, the Second World War battle of Guadalcanal in the southwest Pacific ended with an Allied victory over Japanese forces.
In 1966, the NHL announced it would double to 12 teams for the 1967-68 season. The six new teams were the California Seals, Los Angeles Kings, Minnesota North Stars, Philadelphia Flyers, Pittsburgh Penguins and St. Louis Blues.
In 1970, the first traffic lights in the Northwest Territories were switched on in Yellowknife, replacing four-way stop signs at the city's main intersection.
In 1978, Ottawa declared 11 Soviet officials persona non grata for allegedly trying to infiltrate the RCMP Security Service.
In 1984, Soviet leader Yuri Andropov died at age 69, less than 15 months after he succeeded Leonid Brezhnev.
In 1993, the Dutch parliament voted to allow mercy killing under strict guidelines.
In 1997, "The Simpsons" became the longest-running prime-time animated series, beating the record previously held by "The Flintstones."
In 2002, Princess Margaret, the younger sister of Queen Elizabeth II, died in a London hospital at age 71 after suffering a third stroke.
In 2004, Claude Ryan, a journalist and former Quebec Liberal leader who led the federalist forces that defeated Rene Levesque in the 1980 referendum, died from cancer at age 78.
In 2004, Janusz Zurakowski, test pilot of Canada's first supersonic fighter jet Avro Arrow, died at age 89.
In 2009, Syncrude Canada Ltd. was charged with breaking environmental laws in connection with the deaths of 500 waterfowl at one of its tailing ponds north of Fort McMurray, Alta. The charges were the first of their kind against an oil sands company.
In 2010, Health Canada approved a second vaccine, Cervarix, for immunization against HPV.
In 2010, Toyota announced the recall of 440,000 Prius and other hybrid cars worldwide to fix problems with the brakes, bringing the number of vehicles recalled globally by the Japanese automaker to 8.5 million.
In 2010, "The Jay Leno Show" aired for the final time on NBC after only six months due to poor ratings in the 10 p.m. prime-time slot. (Leno reclaimed his hosting duties on "The Tonight Show" when NBC bought out Conan O'Brien from his contract after he refused to push back the show to midnight to accommodate Leno moving his show to 11:30 p.m.)
In 2011, the Quebec legislature voted unanimously to ban the kirpan from its premises. The vote stemmed from an incident where security guards would not allow Sikhs to carry their ceremonial daggers into the legislature building.
In 2011, TMX Group, which operates the Toronto Stock Exchange, and the London Stock Exchange announced a proposed $3.7 billion merger. (On June 29, the deal was killed because it could not garner enough shareholder support to go ahead.)
In 2011, a Transportation Safety Board report into the deadly Cougar Flight 491 helicopter crash off Newfoundland in 2009 recommended grounding flights over seas that are too rough for a survivable emergency landing and that all Sikorsky S-92 helicopters be able to run dry without lubrication in their main gearboxes for at least 30 minutes. All but one of the 18 people aboard the chopper died when it crashed in bad weather while transporting offshore oil workers.
In 2018, the Winter Olympics officially kicked-off in Pyeongchang, South Korea. (Canada finished third overall with a national record 29 medals (11 gold, 8 silver, 10 bronze), eclipsing its previous high of 26 from the 2010 Vancouver Games.)
In 2018, a jury in Battleford, Sask., found farmer Gerald Stanley not guilty of second-degree murder in the shooting death of Colten Boushie, 22, a member of the Red Pheasant First Nation, who died on Stanley's farm near Biggar in August 2016. The verdict sparked rallies in cities across the country, being seen by many as an example of how the justice system fails Indigenous people. Boushi's relatives met with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his justice and public safety ministers to talk about what they considered a travesty of justice.
In 2020, the South Korean thriller "Parasite'' broke barriers at the Oscars and became the first non-English movie to win Best Picture and Best International Feature film in the Academy's 92-year history. In total, the film won four Oscars, including best director for Bong Joon Ho and best original screenplay. Bong's historic win also highlighted that no women were nominated in the best director category for the 87th time.
In 2020, Thailand's prime minister said 27 people died, including the gunman, in the worst mass shooting in the country's history. Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha said 57 people were wounded in the 16-hour rampage at a busy shopping mall.
In 2021, a World Health Organization team concluded that COVID-19 likely did not leak from the Wuhan Institute of Virology into the surrounding community. The team said it was more likely to have jumped to humans from an animal. Critics said the investigation was flawed and inadequate, calling for further research into the origins of the virus.
In 2021, the Queen's granddaughter, Princess Eugenie, gave birth to a baby boy — the first child for Eugenie and her husband, Jack Brooksbank; the first grandchild for Prince Andrew and Sarah, Duchess of York; and the ninth great-grandchild for the Queen and Prince Philip.
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The Canadian Press
