Today in History for Feb. 14:
In AD 270 (traditional), Valentine, a priest in Rome during the reign of Claudius II, was beheaded. A reason for his later relationship to the romantic holiday: Claudius, seeking to more easily recruit troops, nixed family ties by forbidding marriage. Valentine ignored the order and performed secret marriages -- an act that led to his arrest and execution.
In 1349, about 2,000 Jews were burned at the stake in Strasbourg, France.
In 1477, Margery Brews sent a letter to John Paston in Norfolk, England, addressed "To my right welbelovyd Voluntyne," thought to be the world's first Valentine.
In 1663, Canada became a royal province of France.
In 1779, British explorer Capt. James Cook, apparently embroiled in an argument over a stolen boat, was clubbed and stabbed to death by Hawaiian natives who had appeared to trust him. Cook was 50.
In 1803, twins Eli and John Phipps were born in Virginia and lived for more than 108 years. The odds against both twins living that long are more than 700 million to one.
In 1835, Joseph Smith chose the 12 apostles of the Mormon Church.
In 1836, more than 1,600 people were killed by a disastrous fire at a theatre in Canton, China.
In 1876, inventors Alexander Graham Bell and Elisha Gray applied separately for American patents related to the telephone. The U.S. Supreme Court eventually ruled that Bell -- who moved to Canada from his native Scotland -- was the rightful inventor.
In 1879, physicist Eli Burton was born in Toronto. Educated at the University of Toronto and Cambridge, Burton returned to U-of-T as head of the physics department in 1932. His most notable achievement was building the first electron microscope in North America with Cecil Hall, James Hillier and A.F. Prebus in the late 1930s. He died July 6, 1948.
In 1879, "La Marseillaise" became the national anthem of France.
In 1890, fire caused $500,000 damage at the University of Toronto.
In 1894, Benjamin Kubelsky, who achieved fame as comedian Jack Benny, was born in Waukegan, Ill. He died in 1974.
In 1915, the 1st Canadian Division commanded by General Alderson landed in France to fight the First World War.
In 1918, a fire at Grey Nuns Orphanage in Montreal took the lives of 64 children.
In 1918, the first "Tarzan of the Apes" movies was released.
In 1920, the League of Women Voters was founded in Chicago; its first president was Maud Wood Park.
In 1920, the University of Montreal was incorporated.
In 1927, Conn Smythe took over the Toronto St. Patricks team of the NHL and renamed them the Maple Leafs.
In 1929, the St. Valentine's Day Massacre took place in a Chicago garage as seven rivals of Al Capone's gang were gunned down.
In 1939, the German battleship "Bismarck" was launched. During the Battle of the Denmark Strait in May 1941, the "Bismarck" sunk "HMS Hood," the flagship of the British navy, inspiring Prime Minister Winston Churchill to issue an order to "Sink the Bismarck." That happened a few days later.
In 1949, Chaim Weizmann was elected the first president of Israel.
In 1951, Sugar Ray Robinson won the world middleweight title by scoring a technical knockout in the 13th round over Jake LaMotta in Chicago.
In 1956, a 148-day strike at General Motors Canada was settled.
In 1958, Iraq and Jordan proclaimed their union under the name of the Arab Federation in response to the merger between Egypt and Syria two weeks earlier. The federation lapsed after July 14th, when a military coup occurred in Iraq and declared the country a republic. Syria broke away from the Egyptian-Syrian union, the United Arab Republic, in September 1961.
In 1973, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau agreed to establish a federal committee to negotiate Yukon Indian land claims.
In 1974, Buffalo Sabres defenceman Tim Horton died in a single-vehicle highway accident in St. Catharines, Ont. Horton was returning home from a game in Toronto. The future Hockey Hall-of-Famer was 44.
In 1978, Dutch marines rescued 70 hostages from South Moluccan gunmen in a government building in Assen, The Netherlands. The terrorists demanded independence for their South Pacific homeland.
In 1980, CBS announced that Dan Rather would succeed Walter Cronkite as anchorman and managing editor on "The CBS Evening News" the following year. Rather retired as anchor after 24 years on March 9, 2005.
In 1984, Canadian Gaetan Boucher won the Olympic gold medal in the 1,000-metre speed-skating event in Sarajevo.
In 1984, six-year-old Stormie Jones became the world's first heart-liver transplant recipient at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh. She lived until November 1990.
In 1986, Wayne Gretzky had seven assists as the Edmonton Oilers posted an 8-2 victory over the Quebec Nordiques.
In 1989, Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini called on Muslims to kill author Salman Rushdie and the publishers of his book, "The Satanic Verses." Muslims considered passages of the novel blasphemous. Several Islamic countries banned the book and several people were killed in riots in Pakistan and India. The British-born author went into hiding for almost 10 years until the religious decree, called a fatwa, was rescinded.
In 1990, an Indian Airlines Airbus 320 crashed as it was about to land at Bangalore in southern India, killing 93 of 146 people on board.
In 1992, the fifth and final cross-Canada constitutional forum ended in Vancouver with a fragile consensus that Quebec should have special powers to protect the province as distinct. But delegates reached no clear agreement on what kind of powers Quebec should have.
In 1995, an agreement giving more power to Aboriginal Peoples in the Yukon went into effect, on the 22nd anniversary of the day Indian elder Elijah Smith presented then-prime minister Pierre Trudeau with a document outlining their claim. Final terms were reached in 1993. The agreement gave 14 First Nations title to more than 17,000 square kilometres of land plus almost $80 million in compensation payments. It also entrenched native rights to harvest wildlife and guaranteed their representation on boards deciding land and water use, fish and wildlife management, and renewable resources.
In 1996, "Mr. Dressup," CBC-TV's children show starring Ernie Coombs, taped its last episode after 29 years. Coombs made the name Mr. Dressup instantly recognizable to a generation of Canadian children. The show received several awards, including a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Children's Broadcast Institute in 1989.
In 1997, Abitibi-Price Inc. and Stone Consolidated Corp., agreed to a $4.1-billion merger, creating the world's largest player in newsprint and paper products.
In 2002, Catriona Le May Doan became the first Canadian to win a repeat gold medal in any individual Olympic event. The Saskatoon speedskater won the women's 500 metres in Salt Lake City. Her triumph came four years to the day after she captured the same event at the 1998 Winter Games in Nagano, Japan.
In 2003, the first cloned mammal, Dolly the sheep, died in Scotland. Scientists decided to end Dolly's life at age six -- about half the life expectancy of her breed -- because she was suffering from premature aging and had a progressive lung disease.
In 2005, a gas explosion killed at least 203 workers in a coal mine in China's northeastern province of Liaoning.
In 2007, DaimlerChrysler said that its Chrysler division would cut 13,000 jobs, or 16 per cent of its workforce, including 2,000 positions in Canada.
In 2010, Alexandre Bilodeau of Rosemere, Que., won the gold medal in the men's moguls at the Vancouver Olympics, Canada's first-ever first-place finish on home soil.
In 2012, a fire at an overcrowded prison in Comayagua, Honduras, killed 361 inmates, many of them trapped in their cells.
In 2013, Oscar Pistorius, who in 2012 became the first double-amputee track athlete to compete in the Olympics, was charged with the murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. (In 2014, he was acquitted of first-degree murder but found guilty of the lesser charge of manslaughter and sentenced to five years in prison. After serving only one year, he was released from prison and placed under house arrest. In 2015, an appeals court overturned the lower court decision and convicted him of murder. He was sentenced to six years in prison, but the State appealed the sentence. In November 2017, the South African Supreme Court of Appeal more than doubled it to 13 years and five months.)
In 2013, American Airlines and US Airways agreed to merge in an US$11 billion deal that would create the world's biggest airline. It was approved in December and the combined carrier is named American Airlines Group Inc.
In 2015, a Calgary jury found Gary Sorenson, 71, and Milowe Brost, 61, guilty of fraud and theft for one of the largest Ponzi schemes in Canadian history. They bilked between $100 million and $400 million from more than 2,400 investors from around the world. They were later both sentenced to 12 years in prison.
In 2017, an Ontario Superior Court judge ruled Canada failed to take reasonable steps to prevent thousands of on-reserve children who were placed with non-native families from losing their indigenous heritage during the '60s Scoop. The ruling in the long-running and bitterly fought class-action lawsuit paved the way for a settlement with the federal government, announced on Oct. 6, for $750 million in compensation.
In 2018, a former student opened fire at a Parkland, Fla. high school, killing 17 people and wounding 14 others. The 19-year-old suspect, who was expelled in 2017 for disciplinary reasons, was taken into custody without a fight about an hour after he left the scene.
In 2020, ten women filed a class-action lawsuit against Canadian clothing mogul Peter Nygard, alleging he lured young women under false pretences of modeling opportunities to his mansion in the Bahamas, then drugged them and sexually assaulted them. A lawyer representing Nygard said the lawsuit contains nothing but false allegations.
In 2020, following consultations with Inuit leaders and people in the Northwest Territories, the CFL's Edmonton Eskimos made the decision to keep their team name. They later changed their minds, announcing on July 21st 2020 that the name would be discontinued, saying that views regarding the team name are "shifting." The names "Edmonton Football Team" and "EE Football Team" were adopted while the organization began the process of establishing a new name. (The team eventually settled on "Edmonton Elks".)
In 2020, Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer said anti-pipeline protesters blockading vital rail lines need should "check their privilege" and let people do their jobs. Scheer called protests illegal and referred to activists who "have the luxury of spending days at a time at a blockade." Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said disruptions must be resolved through dialogue, not by ordering in the police.
In 2021, Prince Harry and his wife Meghan announced they were expecting their second child. A spokesperson for the couple said in a statement that their eldest son Archie is going to be a big brother, and the couple are overjoyed.
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The Canadian Press
