Today in History for March 5:
On this date:
In 1496, King Henry VII of England granted a charter to John Cabot and his three sons, permitting them to claim any and all lands they might discover.
In 1755, Anthony Henday, an employee of the Hudson's Bay Co., camped about 32 kilometres downstream of present-day Edmonton where the Sturgeon River empties into the North Saskatchewan River. He paddled down the North Saskatchewan at the end of April to Fort Saint-Louis, 16 kilometres below the forks of the Saskatchewan. After trading there with the French, he returned to York Fort, on Hudson Bay, on June 23. Henday had explored farther west into the interior than any European to date, and his account of the Blackfoot Indians was the first by any European.
In 1770, the Boston Massacre took place when British soldiers fired on a mob who had been harassing a sentry. Five men were killed and historians credit the event as one of the incidents that hastened the American Revolution.
In 1827, Count Alessandro Guiseppe Volta, the Italian inventor of the electric battery, died.
In 1844, the seat of government for the united Upper and Lower Canada was moved from Kingston, Ont., to Montreal.
In 1844, the first issue of the "Globe," edited and published by George Brown, appeared in Toronto.
In 1874, the Prince Edward Island legislature opened its first session.
In 1910, an avalanche at Rogers Pass, B.C., killed 62 railway workers.
In 1933, Adolf Hitler and his Nazi party were voted into power in a German election.
In 1942, a U.S.-Canada defence board approved the construction of the Alaska Highway.
In 1946, Winston Churchill gave his Iron Curtain speech at Westminster College in Fulton, Mo. Said Churchill, "From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the continent."
In 1953, Josef Stalin died after ruling the Soviet Union for almost 30 years. He was 73. After his death, first secretary Nikita Khrushchev charged the dictator with the murder of thousands during purge trials and farm collectivization in the 1930s. In 1961, the 22nd party congress ordered his body removed from the Lenin Mausoleum in Moscow.
In 1966, a BOAC (now British Airways) Boeing 707 crashed in the side of Mount Fuji in Japan, killing all 124 people on board, including one Canadian.
In 1967, Gov. Gen. Georges Vanier died in Ottawa at age 78. Born in Montreal in 1888, Vanier studied law at Laval University before distinguishing himself in the public service and diplomatic corps. He was appointed governor general of Canada in 1959, the first French-Canadian and the first Roman Catholic to hold the post. His years in office were turbulent because of a troubled economic situation, a succession of minority governments, and the rise of violence and separatist sentiment in Quebec. The former general and diplomat won the affection and admiration of Canadians through his concern for the poor and the family. A deeply religious man, Vanier brought a spiritual and moral dimension to his office.
In 1969, Rejane Laberge-Colas became the first female judge of the Quebec Superior Court.
In 1970, the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty went into effect after 43 countries ratified it.
In 1976, the British pound, once the pillar of the world's economy, fell below US$2 for the first time.
In 1979, NASA's "Voyager 1" space probe flew past Jupiter, sending back photographs of the planet and its moons.
In 1980, Canadian-born actor Jay Silverheels, who played the part of the Lone Ranger's sidekick "Tonto," died at age 61.
In 1982, comic actor John Belushi was found dead of a drug overdose in Hollywood. He was 33.
In 1982, Steve Podborski of Toronto became the first North American to win the World Cup men's downhill skiing championship. He achieved the title with three wins and two seconds in the 10-race event. Later that year, he was made an officer of the Order of Canada.
In 1983, the Labor party, headed by Robert Hawke, who had been party leader for only one month, won the Australian general election, defeating the incumbent Liberal party.
In 1983, at Mount Tremblant, Que., Laurie Graham of Inglewood, Ont., won the first World Cup women's downhill skiing championship ever held in Canada.
In 1990, to the cheers of hundreds of onlookers, workers in Bucharest, Romania, succeeded in removing a seven-metre, six-tonne bronze statue of Vladimir Lenin from its foundation.
In 1992, the trial of four Los Angeles police officers charged with beating motorist Rodney King opened in Simi Valley, Calif. Their acquittal sparked riots in the Los Angeles area. Two officers were later re-tried and convicted on federal charges.
In 1993, Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson was banned for life by the I.A.A.F. for failing a second drug test, five years after he lost his 1988 Olympic 100-metre gold medal.
In 1995, the disgraced Canadian Airborne Regiment was officially disbanded during ceremonies at CFB Petawawa in eastern Ontario. About 2,000 people attended a solemn church service. It was followed by the laying-up of the colours, where two regimental flags were placed in the base museum, and a final dismissal for the unit's 660 paratroopers.
In 1997, the Swiss government unveiled plans for a US$6.3 billion fund to aid victims of the Holocaust and other humanitarian injustices.
In 1998, new DNA tests cleared the late Dr. Sam Sheppard in the 1954 murder of his wife, a case that inspired the television series and movie "The Fugitive."
In 1998, Eileen Collins, a U.S. Air Force lieutenant-colonel and veteran of two shuttle flights, was named the first woman to command a space shuttle mission.
In 1999, Paul Okalik was elected by his fellow MLAs as the first premier of Nunavut.
In 2003, hundreds of thousands of students across Canada and worldwide protested against the war in Iraq.
In 2004, Marc LeFrancois was fired as president of Via Rail in the wake of the sponsorship scandal.
In 2004, lifestyles guru Martha Stewart was convicted on all four counts of making false statements, obstruction and conspiracy in a stock-trading trial. She later received a five-month prison sentence.
In 2006, at the 78th Academy Awards, "Crash" won three awards, including Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay for Canadian director-writer Paul Haggis and Bobby Moresco.
In 2009, Ontario PC Leader John Tory failed in his bid to regain a seat in the legislature, losing a byelection in the riding of Haliburton-Kawartha Lakes-Brock to Liberal Rick Johnson. Tory announced the next day he would step down as party head once an interim leader was selected.
In 2009, a new trial was ordered for Romeo Phillion as the Ontario Court of Appeal struck down his murder conviction for the 1967 stabbing of Ottawa firefighter Leopold Roy. Phillion spent 31 years in prison for the murder he confessed to, but then recanted. The Court, in ordering the trial, said it could not grant the acquittal Phillion was seeking. (In 2010, the Crown officially withdrew the charges. In 2012, he sued for $14 million but the lawsuit was dismissed by the Ontario Superior Court of Justice. An appeal court then ruled Phillion should at least have a chance to put his case to a jury. In 2015, the Supreme Court of Canada cleared the way for him to sue police when it refused to hear the appeal to block the lawsuit. Phillion died Nov. 2, 2015.)
In 2009, Vincent Li (now known as Will Baker), a man who believed he was following God's orders when he stabbed and beheaded fellow passenger Timothy McLean on a Greyhound bus in 2008, was found not criminally responsible due to schizophrenia. He was placed in a psychiatric hospital but was given more freedom every year. In 2017, he was granted an an absolute discharge.
In 2013, President Hugo Chavez, the fiery populist who declared a socialist revolution in oil-rich Venezuela, crusaded against U.S. influence and championed a leftist revival across Latin America, died at age 58 after a nearly two-year bout with cancer.
In 2013, U.S. discount giant Target opened its doors to customers in Canada for the first time. Its first stores were in three communities west of Toronto - Guelph, Fergus and Milton. (In January 2015, the retailer announced it would close all 133 Canadian stores after underwhelming sales showed it wouldn't turn a profit for several years.)
In 2020, Canada reported its first case of human-to-human COVID-19 transmission in B.C.
In 2020, Starbucks announced it would temporarily suspend the use of reusable cups customers bring into its stores to help prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus. But the company said it will still honour the 10-cent discount for customers who have a travel mug.
In 2020, Alberta reported its first presumptive case of the novel coronavirus.
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The Canadian Press
