Today in History for Feb. 4:
On this date:
In 1783, Britain declared a formal cessation of hostilities with its former colony, the United States.
In 1789, George Washington was elected the first president of the United States.
In 1846, Mormon settlers left Nauvoo, Mo., to begin the settlement of the American West.
In 1858, gold was discovered along British Columbia's Fraser River, attracting thousands to Canada's West Coast. Hundreds of ships, jammed with gold-seekers, worked their way across the Strait of Georgia to the Fraser, then made the dangerous trip up the swift-running river.
In 1866, Mary Baker Eddy, founder of Christian Science, is alleged to have cured her injuries by opening a Bible.
In 1873, Winnipeg was incorporated as a city.
In 1876, Manitoba abolished its legislative council.
In 1880, a party of armed men brutally murdered James Donnelly, his wife Johannah, his sons Thomas and John, and his niece Bridget Donnelly in their farmhouse near the southwestern Ontario village of Lucan. Two eyewitnesses, one of them another Donnelly son, claimed to have identified six of the murderers, who were subsequently brought to trial and found not guilty. The case aroused international interest and controversy. Various factual and fictional accounts of the cause of the massacre have been published, with the most credible being the theory that the killings were the result of a factional feud originating in County Tipperary, Ireland.
In 1905, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German theologian and Lutheran pastor who joined a plot to kill Adolf Hitler and was later arrested and hanged by the Nazis, was born in the former German city of Breslau, now Wroclaw, Poland.
In 1915, the first Canadian contingent landed in Europe during the First World War and proceeded to the Flanders region of Belgium.
In 1938, German dictator Adolf Hitler assumed personal command of his country's army.
In 1945, the Allied leaders met at Yalta, in the Crimea, to plan the final defeat of Nazi Germany. The conference included Britain's Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt of the U.S. and the Soviet Union's Josef Stalin. Their plan called for Allied occupation of Germany, the collection of war reparations and the founding of the United Nations.
In 1947, the lowest recorded temperature in Canadian history occurred at Snag, Yukon -- -62.8 C.
In 1948, the island nation of Ceylon, now Sri Lanka, became an independent dominion within the British Commonwealth.
In 1970, a Liberian-registered oil tanker ran aground and split in two in Chedabucto Bay, N.S., spilling more than 15,000 tonnes of bunker oil. An inquiry blamed improper navigation by the "Arrow."
In 1974, newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst was kidnapped in Berkeley, Calif., by the Symbionese Liberation Army.
In 1975, the federal, Ontario and Alberta governments announced they were putting $600 million into the Syncrude oil-sands project in northeastern Alberta. Ottawa took a 15 per cent interest in return for its $300 million investment, while Alberta took 10 per cent with $200 million and Ontario five per cent with $100 million. A consortium of oil companies led by Imperial Oil held the rest of the shares.
In 1976, an earthquake struck Guatemala and Honduras, killing more than 22,000 people.
In 1977, Keith Spicer, official languages commissioner, recommended the use of French as the language of work for employees of Air Canada and Canadian National Railways in Quebec.
In 1985, UN members signed a declaration against "torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment." Torture Abolition Day is marked on Feb. 4.
In 1992, Gulf Canada announced it was pulling out of the Hibernia oil project off Newfoundland. Almost one year later, the 25 per cent stake was purchased by the federal government, the remaining Hibernia partners and Murphy Oil.
In 1997, a Los Angeles-area civil jury found O.J. Simpson criminally responsible for the 1994 murders of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman. The jury later ordered the former football star to pay the victims' families US$32.5 million in compensatory and punitive damages.
In 1998, British Columbia became the first jurisdiction in North America to give gay and lesbian couples the same privileges as heterosexuals for child support, custody and access.
In 1999, Prime Minister Jean Chretien and nine premiers agreed on a social union deal that promised more than $5 billion more to provinces in federal health-care funds.
In 2000, the Toronto Stock Exchange's 300 composite index topped 9,000 for the first time.
In 2005, Atlanta Thrashers star Dany Heatley was sentenced to three years probation and ordered to give 150 speeches about the dangers of speeding after pleading guilty in the death of teammate Dan Snyder in a car accident. Heatley pleaded guilty to four of the six charges he faced. In exchange for the plea, the only felony charge -- first-degree vehicular homicide -- was dropped, along with a charge of reckless driving.
In 2011, the Roman Catholic Diocese of London, Ont., reached settlements with 10 more sexual abuse victims in southwestern Ontario. The settlement involved two disgraced priests and totalled more than $1.5 million.
In 2012, Florence Green, last known surviving veteran of the First World War, died at age 110. She served with the Women's Royal Air Force as a waitress at an air base in eastern England.
In 2013, the Royal Canadian Mint officially ceased distribution of the penny to Canada's financial institutions.
In 2013, using DNA from a direct descendent of his eldest sister, scientists confirmed that remains unearthed under a parking lot in the city of Leicester in 2012 were those of England's King Richard III, who was killed in 1485 at the Battle of Bosworth Field. The DNA came from Canadian Michael Ibsen.
In 2014, RCMP charged former senator Mac Harb and suspended senator Patrick Brazeau with fraud and breach of trust in relation to their travel and living expense claims, the first criminal charges to emanate from the year-long Senate expense scandal. (In 2016, the Crown withdrew the charges against both and Brazeau was able to return to the Senate.)
In 2017, at 32 years, 36 days old, Cleveland Cavaliers star LeBron James surpassed Kobe Bryant as the youngest player in NBA history to score 28,000 career points.
In 2018, the Philadelphia Eagles captured their first Super Bowl title in a thrilling 41-33 victory over the New England Patriots in Minneapolis where both offences combined for a post-season record 1,151 yards. Patriots quarterback Tom Brady threw for a post-season record 505 yards but was outdueled by Eagles backup quarterback and game MVP Nick Foles who threw for 373 yards and three TDs and even caught a TD pass.
In 2018, actor John Mahoney, who as the cranky, blue-collar dad in "Frasier" played counterpoint to pompous sons Frasier and Niles, died after a brief hospitalization. He was 77.
In 2019, three crew members of a Canadian Pacific freight train were killed in a derailment near Field, B.C., just west of the Alberta boundary. Investigators said the train began to move on its own before the crew was ready and it gained speed well in excess of the 32 km/h maximum for the tight turns in the mountain pass.
In 2020, the European Union rejected U.S. President Donald Trump's Middle East peace proposal, stating it breaks with internationally agreed parameters. The Palestinians and Arab Gulf states also rejected Trump's plan.
In 2020, four B.C. First Nations lost their court challenge of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion. The Federal Court of Appeal dismissed their challenge of the federal government's second approval of the project.
In 2020, Dr. Francis Plummer, the former scientific director of Canada's National Microbiology Laboratory, died after a battle with alcoholism. Plummer, 67, was cited in particular for his research into HIV.
In 2020, in his third State of the Union address, U.S. President Donald Trump took credit for the new United States-Mexico-Canada trade agreement, insisting his use of tariffs against trade partners had worked. But the president of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce said the negotiations saw the U.S. treat partners as enemies, resulting in Canada — and other countries — focusing on diversifying away from the U.S.
In 2021, Canada reached a benchmark in its mass vaccination campaign against COVID-19, surpassing one million doses given.
In 2021, the federal government extended a ban on sea voyages in Canadian waters for one more year to help control COVID-19. The ban until Feb. 28, 2022, applies to cruise ships carrying more than 100 people as well as pleasure crafts operating in the Arctic, except for those used by residents.
In 2021, Johnson & Johnson asked U.S. regulators to clear the world's first single-dose COVID-19 vaccine, an easier-to-use option that could boost scarce supplies. Preliminary results from a massive study showed the J&J vaccine was safe and offered strong protection against moderate to severe COVID-19.
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(The Canadian Press)
The Canadian Press
