Today in History for Feb. 8:
In 1587, Mary, Queen of Scots, was beheaded. After attempting to restore Catholicism to Scotland and two disastrous marriages, she was forced to abdicate and fled to England in 1567. She was immediately arrested and held in custody until she was condemned for plotting against Queen Elizabeth I.
In 1690, Mohawk natives and French troops attacked Schenectady, N.Y., killing 60 people and capturing 30.
In 1725, Catherine I became Empress of Russia.
In 1828, French writer Jules Verne was born. The author of "From the Earth to the Moon" and "Around the World in 80 Days" died on March 24, 1905.
In 1879, Canadian engineer Sandford Fleming advocated adoption of Universal Standard Time during a Toronto speech. Standard Time, which divides the world into 24 equal time zones, took effect Jan. 1, 1885.
In 1894, Canadian fighter pilot Billy Bishop was born in Owen Sound, Ont. He was the top scoring Canadian and Imperial ace of the First World War, being credited with 72 victories. He was also the first Canadian airman to win a Victoria Cross, for a 1917 solo attack on a German airfield. Bishop died in Florida in 1956.
In 1910, the Boy Scouts of America was incorporated.
In 1915, the epic silent movie "Birth of a Nation," directed by D.W. Griffith, had its premiere in Los Angeles.
In 1924, the first execution by gas in the United States took place at the Nevada State Prison in Carson City as Gee Jon, a Chinese immigrant convicted of murder, was put to death.
In 1945, the First Canadian Army attacked German positions in the Reichswald during the general Allied offensive into Germany during the Second World War.
In 1952, Queen Elizabeth II took the oath of accession to the throne, following the death two days earlier of her father, King George VI. She was crowned in a public ceremony in June 1953.
In 1960, the U.S. Congress opened hearings on payola, whereby a radio station or its employees, usually a disc jockey, accept payment for broadcasting records.
In 1960, a federal-provincial conference on Centennial celebrations agreed to support Montreal's bid for a World's Fair in 1967.
In 1980, former NHL president Clarence Campbell and businessman Gordon Brown were convicted of conspiring to give Sen. Louis Giguere a benefit in connection with a contract for airport duty-free shops. Campbell was sentenced to one day in prison and fined $25,000.
In 1986, 23 people died when a nine-car Via passenger train and a CN freight train collided head on near Hinton, Alta. The 118-car freight train went through a closed switch. The crews in both trains died in the collision.
In 1989, 144 people were killed when an Independent Air Boeing 707 filled with Italian tourists slammed into a fog-covered mountain in the Azores.
In 1994, the federal government slashed tobacco taxes in an effort to reduce rampant cigarette smuggling. Five provinces -- Quebec, Ontario, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and P.E.I. -- quickly followed suit. The taxes were gradually increased in future years.
In 1995, Romeo LeBlanc was sworn in as Canada's 25th governor general, the first Acadian to hold the post.
In 1997, Cornelius Van Ewyk of Cavendish, P.E.I. became the first person fined for walking across Confederation Bridge. He was fined $110. The bridge, which links New Brunswick and P.E.I., did not open officially until later that year.
In 1998, at the Nagano Olympics, Ross Rebagliati of Whistler, B.C., won the first Olympic men's snowboarding gold medal.
In 2005, former Liberal prime minister Jean Chretien testified at the Gomery Inquiry and said the sponsorship program was needed to stave off Quebec separation.
In 2009, entire towns were destroyed and more than 200 people were killed in southern Victoria state in the deadliest bushfire disaster in Australia's history.
In 2010, Col. Russell Williams, 46, the top commander at CFB Trenton, Ont., was arrested and charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of two eastern Ontario women and sexual assaults on two others. (Williams pleaded guilty and was formally sentenced on Oct. 21 to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years. The next day, he was stripped of his rank and thrown out of the military).
In 2010, Dr. Conrad Murray, personal physician to Michael Jackson, was charged with involuntary manslaughter in connection with the pop star's death in June 2009. He was found guilty in November 2011 and sentenced to the maximum term of four years behind bars.
In 2012, according to a census release, 33,476,688 people were enumerated in Canada as of May 2011, nearly twice as many as in 1961, and that for the first time ever, more of them were living west of Ontario.
In 2013, Canadian naval intelligence officer Sub.-Lt. Jeffrey Paul Delisle was sentenced to 20 years in prison, minus time already served, after pleading guilty in 2012 to breach of trust for selling secrets to Russia. He was later stripped of his commission, his service decorations and kicked out of the military.
In 2017, Canada's latest census numbers showed the country's population reached 35,151,728 in 2016, an increase of 1.7 million over 2011 - the strongest growth of all the G7 countries.
In 2019, British actor Albert Finney, the Academy Award-nominated star of films from "Tom Jones" to "Skyfall," died at the age of 82. "Tom Jones" gained Finney the first of five Oscar nominations, which also included "Murder on the Orient Express," ''The Dresser," ''Under the Volcano" and "Erin Brockovich." In later years he brought authority to action movies, including the James Bond thriller "Skyfall" and two of the Bourne films.
In 2019, Bruce McArthur was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years. The 67-year-old serial killer had pleaded guilty to the murders of eight men from Toronto's gay village between 2010 and 2017. The Crown had asked for a sentence of life with no chance of parole for 50 years but the trial judge cited McArthur's age and the fact that he spared family and friends of the victims a lengthy trial by pleading guilty in handing down his sentence.
In 2019, a judge said Alexandre Bissonnette was driven by "racism and hatred" when he stormed into a Quebec City mosque and gunned down six worshippers in 2017 as he sentenced him to life in prison with no chance of parole for 40 years. Quebec Superior Court Justice Francois Huot rejected the Crown's request for six consecutive sentences for first-degree murder, which would have prevented Bissonnette from seeking parole for 150 years and guaranteed that he would die behind bars. Huot concluded a sentence of 50 years or more would constitute cruel and unusual punishment for the 29-year-old killer.
In 2020, mainland China said the death toll associated with the novel coronavirus surpassed SARS fatalities in the 2002-2003 outbreak. China reported the death toll rose to 811. The outbreak of SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, killed 774 people — including 44 in Canada.
In 2020, efforts by hereditary chiefs of the Wet'suwet'en Nation to halt the Coastal GasLink LNG Canada pipeline prompted a national protest movement. The massive 670-kilometre project ran from Dawson Creek to Kitimat on B.C.'s northwest coast. Protesters in Ontario stopped railway traffic east of Toronto.
In 2021, Alberta reinstated a policy that kept open-pit coal mines out of the Rocky Mountains for almost 45 years. Energy Minister Sonya Savage said Albertans had spoken loud and clear on the issue. In May of 2020, the United Conservative government suddenly and unilaterally revoked the 1976 policy on coal mining, prompting a massive backlash. Petitions against the mines quickly grew to more than 100-thousand signatures.
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The Canadian Press
