Today in History for Feb. 16:
In 1838, an act of the British Parliament suspended the constitution in Lower Canada.
In 1872, the first session of the British Columbia legislature opened.
In 1878, the silver dollar became legal currency in the U.S.
In 1881, the Canadian Pacific Railway was incorporated.
In 1896, the first comic-strip cartoon appeared. "The Yellow Kid" was created for the New York World newspaper by Richard Outcault.
In 1923, the burial chamber of King Tutankhamen's recently unearthed tomb was unsealed in Egypt by English archaeologist Howard Carter.
In 1933, the Canadian government refused to allow liquor to be exported to prohibition countries.
In 1937, nylon was patented by a du Pont research team headed by Dr. Wallace Carothers.
In 1944, Major Charles Hoey of Duncan, B.C., won the Victoria Cross while serving with the British Army in Burma during the Second World War. Hoey was fatally wounded while capturing a Japanese position.
In 1949, the House of Commons passed the Newfoundland Union Act by a vote of 140-47. Newfoundland officially joined Canada on March 31, 1949.
In 1959, Fidel Castro became premier of Cuba following the overthrow of Fulgencio Batista.
In 1970, Toronto police recovered the Grey Cup from a downtown hotel locker room after an anonymous tip. The CFL championship trophy had been stolen two months earlier from the Ottawa Rough Riders' trophy room.
In 1971, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau mouthed an expression in the Commons he later described as "fuddle-duddle."
In 1973, an anti-hijacking agreement signed by Canada and Cuba required the countries to prosecute hijackers or return them to the country where the hijacking occurred.
In 1982, more than 7,000 nurses went on strike in Alberta.
In 1984, Quebec speedskater Gaetan Boucher completed the greatest individual Canadian showing in an Olympic Games. Boucher added the 1,500-metre gold medal in Sarajevo to his gold in the 1,000-metre and his bronze in the 500. Boucher also won the silver in the 1,000 at the 1980 Games in Lake Placid, N.Y.
In 1987, John Demjanjuk went on trial in Jerusalem, accused of being Ivan the Terrible, a guard at the Treblinka concentration camp. He was convicted, but the verdict was overturned by the Israeli Supreme Court. (U.S. immigration officials later ordered his deportation to Germany to face similar charges. In May 2011, he was again convicted and sentenced to five years in prison, but was released pending appeal. He died on March 17, 2012.)
In 1987, Mark David Chapman, in an interview with "People" magazine, said he might have tried to kill Paul McCartney, Ronald Reagan, Elizabeth Taylor or Johnny Carson. But Chapman said he chose to shoot John Lennon in December 1980 because he was easier to get at.
In 1998, a China Airlines Airbus A300-600R, trying to land in fog near Taipei, Taiwan, crashed, killing all 196 people on board.
In 1999, Kurds stormed diplomatic missions in Canada and across Europe after Abdullah Ocalan, the Kurdish fugitive rebel chief, was taken to Turkey for trial on terrorism charges. Ocalan was later convicted.
In 2005, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman announced the cancellation of the 2004-2005 hockey season on the 154th day of a lockout. It was the first time a major sports league had lost an entire season and playoffs to labour trouble. The dispute lasted 310 days but ended in July 2005 when a new six-year collective bargaining agreement was ratified. The agreement allowed the NHL to hold a regular 2005-06 season.
In 2005, the Kyoto global warming treaty came into force, seven years after it was negotiated, imposing limits on emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases that are blamed for rising world temperatures, melting glaciers and rising oceans.
In 2010, Maelle Ricker of Whistler, B.C., cruised to Olympic gold in the women's snowboard cross at the Vancouver Games, becoming the first Canadian woman to win a gold medal on home soil.
In 2011, Watson, IBM's supercomputer, defeated "Jeopardy's" all-time greatest champions Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter in a two-match contest that aired over three consecutive days. Watson accumulated $77,147 overall, while Jennings notched $24,000 and Rutter $21,600.
In 2012, Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was given a mandatory life sentence for trying to blow up a packed jetliner with a bomb sewn into his underwear on Christmas Day 2009. He had pleaded guilty to all charges in October.
In 2016, McGill University astrophysicist Victoria Kaspi received the Gerhard Herzberg Canada Gold Medal for Science and Engineering, becoming the first woman to receive the award in its 25-year history.
In 2018, 36-year-old Roger Federer added another highlight to his age-defying career resurgence, returning to the top of the world rankings for the first time in more than five years and becoming the oldest player - male or female - to reach the top spot.
In 2018, a federal indictment brought by U.S. special counsel Robert Mueller accused 13 Russians of an elaborate plot to disrupt the 2016 presidential election, charging them with running a huge but hidden social media trolling campaign aimed in part at helping Republican Donald Trump defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton. It also marks the first criminal charges against Russians believed to have secretly worked to influence the outcome.
In 2020, Tony Fernandez, former shortstop for the Toronto Blue Jays, died at 57. Fernandez, a five-time all-star and winner of the 1993 World Series, battled kidney problems for several years.
In 2020, New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs announced his government's decision to back down on a plan for overnight closures at six community hospital emergency rooms. The announcement followed deputy premier Robert Gauvin's decision to quit in protest and sit as an independent.
In 2020, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau cancelled his trip to Barbados to deal with rail disruptions caused by protests against a multi-billion dollar pipeline project that crosses First Nations territory in northern B.C.
In 2021, Prince Philip was admitted to a London hospital. Buckingham Palace said the Queen's 99-year-old husband was admitted to King Edward VII Hospital as a precautionary measure because he wasn't feeling well.
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The Canadian Press
