In 1903, Orville and Wilbur Wright flew their first airplane at Kitty Hawk, N.C. The brothers used their Dayton, Ohio, bicycle shop to construct their early aircraft. The “Wright Flyer,” a biplane with two propellers chain-driven by a gasoline motor, flew 35 metres in 12 seconds — enough to convince the brothers that sustained flights were possible.
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In 1707, English hymn writer Charles Wesley was born. He wrote more than 6,500 hymns, including “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing.”
In 1787, New Jersey became the third state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.
In 1865, the 13th amendment to the U.S. Constitution, abolishing slavery, went into effect.
In 1889, the first CPR telegraph junction with the Atlantic cable was made at Canso, N.S.
In 1890, the first electric underground rail line opened in London.
In 1897, the Geographic Board of Canada was created by an order-in-council.
In 1901, the Territorial Grain Grower’s Association was organized at Indian Head, Sask. It was founded by William Richard Motherwell in a bid to get the farmer’s bumper crop to market. Prairie farmers were in crisis because twice as much wheat had been produced as there had been the previous year. Because the CPR was not prepared to handle the extra load, almost three-quarters of the crop spoiled. The organization later became known as the United Grain Growers. Then, on Nov. 1, 2001, it officially merged with Agricore to become Agricore United, one of Western Canada’s leading farmer-directed agri-businesses.
In 1904, Wilf Carter, the father of country music in Canada, was born in Port Hilford, N.S. His 1932 recording of “My Swiss Moonlight Lullaby” and “The Capture of Albert Johnson” was the first hit by a Canadian country performer. He died at his home in Scottsdale, Arizona, on Dec. 5, 1996.
In 1927, former governor general Romeo LeBlanc was born in Memramcook, N.B. He was the first Acadian to be appointed governor general of Canada and a central figure in the Liberal party for more than two decades. He was also instrumental in establishing Canada’s 200-mile offshore economic zone and helped shape the International Law of the Sea. LeBlanc became a senator in 1984, was appointed Speaker of the Senate in 1993 and became governor general in 1995. He died after a lengthy illness on June 24, 2009.
In 1940, Adolf Hitler signed a secret directive ordering preparations for a Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union during the Second World War. The invasion was launched the following June 22.
In 1950, the Second Battalion, Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry landed in Pusan, South Korea. It was the first Canadian combat unit to reach the peninsula during the Korean War.
In 1956, Japan was admitted to the United Nations.
In 1957, the shipping port Atomic Power Station in Pennsylvania, the first public, full-scale commercial nuclear facility to generate electricity in the United States, went on line. (It was taken out of service in 1982.)
In 1958, the world’s first communications satellite, SCORE (Signal Communication by Orbiting Relay Equipment), nicknamed “Chatterbox,” was launched by the United States aboard an Atlas rocket.
In 1968, British sculptor Henry Moore announced a donation of as many as 600 of his works to the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto. Moore’s work, displayed in its own wing at the gallery, is in wood, stone, and cement and known for its smooth, organic shape. Favourite subjects include mother and child and a reclining figure. He died in 1986.
In 1969, the British Parliament voted for the permanent abolition of the death penalty.
In 1971, more than $1 million was stolen from a Windsor, Ont., branch of the Royal Bank. Six people were arrested several days later.
In 1972, the United States resumed bombing attacks above the 20th parallel of North Vietnam. Hundreds of U.S. planes, including B52 bombers, made some of the heaviest raids of the war against the Hanoi-Haiphong area. The bombardment ended 12 days later.
In 1974, air traffic to and from Montreal was curtailed after 275 maintenance workers at three area airports walked off the job.
In 1979, Pierre Trudeau announced that he was postponing his retirement from politics. Trudeau said he accepted his party’s request to stay on as leader because he felt a duty to the party and to Canada. He went on to lead the Liberals to a majority election victory over Joe Clark’s Progressive Conservatives in February, 1980.
In 1980, Alexei Kosygin, premier of the Soviet Union for 16 years before he resigned on Oct. 23, 1980, died. He was 76.
In 1986, the Supreme Court of Canada upheld Ontario’s restrictions on Sunday shopping.
In 1991, General Motors, the largest U.S. automaker, announced it would close 21 of its 125 North American assembly and parts-making plants and eliminate 70,000 jobs — nearly 18 per cent of its U.S. workforce.
In 1993, Grace Hartman, former national president of CUPE, the first woman to lead a major national union, died at age 75.
In 1997, the Nova Scotia government apologized for the 1992 Westray mine explosion that killed 26 miners.
In 1998, former Nova Scotia premier and federal cabinet minister Gerald Regan was acquitted in Halifax of eight sex-related charges dating back more than two decades.
In 1999, California environmental activist Julia “Butterfly” Hill, who spent two years perched on an ancient redwood to protest logging operations, climbed down after reaching an agreement with the lumber company.
In 2000, Vice-Admiral Harry DeWolf, Canada’s most decorated naval officer who sank or damaged 14 German ships in the English Channel in 1944, died at age 97.
In 2001, the Senate passed the Chretien government’s anti-terrorist legislation, which gave police wide new powers of arrest, detention and surveillance.
In 2002, Ray Hnatyshyn, Canada’s 24th governor-general (1990-1995), and a former PC cabinet minister, died of cancer at the age of 68.
In 2003, cross-country skier Beckie Scott of Vermilion, Alta., was awarded the gold medal for a race at the 2002 Olympic Games after the Russian winner was stripped of the medal for doping infractions.
In 2003, Lee Boyd Malvo was found guilty of murder and terrorism charges in connection with sniper attacks in Washington, D.C. area. (He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.)
In 2007, former Supreme Court of Canada judge Gerald Le Dain, died at age 83.
In 2008, Theoneste Bagosora, a former Rwandan army colonel behind the 1994 slaughter of more than 500,000 people, was convicted of genocide and sentenced to life in prison by the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.
In 2008, W. Mark Felt, the man who revealed himself as “Deep Throat” 30 years after he tipped off reporters to the Watergate scandal that toppled U.S. President Richard Nixon, died in Santa Rosa, Calif., at age 95.
In 2009, Charles Gibson retired from ABC after more than three decades with the network. He anchored “World News” since 2006, and was a co-host of “Good Morning America” for much of the 20 years before that. Diane Sawyer replaced him as anchor of “World News.”
In 2009, New Jersey Devils goalie Martin Brodeur set an NHL record for games played by a goaltender, passing Patrick Roy with his 1,030th appearance. Brodeur also holds the NHL records for regular season wins and shutouts.
In 2009, the ferry service that linked Nova Scotia with Maine was scrapped after the provincial government told Bay Ferries Ltd., it would stop subsidizing the operation.
In 2009, a B.C. coroner’s inquest hearing evidence in the 2007 Victoria-area murder-suicide that resulted in the deaths of five people, called on the B.C. government to create a single domestic violence unit and fund provincial campaigns to increase awareness of domestic violence in the province.
In 2010, in a historic vote for gay rights, the U.S. Senate agreed to do away with the military’s 17-year ban on openly gay troops, overturning the Clinton-era policy of “don’t ask, don’t tell.” U.S. President Barack Obama signed it into law four days later.
In 2010, Cpl. Steve Martin, from 3rd Battalion Royal 22e Regiment, was killed by an IED while on foot patrol in Afghanistan. He died two days before his 25th birthday.
