Today in History for Dec. 10:
On this date:
In 1520, in Wittenberg, northeast of Leipzig in present-day eastern Germany, religious reformer Martin Luther publicly burned the papal edict demanding that he recant or face excommunication.
In 1817, Mississippi was admitted as the 20th U.S. state.
In 1884, Mark Twain's novel "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" was first published, in Canada as well as England (however, the book was not released in the United States until February 1885).
In 1896, the Swedish chemist and philanthropist Alfred Nobel died of a cerebral hemorrhage in San Remo, Italy, at the age of 63. The Nobel Prize awards were established under his will.
In 1898, the Spanish-American War came to an official end with the signing of a treaty in Paris that ceded the Philippines, Puerto Rico and Guam to the United States.
In 1901, the Nobel prizes were first awarded, on the fourth anniversary of the death of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel.
In 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt became the first American to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, for helping mediate an end to the Russo-Japanese War.
In 1931, Jane Addams became the first American woman to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize (the co-recipient was Nicholas Murray Butler).
In 1941, the British battleships "Prince of Wales" and "Repulse" were sunk by Japanese aircraft during the "Battle of Malaya." About 25,000 Allied soldiers were killed, wounded, escaped or were listed as missing in the Second World War campaign.
In 1944, Canadian troops stormed the Lamone River defences in Italy during the Second World War.
In 1948, the UN General Assembly issued the Declaration of Human Rights.
In 1949, the Supreme Court of Canada became the country’s final legal authority and court of highest appeal. An amendment to the Supreme Court Act was passed by Parliament and given royal assent, abolishing appeals to the judicial committee of the Privy Council of Britain except for those begun before the bill became law.
In 1950, Ralph J. Bunche was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, the first black American to receive the award.
In 1954, the 1,280-metre Canso Causeway was completed between mainland Nova Scotia and Cape Breton.
In 1957, Liberal MP Lester Pearson received the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway. While serving the previous year as Canada’s external affairs minister, he led efforts at the United Nations to set up an international peacekeeping force and end the attack by Israeli, British and French forces on Egypt.
In 1962, Soviet citizens were told, for the first time, of the ideological rift between Chinese Communists and Moscow-led Communists. The information appeared in the Communist party newspaper "Pravda," which published criticism of Beijing. The rift had begun in 1959 when Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev and Chinese leader Mao Tse-tung held a frosty meeting.
In 1964, U.S. civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. won the Nobel Peace Prize.
In 1968, Charles Lavern Beasley, Canada’s first plane hijacker, was sentenced to six years in prison. Beasley, 22, of Dallas, Texas, hijacked an Air Canada Viscount enroute to Toronto from Saint John, N.B., on Sept. 11, 1968. Describing himself as an American black power militant sought by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, Beasley demanded to be taken to Cuba. He surrendered to police after the plane landed at Montreal’s Dorval Airport.
In 1982, Canada and 159 other countries signed the Law of the Sea Convention which led to the formation of an international seabed authority to regulate mining of mineral deposits on the ocean floor. The authority also provided for economic exclusion zones in coastal waters and a tribunal to settle disputes over marine resources and rights. The Convention came into force on Nov. 16, 1994 and was established in Kingston, Jamaica.
In 1985, the Supreme Court of Canada upheld the firing of public servant Neil Fraser for criticizing the government’s metric conversion policies.
In 1985, Steve MacLean, a laser physicist from Ottawa, was named Canada’s second astronaut. He rode in the space shuttle "Columbia," which was launched in 1987. (Marc Garneau was Canada’s first astronaut, aboard the space shuttle "Challenger" in 1984.)
In 1986, University of Toronto professor John Polanyi was awarded the Nobel Prize for chemistry.
In 1990, Jean Chretien won a federal byelection in Beausejour, N.B. The win put Chretien in the House of Commons for the first time since early 1986, when he returned to a legal practice after representing his hometown of Shawinigan, Que., through eight consecutive elections.
In 1992, Jack Pollock, Canadian painter, art dealer and teacher, died in Toronto at age 62.
In 1993, the Channel Tunnel, reconnecting Britain and France after an Ice Age rift, was finally completed and handed over to the operating company. The 50-kilometre tunnel, dubbed "Chunnel," with two rail tunnels, a service and an escape tunnel in the middle, was completed more than a year late at a cost of more than $20 billion.
In 1993, South African President F.W. de Klerk and African National Congress leader Nelson Mandela accepted their Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo.
In 1996, South African President Nelson Mandela signed into law the country’s new constitution in Sharpeville, where 69 black demonstrators were killed by police in 1960, plunging the country into three decades of isolation.
In 1998, a Snowbird Tutor jet crashed in Moose Jaw, Sask., after its wing clipped another, killing pilot Capt. Michael VandenBos.
In 2000, Ehud Barak resigned as prime minister of Israel after his popularity plunged during a 10-week-old Palestinian uprising.
In 2000, the first gay marriage in Canada was performed at the Metropolitan Community Church of Toronto.
In 2002, the House of Commons voted 195-77 in favour of ratifying the Kyoto Protocol, over the objections of the Canadian Alliance and Progressive Conservatives. The BQ and NDP joined the Liberals in approval.
In 2002, thousands of people including peace activists, celebrities, war veterans, labour leaders, movie stars, anarchists and Quakers joined protest rallies held across the United States to tell President Bush they opposed a war in Iraq.
In 2003, Iranian democracy activist Shirin Ebadi, the first Muslim woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize, accepted the award in Oslo, Norway.
In 2004, the OHL's London Knights set a Canadian Hockey League record of 30 games without a loss after a 0-0 tie with the Guelph Storm. The streak was extended to 31 games before losing 5-2 to the Sudbury Wolves on Dec. 17.
In 2004, Canadian Forces pilot Capt. Miles Selby was killed when two Snowbird jets collided in mid-air during a training exercise near Moose Jaw, Sask.
In 2006, Dictator General Augusto Pinochet, who led Chile from 1973 to 1990, died at age 91.
In 2007, Conrad Black was sentenced to six-and-a-half years in jail, fined US$125,000 and ordered to forfeit US$6.1 million for his role in the misappropriation of millions of dollars from Hollinger International, the newspaper empire he once headed.
In 2007, suspended NFL star Michael Vick was sentenced by a federal judge in Richmond, Va., to 23 months in prison for bankrolling a dogfighting operation and killing dogs that underperformed.
In 2007, the Montreal and Toronto stock exchanges announced a $1.3-billion merger.
In 2008, Martti Ahtisaari, the 71-year-old former Finnish president, accepted the Nobel Peace Prize for his peace efforts on three continents over three decades.
In 2008, Michael Ignatieff was installed as leader of the federal Liberal Party by a vote of party MPs and senators to replace Stephane Dion.
In 2009, Canadian director James Cameron's sci-fi extravaganza "Avatar" made its public premiere in London. The 3-D epic reportedly cost $200 million to make. It went on to earn over $2.7 billion and move past another Cameron film, "Titanic," for No. 1 overall.
In 2009, Stephen Fonyo was stripped of his Order of Canada. The one-legged runner raised millions of dollars for cancer research during a cross-Canada marathon that ended in 1985. His membership was revoked over a slew of criminal convictions, ranging from assault with a weapon to fraud and theft.
In 2009, U.S. President Barack Obama accepted the Nobel Peace Prize with a humble acknowledgment of his scant accomplishments and a robust defence of the U.S. at war.
In 2010, a federal jury in Salt Lake City deliberated five hours to convict street preacher Brian David Mitchell of kidnapping Elizabeth Smart from her bed in 2002 and holding her captive and raping her for nine months. (He was sentenced to two life sentences without parole.)
In 2010, for the first time in 74 years, the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize award was not handed over because Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo couldn't attend as he was serving an 11-year sentence in China. Liu was being held on subversion charges for urging sweeping changes to Beijing's one-party communist political system. China and 17 other countries declined to attend, including Russia, Pakistan, Iran, Venezuela and Cuba.
In 2011, National League MVP Ryan Braun tested positive for a banned substance and given a 50-game suspension. (In February 2012, the suspension was overturned on a technicality, the first time a baseball player successfully challenged a drug-related penalty in a grievance. However in 2013, he was suspended for 65 games for drug violations.)
In 2011, figure skater Patrick Chan successfully defended his title, winning his second consecutive ISU Grand Prix Final title and capping an undefeated season.
In 2012, Christine Sinclair was named the winner of the 2012 Lou Marsh Award, becoming the first soccer player to take home the 76-year-old trophy named after the former Toronto Star sports editor.
In 2013, General Motors named product development chief Mary Barra its new CEO, the first female head of a U.S. car company.
In 2015, the first federal government airlift of Syrian civil war refugees landed in Toronto under the Liberals plan to resettle 25,000 Syrian refugees by the end of February 2016.
In 2016, the Seattle Sounders defeated host Toronto FC 5-4 in penalty kicks to win its first Major League Soccer championship.
-----
(The Canadian Press)
The Canadian Press
