Today in History for Dec. 13:
On this date:
In 304, St. Lucy is said to have cut out her eyes and sent them to a persistent but unwelcome suitor who said he was haunted by them. This sent the message that he must let her concentrate on a life of religious dedication.
In 1204, Maimonides, or Moses ben Maimon, medieval Jewish scholar and author, died. His greatest writing, "Guide of the Perplexed," attempted to harmonize Aristotelian philosophy with rabbinic Judaism.
In 1545, the Council of Trent, the first Roman Catholic ecumenical council since the end of the Roman Empire, opened to discuss the reformation.
In 1553, King Henry IV of France was born. He was the first monarch of the Bourbon branch of the Capetian dynasty in France. Henry was involved in the Wars of Religion before ascending to the throne in 1589. In 1598, he enacted the Edict of Nantes, which guaranteed religious liberties to the Protestants and thereby effectively ended the civil war.
In 1577, five ships commanded by Sir Francis Drake, who led in "The Golden Hind," embarked from Plymouth Sound in England on a voyage around the world that was to last nearly three years.
In 1642, Dutch navigator Abel Tasman reached New Zealand. Several of his men were killed while attempting to land when Maori natives interpreted an exchange of trumpet fanfares as a prelude to battle.
In 1781, the United States first celebrated a day of thanksgiving for victory in the War of Independence.
In 1883, the border between Ontario and Manitoba was established.
In 1887, "Saturday Night" magazine was first published as a weekly magazine.
In 1893, Prince Edward Island voted for prohibition.
In 1907, the Women's Canadian Club was inaugurated at Montreal by Gov. Gen. Earl Grey.
In 1918, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson arrived in France, becoming the first chief executive to visit Europe while in office.
In 1944, during the Second World War, the U.S. cruiser "Nashville" was badly damaged in a Japanese kamikaze attack that claimed more than 130 lives.
In 1968, Quebec passed legislation abolishing the legislative assembly, renaming it the national assembly of Quebec.
In 1972, American astronaut Eugene Cernan became the last man on the moon. Cernan and Harrison Schmidt explored the lunar surface during the "Apollo 17" mission.
In 1979, the Supreme Court of Canada unanimously upheld the power of the federal government to guarantee French and English are used in the courts and legislatures across the country. The court announced that restrictive language laws enacted by the governments of Manitoba and Quebec were unconstitutional.
In 1979, the Progressive Conservative government of Joe Clark was defeated by six votes in a non-confidence motion in the House of Commons. Clark had been prime minister in a minority government since June. The non-confidence vote came after Finance Minister John Crosbie tabled his first budget. An election was called for February, and Pierre Trudeau, who had announced his retirement the previous month, came back to lead the Liberals to a majority government.
In 1981, martial law was imposed in Poland to crack down on the Solidarity labour movement.
In 1982, an earthquake in north Yemen killed 2,800 people.
In 1983, Mary Renault, a novelist whose books were based on the history and legends of the Grecian age, died in South Africa at the age of 78.
In 1988, Angola, Cuba and South Africa concluded an agreement on the independence of Namibia and the withdrawal of troops from Angola.
In 1989, Geraldine Kennedy-Wallace was named president of McMaster University in Hamilton, becoming the first woman to lead an Ontario university.
In 1990, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled 4-3 that federal legislation outlawing the spread of hate propaganda is a justifiable limit on freedom of speech. The court upheld the conviction of former Alberta teacher Jim Keegstra of spreading hatred against Jews. In related cases, the judges also upheld the convictions of three white supremacists from Toronto -- Donald Andrews, Robert Smith and John Ross Taylor -- all of whom published propaganda against non-whites and Jews.
In 1990, the Canadian Senate passed the GST by a vote of 55-49.
In 1991, North and South Korea signed a historic accord for reconciliation and non-aggression, putting a formal end to their 1950-53 war.
In 1992, Canadian billionaire K.C. Irving died in Fredericton, N.B., at the age of 93.
In 1993, former prime minister Kim Campbell resigned as leader of the federal Progressive Conservatives after leading the party to Canada's most humiliating electoral defeat. Campbell was later appointed Canada's consul-general in Los Angeles.
In 1994, Ontario became the first province to allow nurse practitioners to diagnose common illnesses and prescribe certain drugs without a doctor's supervision.
In 1995, Bloc Quebecois Leader Lucien Bouchard spent his last day in the House of Commons as Opposition Leader. He was leaving his post to run for premier of Quebec, which he won and held until his retirement in 2001.
In 1996, the Security Council agreed on the appointment of Kofi Annan, the Ghanaian head of UN peacekeeping, as the next UN secretary general.
In 1999, the House of Commons passed the historic Nisga'a treaty by a vote of 217-48, taking aboriginal people in B.C. one step closer to realizing their wish for self-government. (It came into effect on May 11, 2000.)
In 1999, the Chretien government introduced its so-called "clarity bill," setting out the terms for negotiations after any referendum on Quebec's secession.
In 2000, Democratic Vice-President Al Gore conceded the U.S. presidential race to Republican George W. Bush. Weeks of vote recounts in Florida and court rulings about the disputed result delayed the outcome. Bush addressed the American people as president-elect.
In 2002, Cardinal Bernard Law resigned as Archbishop of Boston after growing criticism of his mishandling of sexual abuse charges against some priests in his archdiocese. He was the highest-ranking cleric in the U.S. Catholic Church ever to quit because of scandal.
In 2002, RCMP Constable Jocelyn Hotte was found guilty of first-degree murder for the death of his former girlfriend and convicted on three counts of attempted murder for wounding three people. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
In 2003, U.S. soldiers captured Saddam Hussein after finding him hiding in an underground hole under a farmhouse in Adwar, Iraq, near his hometown of Tikrit.
In 2005, Ontario became the second province to have fixed election dates. Provincial elections would be held on the first Thursday in October every four years.
In 2006, Bernard Lord announced his resignation as leader of New Brunswick's Progressive Conservative party and as a member of the legislature.
In 2007, shareholders of Dow Jones & Co., publisher of "The Wall Street Journal," approved a takeover by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.
In 2007, appearing before a parliamentary ethics committee, former prime minister Brian Mulroney acknowledged he made "a serious error of judgment" when he received cash from Karlheinz Schreiber.
In 2007, Major League Baseball's Mitchell Report was released, identifying 85 names to differing degrees in connection with the alleged use of performance-enhancing drugs.
In 2008, Cpl. Thomas James Hamilton, Pte. Justin Peter Jones, and Pte. John Michael Roy Curwin were killed by an improvised explosive device west of Kandahar city in southern Afghanistan. They were all members of Golf Company, 2nd Battalion, Royal Canadian Regiment, based at CFB Gagetown in New Brunswick.
In 2009, temperatures in Edmonton dipped to -46 C, with a -59 windchill, in a record-breaking cold snap, crushing the same day coldest temperature record of about -33 set in 1968.
In 2010, Minnesota Vikings quarterback Brett Favre's NFL record 297 straight regular season starts -- 321 counting playoffs -- came to end when he was listed as inactive due to an injury to his throwing shoulder that he suffered the previous week against Buffalo. The streak began on Sept. 27, 1992.
In 2011, a man armed with grenades and an assault rifle attacked holiday shoppers at a central square in Liege, Belgium. He killed four people, and wounded 123 others before committing suicide.
In 2011, world figure skating champion Patrick Chan was the overwhelming winner of the 2011 Lou Marsh Award as Canada's outstanding athlete.
In 2011, early sound recordings by Alexander Graham Bell, that were packed away at the Smithsonian Institution for more than a century, were played publicly for the first time using new technology that read the sound with light and a 3-D camera. (In one recording, a man recites part of Hamlet's Soliloquy; on another, a voice recites the numbers 1 through 6.)
In 2016, 16-year-old swimmer Penny Oleksiak was named the winner of the Lou Marsh Trophy as Canada's athlete of the year by a panel of sports journalists from across the country. She won four medals at the Rio Olympics, including gold in the 100-metre freestyle. She added four more medals at the short-course world championship in Windsor, Ont.
In 2016, Canadian-born actor Alan Thicke, a versatile performer who gained his greatest renown as the beloved dad on the sitcom "Growing Pains," died after his aorta ruptured. He was 69.
----
(The Canadian Press)
The Canadian Press
