Today in History for Jan. 29:
In 993, Ulric, bishop of Augsburg in present-day Germany from 923 to 973, was formally canonized by Pope John XV. It was the first recorded canonization by a Catholic pontiff.
In 1796, Yonge Street was officially opened, running 48 kilometres from what would become Toronto through to Lake Simcoe.
In 1817, John Callcott Horsley, who designed the first commercial Christmas cards, was born in England.
In 1817, explorer John Palliser, who led an 1857-1860 expedition in what is now Western Canada, was born in Ireland.
In 1820, Britain's King George III died insane at Windsor Castle, ending a reign that had seen both the American and French revolutions.
In 1829, McGill University in Montreal was opened.
In 1845, Edgar Allan Poe's poem ``The Raven'' was first published under a pseudonym in the ``New York Evening Mirror.''
In 1856, Alexander Dunn became the first Canadian recipient of the Victoria Cross, Britain's highest military decoration. Dunn was honoured for gallantry during the 1854 Charge of the Light Brigade in the Crimean War.
In 1861, Kansas became the 34th U.S. state.
In 1885, German inventor Karl Benz patented the automobile.
In 1897, the Victorian Order of Nurses was founded in Ottawa.
In 1900, the American League, consisting of eight baseball teams, was organized in Philadelphia.
In 1918, German planes raided London during the First World War.
In 1929, Seeing Eye, the first guide-dog school to aid the blind, was founded in Nashville, Tenn., by Dorothy Harrison Eustis and Morris Frank.
In 1936, the first members of the Baseball Hall of Fame were inducted in Cooperstown, N.Y. They included Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Christy Mathewson, Honus Wagner and Walter Johnson. None were elected unanimously.
In 1946, Supreme Court of Canada Justice Ivan Rand handed down a decision to break the deadlock in a 112-day strike at the Ford of Canada plant in Windsor, Ont. What became known as the ``Rand Formula'' called for all employees in a bargaining unit to pay union dues whether or not they are union members.
In 1946, the famed racing schooner ``Bluenose'' sank after striking a reef off Haiti. The Nova Scotia-built vessel was designed by W.J. Roue of Halifax and built entirely of Nova Scotian materials, except for the masts, by the firm Smith and Rhuland in Lunenburg. She was launched March 26, 1921.
In 1963, the first members of the NFL Hall of Fame were named in Canton, Ohio.
In 1980, the world learned of the ``Canadian Caper.'' Canadian embassy officials in Tehran hid six Americans from Iranian militants for more than two months. The six were then smuggled out of Iran.
In 1980, postal union president Jean-Claude Parrot began serving a three-month prison term for defying a law making a postal strike illegal.
In 1985, New Brunswick Premier Richard Hatfield was found not guilty of possession of marijuana, which had been discovered in his bag during a security search on Sept. 25 while the Queen was visiting the province.
In 1986, scientists in Nova Scotia announced they had uncovered the largest fossil find in North America. More than 100,000 pieces of bone belonging to dinosaurs, reptiles and fish were found in a rock formation known as the Newark Supergroup, which extends all the way to South Carolina. ``Bones were sticking out all over the place,'' said Harvard University biologist Neil Shubin.
In 1990, Ray Hnatyshyn was sworn in as Canada's 24th governor general.
In 1990, former Exxon Valdez skipper Joseph Hazelwood went on trial in Anchorage, Alaska, on charges stemming from, at the time, the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history. He was later acquitted of the major charges and convicted of a misdemeanour.
In 1996, Lucien Bouchard was sworn in as premier of Quebec. He remained in office until 2001.
In 2001, Canada 3000 announced it would buy and merge with rival Royal Aviation in an all-stock deal worth $82 million. The merged carrier, to be called Canada 3000 Airlines, was to continue specializing in low-fare domestic and international routes. But financial problems caused Canada's second-largest airline to suspend operations in November.
In 2001, Winnipeg-based Investors Group agreed to purchase Toronto-based Mackenzie Financial Corporation for $4.15 billion, creating the country's largest mutual fund company.
In 2004, Stelco Inc., which employed 8,400 workers at its Hamilton and Nanticoke steel plants, secured court-ordered bankruptcy protection from its creditors amid a cash crunch that would lead to massive restructuring.
In 2005, a coach bus carrying the Windsor Wildcats women's hockey team slammed into a parked tractor-trailer near Rochester, N.Y., killing four people including three from the Windsor, Ont., area and a Pennsylvania man. Nineteen others were injured. (In 2011, the owners of the bus and the tractor-trailer agreed to pay US$36 million to settle a lawsuit.)
In 2006, 72 miners were trapped when fire broke out in underground piping at a potash mine in Esterhazy, Sask. It took more than 30 hours to put out the fire and get all of the trapped miners to the surface. Officials said the miners saved themselves by retreating to safety chambers.
In 2007, the Montreal Canadiens retired Ken Dryden's jersey No. 29 to honour the former goaltender.
In 2009, Illinois state senators voted unanimously to convict Gov. Rod Blagojevich at his impeachment trial and remove him from office and ban him from ever holding office in Illinois, after concluding that he was guilty of trying to sell President Barack Obama's vacant U.S. Senate seat.
In 2012, Mohammad Shafia of Montreal, his second wife Tooba Yahya, and their son Hamed, 21, were each found guilty of four counts of first-degree murder in the so-called mass honour killing of Shafia sisters Zainab, 19, Sahar, 17, and Geeti, 13, as well as Rona Amir Mohammad, their father's first wife in a polygamous marriage.
In 2012, Novak Djokovic wore down Rafael Nadal in the longest Grand Slam singles final in the history of pro tennis, winning 5-7, 6-4, 6-2, 6-7 (5), 7-5 after five hours 53 minutes to claim his third Australian Open title.
In 2013, BP PLC closed the book on the U.S. Justice Department's criminal probe of its role in the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster and Gulf of Mexico oil spill, with a U.S. judge agreeing to let the London-based oil giant plead guilty to manslaughter charges for the deaths of 11 rig workers and pay a record $4 billion in penalties. The plea deal didn't resolve the U.S. government's civil claims against BP, which saw the company pay an additional $20 billion for environmental damage.
In 2014, billing it as a bid to reduce partisanship in the Upper Chamber, Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau expelled the 32 Liberal senators from his caucus.
In 2016, the Nanaimo Daily News (B.C.) stopped publishing, ending 141 years in business. Also, the Guelph Mercury (Ont.) published its last print edition, which dated back to 1867.
In 2017, Roger Federer defeated Rafael Nadal 6-4, 3-6, 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 to capture the Australian Open and extend his career Grand Slam titles record to 18.
In 2017, six Muslim men were shot and killed and 19 others wounded at a Quebec City mosque during evening prayers. (In March 2018, Laval University student Alexandre Bissonnette pleaded guilty to six counts of first-degree murder and six of attempted murder.)
In 2018, the Cleveland Indians announced the baseball team was removing the divisive Chief Wahoo logo from their jerseys and caps starting in the 2019 season.
In 2019, the serial killer accused of preying on men from Toronto's gay village pleaded guilty to eight counts of first-degree murder. Sixty-seven-year-old Bruce McArthur was arrested in January 2018. The remains of seven men were discovered in large planters at a residential property in midtown Toronto where McArthur worked as a self-employed landscaper, while the remains of an eighth man was found in a nearby ravine.
In 2020, the European Parliament overwhelmingly approved the departure terms of the United Kingdom from the European Union. The withdrawal agreement ended Britain's 47-year membership in the bloc. Legislators mixed warm words with harsh warnings to Britain not to seek too many advantages during upcoming trade talks.
In 2020, Canadian soccer star Christine Sinclair made soccer history when she scored two goals in a match against St. Kitts and Nevis at the CONCACAF Women's Olympic Qualifying Championship at HEB Park in south Texas. The 36-year-old from Burnaby, B.C., notched goals 184 and 185 to pass retired American Abby Wambach and become the world's all-time leading goal-scorer.
In 2021, Johnson and Johnson said its one-shot COVID vaccine is 85 per cent effective in preventing severe illness after testing it in eight countries. Unlike the vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer, this one uses a more tried and true process, similar to what J&J used to develop its Ebola vaccine. The vaccine worked better in the U.S. than it did in South Africa, where it was up against a tougher, mutated virus. Unlike the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine, the J&J candidate doesn't have any special storage requirements.
In 2021, the federal government announced new restrictions aimed at discouraging travel and reducing the spread of more infectious variants of COVID-19. Air Canada, WestJet, Sunwing and Air Transat suspended service to Mexico and the Caribbean, right through to the end of April. Anyone returning from abroad was asked to quarantine in a designated hotel at an estimated cost of two-thousand-dollars per person as they awaited the results of an airport COVID-19 test. Anyone testing negative had to spend the rest of their two-week quarantine at home. People testing positive had to isolate in designated government facilities. All international passenger flights had to land in either Vancouver, Toronto, Calgary or Montreal.
In 2022, trucks jamming Ottawa streets shut down the core of the national capital. A shoulder-to-shoulder crowd packed Parliament Hill to demand the federal Liberal government end vaccine mandates and COVID-19 restrictions, promising to stay for as long as needed to fulfil their goals. The sounds of honking horns echoed around downtown from vehicles parked and idling in front of the parliamentary buildings, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's office and the National War Memorial as protesters weaved between the semis and personal vehicles parked for blocks. By the afternoon, the swell of traffic forced police to close streets and warn there was no longer room for vehicles downtown, other than first responders.
In 2023, longtime Mississauga-Ont. mayor Hazel McCallion died at 101. Known affectionately as "Hurricane Hazel,'' McCallion was an outspoken political powerhouse whose legacy includes more than three decades of nearly unchallenged leadership. She was voted into office with landslide victories for 12 successive terms and decided to bow out at age 93.
In 2024, Health Minister Mark Holland said Canada was not ready to expand eligibility for medical assistance in dying. Holland said the Liberal government agreed with a final report from a joint parliamentary committee that more time was needed before expanding eligibility to those whose only medical condition is a mental illness. Justice Minister Arif Virani said a plan would be in place before the March 17 expansion deadline.
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The Canadian Press