Today in History for Dec. 8:
In 1694, a French Jesuit missionary in Canada, Noel Chabanel, was murdered by a renegade Huron. He was one of the group known as the Jesuit Martyrs of North America canonized by Pope Pius XI in 1930.
In 1776, during the Revolutionary War, George Washington’s retreating army crossed the Delaware River from New Jersey into Pennsylvania.
In 1841, Prince Albert Edward, later King Edward VII, became the Prince of Wales.
In 1852, Laval University in Quebec City, the earliest French-language university in North America, was granted a royal charter. Established in Quebec City, it was named after Msgr. Francois de Laval, the first bishop of Quebec.
In 1854, Pope Pius IX proclaimed the Catholic dogma of the Immaculate Conception, which holds that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was free of original sin from the moment of her own conception.
In 1869, Timothy Eaton opened a small dry-goods store at the corner of Yonge and Queen streets in Toronto. Eaton revolutionized the commercial practice of the day by offering satisfaction or money refunded. His store became one of the largest department stores in North America. In September 1999, Sears Canada announced it would buy the outstanding common shares of the insolvent Eaton’s.
In 1880, Alberta’s first newspaper, "The Edmonton Bulletin," appeared. It folded in 1951.
In 1893, the deadliest fire in recorded history killed 2,500 women and children in a church in Santiago, Chile.
In 1913, an Order-in-Council prohibited the landing of skilled or unskilled labour at British Columbia ports.
In 1915, the poem "In Flanders Fields," by Canadian doctor-poet John McCrae, was published for the first time in "Punch" magazine.
In 1925, Adolf Hitler’s political philosophy, "Mein Kampf," was published.
In 1940, in one of the biggest routs in NFL history, the Chicago Bears crushed the Washington Redskins 73-0 in the championship game.
In 1941, the United States, Britain and Australia declared war on Japan following the Pearl Harbor attack the previous day.
In 1941, the Japanese army began its attack on Hong Kong during the Second World War. The colony’s British and Canadian defenders surrendered on Christmas Day.
In 1963, Frank Sinatra Jr. was kidnapped at gunpoint from Harrah’s Casino in Lake Tahoe, Nev. He was released after 34 hours when a ransom of $240,000 was paid. The three kidnappers were caught and convicted. In 1998, the junior Sinatra sued the kidnappers after they sold their story to Columbia Pictures for $1 million.
In 1972, Ethiopian sky marshals killed seven hijackers during an in-flight gun battle aboard a crowded Ethiopian airliner. The plane landed safely, despite a hole torn in the side of the aircraft by a live grenade dropped by the hijackers.
In 1974, voters in Greece voted to abolish the monarchy.
In 1978, former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir died in Jerusalem at age 80.
In 1980, former "Beatle" John Lennon was shot to death outside his New York City apartment building as he and his wife, Yoko Ono, were returning from a recording session. Mark David Chapman shot Lennon only hours after Lennon had autographed the album "Double Fantasy" for the 25-year-old drifter. Chapman was later convicted of the killing and sentenced to 20-years-to-life. In 1998, the album that Lennon autographed that day was offered for sale on the Internet by an anonymous man who found it at the crime scene. The asking price -- $1.8 million. Chapman said he stashed the album behind a watchman’s booth before shooting Lennon.
In 1981, the Senate passed the constitutional resolution 59-23. The Commons and Senate resolutions, which were identical resolutions, were presented to Governor General Edward Schreyer in a formal ceremony at Government House in Ottawa.
In 1987, Philadelphia Flyers goalie Ron Hextall became the first netminder in NHL history to score a goal, doing so against Boston. Two seasons later, Hextall scored against Washington.
In 1987, U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev signed a historic agreement in Washington to eliminate stocks of intermediate-range nuclear arms. The following day they signed the first treaty reducing the size of their countries’ nuclear arsenals.
In 1989, two foreign ships with a total of 39 crew members sank in a savage storm in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
In 1991, Russia, Byelorussia (now Belarus) and Ukraine declared the Soviet Union’s government dead, forging a new alliance to be known as the Commonwealth of Independent States.
In 1993, the North American Free Trade Agreement was signed into law by U.S. President Bill Clinton. It went into effect on Jan. 1, 1994.
In 2008, in the Quebec general election, Jean Charest’s Liberals won a narrow majority, winning 66 seats and a rare third term while the Parti Quebecois became the Official Opposition, capturing 51 seats. Mario Dumont resigned as ADQ leader after his party lost official party status, winning just seven seats.
In 2008, Liberal Party Leader Stephane Dion announced he would step down earlier than the planned leadership convention in May. Dion had faced growing pressure from his party to leave due to his handling of a political issues and his widespread unpopularity among voters.
In 2009, a co-ordinated series of bomb blasts hit Iraqi government buildings, killing at least 103 people and wounding 197 in Baghdad.
In 2009, the Commissioner for Public Complaints Against the RCMP issued a damning report into the death of Robert Dziekanski at Vancouver's airport in October 2007. The strongly worded report made 23 findings and 16 recommendations that were highly critical of both the actions of the four officers who fatally confronted Dziekanski and the followup investigation by the Mounties.
In 2009, CBS announced the cancellation of the soap opera "As the World Turns." It debuted in April 1956 and its last episode aired Sept, 17, 2010. Another CBS daytime drama, "Guiding Light," aired its last episode Sept. 18, 2009.
In 2010, for the first time ever, a private company (SpaceX) launched a spacecraft into orbit and then guided it back to Earth in a bold demonstration test for NASA.
In 2011, Bob Paulson was sworn in as the 23rd commissioner of the RCMP.
In 2011, the government of Japan issued a "heartfelt apology" to former Canadian prisoners for their suffering during World War II. On Christmas Day 1941, the Allies surrendered in Hong Kong after almost 18 days of fighting in which 290 Canadians were killed and 493 wounded. Those who survived were held prisoner in Hong Kong and Japan until Japan's surrender on Aug. 15, 1945. Another 267 men died in the camps, where they were subjected to backbreaking labour and were frequently beaten and starved.
In 2011, NBA commissioner David Stern announced that owners and players ratified a new 10-year collective bargaining agreement, the final step to ending the five-month lockout. The season consisted of an abbreviated 66 games.
In 2017, former national ski coach Bertrand Charest was sentenced to a 12-year prison term after being found guilty in June of sexually assaulting the teenage girls he trained dating back more than 20 years. He was denied bail pending his appeal.
In 2018, Shoppers Drug Mart was granted a licence to sell medical marijuana online. Health Canada's list of authorized cannabis sellers and producers has been updated to reflect that the pharmacy can sell dried and fresh cannabis, as well as plants, seeds and oil.
In 2019, the man who voiced Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch for nearly 50 years on "Sesame Street" died at the age of 85. The Sesame Workshop said Carroll Spinney died at his home in Connecticut after living for some time with dystonia, which causes involuntary muscle contractions. Sesame Workshop said the legendary pupeteer gave something "truly special to the world."
In 2020, two British seniors proved you are never too old to make history. Margaret Keenan — just a week shy of her 91st birthday — and 81-year-old William Shakespeare got the first jabs on "V-Day'' in Britain. They were the first to get a dose of the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech outside of a clinical trial.
In 2020, partial results published in the medical journal Lancet suggested the COVID-19 vaccine candidate from Oxford University and AstraZeneca is safe and about 70 per cent effective. Oxford's Andrew Pollard said the team has no safety concerns about the vaccine, with results from all study locations consistently showing benefit. (Reports of blood clotting related to the AstraZeneca vaccine would later lead to safety concerns among the public.)
In 2020, politicians, lawyers and others paid tribute to a Vancouver lawyer described as one of the foremost champions of legal rights for all Canadians. The Arvay Finlay law firm said in a message posted to its website that Joseph Arvay died at the age of 71. B.C. Attorney General David Eby told the provincial legislature that Arvay would leave an indelible mark on Canada's legal landscape. He noted that Arvay successfully argued cases in the Supreme Court of Canada for same-sex marriage benefits, LGBTQ rights, the right to assisted dying and censorship issues.
In 2021, Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech said lab tests showed a booster dose of their COVID-19 vaccine could protect against the recently-emerged Omicron variant. Pfizer said two doses may still offer protection against severe disease caused by Omicron, but preliminary data suggested protection is maximized with a third dose.
In 2021, the World Health Organization reported the new COVID-19 Omicron variant had now been found in 57 countries.
In 2021, Canada said it will not send any diplomats to the Beijing Olympics in February. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his government is extremely concerned about China's human rights abuses.
In 2022, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith got a seat in the legislature after winning a byelection in the constituency of Brooks-Medicine Hat. Smith last won a seat in 2012, during her time as leader of the former Wildrose Party.
In 2023, Ibrahim Ali was found guilty of first-degree murder in the death of a 13-year-old girl whose body was found in a Burnaby, B.C., park more than six years prior.
The Canadian Press
