Today in History for July 1:
In 1643, the Westminster Assembly first convened in England. From this emerged the Westminster longer and shorter catechisms, still used as doctrinal standards by many Presbyterian churches.
In 1792, the first lieutenant governor of Upper Canada (now Ontario), Lt. -Col. John Graves Simcoe, arrived at Kingston to take up his post.
In 1858, the first Canadian coins were minted in denominations of one cent, five cents, 10 cents and 20 cents. A law had been passed that year requiring that accounts of the government of Canada be kept in dollars, using a decimal system as the Americans did, instead of British pounds.
In 1860, the cornerstone of the Parliament buildings was laid in Ottawa by the Prince of Wales.
In 1863, the three-day U.S. Civil War "Battle of Gettysburg" began with Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee attacking the North. The North prevailed as Confederate troops retreated.
In 1867, Canada officially became an independent country as the British North America Act came into being. There were four provinces in the new Confederation; Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. Sir John A. Macdonald was sworn in as the first prime minister, and Ottawa was named the capital. Although independent of Britain, Canada was still not allowed to deal directly with other states, control immigration or command Canadian armed forces except through British officers. A vast central area purchased from the Hudson's Bay Co. became the provinces of Manitoba in 1870, and Saskatchewan and Alberta in 1905. The additions of British Columbia in 1871, Prince Edward Island in 1873 and Newfoundland in 1949 completed the 10 provinces.
In 1867, Toronto was named the capital of Ontario.
In 1870, the decimal currency became uniform in Canada, and the Parliamentary Library was founded in Ottawa.
In 1873, Prince Edward Island became Canada's seventh province.
In 1876, the Intercolonial Railway, linking central Canada and the Maritimes, opened.
In 1899, in Wisconsin, the Gideons were founded by three travelling businessmen. They placed their first Bibles in 1908 at the Superior Hotel in Iron Mountain, Mont.
In 1916, the Battle of the Somme began during the First World War. On that first day, members of the Newfoundland Regiment left their trenches to attack German positions in the northern French village of Beaumont-Hamel. Of those 800 soldiers, 310 were killed and 374 wounded. By the time it ended in November, one million soldiers were dead or wounded.
In 1927, the Governor General, Viscount Willingdon (Sir Freeman Freeman-Thomas), dedicated the Peace Tower and inaugurated the carillon, which was played for the first time by Dominion Carillonneur, Percival Price. Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King wanted the tower to be a memorial to Canada's war dead. He spoke on a national radio broadcast, making a powerful commitment to peace.
In 1928, Scottish inventor John Logie Baird transmitted the first crude colour-TV pictures during a demonstration in London.
In 1935, the "On-to-Ottawa" trek by more than 2,000 men who were frustrated by the working and living conditions in their "federal unemployment relief" work camps in B.C. -- their only opportunity for employment during the Great Depression -- ended in what became known as the "Regina Riot." They had planned to travel to Ottawa to present their grievances in person to Prime Minister R.B. Bennett and took over several freight trains as they headed eastward. But the Trek was halted in Regina when the railways refused to let them continue travelling by train at the request of the federal government. Violence broke out when word spread that the trek leaders were going to be arrested. One policeman was killed and 100 people injured.
In 1941, unemployment insurance took effect in Canada.
In 1942, sugar rationing began in Canada during the Second World War.
In 1947, Clarence Lucas, considered Canada's most versatile composer of his era, died in Sevres, France.
In 1958, the CBC began countrywide television broadcasts.
In 1960, a law went into effect that gave First Nations people in Canada the right to vote without the condition of giving up their treaty rights and Indian status.
In 1961, Lady Diana Spencer was born in Sandringham, England. She became Princess of Wales when she married Prince Charles in 1981. A year after their divorce became final, Diana was killed in a Paris car crash on August 31, 1997.
In 1962, Saskatchewan's CCF government introduced the first Canadian medicare plan, and doctors went on strike. The compulsory medical care insurance program was met with opposition from the Saskatchewan College of Physicians and Surgeons. Doctors provided only hospital-based emergency services during a 23-day boycott until amendments were made and an agreement was reached on July 23.
In 1966, colour TV was first transmitted in Canada by CFTO in Toronto.
In 1967, Canada's centennial was marked by celebrations across the country. The Ottawa party was attended by the Queen and Prince Philip.
In 1967, the federal government instituted the Order of Canada to recognize exemplary achievement in major fields of endeavour.
In 1968, medicare came into effect as a federal-provincial program beginning with the participation of Saskatchewan and British Columbia. But medicare did not become fully national until 1971, when New Brunswick became the last province to sign on.
In 1968, the United States, Britain, the Soviet Union and 58 other nations signed the nuclear nonproliferation treaty.
In 1969, Prince Charles was invested by the Queen as Prince of Wales at Caenarvon Castle in Wales.
In 1971, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau opened a $2.5 million museum of aboriginal artifacts on the campus of the University of British Columbia in honour of the province's centennial.
In 1974, President Juan Peron of Argentina died. His widow and vice-president, Isabel Peron, became president.
In 1975, newspaper help-columnist Ann Landers wrote that her 36-year marriage was ending in divorce.
In 1979, the first Sony Walkman rolled off the assembly line.
In 1980, "O Canada" was officially designated the country's national anthem.
In 1982, more than 2,000 couples, members of the Unification Church, were married in a mass ceremony at New York's Madison Square Garden by the church's founder, the Reverend Sun Myung Moon.
In 1983, the World University Games were held in Edmonton, until July 11. Canada finished third behind the United States and the Soviet Union.
In 1985, cellphones debuted in Canada with a call between Art Eggleton and Jean Drapeau, then the mayors of Toronto and Montreal respectively.
In 1990, a monetary and economic union between East and West Germany took effect.
In 1992, in honour of Canada's 125th birthday, Prime Minister Brian Mulroney broke with tradition by naming non-politicians to the Privy Council. Those appointed included hockey great Maurice Richard, businessman Conrad Black and Nobel Prize-winning scientist John Polanyi.
In 1993, environmentalists in London and in other cities around the world condemned the British Columbia government for allowing logging in Clayoquot Sound, an environmentally sensitive area of Vancouver Island.
In 1994, Palestine Liberation Organization head Yasser Arafat returned to Gaza -- ending his 27-year exile.
In 1996, Unemployment Insurance became Employment Insurance under a new law that tightened rules on collecting benefits.
In 1997, after 156 years of British colonial rule in Hong Kong, the territory reverted to China under the terms of a 1984 Sino-British declaration.
In 1999, Scotland celebrated the opening of its first parliament in nearly 300 years.
In 2000, Walter Matthau, whose performances as cantankerous but endearing characters made him a distinctive star in movies, theatre and television, died at age 79.
In 2001, Canada Day celebrations in Edmonton degenerated into looting and violence when up to 1,500 youths rioted in the city's trendy Old Strathcona neighbourhood.
In 2002, a Russian Tupolev-154 collided in midair with a DHL cargo jet near Ueberlingen in southern Germany, killing 71 people including a Canadian pilot and 45 children.
In 2004, Marlon Brando, the Oscar-winning star of "The Godfather" and one of the most influential actors of his generation, died at the age of 80.
In 2004, the "Cassini" spacecraft sent the first closeup images of Saturn's rings after entering its orbit.
In 2004, former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein appeared before an Iraqi judge for the first time after his capture seven months earlier and was charged with crimes against humanity. He was found guilty and was executed in December 2006.
In 2005, the original Maple Leaf flag to fly atop the Peace Tower in 1965 returned home to Parliament Hill on Canada's 138th birthday. Canada's new Maple Leaf flag was unfurled at an Ottawa ceremony on Feb. 15, 1965. Days later it was given to Lucien Lamoureux, who served as Speaker of the House of Commons and in several diplomatic posts before retiring to Belgium in the 1980's. The historic flag stayed in Belgium in possession of Lamoureux's widow until 2005.
In 2008, Hamilton Southam, the third-generation member of the famous newspaper family who chose the diplomatic corps over journalism and later helped launch the National Arts Centre and the Canadian War Museum, died in Ottawa at age 91.
In 2010, the HST, which combined the five per cent GST with the provincial sales tax, took effect in Ontario (13 per cent) and B.C. (12 per cent). Many items previously exempt of the PST -- like electricity, gasoline and diesel fuel -- were all subjected to the new blended tax. (In August 2011, B.C. held a mail-in referendum and voted to revert back to the PST, which took effect April 1, 2013.)
In 2010, based on the high end of U.S. government estimates, more than 140 million gallons (529.94 million litres) of crude had spewed from the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico since the April 20 explosion that killed 11 workers on the Deepwater Horizon oil platform, eclipsing the 1979-80 Ixtoc disaster off Mexico that had long stood as the worst in the Gulf.
In 2011, former Canadian technology giant Nortel Networks Corp. completed the biggest patent sale in history, auctioning off 6,000 patents to a consortium that included Apple, Research In Motion Ltd. and Microsoft for US$4.5 billion in cash.
In 2011, Canada's new Sports Hall of Fame opened in Calgary for a few hours for a free public preview before its official opening on July 2. The $30-million facility is located at Canada Olympic Park. The Hall had only existed online and in boxes in recent years as a search was conducted for a new home.
In 2013, former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney began his stint as head of the Bank of England, the first non-Brit to run it in its 319-year history.
In 2013, Croatia become the 28th member of the European Union, a major milestone some 20 years after the small country won independence in a bloody civil war that shook the continent.
In 2016, a 10-hour siege began at an upscale Dhaka restaurant that left 20 hostages dead; 13 hostages were rescued when Bangladeshi commandos stormed the restaurant early the next morning, killing six of the attackers and capturing one.
In 2018, Canada's $16.6-billion worth of retaliatory tariffs on dozens of U.S. products kicked in - the country's answer to the crushing steel and aluminum tariffs imposed by the Trump administration.
In 2018, NHL all-star free agent centre John Tavares signed a seven-year, US$77 million contract with his childhood team, the Toronto Maple Leafs.
In 2018, NBA free agent superstar LeBron James agreed to four-year, US$154 million contract with the Los Angeles Lakers, departing Cleveland after leading the team to four straight NBA Finals and a championship in 2016.
In 2018, Sung Hyun Park beat So Yeon Ryu on the second hole of a playoff to win the Women's PGA Championship, her second major title.
In 2018, Manuel Lopez Obrador won Mexico's presidential election, defeating incumbent Enrique Pena Nieto. (He took office on Dec 1.)
In 2019, Marnie McBean was named chef de mission of Canada's Olympic team for the 2020 Tokyo Summer Games. The Toronto rower is a three-time Olympic gold medallist, winning events in 1992 and 1996. McBean was inducted into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame in 1997.
In 2019, Jamal Murray's breakout N-B-A season paid off. The 22-year-old from Kitchener, Ont., agreed to a five-year, US$170 million contract extension with the Denver Nuggets, the richest deal for a Canadian player in NBA history.
In 2019, Major League Baseball mourned the sudden death of Angels pitcher Tyler Skaggs at age 27. Skaggs was with the team in Texas when he was found unresponsive in his hotel room and pronounced dead at the scene. Police said no foul play was suspected. Rangers Manager Chris Woodard called it a tragic day for baseball.
In 2020, Canada, the U.S. and Mexico officially enacted the new North American free-trade deal, after months of gruelling negotiations and several setbacks.
In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic led to an unusual celebration of Canada's 153rd birthday, with backyard gatherings and digital events replacing large ceremonies. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau spent part of the morning with his family harvesting broccoli at a farm operated by the Ottawa Food Bank.
In 2021, the B.C. community of Lytton was essentially destroyed by a raging wildfire. Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth said most homes and buildings -- including the town ambulance station and RCMP detachment -- burned to the ground.
In 2021, many of the special events normally associated with Canada Day were either cancelled or scaled back, after hundreds of unmarked graves were found at residential school sites in British Columbia and Saskatchewan. In his Canada Day message, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the horrific findings at the site of former residential schools have "rightfully pressed us to reflect on our country's historical failures'' and injustices that still exist for many.
In 2023, scores of forest fires burned in Ontario and Quebec, and the smoke drifted hundreds of kilometres into the southern reaches of the provinces and into the central and northeastern U.S. Environment Canada issued smog warnings for northern and western Quebec, and parts of eastern and southern Ontario.
In 2023, port workers across British Columbia went on strike. Negotiations supported by federal mediators failed to come up with a deal throughout the night to keep more than 7,000 employees on the job. The union said contracting out, port automation and cost of living were key issues in the dispute.
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The Canadian Press
