Today in History for March 10:
In 1302, Pope Boniface VIII sentenced Italian poet and politician Dante Alighieri, author of "The Divine Comedy," to be burned to death for political reasons. Dante fled into exile.
In 1496, Christopher Columbus concluded his second visit to the Western Hemisphere as he left Hispaniola for Spain.
In 1629, King Charles I dissolved the British Parliament, leading to civil war.
In 1785, Thomas Jefferson was appointed to replace the aging Benjamin Franklin as the United States minister to England.
In 1796, Julia Hart was born. She was the first Canadian-born author to have a novel published in Canada. She died in 1867.
In 1804, the United States acquired control of the Louisiana Territory in a deal with France.
In 1842, Queen's University was founded in Kingston, Ont.
In 1848, the U.S. Senate ratified the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which ended the Mexican-American War.
In 1871, the first legislative council of Manitoba opened.
In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell conducted the first successful test of the telephone in Boston. Bell told his assistant, "Come here, Watson. I need you." Bell had patented the device three days earlier.
In 1880, the Salvation Army arrived in the United States from England.
In 1910, Prince Rupert, B.C., was incorporated as a city.
In 1947, Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King announced that the Canadian garrison was withdrawing from Germany.
In 1948, Czech foreign minister Jan Masaryk committed suicide by jumping out a window at the Foreign Office in Prague.
In 1949, Nazi wartime broadcaster Mildred E. Gillars, also known as "Axis Sally," was convicted in Washington, D.C., of treason. She served 12 years in prison.
In 1969, James Earl Ray, who had confessed to the April 1968 shooting death of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., was sentenced in Memphis to 99 years in prison. Ray later recanted but died in prison in 1998.
In 1974, a former Japanese officer surrendered on Lubang Island after hiding in the Philippine jungle for 30 years. Lieutenant Hiroo Onada did not know the Second World War had ended.
In 1980, "Scarsdale Diet" author Dr. Herman Tarnower was shot to death at his home in Purchase, N.Y. Tarnower's former lover, Jean Harris, was convicted of his murder. She served nearly 12 years in prison before being released in January, 1993.
In 1981, U.S. President Ronald Reagan arrived in Ottawa for an official visit. He was greeted by noisy demonstrators on Parliament Hill protesting his policies on pollution control and American intervention in El Salvador.
In 1985, Soviet President Konstantin Chernenko died at age 73. He was in office for only 13 months. He was succeeded by Mikhail Gorbachev, who turned out to be the last Soviet leader.
In 1986, Senator Jacques Hebert began a hunger strike. Hebert, the founding chairman of the Katimavik youth work program, was protesting the federal government's cancellation of the program. He ended his hunger strike 21 days later, after receiving news that a non-profit corporation would be formed to try and raise money to continue the program.
In 1987, the Vatican published a document stating its opposition to test-tube fertilization, as well as the artificial insemination of unmarried women. The Vatican also opposed these procedures for widows, even if their husbands had donated the sperm.
In 1989, 24 people were killed when an Air Ontario jet crashed just after taking off from Dryden, Ont. An inquiry blamed ice on the wings for the crash.
In 1995, for the first time in Canadian history, two prison guards were charged with manslaughter in the death of an inmate. Sean Wylie, 31, and Barry Aitchison, 39, were charged with one count each of manslaughter and criminal negligence causing death after Robert Gentles was asphyxiated on Oct. 24, 1993.
In 2004, teenage sniper Lee Boyd Malvo, convicted for a 2002 killing spree in the Washington, D.C., area that left 10 people dead, was formally sentenced to life in prison without parole.
In 2010, Mexico's Carlos Slim, a telecom magnate who amassed a US$53.5 billion fortune and bought a major stake in the New York Times, became the first person from a developing nation to be named the world's richest person.
In 2010, in order to attract attention to the European Union’s ban on Canadian seal meat, the parliamentary restaurant in Ottawa served seal meat for the first time in its 100-year history.
In 2010, Canadian actor Corey Haim died of pneumonia complications in Burbank, Calif., at age 38. Drugs found in his system were not a factor in his death. He became a teen heartthrob with the 1986 film "Lucas" and 1987's "The Lost Boys" and fell into a debilitating battle with drugs and alcohol that he later blamed for ruining his career and destroying his health.
In 2011, Canadian Denis Villeneuve's Oscar-nominated saga "Incendies" blazed through the Genie Awards, claiming eight of Canada's top film prizes, including Best Film, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Actress.
In 2012, 29-year-old Toronto skier Nik Zoricic died from head injuries he sustained in a World Cup skicross event in Grindelwald, Switzerland, after he went wide over the final jump and landed directly into safety nets lining the side of the course.
In 2017, South Korea's constitutional Court removed impeached President Park Geun-hye from office in a unanimous ruling over a corruption scandal that plunged the country into political turmoil and worsened an already-serious national divide. (In April 2018, she was formally convicted and sentenced to 24 years in prison.)
In 2017, Volkswagen pleaded guilty to conspiracy and obstruction of justice in a brazen scheme to get around U.S. pollution rules on nearly 600,000 diesel vehicles by using software to suppress emissions of nitrogen oxide during tests. The German automaker agreed to pay US$4.3 billion in civil and criminal penalties — the largest ever levied by the U.S. government against an automaker.
In 2018, former Toronto city councillor Doug Ford narrowly beat out former Tory legislator Christine Elliott in the Ontario Progressive Conservative party's leadership race. Elliott initially disputed the results, but conceded defeat the next day.
In 2018, Canadian Robert Wickens became only the third driver since 1993 to win the pole for his IndyCar debut. (The next day, he led the St. Petersburg race for 69 of the 110 laps until contact with Alexander Rossi on a restart took him out of contention and he finished a heartbreaking 18th.)
In 2018, 18-year-old Vancouverite Mollie Jepsen won Canada's first medal at the Pyeongchang Paralympic Games, capturing bronze in the women's standing downhill event; Mac Marcoux and guide Jack Leitch won Canada's first gold medal, in the downhill for visually impaired event; Colin Cameron won bronze in the men's biathlon 7.5-km sitting and Mark Arendz won silver in the men's biathlon 7.5-km standing.
In 2018, French couturier Hubert de Givenchy, a pioneer of ready-to-wear who, along with Christian Dior, Yves Saint Laurent and mentor Cristobal Balenciaga was part of the elite cadre of Paris-based designers who redefined fashion after the Second World War, died at age 91.
In 2019, the crash of an Ethiopian Airlines plane left no survivors. 18 Canadians were among the 157 dead. The Boeing 737 Max 8 plane had departed Ethiopia's capital of Addis Ababa on its way to Nairobi when it crashed just six minutes into the flight. The accident was strikingly similar to the previous year's crash of a Lion Air jet -- both involving the Boeing 7-37 Max 8 -- and both happening minutes after takeoff.
In 2020, Air Canada suspended flights to and from Italy over concerns about the novel coronavirus, saying affected customers would be notified and offered a full refund. (Italy was an early hotspot in the COVID-19 pandemic.)
In 2021, German lawyer Thomas Bach was re-elected as president of the International Olympic Committee today by a vote of 93 to one.
In 2021, a Manitoba man who rammed a gate at Rideau Hall before arming himself and heading on foot toward Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's home was sentenced to six years in prison. But with time served, that's down to five. Corey Hurren, a 46-year-old sausage-maker and military reservist, had faced 21 weapons charges and one count of threatening the prime minister. He pleaded guilty last month to seven weapons charges related to possession of prohibited or restricted firearms and one charge of mischief. He caused 100-thousand dollars worth of damage to the Rideau Hall gate.
In 2021, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says his office knew there was an allegation of sexual misconduct against then-defence chief General Jonathan Vance in 2018. But he told the House of Commons today that he and others in government did not know the specifics. Then, last month Global News reported that Vance allegedly had an ongoing relationship with a subordinate that continued after he became defence chief in 2015. He also allegedly sent a lewd email to a much younger soldier in 2012. Vance denied any wrongdoing.
In 2021, two million Canadians had received a first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. Canada passed the milestone earlier in the day, as most provinces delayed a second dose by up to four months in an effort to inoculate more people more quickly. About 580-thousand people had received both doses by this point.
In 2022, the Walt Disney Company was the latest big name to join the list of organizations no longer doing business in Russia because of its invasion of Ukraine. The company had previously announced it was pausing all film releases in Russia, but it now said it was pausing all other businesses in the country, including cruise ships, National Geographic magazine issues and tours, local productions, product licensing and its TV networks.
In 2023, the federal government gave the green light to WestJet's takeover of Sunwing. Transport Minister Omar Alghabra says the decision "was not taken lightly.'' He notes the travel chaos that erupted over the winter holidays and left Sunwing passengers stranded abroad for days.
In 2023, bank regulators seized the assets of one of Silicon Valley's top banks, marking the largest failure of a U.S. financial institution since the height of the financial crisis almost 15 years prior. Silicon Valley Bank was the country's 16th-largest bank, and it failed after depositors hurried to withdraw money amid anxiety over the bank's health. The bank served mostly technology workers and venture capital-backed companies, including some of the industry's best-known brands.
In 2024, the Dominican Republic said Haiti's prime minister is not welcome in the country. President Luis Abinader issued a statement saying safety reasons prevent Ariel Henry from entering the Dominican Republic, which had now closed its land and air borders with Haiti as gang violence there escalated.
In 2024, Al-Qaida said the leader of its branch in Yemen is dead. The militant group provided no further details but released a video showing the body of Khalid al-Batarfi wrapped in a funeral shroud of the al-Qaida black-and-white flag. The U.S. government had placed a US$5-million bounty on al-Batarfi's head over his role in leading al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula. It has long been considered the most dangerous branch of the extremist group still in operation after the killing of its founder Osama bin Laden.
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The Canadian Press
