Today in History for is May 13:
In 1110, Crusaders captured Beirut, causing a bloodbath.
In 1607, the English colony at Jamestown, Va., was settled.
In 1881, a revised New Testament went on sale. By day's end, 800,000 copies had been sold.
In 1898, the Yukon Territory was organized with Dawson City as its capital.
In 1917, three children near Fatima, Portugal, reported seeing a vision of the Virgin Mary.
In 1918, the first U.S. airmail stamps, featuring a picture of an airplane, were introduced. On some of the stamps, the airplane was printed upside-down, making them collector's items.
In 1940, Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands and her daughter Juliana fled the Nazis from The Hague to London during the Second World War. Princess Juliana brought her children to Canada for safety. Every spring, Ottawa receives a gift of 15,000 tulips from the Netherlands.
In 1940, in his first speech as British prime minister, Winston Churchill told the Commons, "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat."
In 1954, Canada and the U.S. agreed to build the St. Lawrence Seaway. The project included building seven locks, deepening navigation channels and constructing a power facility near Cornwall, Ont. As well, bridges and tunnels were built and parts of two Ontario communities were relocated.
In 1972, Virginia O'Hanlan died. In 1897, at the age of eight, she wrote to the "New York Sun," asking if there was a Santa Claus. It prompted the editorial reply that began, "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus..."
In 1977, the Roman Catholic Church approved a decree which allowed it to recognize marriages of men who had undergone vasectomies.
In 1981, Pope John Paul was shot in St. Peter's Square by Turkish assailant Mehmet Ali Agca. The pontiff recovered from serious abdominal wounds and resumed his duties. Agca, an escaped convict, was sentenced to life in prison. He was released on Jan. 18, 2010.
In 1985, a police helicopter dropped a bomb on a Philadelphia rowhouse, ending a 24-hour armed confrontation with the radical group MOVE. The explosion sparked a fire that destroyed 61 homes. Eleven people -- six adult MOVE members and five children -- were killed.
In 1991, South African activist Winnie Mandela and two co-defendants were convicted of abducting four young black men and keeping them at her Soweto home.
In 1992, three astronauts from the space shuttle "Endeavour" captured a wayward satellite during the first-ever three-person spacewalk.
In 1998, Dr. Maurice Generoux, the first Canadian doctor convicted of assisted suicide, was sentenced to two years in jail and three years probation. Generoux, a Toronto AIDS specialist, prescribed lethal doses of sleeping pills to two healthy but depressed HIV-infected men. One man killed himself with an overdose; the other patient overdosed but survived.
In 1999, Gene Sarazen, one of only five men to win all four major pro golf titles, died at age 97.
In 2002, Stephen Harper, then the new leader of the Canadian Alliance, won a byelection in Calgary Southwest.
In 2003, insolvent Air Canada cut routes and grounded 40 planes as a result of a steep drop in traffic due to the SARS outbreak that came on the heels of war in Iraq.
In 2003, John Savage, the former Nova Scotia premier who rose from running a free clinic to holding Nova Scotia's highest office, died at age 70.
In 2004, Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee resigned after his governing coalition lost the parliamentary election, ending his nearly six years in power.
In 2005, discount airline Jetsgo announced formal bankruptcy, setting the stage for the sale of the carrier's remaining aircraft to help pay creditors an estimated $108 million.
In 2007, Canada wrapped up an undefeated run at the World Hockey Championship with a 4-2 win over Finland in the gold medal game.
In 2008, the Conservative government earmarked $29 million for its "historical recognition programs" to atone for Canada's past wrongdoings and commemorate shameful acts in Canadian history.
In 2009, Pittsburgh Pirates' Adam LaRoche became the first player to have a home run taken away following a video replay review. He had to settle for a double. A few hours later in Milwaukee, Florida Marlins' Ross Gload lost one the same way when umpires reversed their call, ruling the ball was foul.
In 2009, Quebec Premier Jean Charest launched the Romaine River hydroelectric project, calling it the biggest construction initiative in Canada. Four dams will be built on the Romaine River on Quebec's Lower North Shore by 2020.
In 2010, Pte. Kevin McKay, 24, of 1st Battalion, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, was killed by an improvised explosive device about 15 kilometres southwest of Kandahar city.
In 2011, the Supreme Court of Canada unanimously ruled that daily agendas produced by the prime minister and his cabinet are not subject to the access-to-information law.
In 2011, a pair of Taliban suicide bombers attacked recruits leaving a paramilitary training centre in Shabqadar, Pakistan, killing 80 people in the first retaliation for the killing of Osama bin Laden by American commandos. The Taliban blamed the Pakistani military for failing to stop the U.S. raid.
In 2011, Wallace McCain, the mogul and philanthropist who helped turn a small New Brunswick french fry plant into the McCain Foods multi-billion-dollar frozen foods empire and later went on to control meat processor Maple Leaf Foods, died after a 14-month battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 81.
In 2013, Joyce Brothers, the pop psychologist who pioneered the television advice show in the 1950s and enjoyed a long and prolific career as a syndicated columnist, author, and television and film personality, died of respiratory failure. She was 85.
In 2018, Canadian-born actress Margot Kidder, best known for her role opposite Christopher Reeve in the "Superman" films of the 1970s and 1980s, died at age 69. She went on to become an advocate for mental health issues after speaking out about living with bipolar disorder.
In 2018, Webb Simpson closed out with a double-bogey but still won The Players Championship by four strokes.
In 2019, Onex Corp. signed a friendly deal to buy WestJet Airlines Ltd. in a transaction it valued at $5 billion, including assumed debt. Under the agreement, Onex would pay $31 per share for WestJet, which will continue to operate as a privately held company. The deal comes after Onex approached the airline in March. Completion of the transaction is subject to a number of conditions, including court, regulatory and shareholder approvals. WestJet's board of directors unanimously recommended shareholders vote in favour of the deal.
In 2019, Doris Day, the honey-voiced singer and actress whose film dramas, musicals and innocent sex comedies made her a top star in the 1950s and '60s and among the most popular screen actresses in history, has died. She was 97. The Doris Day Animal Foundation confirmed Day died at her Carmel Valley, California, home surrounded by close friends. With her lilting contralto, wholesome blonde beauty and glowing smile, she was a top box office draw and recording artist known for such films as "Pillow Talk" and "That Touch of Mink" and for such songs as "Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Que Sera, Sera)" from the Alfred Hitchcock film "The Man Who Knew Too Much."
In 2019, China announced it was raising tariffs on 60-billion dollars of imports from the United States in retaliation for the Trump administration's latest hike in tariffs on 200-billion dollars in Chinese exports. A day later, the U-S announced it was targeting a 300-billion-dollar list of additional Chinese imports for tariff hikes possibly in the next month.
In 2019, Stanton T. Friedman, nuclear physicist, lecturer and world-renowned devotee of extraterrestrial existence, died at the age of 84. The famed U-F-O researcher was on his way home to Fredericton from a speaking engagement in Ohio when he died at Toronto's Pearson International Airport. Although he had never seen one himself, Friedman built a reputation as a leading authority on unidentified flying objects, alien abductions and the so-called Roswell incident, considered by many to be the definitive U-F-O event.
In 2021, Canada's ethics commissioner cleared Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of any violations for failing to recuse himself from cabinet discussions over WE Charity. But commissioner Mario Dion found that former finance minister Bill Morneau did violate the rules and should have recused himself. The organization was to have operated a federal student-volunteer program.
In 2021, Greyhound Canada decided to permanently cut all bus routes across the country, shutting down the intercity bus carrier's operations in Canada after nearly a century of service. The motor coach company said its remaining routes in Ontario and Quebec would cease permanently.
In 2021, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said fully vaccinated Americans could stop wearing masks outdoors in crowds and in most indoor settings. The new guidance from the CDC still called for wearing masks in crowded indoor settings like buses, planes and hospitals -- but it cleared the way for reopening workplaces and schools.
In 2021, Alberta Premier Jason Kenney's United Conservative caucus ejected two of its own for challenging the leader. Backbencher Todd Loewen got the boot for publicly announcing the party is adrift and out of touch under Kenney. Backbencher Drew Barnes had been the most vocal critic of Kenney's COVID-19 health restrictions.
In 2022, a 21-year-old Russian soldier was on trial in Kyiv for the killing of an unarmed Ukrainian civilian. It was the first war crime prosecution of a member of the Russian military after 11 weeks of bloodshed in Ukraine. The captured soldier was accused of shooting a 62-year-old Ukrainian man in the head through an open car window during the first days of the war.
In 2023, for the first time in 44 years – and only the third time in history – a woman was chosen to sit in the Speaker's chair in the Senate. Manitoba Sen. Raymonde Gagne was appointed to replace retiring George Furey.
In 2024, one of the top 10 richest Canadians died at the age of 93. Arthur L. Irving spent his life growing the oil business his father founded in New Brunswick. Forbes Magazine said Irving had an estimated net worth of $6.3-billion in 2023, which included a Saint John refinery that is the largest in the country. Irving attended Acadia University before joining Irving Oil in 1951, where he worked with his father and his two brothers.
In 2024, Canadian writer Alice Munro died at the age of 92. Munro's short stories of small-town Ontario earned her an international fan base and awards, including the Man Booker International Prize, the Commonwealth Writers' Prize, and multiple Scotiabank Giller Prizes and Governor General's Literary Awards. She also won the Nobel Prize in literature in 2013. Her daughter Jenny Munro said the celebrated writer had dementia for many years, and she died at a Port Hope, Ont., care home where she had spent her last days surrounded by family and friends. Munro's legacy was diminished in July 2024 after one of her daughters publicly accused Munro's second husband of sexual abuse.
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The Canadian Press
