Today in History for April 25:
In 912, Venice was founded and its main square named after St. Mark to honour his feast day.
In 1214, Louis IX, king of France and saint, was born. Leader of the Seventh and Eighth Crusades (he died on the latter), he was known for his humility.
In 1507, German cartographer Martin Waldseemueller named a huge land mass in the Western Hemisphere "America," in honor of Italian navigator Amerigo Vespucci.
In 1599, Oliver Cromwell, Puritan lord protector of England, was born near Cambridge. As lord protector he sought to allow more freedom of religion.
In 1792, a highwayman named Nicolas Pelletier became the first person to be guillotined in France when he was executed in Paris.
In 1849, Gov. Gen. Lord Elgin signed into law a bill providing payment for people who lost property in the rebellions of 1837-38. English Quebecers were infuriated the Queen's representative would sign a bill rewarding treason. Rioting broke out and the Parliament buildings in Montreal were burned down. Lord Elgin was almost killed, but he could not call out British troops to quell the riots because they were not to interfere in a Canadian civil matter.
In 1850, news agency founder Paul Julius Reuter used 40 pigeons to carry stock market prices between Brussels and Aachen, Belgium.
In 1859, ground was broken for the Suez Canal. It was completed 10 years later.
In 1898, the United States formally declared war on Spain.
In 1940, Quebec women received the right to vote and stand for office in provincial elections.
In 1945, delegates from 45 countries met in San Francisco to organize the United Nations, an international body whose stated purpose was to protect future generations from the scourge of war. The organization grew out of talks during the Second World War between Britain, the United States, the Soviet Union and China. Canada argued against the system of permanent membership on the Security Council and the accompanying veto.
In 1945, during the Second World War, U.S. and Soviet forces linked up on the Elbe River, a meeting that dramatized the collapse of Nazi Germany's defences.
In 1950, the federal and provincial governments agreed to build the Trans-Canada Highway. It was officially opened in 1962, but not completed for a few more years.
In 1953, the structure of DNA was first described in the British publication "Nature" by geneticists James Watson of the U.S. and Francis Crick of Britain. The discovery won them a Nobel Prize.
In 1959, the St. Lawrence Seaway opened to shipping as the first ship entered the locks south of Montreal.
In 1967, the House of Commons passed legislation merging the army, navy and air force into the Canadian Armed Forces.
In 1979, Manitoba's Court of Appeal ruled invalid an 1890 provincial law barring French in the legislature, courts and schools.
In 1982, Britain recaptured the Falkland Islands from Argentina.
In 1989, details of federal Finance Minister Michael Wilson's budget were leaked by Global TV reporter Doug Small. When the opposition parties rejected Wilson's request for an evening sitting of the Commons, he announced budget highlights at a news conference.
In 1990, the "Hubble" space telescope was released from the space shuttle "Discovery" and put in Earth's orbit. But various mechanical problems forced a repair mission by a later shuttle crew.
In 1990, Violeta Barrios de Chamorro was inaugurated as president of Nicaragua, ending 11 years of leftist Sandinista rule.
In 1995, dancer and film star Ginger Rogers died at age 83. Although her career lasted 65 years, Rogers is best remembered for her partnership with Fred Astaire in movie musicals from 1933-1949.
In 1998, Lt.-Col. Karen McCrimmon became the first woman to lead a front-line operations unit in the Canadian military. She took command of a transport squadron at Canadian Forces Base Trenton in eastern Ontario.
Also in 1998, prisoners at Manitoba's Headingley Correctional Centre went on a rampage, beating guards and torturing other inmates in a 24-hour riot at the jail near Winnipeg.
In 1999, more than 70,000 mourners gathered in Littleton, Colo., to remember the victims of the Columbine High School massacre.
In 2004, more than 40,000 members of the Hospital Employees Union went on strike in British Columbia. The B.C. government introduced back-to-work legislation four days later to end the job action and imposed a 15 per cent wage cut in a two-year contract. Workers defied the legislation and stayed off the job. A general strike was averted when the province and the union reached a last-minute agreement on May 2.
In 2005, a packed commuter train jumped the tracks in Amagasaki in western Japan and rammed into an apartment complex, killing at least 94 people and injuring more than 458 in Japan's deadliest rail accident in four decades.
In 2007, the federal government announced it would ban the sale of inefficient light bulbs by 2012, in a move to reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gases.
In 2008, hundreds of people were airlifted out of the flood-prone Kashechewan reserve, a northern Ontario community that had faced four emergency evacuations in four years.
In 2008, three New York police detectives were acquitted in the 50-shot killing of unarmed Sean Bell on his wedding day.
In 2014, in a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled Prime Minister Stephen Harper's plans to reform the scandal-plagued Senate could not be done unilaterally by the federal government but would require constitutional amendments approved by at least seven provinces representing 50 per cent of the population.
In 2015, nearly 9,000 people, including two Canadians, were killed when a 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck Nepal and across a swath of four countries. It collapsed houses, levelled centuries-old temples and triggered avalanches on Mt. Everest. A second earthquake on May 12 killed over 200 more people.
In 2018, Canadians Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford, who teamed up for two pairs world championship titles and three Olympic medals over their careers, officially announced their retirement from competitive figure skating.
In 2018, Joseph DeAngelo, 72, was accused of being the Golden State Killer who terrorized suburban California neighbourhoods in a spate of brutal rapes and slayings in the 1970s and '80s before leaving a cold trail that baffled investigators for decades. He was charged with eight counts of murder in three counties after being linked to the crimes through his DNA. Authorities said he was responsible for a dozen slayings and some 50 rapes and that other charges could be filed.
In 2019, Canada's federal privacy commissioner announced he would take Facebook to court to enforce privacy laws on the social-media giant, following a major leak of personal data that was later used for political purposes. A long-awaited joint report from Daniel Therrien and B.C. privacy commissioner Michael McEvoy found major shortcomings in Facebook's practices and called for stronger laws to protect Canadians. The commissioners also expressed dismay that Facebook has rebuffed their findings and recommendations.
In 2020, British Columbia reported its first COVID-19-related death in a First Nation, as the provincewide death toll rose to 100.
In 2021, Chloé Zhao made history at the Academy Awards. Zhao won the Oscar for best director for ''Nomadland,'' becoming just the second woman and the first woman of colour to win the award.
In 2022, the Public Order Emergency Commission being struck to investigate the government's use of the Emergencies Act would have until Feb. 20 to submit its final report. The Liberal government invoked the Emergencies Act for the first time in history earlier in the year in response to blockades at border crossings and in Ottawa that began as opposition to COVID-19 restrictions. The Prime Minister's Office said the commission would examine the evolution of the so-called "freedom convoy," the impact of funding and disinformation, the economic impact, and police actions both before and after the declaration.
In 2022, Defence Minister Anita Anand released a scathing report on racism that said the Canadian Armed Forces hadn't done enough over the past 20 years to address racism and discrimination. It also found the military's efforts to detect and prevent white supremacists and other extremists from infiltrating its ranks were both inefficient and insufficient. The report said the military needed to act on hundreds of recommendations made in previous studies and reviews that have been ignored or shelved over the past two decades.
In 2023, a deal was reached to replace Calgary's aging Saddledome with a new event centre and make improvements to the surrounding area east of downtown. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said it wouldn't get final approval until after the provincial election the following month. The project came with a $1.2-billion price tag, including $800 million for a new arena for the Calgary Flames.
In 2023, Barbie introduced its first doll representing a person with Down syndrome. Mattel worked with the National Down syndrome Society to create the Barbie.
In 2023, social workers in British Columbia were no longer able to access a parent's medical records without their consent, a search warrant or a court order. The British Columbia Court of Appeal struck down the section of the province's child protection legislation allowing broad access to a parents' medical history, calling it unconstitutional.
In 2023, Quebec's Court of Appeal approved a $28-million settlement in a class-action lawsuit filed against the Clerics of Saint-Viateur of Canada by 375 sexual-assault victims. The 2017 lawsuit was about sex crimes committed since 1935 at more than 20 establishments run by the Quebec-based Catholic religious order.
---
The Canadian Press