Today in History for April 5:
On this date:
In 1614, in Virginia, Indian chief Powhatan’s daughter, Pocahontas, married English colonist John Rolfe. She was one of the first North American native converts to Christianity. She went by the name Lady Rebecca.
In 1669, New France governor Jean Talon introduced bonuses for large families. Canada’s first baby bonus amounted to 300 livres to families of 10 children and 400 to families of 12.
In 1753, the British Museum was founded in London.
In 1792, George Washington cast the first U.S. presidential veto, rejecting a congressional measure for apportioning representatives among the states.
In 1832, the town of Brockville, Ont., was incorporated.
In 1842, the Gesner Museum, Canada’s first public museum, opened in Saint John, N.B.
In 1861, a bill calling for “representation by population” was introduced in the Canadian parliament. “Rep by pop” was an idea espoused by a couple of the fathers of Confederation, including George Brown. Under the 1941 Act of Union, Canada West (Ontario) and Canada East (Quebec) were given an equal number of representatives in Parliament at a time when Quebec had the greater population. But after the census of 1851 revealed that Canada West had the greater population, politicians there were vocal in their calls for a change. The question was not settled until Confederation, in 1867.
In 1875, an Act of Parliament created the Supreme Court of Canada. The court sat for the first time on Jan. 17, 1876.
In 1887, in Tuscumbia, Ala., teacher Anne Sullivan achieved a breakthrough as her blind and deaf pupil, Helen Keller, learned the meaning of the word “water” as spelled out in the Manual Alphabet.
In 1887, British historian Lord Acton wrote in a letter, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.”
In 1895, Oscar Wilde lost his libel case against the Marquess of Queensberry, who had accused the Irish playwright of homosexual practices. Wilde was later prosecuted and jailed.
In 1908, the first rotary telephones in Canada for general use were put into service in Edmonton.
In 1951, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg became the first American citizens sentenced to death in an espionage case. They were executed on June 19, 1953.
In 1955, Winston Churchill retired as British prime minister at the age of 80.
In 1963, a “hot” telephone line between Washington and Moscow was accepted by the Soviets.
In 1964, U.S. Army General Douglas MacArthur died in Washington at age 84.
In 1971, the Gentilly nuclear power plant opened in Quebec. It was the world’s first nuclear plant to use the Candu system, with a reactor fuelled by natural uranium and cooled by water.
In 1974, A.Y. Jackson, a leading member of the “Group of Seven” painters, died in Kleinburg, Ont., at age 91.
In 1975, Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek died.
In 1976, reclusive American billionaire Howard Hughes died of kidney failure during a flight from Acapulco, Mexico, to Houston for medical treatment. Hughes was 72.
In 1984, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar of the Los Angeles Lakers became the NBA’s all-time scoring leader when he reached 31,432 points in a game against the Utah Jazz. He retired after the 1988-89 season following a 20-year career that netted 38,387 points.
In 1988, a 15-day hijacking ordeal began as gunmen forced a Kuwait Airways jet to land in Iran.
In 1989, the Polish government legalized the Solidarity union and introduced democratic reforms.
In 1997, one of the worst spring storms in Manitoba history blew into the southern part of the province and lasted several days. It set records for the worst April disturbance since records began in 1876. Winnipeg’s downtown remained virtually paralysed through April 7 while residents dug out.
In 1999, the United Nations lifted sanctions against Libya after two Libyans arrived in the Netherlands to face trial in the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am flight over Scotland.
In 1999, in Laramie, Wyo., Russell Henderson pleaded guilty to kidnapping and felony murder in the death of Matthew Shepard, a gay college student. Henderson was later sentenced to life in prison.
In 2003, 29-year-old Robert Ghiz, the son of former P.E.I. Liberal premier Joe Ghiz, won the provincial party leadership on the first ballot.
In 2005, an estimated one million people waited in line for hours to pay their last respects as the body of Pope John Paul lay in state.
In 2005, ABC News anchor Peter Jennings announced he had lung cancer. He died four months later on Aug. 7.
In 2005, Canadian-born author Saul Bellow, who became the Nobel Prize-winning author of “Herzog” and “Humboldt’s Gift,” died at age 89.
In 2005, Dale Messick, whose long-running comic strip “Brenda Starr, Reporter” gave her entry into the male world of the funny pages, died at age 98. Messick’s strip ran in 250 newspapers at its peak in the 1950s.
In 2006, Gail Vickery was named chief judge of Alberta, the first woman in history to hold the position.
In 2008, actor Charlton Heston, who won an Academy Award in 1959 for his starring role in the film epic “Ben-Hur,” died in Beverly Hills at the age of 84. With his baritone voice, Heston portrayed Moses, Michelangelo, El Cid and other heroic figures in films of the 1950s and 1960s. His film credits include “The Greatest Show on Earth,” “El Cid,” “The Greatest Story Ever Told,” “The Ten Commandments,” and “Planet of the Apes.” He was leader of the National Rifle Association of America from 1998-2003.
In 2010, 115 Chinese miners were pulled out alive after being trapped for over a week in a flooded coal mine in northern China, surviving an accident that had killed 38.
In 2010, 29 miners were killed in an explosion at Massey Energy Co.’s Upper Big Branch underground coal mine in Raleigh County, W. Va.
In 2012, legislation abolishing the federal long-gun registry was given royal assent. Quebec won a court injunction barring destruction of data from that province while it fought to preserve the information to start its own registry. (In June 2013, the Quebec Court of Appeal ruled against the province, as did the Supreme Court in March 2015.)
In 2018, a four-month-old baby girl died and 14 others suffering from influenza-like symptoms were taken to hospital from a crowded home on the Wesley First Nation, one of three reserves that make up the Stoney Nakoda First Nation near Morley, about 60 kilometres west of Calgary.
In 2018, in their final home game and penultimate game before retirement, Daniel Sedin scored the winning goal in overtime, off an assist from twin brother Henrik, as the Vancouver Canucks defeated the Arizona Coyotes 4-3.
In 2020, Canada’s leading doctor announced that hospitals should not throw out used face masks and other protective equipment as the COVID-19 pandemic grew in scope. Doctor Theresa Tam said public health officers were looking at whether it’s possible to disinfect and re-use them. She stated that figuring out how to de-contaminate equipment looks very promising to ensure front-line health workers have the personal protection they need.
In 2021, disgraced film producer Harvey Weinstein appealed his rape conviction. Weinstein said he was made a “media villain” and put on trial in a “highly volatile and prejudicial atmosphere” that failed to safeguard his right to a fair trial.
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The Canadian Press