Today in History for April 10:
In 1555, Pope Marcellus II was elected the 222nd in the line of Peter, but he didn't last a month, dying on May 1. He was the last pontiff to maintain his baptismal name.
In 1684, an ordinance prohibited emigration from French Canada to English colonies in the south.
In 1812, the United States called out the militia in preparation for the war against Canada that began on June 18.
In 1841, Halifax obtained its city charter.
In 1865, conservationist Jack Miner was born in Ohio. In 1908, he founded one of North America's first bird sanctuaries at his farm at Kingsville, Ont. After Miner's death in 1944, the federal government declared the week of his birthday National Wildlife Week.
In 1875, the Northwest Mounted Police received permission to build a post. It became the city of Calgary.
In 1889, the enlarged Welland Canal was opened between Lakes Erie and Ontario.
In 1912, the ``Titanic'' set sail from Southampton, England, on its maiden voyage. On the night of April 14, the luxury liner struck an iceberg about 150 kilometres south of Newfoundland's Grand Banks and sank within hours. More than 1,500 people perished. The catastrophe prompted measures to improve safety at sea, particularly the establishment of a patrol to make known the location of icebergs.
In 1919, Mexican revolutionary leader Emiliano Zapata was ambushed and killed by government troops.
In 1925, ``The Great Gatsby'' by F. Scott Fitzgerald was first published.
In 1932, Paul von Hindenburg defeated Adolf Hitler in a run-off election for the German presidency.
In 1937, an act of Parliament created Trans-Canada Airlines, now Air Canada.
In 1945, U.S. forces captured Hannover, Germany, while U.S. bombers hit Berlin and destroyed 397 enemy aircraft, many of them on the ground.
In 1957, Egypt reopened the Suez Canal to all shipping traffic. It had been closed due to wreckage resulting from the Suez Crisis.
In 1963, the nuclear-powered submarine ``USS Thresher'' sank during deep-diving tests off Cape Cod, Mass., in a disaster that claimed 129 lives.
In 1972, the U.S. and Soviet Union joined dozens of other countries in signing an agreement to ban biological warfare.
In 1974, Golda Meir announced her resignation as prime minister of Israel.
In 1990, the Mulroney government's GST bill was passed by the Commons on a vote of 144-114. After much stalling by the Liberals, and country-wide protests, the Senate passed the bill in December and it became law in January.
In 1991, an estimated 200,000 people in Belarus defied Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev by staging a work stoppage in the capital, Minsk.
In 1997, Manitoba began bracing for what turned out to be the highest Red River flood levels since 1852. The province formally requested the army's help in sandbagging efforts. What was dubbed the ``Flood of the Century'' turned southern Manitoba into a lake and forced 28,000 people from their homes as entire towns were cut off behind ring dikes.
In 1998, marathon Northern Ireland peace talks produced a landmark settlement on governing the British-ruled province. The accord was approved by voters in Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic six weeks later.
In 1998, an Ontario judicial inquiry reported that serious mistakes by police, prosecutors and forensic scientists helped wrongfully convict Guy Paul Morin of killing Christine Jessop, his nine-year-old neighbour in the Toronto-area village of Queensville. He had been convicted of the murder in 1984.
In 2003, British Airways and Air France announced they would end their Concorde service because of falling passenger demand. (The last flights flew into London's Heathrow Airport on Oct. 24.)
In 2006, the Conservative government of Stephen Harper outlawed the Tamil Tigers, making it illegal for anyone in Canada to support or help the group fighting for an independent Tamil state in Sri Lanka.
In 2010, Polish President Lech Kaczynski, his wife and some of the country's highest military and civilian leaders were among 96 people who died when the presidential plane hit a tree and crashed as it came in for a landing in thick fog at Smolensk airport in western Russia. They were to attend events marking the 70th anniversary of the Katyn massacre of some 22,000 Polish officers by Soviet secret police during the Second World War.
In 2014, Jim Flaherty died suddenly at age 64, less than a month following his retirement from politics after serving as federal finance minister since 2006. Flaherty steered the Canadian economy through the global financial crisis of 2008-09 and revealed in 2013 that he was suffering from a rare and painful skin condition. A state funeral was held in Toronto on April 16.
In 2016, Danny Willet shot 5-under to win the Masters at Augusta National as defending champ Jordan Spieth imploded, starting the back nine at 7-under with a five stroke lead but finished tied for second, three shots back.
In 2018, Canadian swimmer Taylor Ruck, 17, picked up her eighth medal (1-5-2) at the Commonwealth Games in Australia, tying the record for the most medals at a single games. (Australians swimmers Susie O'Neill (1998) and Emily Seebohm (2010))
In 2019, scientists revealed the first image ever made of a black hole, depicting a fiery orange and black ring of gravity-twisted light swirling around the edge of the abyss. The picture, assembled from data gathered by eight radio telescopes around the world, showed the hot, shadowy lip of a supermassive black hole, one of the light-sucking monsters of the universe theorized by Einstein more than a century ago and confirmed by observations for decades. A team of about 200 scientists from 20 countries was involved including University of Waterloo physicist Avery Broderick, The co-discoverer declared: ``Science fiction has become science fact.''
In 2019, Toronto Mayor John Tory said he was cautiously optimistic about the provincial government's $28.5 billion plan to expand transit through the city and into surrounding regions. Premier Doug Ford said the province would contribute $11.2 billion towards the plan, which includes a new 15-kilometre downtown subway relief line as well as a three-stop subway line in Scarborough. Ford said the province had been in discussions with the federal government, the City of Toronto and York Region about funding for the project, but Ontario will shoulder the whole burden if necessary.
In 2020, the worldwide death toll from the novel coronavirus hit 100,000.
In 2020, Los Angeles prosecutors said they had charged Harvey Weinstein with an additional count of felony sexual battery by restraint. The charge was filed over allegations the former movie mogul sexually assaulted a woman at a Beverly Hills hotel in May 2010. Weinstein was convicted of rape earlier in the year in New York.
In 2021, Prince Charles spoke publicly for the first time since his father died. He said the Royal Family was grateful for the outpouring of support they received following the death of his father, Prince Philip. He said his "dear papa'' would have been amazed at the touching things people were saying about him.
In 2022, Canada used a new round of sanctions against Moscow to target Russia's defence industry. Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly said the latest measures would impose restrictions on 33 entities in the Russian defence sector, including the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. She said the organizations had provided support to the Russian military and were therefore complicit in the pain and suffering from Vladimir Putin's unjustifiable war in Ukraine.
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The Canadian Press