Today in History for Feb. 3:
In 1690, the first paper money in the American colonies was issued by Massachusetts -- to pay soldiers fighting a war against Quebec.
In 1843, pioneer railway executive William Cornelius Van Horne was born in Chelsea, Ill. Named general manager of the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1882, Van Horne supervised completion of Canada's first nation-wide railway. He became CPR president in 1888, and was knighted six years later. Van Horne died in Montreal in 1915.
In 1865, the Canadian legislature resolved in an address to the Queen to ask for the union of the provinces of British North America.
In 1894, American artist Norman Rockwell was born. He died in 1978.
In 1916, fire destroyed the centre block of Canada's Parliament Buildings. Seven people were killed in the blaze. The Parliamentary Library and its priceless collection of books was saved because someone had closed the metal doors which separated it from the rest of the Centre Block. Many people initially believed that the fire was a deliberate act of sabotage by the Germans, with whom Canada was at war. Reconstruction of the building, which contains the Commons and Senate chambers, was completed in 1920.
In 1927, the United States appointed William Phillips as its first ambassador to Canada.
In 1959, Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. ``The Big Bopper'' Richardson died when their small plane crashed in a cornfield near Mason City, Iowa.
In 1961, Ottawa approved the merger of the Imperial Bank of Canada and the Canadian Bank of Commerce.
In 1966, an unmanned Soviet satellite, ``Luna 9,'' became the first man-made spacecraft to make a soft landing on the moon.
In 1967, Prime Minister Lester Pearson announced the formation of a Royal Commission on the Status of Women. Chaired by journalist Florence Bird, it was the first such panel headed by a woman. Its 1970 report made 167 recommendations aimed at ending sexual inequality in Canada, including paid maternity leave.
In 1969, Yasser Arafat was elected chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization's executive committee during a council meeting in Cairo, Egypt.
In 1985, Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu was installed as the first black bishop of Johannesburg's Anglican diocese.
In 1994, the Federal Court of Canada upheld a human rights tribunal ruling that the Canadian Forces' mandatory retirement policy violated human rights law. The court said the military should develop a fitness standard instead of relying on an arbitrary age rule.
In 1994, a Russian cosmonaut was part of a six-member team that blasted off aboard the space shuttle ``Discovery.'' It was the first U.S.-Russian space mission since the Apollo era.
In 1995, the shuttle ``Discovery'' blasted off with Air Force Lieutenant Eileen Collins in the pilot's seat -- the first time in NASA history that a woman commanded a shuttle mission.
In 1998, convicted murderer Karla Faye Tucker was executed by injection in Huntsville, Texas, becoming the first woman executed in the state since the U.S. Civil War.
In 1998, a U.S. Marine jet sliced through a cable car line at a ski resort in northern Italy, sending 20 people in one car plunging to their deaths. A month later, a military jury found the pilot and his navigator not guilty of flying recklessly. They were later court-martialed because they destroyed a videotape made during the flight, were found guilty in 1999 and both dismissed from the service with the pilot also receiving a six month sentence.
In 2001, Roger Grimes was elected by Newfoundland's Liberal party to replace Brian Tobin as party leader and premier.
In 2005, a Kam Air Boeing 737 flying from Herat to Kabul, crashed near the Afghan capital in a snowstorm, killing all 108 people on board, including the Russian-born Canadian co-pilot.
In 2006, more than 1,000 people died after an Egyptian ferry sank in rough waters in the Red Sea.
In 2008, the New England Patriots pursuit of an undefeated season was dashed as they lost to the New York Giants 17-14 in Super Bowl XLII in Glendale, Ariz. The 1972 Miami Dolphins remain the only team to achieve an undefeated season.
In 2009, vehicle sales in China for January surpassed those in the United States for the first time ever, underscoring the depth of the automotive slump in North America.
In 2009, Iran launched its first domestically-made satellite into space.
In 2011, a massive cyclone, with heavy rain and howling winds gusting to 300 km/h, struck northeastern Australia, tearing off roofs, toppling trees and cutting power to thousands. It compounded the suffering for Queensland state, waterlogged by months of flooding that killed 35 people and inundated hundreds of communities.
In 2013, in the first Super Bowl to feature brothers as opposing coaches, John Harbaugh's Baltimore Ravens staved off the younger Jim's San Francisco 49ers 34-31 at the Superdome in New Orleans, highlighted by a half-hour power outage.
In 2016, U.S. home improvement retailer Lowe's announced it would buy Quebec-based Rona Inc. in a friendly $3.2 billion cash deal. The deal closed on May 20.
In 2019, Kristoff St. John of ``The Young and the Restless'' was found dead in his home in Los Angeles. He was 52. The actor played the struggling alcoholic and ladies' man Neil Winters for 27 years.
In 2019, the New England Patriots added another chapter to their NFL legacy by beating the Los Angeles Rams 13-3 to win Super Bowl 53. It was the lowest-scoring Super Bowl in the 53-year history of the game and New England's sixth Vince Lombardi Trophy under head coach Bill Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady.
In 2020, the Kansas City Chiefs won their first Super Bowl victory in 50 years, beating the San Francisco 49ers 31-20 in Miami. Shakira and Jennifer Lopez performed together at the half-time show.
In 2020, Iran's civilian government said it didn't know for days that the Revolutionary Guard had shot down a Ukrainian airliner. Iranian civil aviation authorities for days insisted it wasn't a missile that brought down the plane, even after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and U.S. officials began saying they believed it had been shot down. All 176 people on board Ukraine International Airlines Flight PS752 were killed, including 55 Canadian citizens, 30 permanent residents and dozens of others with connections to Canada.
In 2020, the federal government chartered two aircraft to get Canadians out of Wuhan, China as the novel coronavirus continued to spread.
In 2020, Calgary city councillors unanimously voted to ban conversion therapy, which aims to change someone's sexual orientation through counselling or religion.
In 2021, Canada's top defence officials said they were troubled by allegations that former defence chief Jonathan Vance had engaged in inappropriate behaviour with female subordinates. Global News reported that Vance allegedly had an ongoing relationship with a woman he significantly outranked. Vance is also alleged to have made a sexual comment to a second, much younger soldier in 2012, before he was appointed chief of the defence staff.
In 2021, Oxford University released a study showing the vaccine it developed with AstraZeneca cuts transmission of COVID-19 by two-thirds and prevents severe disease. A top AstraZeneca official said no patients experienced severe disease or hospitalization three weeks after receiving a first dose, and its effectiveness appeared to increase up to 12 weeks after the initial shot.
In 2021, the federal government added the Proud Boys to its list of terrorist organizations, along with three other right-wing groups, after the group played a pivotal role in the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. Groups on the list of terrorist entities may have their assets seized, and there are serious criminal penalties for helping listed organizations carry out extremist activities.
In 2021, Louise Bernice Halfe, who has won accolades for weaving Cree language and teachings into her works, was named Canada's new parliamentary poet laureate. Halfe, who is also known by the Cree name Sky Dancer, is the ninth poet named to the post and the first to come from an Indigenous community.
In 2022, the group of truckers and their supporters clogging the streets of downtown Ottawa were now calling their movement Freedom Convoy 2022. Police were estimating they had spent more than $3 million to manage the protest, which some Ottawa city councillors started calling an "occupation."
In 2024, Northern Ireland's government would be led by an Irish nationalist for the first time in history. Sinn Fein vice-president Michelle O'Neill was nominated as first minister as the government returns to work after a two-year boycott by unionists. Northern Ireland's two main communities – British unionists who want to stay in the U.K. and Irish nationalists who seek to unite with Ireland – share power.
In 2024, thousands of people took part in anti-government protests in Tel Aviv in an outpouring of growing frustration at how Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his administration were handling the war with Hamas. Among the protesters were families of hostages still being held in Gaza calling for a deal to have everyone freed.
In 2024, the U.S. and Britain launched new strikes on 36 Houthi targets in Yemen in a second wave of assaults aimed at further disabling groups backed by Iran that were relentlessly attacking U.S. and international interests since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.
-----
The Canadian Press