Today in History for Jan. 7:
In 1450, in Scotland, the University of Glasgow was founded.
In 1610, Italian astronomer Galileo discovered the four satellites of Jupiter and named them Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto.
In 1714, Englishman Henry Mill patented the first typewriter, but it was never manufactured.
In 1785, Jean-Pierre Blanchard made the first balloon crossing of the English Channel.
In 1789, the first U.S. presidential election was held. Americans voted for electors who, a month later, chose George Washington to be the nation's first president.
In 1827, Sir Sandford Fleming, the prolific Canadian engineer and inventor, was born in Scotland. Fleming arrived in Canada in 1845 and became the chief engineer and surveyor for the construction of the Intercolonial Railway and the Canadian Pacific Railway. He also developed the concept of international standard time, which was adopted in 1884. As well, Fleming designed the first Canadian postage stamp, which was issued in 1851.
In 1830, the United States' first commercial railroad service started as the B&O Railway Company put a horse-drawn carriage onto a steel track.
In 1844, Bernadette Soubirous, whose visions of Mary led to the establishment of the Shrine of Lourdes in southwest France, was born.
In 1856, the first gas street lights were turned on in Bytown, now Ottawa.
In 1859, Canadian silver coins were first issued.
In 1867, Private Timothy O'Hea was awarded the Victoria Cross for bravery. In June 1866, he protected the lives of 800 immigrants on a Grand Trunk Railway train from a fire in a boxcar carrying explosives at Danville, Que. It was the only V.C. awarded for a brave deed not done in the face of the enemy.
In 1914, the first steamship passed through the Panama Canal.
In 1927, commercial phone service began between New York and London, England.
In 1942, the Japanese siege of Bataan began during the Second World War.
In 1953, President Harry Truman announced that the United States had developed a hydrogen bomb.
In 1955, the opening of the Canadian Parliament was broadcast on television for the first time.
In 1960, Antonio Barrette became premier of Quebec following the death of Paul Sauve.
In 1963, one of Canada's best-known dance halls, the Palace Pier in Toronto, was destroyed by fire.
In 1974, Bora Laskin was sworn in as chief justice of the Supreme Court of Canada.
In 1979, Vietnam forces conquered the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh.
In 1980, the Philadelphia Flyers' NHL-record unbeaten streak ended at 35 games (25 wins, 10 ties) with a 7-1 loss to the Minnesota North Stars.
In 1981, a boat carrying passengers and cargo sank in the River Jari in northwestern Brazil, drowning at least 270 of the 300 people aboard.
In 1986, Kingston Canadians netminder Chris Clifford became the first goalie to score a goal in the 53-year history of the Ontario Hockey League.
In 1986, U.S. President Ronald Reagan ordered an economic boycott of Libya and recalled all American citizens from the country in retaliation for its backing of terrorist attacks on passengers at the Rome and Vienna airports.
In 1989, Emperor Hirohito of Japan died at the age of 87, after ruling for 62 years.
In 1990, for safety reasons, Italy's famous Leaning Tower of Pisa was closed to the public for the first time since it opened around 1275. It re-opened Dec. 15, 2001 after being stabilized in an effort that cost an estimated $40 million.
In 1996, a large part of the eastern U.S. was buried by the worst blizzard to hit the region in 70 years. The two-day storm was blamed for at least 100 deaths, including two Ontario men killed in separate traffic accidents.
In 1998, former NHL players' union leader Alan Eagleson, once considered the mightiest man in professional hockey, pleaded guilty to three counts of fraud involving hundreds of thousands of dollars in Canada Cup money from the 1984, 1987 and 1991 tournaments. Eagleson was fined and served six months in prison. He resigned from the Hockey Hall of Fame, was removed from the Order of Canada and Canada's Sports Hall of Fame, and disbarred by the Law Society of Upper Canada.
In 1999, the U.S. Senate formally opened its impeachment trial against President Bill Clinton.
In 2002, Ottawa said Canadian troops would be heading into a combat mission under U.S. control in southern Afghanistan.
In 2004, Sudan's government and rebels signed a landmark agreement to share the proceeds from oil fields as part of an overall peace agreement.
In 2004, Doug Creighton, a veteran newspaperman who defied skeptics to found the Toronto Sun in 1971 and build a successful chain of papers, died at age 75.
In 2007, the first sextuplets were born in Canada - to a woman in Vancouver and weighing 1.8 pounds each. The birth of the six babies was hailed as miraculous, but two of the infants, born three months premature, died a short time later. The B.C. government temporarily seized three of the babies and gave blood transfusions to two of them for health reasons. The parents, who were Jehovah's Witnesses, filed a court challenge because their religion forbids blood transfusions.
In 2009, trooper Brian Good, 42, a member of the Royal Canadian Dragoons stationed at the Canadian Forces base in Petawawa, Ont., was killed by a roadside bomb north of Kandahar City, Afghanistan.
In 2011, Inderjit Singh Reyat, the only man ever convicted in the 1985 Air India bombings that killed 331 people, was sentenced to nine years in prison for perjury at the 2003 trial of two men acquitted in the attacks. (In 2017, the Parole Board of Canada allowed him to leave a halfway house where he was required to stay following his release from prison in 2016.)
In 2015, two al-Qaida-linked gunmen stormed the Paris office of the satirical weekly newspaper Charlie Hebdo, killing 12 people - eight journalists, two police officers, a maintenance worker and a visitor - to avenge the many depictions of the Prophet Muhammad, which is considered an insult in some Islamic traditions. (On Jan. 9, a police chase cornered brothers Cherif and Said Kouachi at a printing plant just north of Paris. The pair later emerged guns blazing and were killed in a shootout.)
In 2019, Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe apologized to survivors of the '60s Scoop for failing them and leaving them "caught between two worlds." About 20,000 Indigenous children were seized from their birth families and relocated to non-Indigenous homes starting in the 1950s until the late 1980s. Moe said the province and its people were sorry for the pain and sadness the apprehensions caused Indigenous children and their families, and for the culture and language that many lost.
In 2019, lawyers for Kevin Spacey entered a not guilty plea on his behalf in Massachusetts court on charges he groped an 18-year-old busboy in 2016. The disgraced actor was arraigned on a charge of felony indecent assault and battery during a hearing at Nantucket District Court. The judge set another hearing for March 4 and ordered Spacey to stay away from his accuser and his accuser's family.
In 2020, the sixth and final season of the beloved Canadian comedy series "Schitt's Creek" premiered on CBC. Daniel Levy, the co-creator and star, said he felt it was the best season yet.
In 2020, Canada followed the lead of Germany and other allies and temporarily relocated some soldiers from Iraq to Kuwait. Canada had about 500 soldiers in Iraq, most of whom were there to help train local forces to fight the Islamic State group. Chief of the defence staff General Jonathan Vance said the decision to withdraw an unspecified number of troops was to ensure their safety and security.
In 2020, no Canadian Armed Forces troops were reported to have been hurt by the Iranian missiles that hit targets in Iraq amid an increasingly volatile standoff between the United States and Iran.
In 2021, Canada's special adviser tasked with handling the 2020 downing of a passenger jet by Iran rejected the Islamic Republic's offer of 150-thousand-dollars for each of the families of those killed in the tragedy. Former Liberal minister Ralph Goodale says Tehran doesn't have the right to unilaterally offer compensation -- as it did in late December through a state television network. He says there have been preliminary talks, but a serious conversation hasn't yet begun. Ukrainian Airlines Flight 7-52 was shot down in January 2020, killing all 176 people on board, including dozens of Canadian citizens, permanent residents and travellers bound for Canada.
In 2021, U.S. Congress formally validated Joe Biden's presidential election victory. The House and Senate certified the Democrat's electoral college win a day after a violent throng of pro-Trump rioters spent hours running rampant through the U.S. Capitol. The convergence on the Capitol came shortly after U.S. President Donald Trump spoke to his supporters, rehashing unfounded claims of election fraud and inciting them to go there as lawmakers debated the electoral votes. Trump later conceded that there "will be an orderly transition on January 20th." He also took the opportunity to describe his own tenure as the "greatest first term in presidential history.'' Social media giants Twitter and Facebook announced they temporarily barred Trump from posting. Both bans followed what is described as violations of the respective company's policies.
In 2022, three white men who chased and killed Ahmaud Arbery were sentenced to life in prison in Georgia. The judge denied any chance of parole for father and son Greg and Travis McMichael, who armed themselves and initiated the deadly pursuit of the 25-year-old Black man. Before sentencing, Jasmine Arbery gave a victim impact statement, saying her brother was a dark-skinned young man full of life and energy. The McMichaels' neighbour, William "Roddie'' Bryan, was granted a chance of parole, but must first serve at least 30 years in prison.
In 2024, Israel said its mission was accomplished in northern Gaza, with officials confirming the end of major combat in the territory after dismantling Hamas and its military infrastructure there. Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said forces would "continue to deepen the achievement" in the area, but shift focus to the central and southern parts of Gaza.
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The Canadian Press