Today in History for Jan. 19:
In 570, according to tradition, the Muslim Prophet Muhammad was born.
In 1200, Zen Master Dogen, an important figure in Japanese Buddhism, was born.
In 1563, the ``Heidelberg Catechism'' was first published in Germany. Written by Peter Ursinus and Caspar Olevianus, it comprised a balanced statement of Calvinist tradition, and was soon after accepted by nearly all of the Reformed churches in Europe.
In 1568, Miles Coverdale, publisher of the first printed English Bible, died. He completed the translation of the Old Testament, which William Tyndale had left unfinished at his death in 1536.
In 1649, King Charles I was executed after being convicted of treason under a Puritan-influenced English Parliament. Charles, a devout Anglican with Roman Catholic sympathies had staunchly defended the ``divine right of kings'' while oppressing the Puritans.
In 1649, Canada's first execution took place in Quebec. The prisoner was a 16-year-old girl accused of theft. Her executioner was a pardoned criminal.
In 1736, James Watt, the Scottish engineer and inventor who perfected the steam engine, was born.
In 1807, Confederate general Robert E. Lee was born in Westmoreland County, Va.
In 1809, Edgar Allan Poe, the American poet and short-story writer, was born in Boston.
In 1840, American explorer Capt. Charles Wilkes discovered Antarctica.
In 1885, a U.S. patent was issued for the roller coaster.
In 1889, the Salvation Army split as one faction within the denomination renounced allegiance to founder William Booth. Booth's son Ballington and his wife Maud led the American splinter group, which in 1896 incorporated itself as a separate denomination known as the Volunteers of America.
In 1915, the first air raids on England were staged by German Zeppelins.
In 1915, a U.S. patent was issued for the neon sign.
In 1937, millionaire Howard Hughes set a transcontinental air record when he flew from Los Angeles to Newark, N.J., in seven hours, 28 minutes and 25 seconds.
In 1943, Princess Margriet of the Netherlands was born in an Ottawa hospital. Crown Princess Juliana, who became queen in 1948, and her two oldest daughters, fled from the Nazi occupation of The Netherlands in 1940 and eventually came to Canada.
In 1948, Frank McKenna was born in Apohaqui, N.B. He was elected to the New Brunswick legislature in 1982, became provincial Liberal leader in '85 and made history in the '87 provincial election by winning all 58 legislature seats. After being re-elected in 1991 and '95, he stepped down on Oct. 13, 1997 -- exactly 10 years after his Liberals' take-all win. On Jan. 14, 2005 he announced he had accepted an appointment as Canada's ambassador to the U.S. He resigned the post Jan. 25, 2006, two days after Stephen Harper's Tories won a minority government.
In 1955, U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower held his first televised presidential news conference.
In 1958, the Canadian Football Council was renamed the Canadian Football League.
In 1960, Canada met India's request for $25 million in aid under the Colombo Plan.
In 1962, the Canadian government announced changes to immigration laws designed to prevent discrimination based on race or national origin and allowing greater immigration from Asia, Africa and the Middle East.
In 1966, Indira Gandhi was elected India's first woman prime minister.
In 1967, Herr Kari Tausch of Hesse, Germany, wrote the shortest valid will. It read, ``All to my wife.''
In 1977, Jean Jaebone of Winnipeg was revived by doctors after her heart had stopped beating for three hours and 32 minutes.
In 1981, U.S. President Jimmy Carter announced the signing of an agreement by the U.S. and Iran to free the 52 Americans held hostage in Iran in return for the U.S. unfreezing $8 billion in Iranian assets which Carter froze when the hostages were seized. The 444-day hostage-taking is believed to have cost Carter his re-election bid. The hostages returned the next day, Jan. 20, as president Ronald Reagan was inaugurated.
In 1987, Erik Nielsen, former deputy prime minister, resigned as MP for the Yukon after almost 30 years in federal politics.
In 1989, Canadian Airlines International announced it was purchasing Wardair, Canada's third largest carrier, for about $248 million.
In 1990, Dr. Roberta Bondar, a neurologist from Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., was selected as Canada's first woman in space when she was named to a mission aboard the space shuttle ``Discovery'' in 1992.
In 1991, Canadian CF-18 jet fighters flew an offensive mission in the Persian Gulf war, marking the first time Canadian forces had engaged in battle since the Korean War.
In 1993, the Israeli parliament abolished a law that had forbidden Israeli citizens from meeting members of the Palestinian Liberation Organization. The measure was a step forward toward officially recognizing the PLO.
In 1995, Russian troops took control of the presidential palace in Grozny and President Boris Yeltsin declared war ``effectively over'' in Chechnya.
In 1996, Lucien Bouchard decided to donate his federal pension to the Quebec government.
In 2005, Canadian Football League legend Norman Kwong was named Alberta's new lieutenant governor.
In 2005, the Supreme Court of Canada upheld a Saskatchewan law limiting tobacco promotional displays in stores.
In 2009, Shawn Hennessey and Dennis Cheeseman, who admitted helping James Roszko kill four RCMP officers near Mayerthorpe, Alta., in 2005, pleaded guilty in an Edmonton courtroom to lesser charges of manslaughter. (On Jan. 30, they were sentenced to 15 years and 12 years in prison, respectively).
In 2012, Rupert Murdoch's British newspaper company agreed to pay damages of nearly $1 million to 36 high-profile victims of tabloid phone-hacking, including actor Jude Law, soccer player Ashley Cole and former British Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott.
In 2012, photography pioneer Eastman Kodak filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the U.S., as it sought to boost its cash position and stay in business. The ailing company failed to find a buyer for its trove of 1,100 digital imaging patents. (In December, Apple, Research in Motion and Microsoft were among 12 companies to buy the patents for about $525 million.)
In 2012, pioneer Canadian freestyle skier Sarah Burke died in a Utah hospital from injuries she sustained in a superpipe training run on Jan. 10. She was 29. She suffered irreversible brain damage after tearing a vertebral artery, which led to severe bleeding on the brain, causing her to go into cardiac arrest at the scene.
In 2018, a jury found former railway employees Tom Harding, Richard Labrie and Jean Demaitre not guilty of criminal negligence causing death in the 2013 Lac-Megantic tragedy that killed 47 people when a runaway train carrying crude oil derailed and exploded in the small Quebec town.
In 2020, Foreign Affairs Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne pressured the government of Iran to live up to its promise to allow outside experts to examine the flight recorders of the Ukrainian airliner Iran shot down. Champagne said the consensus of the countries who lost citizens on Jan. 8 was that the recorders should be examined in either France or Ukraine.
In 2020, China reported a sharp rise in the number of people affected in a pneumonia outbreak caused by a new coronavirus, including the first cases in the capital. Canada bolstered screening of airline passengers from central China for anyone with flu-like symptoms. The Public Health Agency of Canada said the additional measures were implemented at international airports in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver.
In 2020, Bong Joon Ho's Korean film, ``Parasite,'' became the first foreign language film to take top honours from the Screen Actors Guild.
In 2021, a Russian judge ordered opposition leader Alexei Navalny jailed for 30 days. The ruling came after the leading Kremlin critic returned to Russia from Germany, where he was recovering from nerve agent poisoning that he blames on President Vladimir Putin's government. Navalny's arrest had already prompted a wave of criticism from U.S. and European officials, adding to existing tensions between Russia and the West.
In 2021, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said the mob that attacked the Capitol on the January 6th was provoked by President Donald Trump and other powerful people. After years of supporting Trump, McConnell stood on the Senate floor and stated -- quote -- ``The mob was fed lies.'' The House had already impeached Trump on charges of inciting the attack.
In 2021, the U.S. death toll from the novel coronavirus surpassed 400-thousand. The milestone came almost exactly a year after U.S. health officials diagnosed the country's first case of the virus.
In 2022, a Toronto judge denied bail to Canadian fashion mogul Peter Nygard, who was charged with six counts of sexual assault and three counts of forcible confinement dating back as far as the late 1980s. The former head of a multimillion-dollar clothing empire was flown from Winnipeg in October and would remain in detention in Toronto. Nygard was arrested in 2020 under the Extradition Act after he was charged with nine sex-related counts in New York.
In 2022, the antiviral drug remdesivir appeared to have a modest but significant effect on hospitalized COVID-19 patients. That was according to a new study organized by the World Health Organization and a number of countries -- including Canada. The results suggested that it helps nearly half of the patients given the drug to avoid mechanical ventilation.
In 2024, Quebec's premier asked Ottawa to slow the influx of asylum seekers entering his province, which he said was nearing a breaking point. Francois Legault's letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the number of newcomers entering the province is excessive.
In 2024, settlement agencies prepared for the arrival of tens of thousands of Ukrainians before the end-of-March deadline for those fleeing the Russian invasion to enter Canada on emergency visas. Operation Ukraine Safe Haven said pre-arrival surveys showed as many as 90,000 more emergency visa holders were thinking of coming before the deadline.
In 2024, the Saskatchewan government announced it was banning health-care providers from giving out drug pipe kits. It also changed how they can provide needles, saying they must only give out the same number they get back. Harm reduction workers said the changes will exacerbate the transmission of viruses.
In 2024, Oxfam International predicted the first trillionaire could emerge in the next decade. It pulled data on net worth from Forbes' billionaires list to point to the growing wealth gap that skyrocketed globally during the pandemic.
In 2024, Nova Scotia announced an investment of $3 million a year into its first screening program for lung cancer, which will include CT scans. Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths in Nova Scotia and the province has the highest rates of the disease in the country.
In 2024, a delegation of top Hamas officials met with Russia's Foreign Ministry in Moscow to discuss ways to end the conflict in Gaza. Russia condemned Hamas for the Oct. 7 assault on southern Israel that triggered the conflict, but also criticized Israel for using excessive force in its responding bombardment of Gaza.
In 2024, American fighter jets struck Iranian-backed Houthi rebel sites for the sixth time with U.S. officials saying they took out anti-ship missile launchers that were ready to fire. President Joe Biden acknowledged that the bombardment of Houthi sites had yet to stop the militants' attacks on vessels in the Red Sea that disrupted global shipping.
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The Canadian Press