Today in History for March 6:
In 1475, Michelangelo, famous for his paintings such as the Sistine Chapel, sculpture including David, and architecture -- the rebuilding of St. Peter's Cathedral -- was born in Caprese, Italy. He died at age 88 in 1564.
In 1617, Louis Hebert signed an agreement that enabled him to become the first known European farmer in New France.
In 1749, the British government outlined a plan to settle Nova Scotia.
In 1784, the settlement of York was officially incorporated as the City of Toronto. The first permanent settlement was established in 1793 and York was designated the capital of Upper Canada, which later became the province of Ontario.
In 1806, English poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning was born.
In 1834, the city of York was renamed Toronto. By this time the city had 10,000 residents. William Lyon Mackenzie was elected mayor in municipal elections held on March 27. His first act was to order wooden sidewalks built and drains dug. When it was learned the work would mean a tax increase, there was a riot in which six people were killed.
In 1836, American jurist and scholar Oliver Wendell Holmes died at age 94.
In 1836, the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas, was finally captured by Mexican General Santa Ana's forces. The capture followed 13 days of bitter fighting. No survivors were permitted among the Texans and victims included such legendary figures as Davy Crockett and James Bowie.
In 1837, the British government introduced the Ten Resolutions, allowing the governor of Lower Canada to pay the salaries of government officials without the approval of the assembly in Britain. The assembly had refused to vote a civil list (government salaries) without the concession by the colonial administration of responsible government and an elected legislative council.
In 1857, the U.S. Supreme Court's Dred Scott decision ruled that a slave was property, not a citizen, and he could not sue for his freedom in federal court.
In 1880, the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts was founded by Gov. Gen. Marquis of Lorne, Sir John Douglas Sutherland Campbell.
In 1884, Canada's largest free public library was established in Toronto.
In 1888, American novelist Louisa May Alcott died in Boston at age 55. Her best-known work is the children's classic, "Little Women."
In 1900, Gottfried Daimler, the German motor engineer who improved the engine and made the first motorcycle, died.
In 1912, Thuesen's grocery in Hoboken, N.J., became the first store to stock Oreo cookies.
In 1925, about 12,000 coal miners in Nova Scotia went on strike against the British Empire Steel Corp., forerunner of Dominion Steel and Coal Corp. Churches organized fund drives to help the miners and keep their families from starving during the strike, which ended Aug. 6.
In 1926, the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon, England was destroyed by fire.
In 1930, the first pre-packaged frozen food produced by the company set up by Clarence Birdseye, went on sale in Springfield, Mass.
In 1937, Russian astronaut Valentina Tereshkova was born. At age 26, she became the first woman in space when she circled the world in the "Vostok" spacecraft in June 1963.
In 1944, U.S. heavy bombers staged the first full-scale American raid on Berlin during the Second World War.
In 1957, the Supreme Court of Canada declared Quebec's so-called Padlock Law unconstitutional. The Quebec law had empowered the attorney general to close, for one year, any building suspected of being used to promote communism.
In 1957, the former British African colonies of the Gold Coast and Togoland became the independent state of Ghana.
In 1960, men in Geneva voted to give women the right to vote in all local affairs.
In 1961, a bill permitting fluoridation of municipal water supplies passed second reading in the Ontario legislature by a unanimous all-party vote.
In 1965, the U.S. announced it was sending the first contingent of combat troops to South Vietnam to fight Communist guerrillas.
In 1967, the daughter of Josef Stalin, Svetlana Alliluyeva, appeared at the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi and declared her intention to defect to the West.
In 1973, American novelist Pearl Buck died.
In 1981, Walter Cronkite anchored the "CBS Evening News" for the last time before retiring. He was replaced by Dan Rather.
In 1982, the Canadian Coast Guard cutter "Louis St. Laurent" was put out of service by an explosion and fire which injured seven crew members, two seriously.
In 1987, the British ferry "Herald of Free Enterprise" capsized near Zeebrugge, Belgium. About 350 people were rescued, but more than 193 died.
In 1989, Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze recommended that NATO and the Warsaw Pact negotiate to eliminate all battlefield nuclear weapons from Europe.
In 1989, reeling from a series of sex charges involving priests, the Roman Catholic Church in Newfoundland announced it would set up an inquiry to study the problem. The archdiocese in St. John's said the inquiry would investigate why a number of sexual assaults by priests went undetected for decades. The announcement came after two priests were convicted of sexually assaulting boys and while three others, plus a former priest, awaited preliminary hearings on similar charges.
In 1990, the Soviet parliament overwhelmingly approved legislation allowing people to own factories and hire workers for the first time in nearly seven decades.
In 1992, personal computer users braced for a virus known as "Michelangelo." Only scattered cases of lost files were reported.
In 1997, the famed Gdansk shipyard, birthplace of Poland's Solidarity labour movement, was shut down after banks refused credit.
In 1997, Queen Elizabeth launched the official royal website. After logging on to the site at a London high school, she exchanged email with students at a public school in the northern Ontario community of Nakina.
In 1997, Michael Manley, prime minister of Jamaica from 1972-80 and 1989-92, died at age 72.
In 1998, the Ontario government reached a settlement with the three surviving Dionne quintuplets after a controversy that tarnished the Mike Harris Tory government. The province promised the sisters $4 million in compensation for being taken from their parents and put on display as a tourist attraction near North Bay, Ont., after their births in 1934. The deal was four times higher than a previous provincial offer that generated fierce criticism. Harris also apologized for mistakes in the negotiations, and promised a review of how the Dionnes' trust fund was mishandled.
In 2003, an Algerian Boeing 737 jet crashed after takeoff at an airport in the Sahara Desert in southern Algeria, killing 102 passengers and crew.
In 2007, 25-year-old Cpl. Kevin Megeney of New Glasgow, N.S., was killed in a friendly-fire incident in Kandahar, Afghanistan. (In 2009, Matthew Wilcox was found guilty of criminal negligence causing death and negligent performance of a military duty and was sentenced to four years in prison and thrown out of the military. The verdict was set aside in 2010 and a new trial was ordered. In 2011, he again was found guilty and sentenced to four years in prison.)
In 2008, a judge in Brampton, Ont., rejected a human rights challenge to an Ontario ruling that motorcyclists must wear helmets while riding because safety concerns outweigh religious rights.
In 2009, Colleen Howe, "Mrs. Hockey," died at the age of 76 in the family home in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., following a long battle with Pick's disease, an incurable neurological form of dementia. Colleen, the wife of hockey great Gordie Howe, became one of the first female sports agents and was inducted into the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame in 2000 for her work with youth hockey. She founded the Detroit Junior Red Wings, the first junior hockey team in the country.
In 2010, William Black, the businessman who co-founded the Black's photography firm with his brother, died in Toronto at age 84.
In 2015, Sgt. Andrew Joseph Doiron was killed in a nighttime friendly fire incident by Kurdish Peshmerga soldiers in Iraq, marking Canada's first casualty as part of the U.S.-led coalition against ISIL. Three other Canadian soldiers were injured.
In 2016, former U.S. first lady Nancy Reagan - the helpmate, backstage adviser and fierce protector of Ronald Reagan in his journey from actor to president and finally during his 10-year struggle with Alzheimer's disease - died at age 94.
In 2016, the final episode aired of "Downton Abbey," the PBS drama series set in early 1900s Britain about the aristocratic Crawley family and their household servants, ending its popular six-year run.
In 2019, Justin Trudeau's former principal secretary testified the SNC-Lavalin criminal case had nothing to do with the prime minister's decision to move Jody Wilson-Raybould out of her coveted post as justice minister in a mid-January cabinet shuffle. Gerald Butts testified to the House of Commons justice committee, offering a very different version of events from the one Wilson-Raybould provided. She alleged she was subjected to relentless, inappropriate pressure and veiled threats. Butts said staff in the Prime Minister's Office always respected the fact that, as attorney general, it was up to Wilson-Raybould alone to decide whether to order negotiation of a remediation agreement with the Montreal engineering giant. Michael Wernick, clerk of the Privy Council, testified for a second time following Butts and said he respectfully disagreed with Wilson-Raybould and that he never gave advice — nor has he done anything during his career — for partisan political purposes. And at no time, he said, did he do anything to influence Wilson-Raybould's decision.
In 2019, Canadian gameshow host Alex Trebek announced he was fighting stage 4 pancreatic cancer. The long-time host of "Jeopardy'' posted the news in a video on the quiz show's YouTube channel. The 78-year-old, who was born in Sudbury, Ontario, admitted the prognosis for the type of cancer he had is not usually very encouraging but he pledged that he would fight it and keep working.
In 2020, Henri Richard, the speedy centre who won a record 11 Stanley Cups with the Montreal Canadiens, died after a long battle with Alzheimer's disease. He was 84.
In 2020, Tim Hortons said it would temporarily stop accepting reusable cups brought in by customers amid concerns about the novel coronavirus outbreak.
In 2021, Wayne Gretzky says the world would be a way better place if there were more people like his father. Walter Gretzky was remembered as someone who had a love for life, and time for anyone who needed it, be it a friend or a stranger. The 82-year-old died after battling Parkinson's disease and other health issues in recent years. His funeral in Brantford, about 100 kilometres west of Toronto was limited to family due to pandemic restrictions, but hundreds of people -- many wearing Gretzky jerseys -- gathered outside the church to pay their respects to the man known as Canada's hockey dad.
In 2023, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau asked two key security watchdogs to probe foreign interference and said he would appoint a "special rapporteur'' to independently review their work. The National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians planned to launch a new study on foreign interference focused on elections. And the National Security and Intelligence Review Agency planned to look at the work Canada's intelligence agencies have done on foreign interference.
In 2024, Montreal's Just for Laughs cancelled its summer comedy festival. The company that owns the festival filed for creditor protection as it started formal restructuring under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act.
In 2024, researchers with the New England Aquarium photographed a grey whale off Nantucket, 200 years after the last one was seen in the Atlantic Ocean.
In 2024, former British Columbia cabinet minister Selina Robinson quit the NDP, citing antisemitism in the ruling party's caucus. Robinson, who is Jewish, said she can no longer remain in the party because it is not properly addressing antisemitism in the province or among her former colleagues.
In 2024, a jury convicted a movie weapons supervisor of involuntary manslaughter in the fatal shooting of a cinematographer by actor Alec Baldwin during a film rehearsal. The verdict issued at trial against movie armourer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed capped a two-week trial over the shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of the western movie "Rust'' in October 2021.
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The Canadian Press