Today in History for April 3:
In 1327, Marsilius of Padua and his copyist, John of Jandun, were forced to flee Paris for asylum in Bavaria after the pope issued a bull denouncing them as ``sons of perdition and fruits of malediction.'' In his book ``Defensor pacis,'' Marsilius had denounced the corruptions of the Roman church leadership and called for a radical reformation of the institution.
In 1593, metaphysical poet George Herbert, known for his mastery of metrical form and allegory as well as his themes of Christian devotion, was born in Montgomery Castle, Wales.
In 1669, King Louis XIV of France ordered a permanent militia for Canada. All Canadian males aged 16 to 60 were ordered to join militia companies and undergo military training. They used canoes, snowshoes, moccasins, and leggings, and learned hit-and-run tactics. The Canadian militia formed the backbone of the colony's military forces until the Seven Years' War (1756-1763).
In 1756, the Marquis de Montcalm sailed from France to take over field command of French forces in New France. Despite long years of service he was not considered a senior officer, and was only chosen to go to North America because war was looming in Europe and the higher-ranking officers were needed there. He died during the 1759 British victory at the Plains of Abraham in Quebec City.
In 1826, a financial panic hit New Brunswick upon word that banks in London had failed and the timber trade had collapsed.
In 1850, English poet William Wordsworth died at age 80.
In 1860, the Pony Express began service between St. Joseph, Mo., and Sacramento, Calif. The service became legendary, despite lasting less than two years, giving way to the Transcontinental Telegraph.
In 1882, American outlaw Jesse James was shot to death in Missouri by Robert Ford, his cousin and a member of his own gang.
In 1897, German pianist and composer Johannes Brahms died of liver cancer at age 63.
In 1907, a bill establishing the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon was passed by the provincial legislature.
In 1933, Ken Doraty's goal at 4:46 of the sixth overtime gave the Toronto Maple Leafs a 1-0 win over the visiting Boston Bruins in a Stanley Cup semifinal game. It's the second-longest game in NHL history, topped only by a 1936 marathon between Detroit and the Montreal Maroons, which lasted 12 minutes longer.
In 1936, Bruno Hauptmann was electrocuted in Trenton, N.J., for the kidnapping and murder of the infant son of American aviator Charles Lindbergh.
In 1940, the Earl of Athlone was appointed governor general of Canada.
In 1946, Canada paid the United States $108 million for its portion of the Alaska Highway. The sum covered telephone systems, buildings and other assets.
In 1946, Lt. Gen. Masaharu Homma, the Japanese commander responsible for the ``Bataan Death March,'' was executed by firing squad outside Manila.
In 1948, U.S. president Harry Truman signed the Marshall Plan, which allocated more than $5 billion in aid for 16 European countries to rebuild after the Second World War and resist Communism.
In 1968, the day before he was assassinated in Memphis, Tenn., civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous ``mountaintop'' speech to a rally of striking sanitation workers.
In 1973, the first private cellphone call was made. Motorola Corp. executive Martin Cooper tested his company's new invention by calling a friend at Bell Laboratories from a New York street.
In 1974, a tornado killed eight people and injured 20 in Windsor, Ont.
In 1978, the federal government set the stage for a clash with Quebec in a proposed bill allowing a national referendum on national unity.
In 1985, the landmark Brown Derby restaurant in Hollywood closed its doors after 56 years.
In 1992, the Congregation of Christian Brothers formally apologized to victims of physical and sexual abuse at the Mount Cashel orphanage in St. John's, Nfld. The apology came nearly two decades after boys first complained of abuse. The Congregation also ordered the 94-year-old building razed to the ground, with proceeds from the sale of the land to aid victims.
In 1996, Theodore Kaczynski, a 53-year-old former University of California math professor, was detained by the FBI on suspicion of being the so-called ``Unabomber.'' The terrorist left a 17-year trail of bombings that killed three people and maimed 23. Kaczynski later pleaded guilty and received a life sentence.
In 1997, Toronto Stock Exchange computers crashed for the third day in a row due to massive trading in Calgary-based Bre-X Minerals, whose gold find in Indonesia later proved to be bogus. It's estimated investors lost $3 billion. Insider trading charges were laid in 1999 by the Ontario Securities Commission against former Bre-X chief geologist John Felderhof, who made $84 million by selling stock before the hoax was revealed. The trial concluded on July 31, 2007, with a not guilty verdict.
In 2005, Frank Clair, who turned a down-and-out Ottawa Rough Riders franchise into a CFL powerhouse in the 1960s, died in Florida at age 87.
In 2009, a gunman opened fire on a room where immigrants were taking a citizenship exam in downtown Binghamton, N.Y., killing 13 people before committing suicide.
In 2009, Dave Devall retired following 48 years as CTV Toronto's weather specialist. Guiness World Records recognized that as the longest career as a weather forecaster.
In 2010, Apple's highly anticipated iPad was officially released to stores in the U.S., selling more than 300,000 units. (It arrived in Canada on May 28.)
In 2010, the coal-carrying ship Chinese Shen Neng 1 strayed outside a shipping lane and ran aground on Douglas Shoals, a protected part of Australia's Great Barrier Reef. It cut a scar the length of 10 city blocks into the shoal that could take marine life 20 years to recover. Three tonnes of oil also leaked from a ruptured fuel tank but was dispersed by chemical sprays.
In 2011, Ontario held its first sanctioned mixed martial arts show at Casino Rama.
In 2012, the Harper government froze spending on the multibillion-dollar plan to buy 65 new F35 stealth fighter jets after new auditor general Michael Ferguson concluded the Defence Department low-balled estimates and kept Parliament in the dark about spiralling problems with the project.
In 2016, an international coalition of media outlets published the ``Panama Papers,'' millions of pages of leaked documents relating to offshore accounts that revealed attempts by world leaders, celebrities and businesses to dodge taxes in their home countries.
In 2018, TV and film industry veteran Catherine Tait was appointed president and chief executive of CBC/Radio-Canada, becoming the first woman to head the organization since it was founded in 1952.
In 2018, Spotify's direct listing IPO on Wall Street struck a chord with investors betting the unprofitable company's music streaming service will maintain its early lead over Apple and other powerful challengers. Its stock price closed 13 per cent higher to $149.01 for a market value of US$27 billion.
In 2018, a woman who believed she was being suppressed by YouTube and told her family members she ``hated'' the company opened fire in a courtyard at the company's headquarters in Bruno, Calif., wounding three people before killing herself.
In 2020, a regional government near Toronto apologized after revealing it mistakenly mailed more than a dozen letters advising recipients their COVID-19 tests were negative when they were actually positive. The Region of Peel's top medical official Dr. Lawrence Loh said his team was working to notify the 16 people involved.
In 2020, Chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam revealed that Canada was reviewing new studies that found people without symptoms are able to transmit COVID-19.
In 2021, Britain's medicines regulator said it had identified 30 cases of rare blood clot events associated with the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine. The Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Agency said those 30 cases related to a period when more than 18 million doses of the vaccine had been administered.
In 2021, Canada reached more than one million cases of COVID-19. The national tally topped the grim threshold when British Columbia reported 2,090 new infections. Canada had been recording about 100,000 new cases every three to four weeks, surging past the 900,000 mark on March 13.
In 2023, Dennis King led the Prince Edward Island Progressive Conservatives to a second majority government, securing 22 of the island's 27 legislative seats and 56 per cent of the popular vote.
In 2024, the first world hockey championship in the Professional Women's Hockey League era started in Utica, N.Y. Almost 40 PWHL players participated in the 10-country tournament, and 19 of them played for Canada.
In 2024, Israel apologized for what it called an "unintentional" attack on the World Central Kitchen convoy. The airstrike hit the three vehicles as workers were leaving behind a large aid delivery. Among the innocents killed was a 33-year-old dual Canadian-American citizen Jacob Flickinger. Canada and the U-S joined several allies in demanding Israel conduct a full investigation into the attack.
In 2024, one of Canada's top medical schools announced changes to its admissions process in the hopes of reducing "systemic barriers'' facing low-income and diverse candidates seeking to become doctors. The School of Medicine at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario said the new process has an "early-phase'' lottery system, whereby randomly selected candidates who meet the standard M-CAT, Casper and GPA thresholds will move on to the interview stage.
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The Canadian Press
