Today in History for March 25:
On this date:
In 1409, rebel bishops met at Pisa and voted to excommunicate the two popes, Benedict XIII and Gregory XII. They chose the Cardinal of Milan to assume the papacy, which meant there were three men claiming to be pope. This ``Great Schism'' ended in 1414 when one pope was deposed, inducing the resignation of the other. They were replaced by Pope Martin V.
In 1880, George Brown, editor of Toronto's ``Globe'' newspaper and a Father of Confederation, was shot by a disgruntled employee he never knew. Brown's seemingly minor leg wound became infected and he died May 9th at the age of 61. His killer, George Bennett, was hanged.
In 1886, the first Workmen's Compensation Act in Canada was passed by the Ontario legislature.
In 1905, Britain and the United States established the Canada-Alaska boundary. U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt told the British government the boundary must be set his way or troops would be sent to enforce it. Canada was left out of the talks and ended up with no seaports in northern B.C. or the Yukon. As a result, Ottawa decided it must handle its own foreign relations and created the External Affairs Department (now Foreign Affairs) in 1909.
In 1911, an 18-minute fire in New York's Triangle Shirtwaist factory killed 146 workers, mostly women. The fire led to many changes in health and safety laws in American sweatshops.
In 1957, the European Common Market was set up by the Treaty of Rome.
In 1958, the first test flight of the Canadian Avro Arrow fighter plane was carried out. But the Arrow program was cancelled by the federal government nearly a year later.
In 1961, the Soviet Union launched ``Sputnik 10'' with a dog aboard.
In 1965, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. led 25,000 marchers in Montgomery, Ala., to protest the denial of voting rights to American blacks.
In 1975, King Faisal of Saudi Arabia was shot to death by a nephew with a history of mental illness. The killer was beheaded in June.
In 1982, North America's first test-tube twins, Colin and Gregory Rankin, were born in Oakville, Ont.
In 1982, Edmonton Oiler Wayne Gretzky notched two goals and two assists against Calgary to become the first NHL player to accumulate 200 points in a season.
In 1988, Canada's Kurt Browning became the first figure skater to land a quadruple jump in competition. The future world champion from Caroline, Alta., landed a quadruple toe loop during his long program at the world championships in Budapest.
In 1990, 87 people, most of them Honduran and Dominican immigrants, were killed when fire raced through an illegal social club in New York City.
In 1992, Soviet cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev returned to Earth after spending 10 months aboard the orbiting Mir space station. The Soviet Union had broken up during his mission so Krikalev came back to a radically changed political landscape.
In 1992, the federal government abandoned the national dream of creating a Canadian-owned oil and gas industry. Conservative Energy Minister Jake Epp announced plans to lift restrictions on foreign ownership in the oil patch, meaning there would no longer be a requirement for 50 per cent Canadian ownership of the oil and gas industry. Alberta lobbied heavily for the changes, since foreign investment restrictions had kept foreign companies out of the oilpatch.
In 1998, Jean Charest announced his resignation as federal Tory leader to seek the Quebec Liberal Party leadership. He was acclaimed to the job, but lost a November election to Lucien Bouchard's Parti Quebecois.
In 1998, lawyer Alan Eagleson resigned from the Hockey Hall of Fame nearly two months after pleading guilty to fraud and being sentenced to prison.
In 2011, the federal Conservative government was brought down on a historic vote in Parliament, forcing an election. MPs voted 156-145 in favour of a Liberal motion citing Stephen Harper's minority Tories for contempt of Parliament and expressing non-confidence in the government. The contempt citation marked a first for a national government anywhere in the Commonwealth. (The Conservatives were re-elected to a third consecutive mandate, and their first majority.)
In 2018, Canada's Jennifer Jones completed a perfect run at the world women's curling championship with a 7-6 extra end victory over Sweden in the gold medal game.
In 2018, Laura Stacey's overtime goal lifted the Markham Thunder past the Kunlun Red Star 2-1 to capture the CWHL championship.
In 2019, the last legal restrictions on Omar Khadr were lifted when an Alberta judge ruled that a war crimes sentence for the former Guantanamo Bay prisoner had expired. The ruling meant Khadr could apply for a passport as well as travel and visit freely. Khadr was sentenced to eight years in 2010 by a American military court for alleged acts committed in Afghanistan when he was 15 years old. That sentence _ which the Supreme Court of Canada ruled would be a youth sentence _ would have ended the previous October had Khadr remained in custody. But the clock stopped ticking when a judge freed him on bail in 2015 pending Khadr's appeal of his military conviction in the United States.
In 2020, Ottawa announced new federal COVID-19 restrictions on travellers who fail to self-isolate for 14 days after crossing the border into Canada. The restrictions stated that violators face fines of up to $750,000 and six months in jail.
In 2020, Prince Charles tested positive for COVID-19. The prince's Clarence House office said the 71-year-old heir to the throne showed mild symptoms and was self-isolating at a royal estate in Scotland. His wife Camilla tested negative.
In 2020, more than 800 Canadians returned home on Air Canada flights from Morocco, Spain and Ecuador as the COVID-19 pandemic continued to grow. Foreign Affairs Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne said the government worked to repatriate as many Canadians as possible, but some will remain outside the country for an indeterminate amount of time.
In 2020, Justin Trudeau said his wife, Sophie, had recovered from COVID-19 after contracting the virus on a trip to the U.K. Trudeau said he and his children were still symptom-free.
In 2020, Canada started enforcing the Quarantine Act in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, requiring all international arrivals to self-isolate for at least 14 days. Violators could face fines of up to $1 million or three years in prison.
In 2021, the Supreme Court of Canada said the federal carbon price is entirely constitutional. The high court decided to uphold the part of the Liberal climate-change plan that had been challenged by Alberta, Saskatchewan and Ontario. Chief Justice Richard Wagner said if even one province fails to reduce their emissions, it could greatly impact the rest of the country.
In 2023, migrants arriving at Roxham Road in Quebec started to face arrest if they tried to illegally enter Canada. As part of a deal worked out during U.S. President Joe Biden's trip to Canada, the Safe Third Country Agreement now applied along the entire border.
In 2023, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced plans to station tactical nuclear weapons in neighbouring Belarus. Putin says it was in response to Britain's recent decision to provide Ukraine with armour-piercing rounds containing depleted uranium. Russia had falsely claimed these rounds had nuclear components.
In 2024, Boeing's CEO Dave Calhoun announced he was stepping down following two major crashes and a series of safety issues since late 2018. Calhoun took over the company after Dennis Muilenburg was ousted following the crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia that killed 346 people.
In 2024, Canada worked to airlift vulnerable Canadians out of Haiti, as gangs continued to overwhelm local police forces and virtually all infrastructure fell into a state of collapse.
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The Canadian Press
