Today in History for July 9:
On this date:
In 1228, Stephen Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury, died. Langton formulated the original division of the Bible into chapters. He is also credited with creating much of the "Magna Carta."
In 1540, England's King Henry VIII had his six-month marriage to his fourth wife, Anne of Cleves, annulled.
In 1793, Upper Canada, now Ontario, prohibited the importation of slaves and ruled that slaves' children should be freed at age 25. But the act didn't free any existing slaves in the colony. Slavery had been accepted by the natives and by the first French and English settlers in Canada, finally being outlawed by the British Parliament in 1833.
In 1793, the Anglican Church appointed Jacob Mountain as its first bishop in Canada.
In 1816, Argentina proclaimed its independence from Spain.
In 1827, after emigrating from England to Venezuela where they found the climate, soil and political conditions inhospitable, 150 destitute and homeless settlers arrived in Guelph, Ont., via New York.
In 1843, the Prince Albert, the first iron steamer built in Canada, was launched at Montreal.
In 1900, the British Parliament accepted the "Commonwealth of Australia Act," which united the Australian colonies of New South Wales, South Australia, Queensland, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia under a federal government.
In 1904, a giant hydraulic liftlock on the Otonabee River in Peterborough, Ont., opened.
In 1904, after nearly 200 years of fishing on the French shore, France relinquished its rights over part of the Newfoundland coast.
In 1905, Clarence Campbell, who was president of the NHL from 1946-71, was born at Fleming, Sask. A lawyer, Campbell attended the University of Alberta, was named a Rhodes Scholar and received his master's degree in jurisprudence from Oxford University. He died on June 24, 1984.
In 1932, King Camp Gillette, the American inventor and manufacturer of the safety razor and blade, died at age 77.
In 1942, Otto Frank's family went into hiding from the occupying Nazis in a backroom area of his Amsterdam food-products business. The family, including young diarist Anne Frank, was discovered and arrested on Aug. 4, 1944 and sent to concentration camps. Only Otto Frank survived.
In 1947, Princess Elizabeth's engagement to Philip Mountbatten was announced. They were married Nov. 20 in London's Westminster Abbey. Elizabeth became Queen when her father, King George VI, died on Feb. 6, 1952.
In 1952, the first diesel locomotives in the Rocky Mountains went into operation, replacing steam power on the CPR between Calgary and Revelstoke, B.C.
In 1960, seven-year-old Rodger Woodward became the first person to survive an accidental plunge over Niagara Falls. Roger, his 17-year-old sister Deanne and 40-year-old family friend James Honeycutt were boating on the Niagara River when their motor failed and the current began carrying their boat towards the Canadian Horseshoe Falls. Roger suffered only a slight concussion when he was swept over the Falls wearing only a life jacket and bathing suit. He was picked up by a "Maid of the Mist" tourist boat and spent three days in hospital. Deanne was rescued at the very edge of the Falls, but Honeycutt drowned.
In 1969, the Official Languages Act was given royal assent. The act declares that both French and English are the official languages of Canada and that all federal institutions must provide their services in both languages. It also provided financial assistance to provincial and municipal governments to provide services in English and French.
In 1982, a Pan Am World Airways jetliner crashed in flames in a suburban residential area of Kenner, La., shortly after takeoff, killing all 145 people on board and eight people on the ground.
In 1990, leaders of the world's seven richest nations opened a three-day economic summit in Houston, the first such gathering in the post-Cold War era.
In 1990, more than 1,400 Muslim pilgrims were suffocated or trampled to death after a power failure in a tunnel near the holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia.
In 1991, the 400 residents of St. Lazare, Man., fled their homes when a train derailment spilled dangerous chemicals. They returned six days later.
In 1991, South Africa was invited to return to the Olympic fold after being barred for decades because of its policy of apartheid. South Africa fielded its first multi-racial team at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona.
In 1992, space shuttle "Columbia" touched down at Kennedy Space Center after circling Earth 221 times, the longest-ever shuttle mission.
In 1995, French navy commandos seized the Greenpeace ship "Rainbow Warrior," thwarting any attempt to land protesters on a South Pacific atoll where France planned to resume nuclear tests.
In 1996, the federal and Newfoundland governments reached an agreement with the Innu Nation to relocate the remote and poverty-stricken island community of Davis Inlet to Sango Bay on the Labrador mainland.
In 1999, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that children who suffer injuries in the womb cannot sue their mothers.
In 2001, a Nova Scotia Supreme Court judge ruled gay and lesbian couples in the province could adopt children.
In 2001, a Chilean court declared General Augusto Pinochet mentally unfit to stand trial for atrocities committed under his rule in the 1970s and '80s.
In 2003, the federal government announced it would temporarily supply marijuana for medicinal purposes.
In 2003, at least 600 people drowned when a triple-deck Bangladeshi ferry capsized in a confluence of three rivers, 65 kilometres south of Dhaka.
In 2003, the British Defence Ministry confirmed David Kelly was the source for a BBC report alleging the Blair government used suspect information to bolster its case for war against Iraq. The former UN weapons inspector denied making the claims included in the report. Kelly was found dead three days later. His death was ruled a suicide.
In 2004, in a nonbinding ruling, the International Court of Justice in The Hague ruled that Israel's West Bank security barrier violated international law and should be dismantled. The Court condemned the wall for going too far in infringing on the freedom of the Palestinians, dismissing arguments that it was essential to Israel's national security.
In 2004, a U.S. Senate investigative report concluded the CIA provided false and unfounded information about Iraqi weapons that the Bush administration used to justify the 2003 invasion.
In 2006, Cpl. Anthony Boneca, 21, was killed in battle with Taliban fighters in the Panjwaii district west of Kandahar, Afghanistan.
In 2006, a Russian Airbus A310 skidded on a rain-slicked runway and plowed through a concrete barrier in the Siberian city of Irkutsk, Russia, killing 125 people.
In 2007, Pakistani troops stormed the Red Mosque in Islamabad after negotiations failed to end a week-long standoff with militants holding about 150 hostages. At least 108 militants, including the ringleader, and eight soldiers were killed in eight days of fighting.
In 2007, a 13-year-old Medicine Hat, Alta., girl was convicted of three counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of her parents and eight-year-old brother. The girl, who was 12 when the killings occurred in 2006, became the youngest convicted multiple killer in Canada.
In 2010, Col. Bernard Ouellette, the most senior ranking Canadian military officer in Haiti who doubled as the chief of staff to the United Nations mission in the earthquake-battered country, was relieved of his command and faced several allegations -- including that he was involved in an inappropriate relationship.
In 2010, the U.S. and Russia completed a 14-person spy swap after two planes carrying the agents landed briefly in Vienna, then took off again in the largest such diplomatic dance since the Cold War.
In 2011, South Sudan became the world's newest nation, officially breaking away from Sudan after two civil wars over five decades that had cost millions of lives.
In 2016, Serena Williams beat Angelique Kerber 7-5, 6-3 to win her seventh Wimbledon title and tie Steffi Graf for the most major women's singles championships in the Open era with 22. (Williams surpassed the record in January 2017 after winning the Australian Open.)
In 2019, Bombardier announced plans to lay off half of the 1,100 workers at its Thunder Bay, Ont., railway car plant. Two major contracts in Ontario — for the Toronto Transit Commission streetcars and Metrolinx GO Transit rail cars — were slated to halt by the end of the year. It blamed the cyclical nature of its business and the Trump Administration's "Buy American" provisions.
In 2019, the Defence Department announced that Lieutenant-General Paul Wynnyk was stepping down as vice-chief of the defence staff, nearly a year after taking over the post. In a resignation letter that was leaked to the media, Wynnyk linked his departure to an aborted effort to reinstate his predecessor after breach of trust charges were dropped against Vice Admiral Mark Norman. Instead of returning to the military, Norman reached a settlement with the government and announced his own resignation in June 2019.
In 2019, forty-six people, including two children, were taken to hospital following a suspected carbon monoxide leak at a Winnipeg motel. Authorities said15 people were listed in critical condition. All those taken to hospital were released by the next day.
In 2019, H. Ross Perot died at age 89. Perot rose from a childhood of Depression-era poverty to become a self-made billionaire who twice ran for US president with a mixture of folksy sayings and simple solutions to America's problems. His 19 per cent of the vote in 1992 stands among the best showings by an independent candidate in the past century. Perot died at his home in Dallas surrounded by his family.
In 2019, actor Rip Torn died at the age of 88. No cause of death was given. Torn started his career with a series of dark, threatening roles and later did a 180-degree turn, taking on some of the wackiest parts in movies and T-V shows. Torn got one of his first big parts in a career that spanned seven decades in "The Cincinnati Kid." But it wasn't until he was in his 60s that he picked up his first major award victory -- an Emmy for his work on "The Larry Sanders Show," where he played an ethically-challenged T-V producer.
In 2020, the longest-serving mayor of South Korea's capital was found dead at age 64. Park Won-soon was a fierce critic of economic inequality who was seen as a potential presidential candidate. Police say Park's body was found near a restaurant nestled in wooded hills stretching across northern Seoul after he was reported missing by his daughter.
In 2023, in a legal decision described as the first of its kind in Canada, a Halifax sex worker successfully sued a client for nonpayment of services.
In 2023, hundreds of people gathered for a rally in support of striking British Columbia port workers in Vancouver as their job action stretched into its second week. Representatives from labour groups as far away as Australia and New Zealand spoke in support of the strikers at the rally.
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The Canadian Press