Today in History for March 13:
In 1456, according to tradition, Johann Gutenberg first published the Bible using movable type.
In 1462, the first dated Bible was printed in Latin in Mainz, Germany. It was also the first to contain the names of its printers. They were Johann Fust and Peter Schoeffer.
In 1781, British astronomer Sir Walter Herschel discovered the planet Uranus.
In 1885, British Columbia passed a law barring Chinese people from entering the province. The federal government disallowed the law 18 days later.
In 1894, a Paris nightclub presented the first professional striptease.
In 1910, Sammy Kaye, one of the most successful bandleaders of all time, was born in Rocky River, Ohio.
In 1914, Canadian writer W.O. Mitchell was born in Weyburn, Sask. The author of "Who Has Seen the Wind" and "Jake and the Kid" died in Calgary in 1998.
In 1916, Manitoba became the first province to vote for prohibition.
In 1927, Canada's old age pension bill received royal assent.
In 1928, Eileen Vollick of Hamilton, Ont., took her final flying tests and became the first Canadian woman to receive her pilot's licence. Vollick said after her first flight that she felt "at home" in the cockpit. Instead of taking companies up on their offers to demonstrate their planes, she entered the world of aerobatic flying and skydiving.
In 1953, the Soviet Union vetoed a recommendation by the UN Security Council that Canada's External Affairs Minister, Lester Pearson, be named UN secretary-general.
In 1959, more than 12,000 B.C. government employees staged a four-hour strike before returning to work after the province obtained a court injunction.
In 1964, Catherine "Kitty" Genovese was murdered in Queens, N.Y. Dozens of neighbours heard or witnessed the stabbing attack, which lasted nearly half an hour, but did not want to get involved. March 13th is the annual Good Samaritan Involvement Day -- named in Genovese's memory.
In 1967, a law took effect granting federal government employees the right to bargain collectively and strike.
In 1971, Paul Rose was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Pierre Laporte, the Quebec labour minister. During the October Crisis of 1970, Laporte and James Cross, the British trade commissioner in Montreal, were kidnapped by members of the separatist Front de Liberation du Quebec. FLQ demands included the release of convicted or detained members, and the broadcast of the FLQ manifesto. Cross was eventually released. In November 1971, Rose was sentenced to an additional life term for kidnapping Laporte. He was granted full parole in 1982.
In 1974, Northern Affairs Minister Jean Chretien announced that no drilling for oil or gas was allowed in the Beaufort Sea before the summer of 1976.
In 1980, Ford Motor Chairman Henry Ford II announced he was stepping down, the same day a jury in Winamac, Ind., found Ford Motor Co. innocent of reckless homicide in the fiery deaths of three young women in a Ford Pinto.
In 1984, veteran NDP MP Stanley Knowles was made an honorary officer of the Commons. The retirement gift, after 38 years of service, gave Knowles, then 75, a place for life at the clerk's table as a procedural adviser to the Speaker of the House of Commons. The member for Winnipeg-North Centre was also appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1985.
In 1985, Ottawa announced an agreement with the United States on a massive overhaul of the North America air defence system, including a controversial $1.5 billion plan to bolster the northern radar system in Canada.
In 1989, Deborah Grey won a byelection in the Alberta riding of Beaver River to become the Reform Party's first Member of Parliament. The party was formed in 1986 as an attempt to voice the concerns of Western Canada on a national stage. It was focused on reducing the cost and size of government and it was opposed to special status for Quebec. Grey was its only federal MP until the 1993 election, when Reform won 52 seats.
In 1990, the Soviet parliament voted to end the Communist Party's 72-year political monopoly.
In 1991, Exxon agreed to pay $1 billion in fines and penalties for the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska's Prince William Sound in March 1989.
In 1991, Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and U.S. President George Bush signed an agreement committing both countries to curb emissions that cause acid rain.
In 1996, 43-year-old Thomas Hamilton opened fire in a school gymnasium in Dunblane, Scotland. He killed 16 kindergarten students and their teacher, and wounded 12 other children and two teachers, before turning the gun on himself. The gym was later demolished and replaced by a garden.
In 1997, Sister Nirmala, a former Hindu Brahmin who converted to Roman Catholicism, was elected to succeed ailing Mother Teresa as the leader of Missionaries of Charity.
In 1998, President Kim Dae-jung approved the most sweeping amnesty in the history of South Korea, clearing the records of 5.5 million Koreans and freeing scores of political prisoners.
In 1999, after a formal signing ceremony in Independence, Mo., Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic became the first former members of the old Soviet bloc to join NATO, expanding the alliance to 19 members.
In 2002, it was announced that Canadian snipers had shot dead Taliban or al-Qaida members in Afghanistan in the previous days, the first confirmed enemy killings in combat by Canadian troops since the Korean War. "Soldier of Fortune" magazine estimated Canadian snipers killed more than 20 people during Operation Anaconda in the Shah-i-Kot Valley, one of them with a record-setting shot from 2,430 metres.
In 2003, Deborah Grey, Canadian Alliance MP for Edmonton North, who was the first person elected to represent the Reform Party -- Alliance's predecessor -- announced that she was leaving politics.
In 2005, a gunman killed seven people at a church service in a Milwaukee, Wis., hotel, including the minister, before killing himself.
In 2006, at the 26th annual Genie Awards, "C.R.A.Z.Y." won 10 categories, including Best Picture, Best Director (Jean-Marc Vallee), Best Leading Actor (Michel Cote) and Best Original Screenplay.
In 2008, Parliament voted 198-77 to extend Canada's military mission in Afghanistan by two years to 2011.
In 2008, the price of gold hit US$1,000 for the first time.
In 2009, Curtis Dagenais was found guilty and sentenced to mandatory life imprisonment in the July 2006 fatal shootings of two Saskatchewan RCMP officers and the attempted murder of another.
In 2010, a massive avalanche swept away dozens of people gathered for the Big Iron Shootout, a high-risk snowmobile rally on Boulder Mountain near Revelstoke, B.C. Two people died with another 30 injured.
In 2012, 22 pre-teen students and six adults returning from a ski holiday died when their bus crashed inside a tunnel in southern Switzerland; 24 children were injured.
In 2012, Encyclopaedia Britannica Inc. announced it would stop publishing print editions of its flagship encyclopedia for the first time since 1768.
In 2013, Jorge Bergoglio of Argentina was elected pope, choosing the name Francis; he became the first pontiff from the Americas and the first from outside Europe in more than a millennium.
In 2013, astronaut Chris Hadfield took over command of the International Space Station, the first time that a Canadian assumed control of the giant orbiting space laboratory.
In 2018, U.S. President Donald Trump ousted Rex Tillerson as secretary of state, tweeting in a surprise morning announcement that Tillerson would be replaced by CIA director Mike Pompeo.
In 2018, Canadian skiers Mollie Jepsen and Alana Ramsay took gold and bronze, respectively, in the women's super combined standing slalom at the Pyeongchang Paraympic Games; Mark Arendz won bronze in the men's biathlon 12.5 kilometre standing event.
In 2019, Canada grounded all Boeing 7-37 Max 8 and Max 9 airplanes. It meant the jets were not allowed to fly into, out of, or over Canada. Transport Minister Marc Garneau said evidence about multiple Max 8 flights suggested a worrying correlation between the Ethiopian Airlines crash and a Lion Air crash off Indonesia the previous October. He said in certain circumstances, the planes' systems tried to tilt their noses down, contrary to the efforts of pilots -- a pattern seen in both flights before they crashed.
In 2020, thirteen Canadians who were detained in Ethiopia while working with an Alberta-based humanitarian organization returned to Canada.
In 2020, a team from Toronto's Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, the University of Toronto and McMaster University announced they had isolated the novel coronavirus, which would help with developing treatments, vaccines and tests.
In 2020, all parties in the House of Commons agreed that Parliament would break until April 20 to help prevent the spread of COVID-19.
In 2020, the Greek Olympic committee suspended the rest of its torch relay after a large crowd gathered to watch, despite repeated requests for everyone to stay away over COVID-19 concerns. The Masters golf tournament and the Boston Marathon became the latest sporting events to be postponed due to the novel coronavirus.
In 2020, U.S. President Donald Trump declared a national emergency due to the COVID-19 pandemic, freeing up nearly $50 billion to help states and cities. Trump said no resource would be spared, but predicted the virus would pass and the country would come out of the crisis stronger than before.
In 2020, Foreign Affairs Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne issued a global travel advisory for Canadians regarding COVID-19, urging people to avoid non-essential travel outside the country.
In 2020, the National Arts Centre in Ottawa announced that all performances and events would be cancelled through April 5 to slow the spread of COVID-19. The famed Stratford Festival in southwestern Ontario also called off all performances and the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival in Toronto was postponed.
In 2020, the Bank of Canada dropped its overnight rate target by half a percentage point to 0.75 per cent in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2022, an American journalist was killed in Ukraine while gathering material for a report about refugees. Ukraine's Interior Ministry said 50-year-old documentary filmmaker Brent Renaud died in Irpin, which had been the site of intense shelling by Russian forces in recent days. Another journalist was wounded in the attack. Renaud won a litany of prestigious awards for documentary filmmaking including two duPont-Columbia journalism awards.
In 2022, William Hurt, the Oscar-winning actor of ''Broadcast 撸奶社区,'' 鈥淏ody Heat'' and 鈥淭he Big Chill,'' died at 71. His son said he died of natural causes, peacefully among family. In a long-running career, Hurt was three times nominated for an Academy Award, winning for 1985's 鈥淜iss of the Spider Woman."
In 2023 , the Jesuits of Canada released a list of 27 priests and brothers accused of sexually abusing minors over the past 70 years. The Jesuits say all but three of the men were dead. They say they reviewed documents going back to the 1950s, and that in most cases, the abuse came to light after the priest or brother died. The order says some cases never went to court.
In 2023, two men died after a pickup truck driven by a 38-year-old man plowed into pedestrians who were walking beside a road in the eastern Quebec town of Amqui. A provincial police spokeswoman said nine other people were injured, including two whose injuries were considered serious. A third man died on March 19.
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The Canadian Press
