Today in History for March 21:
In 547, Italian monk Benedict, author of the Benedictine rule which established the pattern for European monastic life through the Middle Ages, died at Monte Cassino. In 1965, Pope Paul VI proclaimed him the patron saint of Europe.
In 1556, Thomas Cranmer, author of the ``Book of Common Prayer'' and the churchman who proposed a method by which Henry VIII could divorce Catherine of Aragon without dispensation from Rome, was burned at the stake by order of the Catholic queen, Mary I. Mary -- Henry and Catherine's daughter -- attempted to restore Catholicism as England's official religion, as opposed to the Anglicanism that allowed Henry to divorce her mother.
In 1617, Pocohontas, an Indian princess who married English settler John Rolfe, one of the founders of a colony in Virgina, died in England at the age of 22.
In 1621, English settlers signed their first treaty with Indians at Plymouth, Mass.
In 1666, Intendant Jean Talon counted 3,000 people in Canada's first census.
In 1685, Johann Sebastian Bach, one of the greatest and most influential composers in the Western world, was born in Eisenach, Germany.
In 1804, the French civil code, known as the Napoleonic code, was adopted.
In 1821, the North West Company agreed to merge with its fur-trading rival, the Hudson's Bay Company, effective June 1st.
In 1821, a medical school was incorporated in Montreal. It later became part of McGill University.
In 1865, Prince Edward Island voted against Confederation.
In 1871, American journalist Henry Morton Stanley began his legendary expedition to Africa to locate the missing Scottish missionary David Livingstone. Stanley found him -- frail and short of supplies, but alive -- on Nov. 13 on the edge of Lake Tanganyika.
In 1891, an inter-family marriage ended the infamous American feud between the Hatfields and McCoys. The wedding came after 150 family members had been killed.
In 1904, Canadian cuisine pioneer Jehane Benoit was born in Montreal. The consultant, author and commentator died in 1987.
In 1918, the Second Battle of the Somme began when 207 German divisions attacked a lesser number of French and British units on the Western Front.
In 1942, J.S. Woodsworth, the founding leader of the federal Co-operative Commonwealth Federation, died in Vancouver at age 67. Woodsworth, a Methodist minister and ardent social democrat, founded the Manitoba Independent Labour Party in 1919. From the time he was first elected to the Commons from Winnipeg in 1921, Woodsworth pushed Liberal and Conservative governments for social reforms. He became CCF leader at the party's founding convention in Regina in 1933. But the staunch pacifist split with his colleagues six years later, when he opposed Canada entering the Second World War. Woodsworth retired soon after as leader of the CCF, which was renamed the New Democratic Party in 1961.
In 1944, comedian Charlie Chaplin went on trial in Los Angeles, accused of transporting former protege Joan Barry across state lines for immoral purposes. Chaplin was acquitted, but he lost a paternity suit despite tests showing he wasn't the father of Barry's child.
In 1960, a peaceful demonstration in Sharpeville, South Africa, against the government's oppressive identity pass laws turned into a massacre when police, reinforced by army units, opened fire and killed 69 people and injured 180 others.
In 1963, the Alcatraz federal prison island in San Francisco Bay was emptied of its last inmates at the order of Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy.
In 1965, a five-day civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Ala., began. Led by Rev. Martin Luther King, 8,000 people set out to cover the 80-km walk for equality and desegregation. The marchers were supervised by 1,000 military police, who were stationed to prevent incidents of violence along the route. The area had been torn by racial violence and Rev. James Beeb of Boston had died in a demonstration in Selma 10 days before the march to Montgomery began.
In 1974, riot police were sent by air to restore order at the James Bay Hydro-Quebec site after feuding construction workers went on a rampage, destroying equipment and buildings.
In 1975, Ethiopia's ruling military abolished the country's 3,000-year-old monarchy.
In 1977, poor weather, ice conditions and lack of money forced the Greenpeace Foundation to abandon its protest against the annual seal hunt off the coast of Newfoundland.
In 1978, four armed men stole over $1 million in cash from an armoured car left unattended by three security guards eating in a Quebec roadside diner.
In 1978, in a precedent-setting decision, an Ottawa county court judge awarded custody of two children to their homosexual father, a 37-year-old businessman from Montreal.
In 1979, Egypt's government approved the peace treaty signed with Israel earlier in the month in Washington.
In 1985, wheelchair athlete Rick Hansen of Vancouver started his ``Man in Motion'' world tour to raise funds for spinal cord research. Hansen, who arrived back in Vancouver on May 22, 1987, raised $20 million and travelled through 34 countries.
In 1985, police in Langa, South Africa, opened fire on blacks marching to mark the 25th anniversary of the Sharpeville shootings; the reported death toll varies between 29 and 43.
In 1988, Dr. Patrick Steptoe, who pioneered the in vitro fertilization technique that led to the birth of the world's first test-tube baby, Louise Brown, died at age 74. Brown's birth in 1978 made Steptoe and his partner Robert Edwards famous, but also led to a storm of criticism from religious leaders and others who denounced them for playing God.
In 1990, Namibia in southwest Africa became independent after 75 years of South African rule.
In 1991, the Supreme Court of Canada upheld a B.C. ruling that an unborn child is not a person and cannot be considered one until it leaves its mother's body.
In 1994, thousands of loggers from across British Columbia staged a massive demonstration at the B.C. legislature to protest environmentalists' demands for new parks.
In 1995, Defence Minister David Collenette launched a public inquiry into the Canadian Airborne Regiment's deployment to Belet Huen in Somalia, including the torture and murder of a Somali civilian and allegations of a coverup.
In 1999, Swiss psychiatrist Bertrand Piccard and English balloon instructor Brian Jones completed a historic non-stop flight around the globe in a hot-air balloon, one of the last great challenges in aviation. The pair set off March 1st from Chateau d'Oex in the Swiss Alps and crossed the finish line over Mauritania on March 20th. They touched down in the remote Egyptian desert after a record-breaking flight of 19 days, 21 hours and 55 minutes, floating more than 42,000 km around the Earth in their ``Breitling Orbiter III.''
In 2001, Canadians Jamie Sale and David Pelletier won the world pairs figure skating championship in Vancouver.
In 2005, a high school student in Red Lake, Minn., killed his grandfather and the man's girlfriend at their home and then seven people at his school, before killing himself after exchanging gunfire with police.
In 2010, U.S. President Barack Obama's US$940-billion historical health care reform legislation was finally passed by the House of Representatives after a divisive year-long national debate. It ensured 30 million uninsured Americans would soon get health care and would undoubtedly define his presidency. He signed the bill into law two days later.
In 2010, the Vancouver Winter Paralympics came to a close. Canada's overall medal count of 10 gold and 19 overall (five silver and four bronze) topped any Winter Paralympic haul.
In 2011, the House of Commons voted to approve Canadian military involvement to help enforce the UN's no-fly zone over Libya.
In 2011, Raymond Lavigne resigned the Senate seat he held since 2002. Early in the month, the Liberal-appointed senator was convicted of fraud and breach of trust relating to improper travel claims totalling at least $10,000.
In 2013, Justin Welby was enthroned as the 105th Archbishop of Canterbury, serving as the head of the Church of England and spiritual leader of the world's Anglican Communion.
In 2014, the Supreme Court of Canada rejected Prime Minister Stephen Harper's hand-picked appointment to the high court. It ruled Marc Nadon, the semi-retired Federal Court of Appeal judge from Quebec, did not meet the specific requirements for the jurists appointed from that province.
In 2018, the suspect in the deadly string of bombings that terrorized Austin, Texas, detonated an explosive device inside his vehicle as authorities closed in, bringing a grisly end to the three-week manhunt. Five bombings between March 2-20 had killed two people and wounded four others.
In 2018, W. Thomas Molloy was sworn in as Saskatchewan's new lieutenant-governor.
In 2018, the Just For Laughs company was sold to an investor group led by Canadian-born comedian Howie Mandel and U.S. talent agency ICM Partners. In October 2017, the company was rocked after several women came forward with allegations of sexual assault and sexual harassment against its founder and majority stakeholder, Gilbert Rozon, who stepped down as president and said he would sell his shares.
In 2018, breaking five days of silence, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg apologized for a ``major breach of trust,'' admitted mistakes and outlined steps to protect user data in light of a privacy scandal involving the Trump-connected data-mining firm Cambridge Analytica.
In 2019, Ichiro (EE'-chee-rooh) Suzuki was showered with cheers and chants while taking what appeared to be his final bow as the Seattle Mariners beat the Oakland Athletics 5-4 in 12 innings in Tokyo. The 10-time all-star began his career in Japan in 1992 before embarking on a stellar major-league career mostly with Seattle. He had over three-thousand major league hits and was named the American League's M-V-P in 2001.
In 2020, Canada and the United States closed their shared border to all non-essential travel over the growing COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2020, Ontario, Quebec and Saskatchewan officials announced citizens would be issued fines or arrested if they ignore the orders to self-isolate or practice social distancing to help fight the spread of COVID-19.
In 2020, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced restricted non-essential travel with Canada's northern territories over the COVID-19 pandemic. Trudeau also announced enhanced help for Canadians abroad to get flights home.
In 2021, the City of Toronto marked a sombre anniversary. It had been one year since the first Torontonian died of COVID-19.
In 2022, veteran talk show host Maury Povich said he would stop making original episodes of ''Maury,'' where he had been a daytime mainstay for 31 years. Povich worked in television news for many years, and is married to journalist Connie Chung. He was the inaugural host of ''A Current Affair'' in the late 1980s.
In 2024, doctors at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston announced that they transplanted a genetically modified pig kidney into a 62-year-old patient. Before the operation, pig kidneys had only been temporarily transplanted into brain-dead donors.
In 2024, Immigration Minister Marc Miller said the government planned to decrease the number of temporary residents from 6.2 to five per cent of the population over the following three years. The government also moved to reduce the number of workers entering Canada in certain sectors, except in health care and construction.
In 2024, the UN General Assembly unanimously adopted its first resolution on artificial intelligence. The resolution sponsored by the U.S. gave global support to an international effort to ensure the powerful new technology benefits all nations, respects human rights and is safe, secure and trustworthy.
In 2024, Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew formally apologized to two men who were switched at birth in the province almost 70 years ago. Edward Ambrose and Richard Beauvais were invited onto the floor of the legislature chamber to hear the apology. They were both born in a municipally-run hospital in Arborg in 1955 before being sent home with the other's parents. The truth came to light decades later after one of them took an at-home DNA ancestry test.
In 2024, the self-anointed "front page of the internet" jumped 55 per cent in its Wall Street debut. Investors pushed the value of Reddit close to $9 billion seconds after it started trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
In 2024, the federal government made changes to the National Defence Act by removing the military's authority to investigate and prosecute sex crimes cases. Defence Minister Bill Blair said the proposed changes would remove the military's jurisdiction over sexual offences under the Criminal Code provided the alleged crimes happened in Canada. The military will still be able to exercise jurisdiction to investigate sex crimes that happen outside of Canada, including during international deployment.
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The Canadian Press
