Today in History for Oct. 24:
In 1260, under Pope Alexander IV, Chartres Cathedral in France was consecrated. Completed in less than 30 years, the structure represents high Gothic architecture at its purest.
In 1537, Jane Seymour, the third wife of England's King Henry VIII, died 12 days after giving birth to Prince Edward. The prince later became King Edward VI.
In 1648, the Peace of Westphalia ended the Thirty Years War and effectively destroyed the Holy Roman Empire.
In 1788, Sarah Hale was born near Newport, N.H. She worked as an editor and writer as well as a women's rights activist. But she is best known for composing the children's poem "Mary Had a Little Lamb," published in 1830.
In 1852, the Toronto Stock Exchange, the largest stock market in Canada, opened for business. It was formed by a group of Toronto businessmen who created an association of brokers to set up a market in industrial securities. They first met informally but eventually established a common meeting place and formal rules and regulations.
In 1858, Canadian pianist and lecturer W. Waugh Lauder was born in Oshawa, Ont.
In 1861, the first transcontinental telegraph message was sent as California Judge Stephen J. Field transmitted a telegram to U.S. President Abraham Lincoln in Washington.
In 1901, Anna Edson Taylor became the first person known to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel and survive. The 50-year-old widow performed the stunt to raise money to repay a loan due on her Texas ranch. But her dreams of fame and fortune failed to materialize and she died in poverty in 1921.
In 1903, the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway received a charter to build a line between Quebec and Winnipeg.
In 1917, a memorial in honour of Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, was unveiled in Brantford, Ont.
In 1926, a beam system of wireless transmission to England was inaugurated in Montreal.
In 1929, "Black Thursday" marked the crash of the stock market in the United States and triggered the Great Depression.
In 1931, Chicago gangster boss Al Capone was given an 11-year jail sentence and fined $80,000 for tax evasion. He served eight years.
In 1939, nylon stockings went on sale for the first time, in Wilmington, Del.
In 1945, the United Nations formally came into existence. The idea of the UN was to foster an ideal of collective security and thus prevent any future world wars. It describes itself as a "global association of governments facilitating co-operation in international law, security, economic development and social equity."
In 1945, Franklin Carmichael of Orillia, a member of Group of Seven painters, died in Toronto.
In 1972, Jackie Robinson, the first black major league baseball player, died at age 53.
In 1976, Hua Kuo-feng succeeded the late Mao Tse-tung as chairman of China's Communist party.
In 1980, the merchant freighter "SS Poet" left Philadelphia bound for Port Said, Egypt, with a crew of 34 and a cargo of grain. It was never heard from again.
In 1989, U.S. television evangelist Jim Bakker was given a 45-year jail sentence and fined $500,000 for defrauding his followers. He served five years in prison.
In 1990, the RCMP announced it would allow native officers to wear their hair in braids while in uniform.
In 1991, "Star Trek" creator Gene Roddenberry died in Santa Monica, Calif., at age 70.
In 1992, the Toronto Blue Jays became the first team from outside the U.S. to win the World Series. They defeated the Atlanta Braves four games to two. Dave Winfield's two-run double in the 11th inning knocked in the winning run in the Jays 4-3 victory. The game ended after midnight (ET) and some purists might argue the Series was won Oct. 25.
In 2002, police arrested John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo as suspects in random sniper attacks that killed 10 people in the Washington, D.C. area as they did everyday activities such as shopping and getting gas. (Muhammad was executed on Nov. 10, 2009 while Malvo is serving a life sentence in Virginia).
In 2003, three Concordes swooped into London鈥檚 Heathrow Airport, joining in a spectacular finale to the era of luxury supersonic jet travel.
In 2005, U.S. civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks died at age 92.
In 2005, final results indicated that Iraq's constitution was adopted by a majority of voters in the Oct. 15 referendum.
In 2006, Ontario Superior Court struck down a portion of the legal definition of terrorism, ruling it infringed on constitutional guarantees of freedom of religion, thought and association.
In 2007, the U.S. government acknowledged for the first time that the 2002 deportation of Syrian-born Canadian Maher Arar to a Syrian jail was not handled properly.
In 2009, Cathie Gauthier was found guilty of first-degree murder in the killings of her three children as part of a New Year's Eve murder-suicide pact with her husband in their home in Saguenay, Que. (In 2013, the Supreme Court of Canada rejected her appeal.)
In 2017, actor Robert Guillaume, who won Emmy Awards for his portrayal of the sharp-tongued butler in the TV sitcoms "Soap" and "Benson," died at age 89.
In 2018, The Lubicon Lake Band reached a long-standing land claims settlement with the Alberta and federal governments for $113 million. The Cree band, which was left out of Treaty 8 when it was negotiated by the British in 1899, was also to receive 246 square kilometres of land in the area of Little Buffalo, northeast of Peace River.
In 2018, three insiders from U.S. College basketball recruiting were convicted of fraud by a federal jury in Manhattan. The trial of former Adidas executive James Gatto, business manager Christian Dawkins and amateur league director Merl Code centred on whether their admitted efforts to channel secret payments to the families of top recruits to lure them to major basketball programs sponsored by Adidas was criminal. Prosecutors accused the defendants of defrauding universities, who were unaware of the payments, by tricking them into passing out scholarships to players who should have been ineligible.
In 2018, U.S. regulators approved a plan for the first oil and gas production in federal Arctic waters.
In 2019, British Columbia introduced legislation it said would make it the first province to implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The legislation mandates the government to bring provincial laws and policies into harmony with the aims of the declaration, but does not set a timeline for doing so. The U-N declaration grants Indigenous Peoples the right to redress or compensation for traditional lands that have been taken, used or damaged without their "free, prior and informed consent."
In 2020, police in Fredericton said writer Richard Vaughan was found dead, 10 days after he was reported missing. The 55-year-old author and video artist, who wrote under the name R.M. Vaughan, was revered in the LGBTQ arts scene.
In 2020, country singer and songwriter Jerry Jeff Walker, who wrote the pop song "Mr. Bojangles," died at 78. He had been battling throat cancer and other ailments for years.
In 2020, federal Conservative Leader Erin O'Toole said Alberta has responded to the COVID-19 pandemic better than the Trudeau government. O'Toole addressed the provincial United Conservative Party's annual general meeting from Ottawa, where he praised the guidance of Alberta Premier Jason Kenney. (O'Toole would later be criticized for his supportive statements after Kenney declared a public health state of emergency in September 2021, due to a surge in hospitalizations that threatened to overwhelm the province's health care system.)
In 2020, the New Democrats won the British Columbia election. Voters gave Premier John Horgan a second term 鈥� and a majority 鈥� after he took a gamble calling an election during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2021, James Michael Tyler, who played Gunther on hit TV sitcom ''Friends,'' died of prostate cancer at age 59. Tyler played Central Perk's manager, and was a highly popular character through the show's 10 seasons for his unrequited love for Jennifer Aniston's Rachel.
In 2022, Rishi Sunak won the race to be leader of the U.K. Conservative Party. His only rival, Penny Mordaunt, conceded and withdrew.
In 2022, former Ontario Liberal leader Steven Del Duca was elected mayor of Vaughan. Former journalist Mark Sutcliffe took over Ottawa's top job. John Tory won a third term as mayor of Toronto, Bonnie Crombie secured another victory in Mississauga and Patrick Brown was re-elected as mayor of Brampton. Former Ontario NDP leader Andrea Horwath became the new mayor of Hamilton.
In 2023, a Federal Court judge verbally approved a $23-billion settlement in a First Nations human rights complaint filed in 2007. It will see Ottawa compensate more than 300,000 Indigenous children and their families over chronic underfunding of on-reserve child-welfare services.
In 2023, the NHL rescinded its ban on rainbow-coloured Pride tape.
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The Canadian Press
