Today in History for July 12:
On this date:
In 1191, the armies of the Third Crusade (1189-92), led by England's King Richard I (The Lionhearted), captured the Syrian seaport of Acre, now located in northern Israel.
In 1543, England's King Henry VIII married his sixth and last wife, Catherine Parr, who outlived him.
In 1690, Protestant forces led by William of Orange defeated the Roman Catholic army of James II at the "Battle of the Boyne" in Ireland. The victory established Protestant domination in Northern Ireland.
In 1750, Quebec's first medical code imposed a mandatory exam for doctors and set fines for those not qualified.
In 1776, Captain Cook sailed from Plymouth, England, on a voyage to ΒιΆΉ΄«Γ½Σ³»Island.
In 1812, American Gen. William Hull invaded Canada from Detroit with 2,500 men in the opening campaign of the War of 1812. He expected to be welcomed as a liberator, but was beaten back three times at Duck River and hurried back to Detroit a month later. In August, Hull surrendered at Detroit to Gen. Issac Brock.
In 1836, Canada's first railway, the Champlain and St. Lawrence, started service between Laprairie and St. Jean, Que.
In 1843, Mormon church founder Joseph Smith announced that he had received a divine revelation sanctioning polygamy among his newly-organized religious followers.
In 1849, famed Canadian doctor Sir William Osler was born in Bond Head, Ont. Osler studied and taught medicine in Toronto, Montreal, England and the United States. Called the "most influential physician in history," Osler pioneered medical training that combined clinical observation with lab research. His 1892 textbook, "The Principles and Practice of Medicine," was considered authoritative for more than 30 years. Osler died in 1919.
In 1855, world champion sculler Edward (Ned) Hanlan was born in Toronto. He held the rowing title for six years before losing in 1884, and lost only six races out of more than 350.
In 1906, Alfred Dreyfus, a young Jewish staff officer in the French army, was acquitted of treason. The verdict ended an infamous case of anti-Semitism that lasted a decade.
In 1920, author and historian Pierre Berton was born in Whitehorse. He died on Nov. 30, 2004.
In 1920, the Panama Canal was formally opened, providing a shipping route between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
In 1950, three Canadian destroyers arrived at Pearl Harbor to join the U.S. naval task force to take action against the Communists in Korea.
In 1955, the state of Georgia's education board approved a lifetime ban for any teacher instructing a mixed-race class.
In 1957, Prince Karim became the Aga Khan upon the death of his grandfather. The late Aga Khan had bypassed his two sons in naming the 20-year-old prince, then a student at Harvard, as spiritual leader of the world's 20 million Ismaili Muslims.
In 1960, the Etch A Sketch Magic Screen drawing toy was first produced.
In 1963, the Queen Victoria monument in Montreal was blown up by dynamite. It followed a number of suspected FLQ terrorist bombings.
In 1977, Bill 101, a controversial language bill, was given its first reading in the Quebec National Assembly.
In 1978, Alfredo Bessette of Montreal, known as Brother Andre, was declared venerable in a decree approved by the Pope. In February 2010, he became modern-day Canada's first saint with the formal canonization held on Oct. 17th in Rome.
In 1981, the B.C. forest industry was shut down when 48,000 woodworkers went on strike.
In 1982, it was learned that unemployed Englishman Michael Fagan had broken into Buckingham Palace two nights before and talked to Queen Elizabeth in her bedroom.
In 1982, saying it was satisfied hostilities in the South Atlantic were at an end, Britain announced it was returning the remaining 593 Argentine prisoners who had surrendered on the Falkland Islands.
In 1987, a group of 174 illegal refugees, most of them Sikhs, landed in a Nova Scotia cove. The Spanish skipper of the ship was sentenced to 30 days in jail and fined $2,500. Most were allowed to stay in Canada, but the others were considered security risks. The previous year, in August 1986, 155 Tamils were found drifting in lifeboats near Newfoundland and sought refuge in Canada.
In 1989, CN Rail was allowed to abandon Prince Edward Island's only rail service.
In 1991, the federal and Quebec governments offered $363 million to bail out shipbuilder MIL Davie.
In 1993, Canadian senators voted 80-1 with two abstentions to rescind the $6,000 increase in expense allowance they voted themselves on June 23. The earlier vote ignited a national furor.
In 1993, the Federal Court of Appeal ruled 3-0 that a section of the Income Tax Act requiring married people to pay higher income tax than common-law couples was not discriminatory under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
In 1993, a 7.8-magnitude earthquake hit northern Japan. The resulting firestorms and tsunamis left up to 250 people dead or missing on the islands of Okushiri and Hokkaido.
In 1996, Prince Charles and Princess Diana agreed on terms of a divorce ending their 15-year marriage. Diana received a financial settlement worth about $32 million and kept her title of Princess of Wales, but lost the designation of Her Royal Highness. The divorce became final on Aug. 28.
In 1997, Russell MacLellan was elected Nova Scotia's Liberal leader and premier.
In 1998, host France won its first World Cup title, defeating defending champion Brazil 3-0.
In 2005, the Alberta government announced provincial health-care reforms under which patients would be able to buy extra services.
In 2005, Prince Albert II of Monaco acceded to the throne of a 700-year-old dynasty.
In 2006, Israel began bombing southern Lebanon and sent ground troops over the border for the first time in six years after Hezbollah guerrillas captured two Israeli soldiers. It was the beginning of a 34-day war that ended after the U.N. Security Council finally approved a resolution calling for both sides to halt the fighting and allow the deployment of U.N. and Lebanese forces in southern Lebanon.
In 2007, London-based Rio Tinto struck a US$38 billion deal to buy 105-year-old Alcan Inc. of Montreal in the biggest foreign takeover in Canadian history.
In 2010, award-winning director Roman Polanski was freed after the Swiss government rejected a U.S. extradition request. He was arrested in Zurich on Sept. 26, 2009 and was later put under house arrest at his chalet in Gstaad. He had fled the U.S. in 1978, a year after pleading guilty to unlawful sexual intercourse with a 13-year-old girl.
In 2011, in the early a.m., Neptune completed its first orbit of the sun since its discovery in 1846.
In 2014, Mario Goetze volleyed in the winning goal in extra time to give Germany its fourth World Cup title with a 1-0 victory over Argentina.
In 2015, No. 1-seeded Novak Djokovic won the Wimbledon men's singles title for the second straight year, and again against seven-time champion Roger Federer.
In 2018, Syrian rebels agreed to surrender the southern city of Daraa, the cradle of the 2011 revolt against President Bashar Assad in Arab Spring-inspired protests.
In 2019, A federal Justice Department report revealed the RCMP chose not to disclose an investigator's theories about other suspects to a Nova Scotia man who ended up wrongfully convicted of murdering his ex-girlfriend. A Nova Scotia judge ordered the release of the report in the case of 63-year-old Glen Assoun. It found the Mounties digitally erased or destroyed most of the potential evidence, including the possibility a serial killer was a suspect. The RCMP said mistakes were made but it did not intentionally withhold information. Assoun spent 17 years in prison before he was exonerated of the 1995 murder of Brenda Way in the spring on grounds that "reliable and relevant evidence" was never provided to the defence.
In 2019, Prominent Montreal-area lawyer James Duggan was among the three victims of a plane crash in a remote region of northern Quebec. Duggan spent decades representing members of the R-C-M-P, and was instrumental in the battle allowing them to unionize. His death occurred just before the National Police Federation announced it had been certified as the bargaining agent for the R-C-M-P membership. The 67-year-old was on a fishing trip with three friends -- one of whom survived.
In 2019, US Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta announced plans to resign, two days after defending his actions in a 2008 secret plea deal with wealthy financier Jeffrey Epstein on accusations of sexually abusing dozens of underage girls. Acosta's role in the matter while he was the U-S attorney in Miami had come under renewed scrutiny after federal prosecutors filed new sex trafficking charges against Epstein.
In 2020, a report from Iran's Civil Aviation Organization detailed a series of moments where the downing of Ukraine International Airlines Flight PS-752 could have been avoided. The Revolutionary Guard shot down the passenger jet on Jan. 8, killing all 176 people on board β including 55 Canadian citizens, 30 permanent residents and dozens more with ties to Canada. The report said a misaligned missile battery, miscommunication between troops and their commanders and a decision to fire without authorization all led to the tragedy.
In 2021, the World Health Organization issued new recommendations on human genome editing. It called for a global registry to track "any form of genetic manipulation'' and proposed a whistle-blowing mechanism to raise concerns about unethical or unsafe research. The UN health agency commissioned an expert group in late 2018 following a dramatic announcement from a Chinese scientist who created the world's first gene-edited babies.
In 2023, Olivia Chow officially took office as mayor of Toronto. She became the first person of colour to lead Canada's most populous city. She beat out more than 100 other candidates in a June byelection to replace John Tory, who abruptly resigned earlier in the year after admitting to an extramarital affair.
In 2023, the Bank of Canada raised its key interest rate by a quarter point to five per cent. The central bank said it raised the rate because of elevated demand in the economy and strong underlying inflation pressures.
In 2023, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and other NATO leaders wrapped up a two-day summit in Lithuania.
In 2024, a New Mexico judge threw out the involuntary manslaughter case against actor Alec Baldwin in the shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of the film βRust.β Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer dismissed the case with prejudice based on the misconduct of police and prosecutors over the withholding of evidence from the defence.
In 2024, Dr. Ruth Westheimer died at the age of 96. The sex therapist became a pop icon, media star and bestselling author through her frank talk about bedroom topics that were once considered taboo. Her publicist confirmed Westheimer died at her home in New York City.
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The Canadian Press