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Today-History-Sep13

Today in History for Sept. 13: On this date: In 1503, artist Michelangelo began work on his "David," which would become one of the most famous sculptures in the world. In 1775, Laura Secord, heroine of the War of 1812, was born. In 1788, the U.S.

Today in History for Sept. 13:

On this date:

In 1503, artist Michelangelo began work on his "David," which would become one of the most famous sculptures in the world.

In 1775, Laura Secord, heroine of the War of 1812, was born.

In 1788, the U.S. constitutional convention authorized the first national election in the United States, and declared New York City the temporary national capital.

In 1882, Ottawa Valley timber magnate John Booth opened his own railway line, "The Canada-Atlantic," from Coteau Junction, N.B., to Ottawa.

In 1884, Canada's first official participants in an overseas war -- the Nile Voyageurs -- set sail for Egypt.

In 1886, the Canadian Pacific Telegraph began operation.

In 1886, "The Volta," an electric boat constructed in London, crossed the English Channel and back in four hours, powered only by its batteries.

In 1899, the first death caused by a car occurred when a Henry Bliss was run over when he stepped off a bus in New York City.

In 1905, Russia and Japan signed a truce ending war in Korea and Manchuria.

In 1907, "The Lusitania" completed its maiden voyage across the Atlantic. Eight years later in 1915, the ship, owned by the Cunard Steamship Line Shipping Co., was torpedoed by the German submarine U-20 during the First World War, killing 1,198 of the nearly 2,000 people aboard. The Lusitania sank in about 18 minutes about 15 kilometres off the Old Head of Kinsale, Ireland.

In 1907, Phil Edwards, the first Canadian to win five Olympic medals, was born in Guyana. Edwards moved to Montreal before the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics, where he won a bronze relay medal. At the 1932 Los Angeles Games, Edwards added three more bronze medals in track and his fifth Olympic bronze came in the 800 metres in Berlin in 1936. He died Sept. 6, 1971.

In 1915, the Canadian Corps was established when the 2nd Canadian Division arrived at the front in France. Brig. Arthur Currie was promoted to general in command of the 1st Division. Under his leadership, the Canadian Corps preserved its identity and became one of the most feared attack forces during the First World War.

In 1940, Buckingham Palace was hit by a bomb during a German raid. In an earlier attack, the Germans dropped a time bomb on the palace on Sept. 8 and the bomb exploded two days later. Bombs also struck the palace on Sept. 10 and Sept. 15. The Royal Family was uninjured in the attacks.

In 1942, 113 people died in a German submarine attack on the Canadian destroyer "Ottawa" in the Atlantic.

In 1943, Chiang Kai-shek became president of China.

In 1965, the new Toronto city hall was formally opened.

In 1966, John Vorster was sworn in as prime minister of South Africa.

In 1971, 33 prisoners and nine guards died when police stormed a prison in Attica, N.Y., to quell a riot.

In 1980, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and the provincial premiers broke off stalemated talks on constitutional reform.

In 1981, the Soviet Union trounced Canada 8-1 in Montreal to win the Canada Cup hockey tournament. It was the only time Canada lost the tournament, which was played five times between 1976 and '91.

In 1981, thousands of people from more than 880 Canadian communities took part in the first Terry Fox Memorial Run, raising money for cancer research. It was the first anniversary of the day the one-legged runner had to call off his "Marathon of Hope" run across Canada after cancer was discovered in his lungs. The annual 10-km event to raise funds for cancer research now draws hundreds of thousands of participants around the world.

In 1991, Montreal's Olympic Stadium was closed after a 55-tonne concrete beam fell from the structure. No one was injured but the Expos were forced to move all their home games for the rest of the season.

In 1993, Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization signed a historic peace accord in Washington, calling for mutual recognition of Jewish and Palestinian states and laid the foundations for Palestinian self-rule.

In 1996, Bishop Hubert O'Connor was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison for sexual assaults he committed 30 years earlier while he was principal of Williams Lake Indian residential school in B.C.

In 1997, Mother Teresa was buried at Mother House, headquarters of the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta, India, after a state funeral.

In 1999, a bomb blast flattened an eight-storey apartment building in Moscow, killing 118 people. It was the latest and most deadly of a series of terrorist attacks blamed on Chechen separatists.

In 2000, Michel Auger, a crime reporter for "Le Journal de Montreal," was shot and wounded outside the newspaper's office. Auger recovered from his injuries, which came one day after his analysis of recent mob killings in Montreal was published.

In 2001, U.S. officials named Osama bin Laden "suspect no. 1" in the Sept. 11 attacks against the World Trade Center and Pentagon. He was killed by U.S. Navy SEALs in Pakistan on May 2, 2011.

In 2004, Canada’s first same-sex divorce was granted after Ontario Superior Court judge struck down the definition of "spouse" in the Divorce Act.

In 2005, the UN General Assembly approved a watered-down agreement to reform the United Nations.

In 2006, 25-year-old Kimveer Gill went on a shooting rampage at Dawson College in Montreal, killing one student, 18-year-old Anastasia DeSousa, and wounding 20 others. He killed himself after being shot by police.

In 2007, the UN General Assembly adopted the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which sets out global human rights standards for indigenous populations, despite opposition from Canada and three other countries.

In 2008, hurricane Ike slammed ashore in southeast Texas with winds of 175 km/h and heavy rain that caused widespread flooding along the Gulf of Mexico. Stretching 965 kilometres in width, the storm made landfall at the island city of Galveston. Thousands of homes were flooded and roads were washed out. Ike was responsible for at least 28 death across nine states.

In 2009, Pte. Patrick Lormand, 21, of the 2nd Battalion, Royal 22nd Regiment based in Quebec City, was killed and four others were injured in a roadside blast from an improvised explosive device near Kandahar City in Afghanistan. Pte. Patrick Lormand was the 130th Canadian soldier to be killed in Afghanistan.

In 2011, the Ontario Court of Appeal upheld the 2009 fraud convictions of disgraced Livent Inc. theatre impresarios Garth Drabinsky and Myron Gottlieb. Their sentences, however, were trimmed by two years, with Drabinsky to serve five years in prison and Gottlieb four years.

In 2012, Peter Lougheed, who is widely credited as being one of the most influential leaders in the Alberta's history, died in hospital in Calgary at the age of 84. He led the Progressive Conservatives to victory over the governing Social Credit party in 1971. He remained premier until 1985.

In 2013, a pre-dawn fire swept through a Russian psychiatric hospital in the village of Luka, killing 37 people.

In 2013, an Ontario judge ruled that Darwin the Ikea monkey was a wild animal and should not be returned to its former owner Yasmin Nakhuda. He had been found wandering in the parking lot of a Toronto Ikea store in December 2012 dressed in a faux-shearling coat and sent to an Ontario primate sanctuary.

In 2014, Newfoundland and Labrador's governing Progressive Conservatives chose former police officer Paul Davis as its new leader, replacing the retiring Tom Marshall, who took over after Kathy Dunderdale quit in January.

In 2015, top-ranked Novak Djokovic defeated Roger Federer in four sets in the U.S. Open final for his 10th Grand Slam title.

In 2017, the International Olympic Committee granted Paris the 2024 Summer Olympics and Los Angeles the 2028 Games, the first time the IOC had granted two Summer Olympics at once. Both cities will host their third Olympics.

In 2018, Fisheries Minister Jonathan Wilkinson announced the creation of Canada's first protected marine area under the Canada Wildlife Act. Shell Canada cleared the way for the Scott Islands marine National Wildlife Area by giving up its ocean exploration rights off northern Vancouver Island.

In 2018, U.S. President Donald Trump rejected the official conclusion that nearly 3,000 people died in Puerto Rico in 2017 from Hurricane Maria, falsely claiming it was a plot by Democrats to make him look bad. Fellow Republicans broadly dissociated themselves from Trump's claims and acknowledged the veracity of the independent study.

In 2018, Pope Francis accepted the resignation of West Virginia Bishop Michael Bransfield and authorized an investigation into allegations he sexually harassed adults. The move was announced just ahead of an audience with U.S. church leaders over an abuse and coverup scandal roiling the Catholic Church.

In 2019, Cameron Jay Ortis was charged with breaching Canada's secrets law while serving with the RCMP. Ortis, 47, was charged under three sections of the Security of Information Act as well as two Criminal Code provisions for allegedly trying to disclose classified information. The charge sheet listed a total of seven counts against Ortis under the various provisions, two of them dating from as early as Jan. 1, 2015, through to Thursday, Sept. 12 when he was arrested. The RCMP said the charges stemmed from activities alleged to have occurred during his time as a force employee, suggesting he was active with the Mounties upon being taken into custody. The Security of Information Act, ushered in following the 9/11 attacks in the United States, is intended to safeguard sensitive government information.

In 2019, actress Felicity Huffman was sentenced to 14 days in prison for her role in the sweeping college admissions scandal. The "Desperate Housewives" star was sentenced in Boston's federal court after pleading guilty in May to a single count of conspiracy and fraud. She was also given a $30,000 fine, 250 hours of community service and a year of supervised release. Huffman admitted to paying an admissions consultant $15,000 to have a proctor correct her daughter's SAT exam answers in 2017. Huffman said before sentencing that she was deeply ashamed of what she had done. She was the first parent to be sentenced among 34 charged in the scheme.

In 2020, Chloe Zhao's "Nomadland,'' a road trip drama starring Frances McDormand, won the Golden Lion for best film at the Venice Film Festival. Zhao and McDormand appeared by video to accept the award from the United States, where pandemic travel restrictions made reaching the Lido difficult if not impossible.

In 2021, the board of Kansas City Southern ruled that a takeover offer from Canadian Pacific Railway was a superior proposal to its agreement with Canadian National Railway. As a result, the U.S. railway said it planned to terminate its deal with CN and sign a definitive agreement with CP Rail, which has made a proposal valued at about US$31 billion, including debt.

In 2022, the first Canadian edition of the Michelin Guide was released, with more than a dozen Toronto eateries receiving the coveted stars. Japanese restaurant Sushi Masaki Saito was awarded two Michelin stars, and 12 others restaurants earned one.

In 2023, Canadian Tire became the first funding partner of the Professional Women's Hockey League. The company reached a multi-year agreement that included sponsorship of the league's inaugural draft.

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The Canadian Press