Today in History for Sept. 26:
On this date:
In 1751, some 1,000 immigrants from Wurtemberg, Germany, arrived in Halifax, N.S.
In 1774, American pioneer environmentalist Jonathan Chapman, better known as Johnny Appleseed, was born. Chapman, whose theology taught an empathy with the natural world, distributed apple seeds and religious tracts from the Alleghenies to the Ohio Valley in the U.S.
In 1819, Sir William Edward Parry of Britain's Royal Navy anchored his ships off Melville Island, N.W.T, becoming the first explorer to winter in the Arctic by choice. He'd been put in charge of two ships in an expedition aimed at finding the Northwest Passage.
In 1904, Earl Grey was appointed governor general of Canada. He had been a member of the British House of Commons and then administrator of Rhodesia. Born in St. James' Palace in London, Grey was an ardent imperialist, and in speeches in Canada he tried to promote imperial pride. Grey served as governor general from 1904-11. In 1909, he donated the Grey Cup for the Canadian football championship.
In 1907, New Zealand was constituted a Dominion.
In 1909, Prince Ito of Japan was assassinated by a Korean revolutionary.
In 1934, the "Queen Mary," the first British liner to exceed 305 metres in length, was launched in Glasgow, Scotland. The 85,535-tonne vessel, built at Clydebank for the Cunard White Star Line, carried more than two million people in over 1,001 Atlantic crossings. In 1967, the huge liner docked at Long Beach, Calif., where it has since been fashioned into a hotel and museum.
In 1947, Hugh Lofting, who wrote "The Story of Dr. Dolittle," died. He was born in Maidenhead, England, in 1886 and settled in the United States in 1912.
In 1950, a "blue moon" that appeared over various parts of Britain was said to be the result of forest fires in Alberta and British Columbia. At dusk, a blue moon rose over the country. The scientific explanation is that smoke from the fires left particles in the air that interfered with the spectrum, letting only blue light through. Two days earlier, the smoke had been thick enough to completely block out the sun in eastern Canada.
In 1950, UN troops recaptured Seoul from the North Koreans during the Korean War.
In 1956, Babe Zaharias, considered by many to be the greatest female athlete of all time, died of cancer at age 45. She starred in track and field, golf and numerous other sports.
In 1958, Prime Minister John Diefenbaker became the first Canadian leader to visit the Yukon while in office. Diefenbaker had made northern issues and development a priority and had lived in the Northwest Territories for seven years as a child.
In 1959, Ceylonese Prime Minister Solomon Bandaranaike died 22 hours after being shot by an assassin.
In 1969, the Centennial Centre of Science and Technology, now known as the Ontario Science Centre, opened in Toronto.
In 1972, in a referendum, Norway voted against joining the European Economic Community.
In 1977, British entrepreneur Freddie Laker began his cut-rate "Skytrain" service from London to New York. Laker was later knighted, but the carrier went out of business in 1982.
In 1981, Canada and the Soviet Union signed a five-year agricultural agreement.
In 1983, "Australia II" defeated "Liberty" to win yachting's America's Cup off Newport, R.I. It was the first loss for the U.S. in 25 challenges dating back to 1851.
In 1984, China and Britain agreed that Hong Kong would revert to Chinese control in 1997.
In 1990, the Oka crisis ended when Mohawk Warriors laid down their weapons after a 78-day standoff with Quebec police and Canadian soldiers. The standoff began July 11 when police raided a barricade set up to protest the expansion of a golf course on land claimed by the Mohawks. It ended, as it began, with violence. Unarmed Mohawks and Warriors got into wild scuffles with police and soldiers. By the end, army officials had taken 34 men, 16 women and six children into custody. One police officer was killed.
In 1990, in Russia, the Supreme Soviet ended decades of religious repression with a new declaration forbidding government interference in religious activities and giving citizens the right to study religion in homes and private schools.
In 1990, the Motion Picture Association of America announced the creation of the NC-17 rating, replacing the X rating for films with mature subject matter.
In 1991, four men and four women began a two-year stay inside a sealed-off structure in Oracle, Ariz., called "Biosphere 2." (They emerged from Biosphere on this date in 1993.)
In 1992, a military transport plane with 163 army officers and crew crashed soon after takeoff from Lagos, Nigeria, killing all aboard.
In 1993, 53-year-old diesel mechanic Dave Munday of Caistor Centre, Ont., completed his second plunge over Niagara Falls in a barrel. It was believed to be the first time anyone had survived two trips over the Falls. Munday also completed the stunt in 1985.
In 1996, the last full lunar eclipse of the century occurred throughout North America.
In 1997, all 234 people aboard an Indonesian Airbus were killed when it crashed near Medan in an area of Sumatra that had been shrouded in smoke from hundreds of forest fires.
In 2000, the Greek ferry "Express Samina," with more than 500 people onboard, sank in the stormy Aegean Sea on a rocky islet shortly before reaching the island of Paros, Greece. At least 79 people, including two Canadians, died.
In 2002, a ferry bound for Senegal sank in a storm off West Africa, leaving about 1,000 people dead.
In 2005, the outlawed Irish Republican Army announced it had fully disarmed, a breakthrough verified by international weapons inspectors.
In 2008, Newfoundland and Labrador reached an agreement with the Innu to build a massive hydroelectric project on the Lower Churchill River. The deal included both an ownership stake in the proposed Lower Churchill hydroelectric project and redress for what the Innu suffered when the existing Upper Churchill project was built in the 1960s.
In 2008, Paul Newman, the blue-eyed leading man who starred in "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof," "Cool Hand Luke" and "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," died at the age of 83 after a long battle with cancer. Newman was nominated six times for an Academy Award before he took home the best actor honour for "The Color of Money" (1986).
In 2010, the CFL played its first-ever regular season game in Atlantic Canada, in Moncton. Running back Calvin McCarty scored two touchdowns as the Edmonton Eskimos defeated the Toronto Argonauts 24-6.
In 2018, the Canadian Armed Forces officially eased its restrictions on beards while in uniform, effective immediately. The move was part of efforts to modernize the military for the 21st century - and in the process increase recruitment and improve morale.
In 2018, the federal government said Corrections Canada would review a decision to transfer a convicted child killer from an Ontario prison to a healing lodge. Terri-Lynne McClintic pleaded guilty in 2010 to killing eight-year-old Victoria Stafford of Woodstock, Ont. The girl's father called the transfer "completely wrong."
In 2018, the Toronto Blue Jays made the long-expected announcement that manager John Gibbons would not return for the 2019 season.
In 2020, U.S. President Donald Trump nominated Judge Amy Coney Barrett to replace the late liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the country's Supreme Court.
In 2021, newly elected Toronto MP Kevin Vuong confirmed that he would not resign, and instead, would sit as an Independent. Vuong initially ran as a Liberal, but the party dropped him as a candidate just two days before Monday's election over a sexual assault charge laid against him in 2019, which was later dropped.
In 2022, a NASA spacecraft rammed an asteroid in an unprecedented test to see if a potentially menacing space rock could be knocked off course. The Dart spacecraft plowed into the small space rock called Dimorphos at more than 22,500 kilometres per hour. Scientists said the impact should have carved out a crater and hurled streams of rocks and dirt into space. Most importantly, though, scientists were hoping the collision altered the asteroid's orbit.
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The Canadian Press