Today in History for April 29:
On this date:
In 1429, Joan of Arc entered Orleans, France to score her great victory in driving out the English.
In 1607, English settlers established the first Anglican church in the American colonies at Cape Henry, Va.
In 1770, British Captain James Cook reached Botany Bay on the Australian east coast for the first time.
In 1792, English explorer George Vancouver reached Juan de Fuca Strait and later explored what are now Vancouver Island and the city of Vancouver.
In 1857, the first electric locomotive made a trial run on the Baltimore and Ohio railway.
In 1867, Queen Victoria gave royal assent to the British North America Act. Canada became the first Dominion of the British Empire the following July 1st. In 1947, the British government amended the act to allow Canada to draft its own constitution, but it was not patriated until 1982.
In 1880, royal assent was given to an act approving the formation of the Bell Telephone Company of Canada.
In 1913, Gideon Sandback of Hoboken, N.J., patented the zipper.
In 1916, the "Easter Rising" in Dublin collapsed as Irish nationalists surrendered to British authorities.
In 1939, Lou Gehrig got what would be his last hit in a Yankee uniform, a single against the Washington Senators. His career ended suddenly because of illness. Two years later, he died at age 37 from the disease that would later bear his name.
In 1946, 28 former Japanese leaders were indicted in Tokyo as war criminals.
In 1949, the House of Commons approved the NATO treaty.
In 1954, India and China agreed to peaceful co-existence and non-aggression against Tibet.
In 1967, five-year-old Gino Lyons became the youngest painter to have his work exhibited at London's Royal Academy of Art. He was three when he painted "Trees and Monkeys."
In 1977, Pope Paul VI and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Donald Coggan, participated in a Christian unity service in the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican.
In 1980, film director Alfred Hitchcock died at age 80.
In 1981, truck driver Peter Sutcliffe admitted in a London court to being the so-called "Yorkshire Ripper." He killed 13 women in northern England during a five-year period. (He received 20 life sentences and in 2010 Britain's High Court ruled he would remain in custody the rest of his life.)
In 1982, China's population topped one billion.
In 1986, Queen's University offensive tackle Mike Schad became the first Canadian selected in the first round of the NFL draft. He was taken by the Los Angeles Rams. (He played in 65 games with L.A. and Philadelphia then returned to Canada in 1995 to play one season with Ottawa.)
In 1992, Los Angeles saw the start of deadly rioting that claimed 55 lives and caused $1 billion in damage. The riots came after a jury in suburban Simi Valley acquitted four white Los Angeles police officers of almost all state charges in the videotaped beating of black motorist Rodney King. Two officers were later convicted and jailed on federal civil rights charges.
In 1993, a deranged fan stabbed tennis player Monica Seles during a break in a match in Hamburg, Germany. Seles did not return to competition for more than two years.
In 2001, Pope John Paul II beatified Sister Marie-Anne, a Quebec native who helped found the Sisters of Ste-Anne in 1850 to educate poor rural children.
In 2003, Mahmoud Abbas was overwhelmingly endorsed by the Palestinian parliament as the first-ever Palestinian prime minister.
In 2003, Liberal Leader Jean Charest was sworn in as Quebec's 29th Premier during a ceremony in Quebec City.
In 2003, American soldiers opened fire on Iraqi students protesting against the presence of U.S. troops at their school in Fallujah, a town 50 kilometres west of Baghdad, killing 16 and wounding 75.
In 2006, John Kenneth Galbraith, the Canadian-born Harvard professor who won worldwide renown as a liberal economist, died of natural causes in Cambridge, Mass. He was 97. During a long career, Galbraith served as adviser to Democratic presidents from Franklin D. Roosevelt to Bill Clinton, and was John F. Kennedy's ambassador to India.
In 2009, Pope Benedict XVI expressed "sorrow" to a delegation from Canada's Assembly of First Nations over the abuse and "deplorable" treatment that aboriginal students suffered at residential schools run by the Roman Catholic Church.
In 2010, the Crown officially withdrew the charges against Romeo Phillion, wrongfully convicted of murdering a firefighter in Ottawa in 1972 and spending 31 years in prison before being released on bail while the federal government reviewed his case. In March 2009, the Ontario Court of Appeal struck down his conviction and ordered a new trial. (In 2012, he sued for $14 million but the lawsuit was dismissed by the Ontario Superior Court of Justice. An appeal court then ruled Phillion should at least have a chance to put his case to a jury. In 2015, the Supreme Court of Canada cleared the way for him to sue police when it refused to hear the appeal to block the lawsuit. Phillion died Nov. 2, 2015.)
In 2011, an elegant, tiara-bedecked Kate Middleton married Prince William at Westminster Abbey in a union that was expected to revitalize the British monarchy. The couple were bestowed the titles of Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. Some two billion people around the world tuned in to watch via TV or social networks.
In 2011, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that an Ontario ban on farm unions was constitutional, thus denying more than 80,000 Ontario farm workers the right to unionize.
In 2011, 4.5 million litres of oil spilled from a pipeline located northeast of Peace River in northern Alberta, the province's second-largest spill ever. (Its largest pipeline spill occurred in December 1980.)
In 2014, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver banned Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling, 80, for life for making racist comments in a recorded conversation. Sterling was fined $2.5 million and was later forced to sell the club.
In 2015, in what was believed to be the first major league game played without fans in attendance, the Baltimore Orioles beat the Chicago White Sox 8-2. The gates at Camden Yards were locked because of concern for fan safety following recent rioting in Baltimore after a 25-year-old black man died in police custody.
In 2018, Marvel superheroes amalgam "Avengers: Infinity Wars" set box office records for an opening weekend, earning US$250 million domestically and US$630 million globally. (It also became the fastest movie (11 days) to surpass the $1 billion mark.)
In 2018, T-Mobile announced an all-stock US$26.5 billion deal for Sprint allowing the U.S.'s third- and fourth-largest wireless companies to bulk up to a similar size as Verizon and AT&T, the industry giants.
In 2019, as of April 29, states of emergency were in place in Quebec, Ontario, and New Brunswick as waters reached or surpassed historic flood levels reached, in some cases, just two years earlier. Flooding forced thousands of residents from their homes in communities across the country as spring brought severe flooding. In Quebec, 6,425 homes were flooded with more than 95-hundred people evacuated - two-thirds of them in Ste-Marthe-sur-le-Lac, west of Montreal, after water from the Lake of Two Mountains burst through a natural dike April 27. Two-thousand Canadian Armed Forces troops were deployed to flood zones - half of whom were in Quebec. The flooding closed more than 80 roads across New Brunswick, including a major section of the Trans-Canada Highway.
In 2019, director John Singleton, who made one of Hollywood's most memorable debuts with the Oscar-nominated "Boyz N the Hood" and continued over the following decades to probe the lives of black communities in his native Los Angeles and beyond, died at 51. Singleton's family said he died in Los Angeles, surrounded by family and friends, after being taken off life support. The director suffered a major stroke earlier in the month. Singleton became the first black director to receive an Academy Award nomination and at 24, was also the youngest director nominee in Oscar history.
In 2020, German pharmaceutical company BioNTech said it had begun testing a potential vaccine for COVID-19. The company, which is working with U.S.-based Pfizer, said 12 participants of a clinical trial had received doses of the vaccine candidate on April 23.
In 2020, veteran character actor Irrfan Khan, best known for his Bollywood movies and as one of India's most recognizable exports to Hollywood, died at age 54 after being admitted to a Mumbai hospital with a colon infection.
In 2020, the U.S. National Institutes of Health reported an experimental drug had proven effective against COVID-19, shortening the time it takes for patients to recover by four days on average. The NIH tested remdesivir versus usual care in more than one-thousand hospitalized novel coronavirus patients around the world.
In 2020, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau confirmed a Canadian military helicopter taking part in a NATO mission went missing off the coast of Greece. Greek state TV said the helicopter crashed into the sea between Greece and Italy, killing at least one person.
In 2021, a late night for the House of Commons ended with MPs approving legislation to put an end to a strike that had shut down one of Canada's busiest ports for days. Conservatives joined forces with the minority Liberal government early in the morning to pass Bill C-29 by a vote of 255-61.
In 2022, American vaccine maker Moderna officially announced it would build a facility in the Montreal area to produce mRNA vaccines. Moderna's new facility will be the company's first in Canada. It will produce mRNA vaccines not only against COVID-19 but also other respiratory viruses including influenza. The agreement includes both production and vaccine research components, with the facility to be completed by 2024.
In 2022, protesters opposed to COVID-19 mandates were back in Ottawa. Police wearing helmets and carrying batons were waiting as bikers, big-rig trucks and campers tried to make their way to Parliament Hill. At least seven people were arrested on various charges, and some fines were issued.
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The Canadian Press
