Today in History and Celebrity Birthdays

Today in Music History for Nov. 17: In 1938, singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot, who became Canada's most famous, and arguably most important, pop musician in the late 1960s, was born in Orillia, Ont.

Today in Music History for Nov. 20: In 1886, the Toronto Conservatory of Music was incorporated. It began with 200 students and 50 teachers, and operated in a space over a music store in the downtown area.

Today in Music History for Nov. 21: In 1877, Thomas Edison announced he invented a "talking machine" -- something that became known as the phonograph. In 1941, songwriter David Porter was born in Memphis.

Today in Music History for Nov. 23: In 1889, the Pacific Phonograph Company, owned by Louis Glass, installed the world's first jukebox at his Palais Royale Saloon in San Francisco.

Today in History for Nov. 22: In 1718, the English pirate Blackbeard was killed during a battle off the Virginia coast.

Today in History for Nov. 18: On this date: In 1095, Pope Urban II called 600 men to the Council of Clermont, where he asked Europe to recapture the Holy Land from the Turks. A vast crusading army was deployed.

Today in History for Nov. 21: In 1766, the first theatre in the U.S. -- the "Southfork" -- opened in Philadelphia. In 1783, the first free flight was made by two men who rose 100 metres above Paris in a hot-air balloon.

Today in History for Nov. 17: On this date: In 1558, Queen Mary I, known as Bloody Mary, who tried to return Protestant Britain to Catholicism, died.

Today in History for Nov. 23: In 1621, poet John Donne was elected dean of St. Paul's Cathedral in London. In 1765, Frederick County, Maryland, became the first colonial entity to repudiate the British Stamp Act.

Today in History for Nov. 20: In 1789, New Jersey became the first state to ratify the U.S. Bill of Rights. In 1841, Wilfrid Laurier, Canada's seventh prime minister, was born.