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Prep-Today in History(Canadian Press Broadcast Wire (Canada) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Today is March 24th: Today's highlight in history: In 1603, the Elizabethan era ended in England with the death of Queen Elizabeth I. Her 45-year reign is generally regarded as a golden age where theatre and the arts flourished, and England extended its economic clout through exploration. It also flexed its muscle as a political power with the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588. Elizabeth's death not only marked the end of an era, it also marked the end of the Tudor line of rulers. Also on this date: In 1580, what are believed to have been the first bombs were tossed at the town of Guelderland, Germany. In 1634, the first Roman Catholic mass in English North America was celebrated at St. Mary's, Maryland. In 1670, silver and copper coins were minted for use in Canada. In 1761, German soldiers and settlers established Canada's first Lutheran church in Halifax. In 1765, Britain enacted the Quartering Act, requiring American colonists to provide temporary housing to British soldiers. In 1803, famed educator Egerton Ryerson was born in Norfolk County, Upper Canada. He died in Toronto in 1882. In 1837, Lower Canada, now Quebec, granted blacks the right to vote. In 1882, German bacteriologist Robert Koch announced he had isolated the bacillus of tuberculosis. His work helped diagnose T-B in animals intended for food. In 1890, Agnes Macphail, Canada's first female M-P, was born. She first won a Commons seat from Ontario in 1921 -- the first federal election in which women had the vote. She lost her Commons seat in 1940, but served in the Ontario legislature from 1943 to '51. She died in Toronto in 1954. In 1890, U-S scientist John Rock was born. He developed the birth control pill in 1944. In 1900, work began on the New York City subway system. In 1905, French adventure writer Jules Verne died at 78. His classics include ``Around the World in 80 Days'' and ``A Journey to the Center of the Earth.'' In 1921, the British Empire's first female cabinet minister was sworn in. Mary Ellen Smith became a minister without portfolio in British Columbia. Smith won a 1918 Vancouver byelection following the death of her husband Ralph, the finance minister in the Liberal government. Re-elected in 1920 and '24, Smith served in cabinet until November 1921. In 1933, the first concentration camps were set up by Germany's Nazi government -- the Dachau camp near Munich. In 1936, the Detroit Red Wings won what remains the longest game in N-H-L history. Mud Bruneteau's goal at 16:30 of the sixth overtime period gave the Wings a 1-0 victory over the visiting Montreal Maroons. The Stanley Cup semi-final game ended at 2:25 a.m. on March 25th. In 1944, what became known as ``The Great Escape'' took place when 76 Allied prisoners escaped from a German prisoner-of-war camp through a man-made tunnel. Only three of the escapees made it home -- 50 were captured and murdered and 23 were returned to prison camps. The story inspired the 1963 movie starring Steve McQueen. In 1944, in occupied Rome, the Nazis executed more than 300 civilians in reprisal for an attack by Italian partisans the day before that had killed 32 German soldiers. In 1945, Canadian troops began the liberation of the Netherlands during the Second World War. Corporal Fred Topham won the Victoria Cross for bravery as Canadian paratroopers and air support joined in the Allies' crossing of the Rhine River. In 1949, ``Hamlet'' was named best picture at the Academy Awards. Its star, Laurence Olivier, won the best actor award. In 1955, the Tennessee Williams play ``Cat on a Hot Tin Roof'' opened on Broadway. In 1964, Prince Edward Island adopted its flag. The flag design is that of the coat of arms granted to the province in 1905, displaying an island and a great British oak tree centered, with its symbolic descendants to the immediate left. All are protected by the gold British Lion above. In 1975, the beaver became Canada's official symbol. In 1976, British Field Marshall Viscount Montgomery died at 88. His most famous victory -- the 1942 defeat of Germany's Afrika Korps under General Erwin Rommel -- is considered a turning point in the Second World War. In 1980, Roman Catholic Archbishop Oscar Romero, a vocal opponent of the military in El Salvador, was assassinated while saying mass in the cathedral in the capital, San Salvador. Several men, believed to be part of a death squad, were arrested for the murder but were later released. In 1989, the worst oil spill in U-S history occurred as the supertanker ``Exxon Valdez'' (val-DEEZ') ran aground in Alaska's Prince William Sound and began leaking 41- (m) million litres of crude. In 1993, a jury in Los Angeles decided actress Kim Basinger was guilty of backing out of a verbal agreement to star in the movie ``Boxing Helena.'' In 1999, NATO planes began three months of bombing the Serbian province of Kosovo in a successful effort to force Serbian troops to withdraw. It marked the first time in its 50-year existence that NATO had ever attacked a sovereign country. In 2002, Halle Berry won the best actress Oscar, Denzel Washington best actor, while ``A Beautiful Mind'' was named best picture. It was the first time black actors had taken both top acting awards. Before that night, Sidney Poitier was the only African-American actor to have won an Oscar in a lead role. In 2004, the European Union declared Microsoft Corp. guilty of abusing its ``near monopoly'' with Windows to foil competitors in other markets and hit the software giant with a record fine of $613 (m) million. In 2004, Hamilton Liberal M-P-P Dominic Agostino died of cancer at the age of 43. In 2005, Kyrgyzstan President Askar Akayev's government collapsed after opposition protesters took over the presidential compound and government offices. In 2008, Bhutan, the small Himalayan country, became the world's newest democracy when voters cast ballots in the nation's first parliamentary elections, ending more than a century of absolute monarchy. In 2008, Haydn Llewellyn Davies, a Welsh-born Canadian artist whose large wood and steel sculptures stand outside public buildings in several Canadian cities, died in Toronto at age 86. His work is also displayed in more than two dozen permanent collections, including the National Museum of Wales, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and Rome's National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art. In 2009, France announced it would compensate 150,000 victims of nuclear testing carried out in the 1960s in French Polynesia and Algeria. (The Canadian Press) (c) 2010 The Canadian Press |