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Today in History - Feb. 25(Canadian Press Broadcast Wire (Canada) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Today in History for Feb. 25: On this date: In 616 (traditional date): Ethelbert, first Christian English king and instigator of the first written code of British law, died. In 1570, Pope Pius V excommunicated Queen Elizabeth I of England, declaring her a usurper because she embraced Protestantism. In 1723, British astronomer and architect Sir Christopher Wren died. He's best known for designing St. Paul's Cathedral in London. In 1752, John Graves Simcoe, the first lieutenant governor of Upper Canada, was born at Cotterstock, England. In 1832, a charter was granted for the construction of Canada's first railway, the Champlain and St. Lawrence Railway. In 1836, inventor Samuel Colt patented his revolver -- the first revolving barrel multi-shot firearm. In 1841, French artist Pierre-Auguste Renoir was born. In 1873, Enrico Caruso, universally regarded as the world's greatest operatic tenor, was born in Naples, Italy. In 1880, the New Brunswick legislature in Fredericton was destroyed by fire. In 1884, a company that would later become Inco began mining operations at Sudbury, Ont. Today, Inco is part of Vale, a huge global mining company with operations on five continents. In 1908, St. Boniface, Man., was incorporated as a city. In 1918, McGill University received a $1-million grant from the Carnegie Foundation. In 1924, Douglas Jung -- the first Chinese Canadian elected to Parliament -- was born in Victoria. Jung represented Vancouver Centre for the Conservatives from 1957-62. He was also the first Chinese Canadian lawyer accepted to the British Columbia bar, the first to appear before the B.C. Court of Appeal, and the first to represent Canada at the United Nations. Jung died in Vancouver on Jan. 4, 2002. In 1928, W3XK Washington became North America's first licensed television station. In 1940, the New York Rangers beat the visiting Montreal Canadiens 6-2 at Madison Square Garden in the world's first televised hockey game. It was aired on Westinghouse station W2XBS. In 1945, CBC's International Service was launched. In 1948, Communists seized power in Czechoslovakia. In 1964, Cassius Clay, who later changed his name to Muhammad Ali, became world heavyweight boxing champion by defeating Sonny Liston in Miami Beach. In 1966, the 13-km, $200-million east-west Toronto subway was opened by Prime Minister Lester Pearson. In 1968, Quebec Premier Daniel Johnson accused Justice Minister Pierre Trudeau of displaying a dangerous ignorance of Quebec and the nature of federalism. In 1972, Ontario Hydro's nuclear power generating plant was officially opened. In 1982, Maclean Hunter Ltd. acquired 50 per cent ownership of the ``Sun'' newspapers in Toronto, Edmonton and Calgary. In 1983, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Tennessee Williams died at age 71. In 1986, after 20 years of rule, Philippines president Ferdinand Marcos resigned. The 68-year-old Marcos and his family fled to Guam. Corazon Aquino, widow of the assassinated Benigno Aquino, succeeded Marcos. In 1991, the Warsaw Pact, created by the Soviet Union and other eastern European countries as a counter-force to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, voted to dissolve on March 31. In 1993, The Supreme Court of Canada ruled 4-3 that gay and lesbian couples aren't families under the Canadian Human Rights Act. The judges said Parliament never intended to include homosexual couples when it amended the human rights law in 1983 to prevent employers from discriminating against people based on family status. However, Justice Antonio Lamer wrote that he might have voted differently if the act had prohibited discrimination against homosexuals. Justice Minister Kim Campbell had introduced amendments to do just that in December. In 1997, multimillionaire John du Pont was found guilty of murder in the fatal shooting of Olympic champion wrestler David Schultz, but a jury decided he was mentally ill. In 1998, Canadian Gen. Romeo Dallaire who headed the UN peacekeeping forces in Rwanda in 1994, said that the world had an opportunity to halt the 1994 genocide in Rwanda that left more than 500,000 people dead, but failed to act. In 1998, Canadian author and humorist W.O. Mitchell, died at age 83. In 1999, Senator Eric Berntson was convicted of defrauding taxpayers of more than $14,000 when he was Progressive Conservative deputy premier of Saskatchewan. In 2000, telecommunications giant BCE bought broadcaster CTV for $2.3 billion. In 2003, John Lecky, the athlete and businessman who founded Canada 3000 in 1988 and built it into the second-largest airline in Canada, died in Calgary at age 62. In 2003, Roh Moo-hyun, 57, was sworn in as President of South Korea. In 2005, notorious Holocaust denier Ernst Zundel gave up his fight to stay in Canada. The 65-year-old white supremacist was put on a plane in early March to return to Germany where he faced charges for spreading hate there. He would spend five years in a German prison before being freed in 2010. In 2007, ``The Departed'' was named best picture at the 79th Annual Academy Awards. Martin Scorsese won his first Oscar for directing it. Forest Whitaker won best actor for ``The Last King of Scotland'' and the best actress award went to Helen Mirren for ``The Queen.'' In 2009, a Turkish Airlines plane with 135 people aboard slammed into a muddy field while attempting to land at Amsterdam's main airport, breaking into three pieces and killing nine people, including the two pilots. In 2010, Ile-Dupas, Que.-native Joannie Rochette won the hearts of Canadians with an inspirational performance to earn an Olympic bronze medal in ladies figure-skating just days after her mother's sudden death. In 2010, Canada claimed its third Olympic championship in women's hockey with a 2-0 victory over the United States at Vancouver's Winter Games. In 2013, Cardinal Keith O'Brien, Britain's highest-ranking Catholic leader, announced he was resigning as archbishop in the wake of misconduct allegations and was skipping the conclave to elect a successor to Pope Benedict XVI. It was the first time a cardinal stayed away from a conclave because of personal scandal. (The Canadian Press) (The Canadian Press) (c) 2014 The Canadian Press |