Today in History for May 29:
In 526, Antioch, in present-day Turkey, was struck by an earthquake, killing about 250,000 people.
In 1453, the Turks captured Constantinople, bringing the Eastern Roman Empire to an end. Some historians consider this date the end of the Middle Ages.
In 1886, the first metal snap fastener, or press stud, was invented by Frenchman Pierre-Albert Raymond for use in fastening gloves.
In 1912, 15 young women were fired by Curtis Publishing for dancing “The Turkey Trot” during their lunch break.
In 1914, more than 1,000 people died when the Canadian Pacific liner “Empress of Ireland” collided with a Norwegian freighter in dense fog and sank in the St. Lawrence River near Rimouski, Que. The accident occurred in the early morning hours when most aboard were sleeping and the liner sank in just 14 minutes. Eight-hundred and forty passengers were among those killed, eight more than had died in the sinking of the Titanic. But the tragedy never achieved the fame of the earlier disaster, in part because attention was soon diverted to the outbreak of the First World War.
In 1917, future U.S. president John F. Kennedy was born in Brookline, Mass.
In 1950, the RCMP vessel “St. Roch” reached Halifax at the end of its last voyage, the first circumnavigation of North America.
In 1953, Mount Everest, the world's highest mountain, was conquered for the first time. Following a five-hour final assault, Edmund Hillary of New Zealand and Tenzing Norgay of Nepal spent about 15 minutes on the 8,848-metre summit, which straddles the Nepal-Tibet border in the Himalayas. Hillary and British expedition leader John Hunt were knighted by Queen Elizabeth. Sir Edmund climbed Everest only one more time. He spent much of the following years helping to improve the living conditions of the Sherpa inhabitants of the Everest region, thanking them for their help in 1953. Norgay, a Sherpa himself, became a global ambassador for his people and opened a school for mountain guides in India. He died May 9, 1986 at age 72. Hillary died on Jan. 11, 2008 at age 88 in New Zealand.
In 1967, Pope Paul VI named 27 new cardinals, including Karol Wojtyla, archbishop of Krakow, who later became Pope John Paul II.
In 1968, Shirley Jeffery was ordained as the first female minister in The Presbyterian Church in Canada. The church's general assembly had approved the ordination of women two years before.
In 1985, one-legged runner Steve Fonyo reached Victoria to complete his 14-month run across Canada. He raised $11 million for cancer research.
In 1985, 39 people were killed and hundreds injured in Brussels as English and Italian soccer fans rioted before the European Cup final between Liverpool and Juventus. The incident caused English clubs to be banned from European competitions for five years.
In 1987, movie director John Landis and four other people were acquitted in the 1982 deaths of actor Vic Morrow and two children on the “Twilight Zone” movie set. It was the first trial to arise from an accident on the set of a Hollywood film.
In 1987, the Reform Party of Canada was launched at a Vancouver convention, with Preston Manning as leader. The party was reorganized and renamed the Canadian Alliance in 2000. In 2003, it merged with the Progressive Conservative Party to form the Conservative Party of Canada.
In 1990, Boris Yeltsin was elected president of Russia.
In 1994, former East German leader Erich Honecker died in exile in Chile of liver cancer at age 81.
In 1998, the Supreme Court of Canada struck down a ban on publishing opinion polls late in a federal election campaign. The court called the law a virtual insult to the intelligence of voters.
In 1999, the space shuttle “Discovery” completed the first-ever docking with the international space station.
In 2008, the Vatican issued its most explicit decree against the ordination of women, punishing them and the bishops who try to ordain them with automatic excommunication.
In 2009, the Ontario government signed an agreement to transfer former Ipperwash Provincial Park to native hands. (Native protester Dudley George was shot to death by the OPP as about two dozen native people occupied the park after Labour Day in 1995 to protect what they said were sacred burial grounds).
In 2009, Jay Leno wrapped up 17 years as host of "The Tonight Show." Twelve million viewers tuned in, far short of the 41 million who watched Johnny Carson's farewell show. He handed over the reigns to his last guest, Conan O'Brien. (Leno returned as host in March 2010 but stepped aside in February 2014 to make way for Jimmy Fallon.)
In 2012, Jim Unger, the Canadian artist behind the syndicated cartoon strip "Herman," died at age 75. He twice won the National Cartoonist Society’s award for best syndicated panel.
In 2013, Dr. Henry Morgentaler, who helped overturn Canada's abortion law in 1988, died at his Toronto home. He was 90. To his enemies he was a mass murderer, but to many he was the man who put women's health and choice in the mainstream media.
In 2014, nearly a year after he ousted Egypt's first freely elected president, Mohammed Morsi, former military chief Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi was elected president by a landslide of 92 per cent of the vote.
In 2018, the federal Liberal government announced a deal to buy the Trans Mountain pipeline, expansion project and terminal assests from Kinder Morgan Canada for $4.5 billion, ensuring the twinning of the existing pipeline - from the Alberta oilsands to Burnaby, B.C. - would proceed, and then be sold shortly after completion to a third-party.
In 2018, ABC cancelled its hit reboot of "Roseanne" following a tweet by Roseanne Barr about former Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett that many perceived to be racist.
In 2018, a U.S. judge sentenced Canadian Karim Baratov to five years in prison and fined him US$250,000 after he earlier pleaded guilty to nine felony hacking charges in connection with a massive security breach at Yahoo that U.S. federal agents say was directed by Russian government spies.
In 2019, a Quebec judge ruled SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. should go to trial on charges of fraud and corruption. The decision was the latest step in criminal proceedings after the Montreal-based engineering and construction giant failed to secure a deferred prosecution agreement, a kind of plea deal that would have seen the firm agree to pay a fine rather than face prosecution. Over the previous four months, SNC-Lavalin found itself in the centre of a political controversy following accusations from former attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould that top government officials pressured her to overrule federal prosecutors, who had opted not to negotiate a deferred prosecution agreement with the company. SNC-Lavalin and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had argued that a criminal trial could trigger the company's exit to the United States and the loss of thousands of jobs.
In 2020, Statistics Canada said the economy in the first quarter had its worst showing since 2009 as steps taken to slow the spread of COVID-19 forced businesses across the country to close their doors and lay off workers. Statistics Canada says said domestic product fell at an annualized rate of 8.2 per cent in the first three months of 2020.
In 2020, Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was charged with murder and manslaughter in the death of George Floyd.
In 2021, Josh Donaldson of the Minnesota Twins scored the two-millionth run in Major League Baseball history. He came home in the first inning on a ground-rule double by Nelson Cruz against Kansas City. The one-millionth run was scored in 1975.
In 2023, Quebec and the federal government pledged $300 million in funding for a factory that will make components for electric vehicle batteries in Becancour. The joint project between automaker General Motors and South Korean industrial materials maker POSCO Future M was first announced by the companies the previous year. The factory is expected to employ around 200 people when it opens in 2025.
In 2023, Danielle Smith was re-elected as premier in Alberta after the United Conservative Party won a majority government.
In 2024, a new certification program was launched in B.C., aiming to help Black-owned businesses enter the lucrative world of government and corporate procurement. The Black Business Certification Program became the first of its kind in Canada and is being run in partnership with Public Services and Procurement Canada.
In 2024, North Korea flew hundreds of balloons carrying trash and manure toward South Korea in one of its most bizarre provocations against its rival in years. South Korea's military mobilized chemical and explosive response teams to recover objects and debris in different parts of the country.
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The Canadian Press