Today in History for Nov. 5:
In 1605, Guy Fawkes was found in the basement of Britain's Parliament Buildings, along with 36 barrels of gunpowder. His arrest foiled a plot to blow up the buildings and kill King James I during the next day's opening of Parliament. Britons mark Guy Fawkes Day each Nov. 5th with bonfires.
In 1803, weekly public markets were established in Toronto, then called York.
1872, suffragette Susan B. Anthony became the first American woman to vote in a presidential election, albeit illegally. She was later convicted by a judge and fined $100, but refused to pay the fine.
In 1873, Prime Minister John A. Macdonald's federal government resigned over evidence some members had accepted money from Canadian Pacific Railway president Sir Hugh Allen in return for the contract to build the line.
In 1895, George B. Selden of Rochester, N.Y., received the first U.S. patent for an "improved Road Engine."
In 1917, in Moscow, following the abdication of Russian Czar Nicholas II, the Orthodox Church Council of 1917-1918 restored the office of patriarch, suppressed by Peter the Great in 1700.
In 1923, Alberta ended seven years of Prohibition.
In 1930, American author Sinclair Lewis was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.
In 1939, the National Research Council's official time signal was first broadcast on CBC Radio. Listeners all across the country have since used "the beginning of the long dash" to set their clocks to the exact time.
In 1940, Franklin Roosevelt became the only American president to be elected to a third term in office. A later amendment to the U.S. Constitution bars presidents from serving more than two consecutive terms.
In 1956, Canadian Major-General E.L.M. Burns was named the first commander of the UN peacekeeping force in Egypt. Burns held the post for three years.
In 1962, the political committee of the United Nations approved a Canadian-proposed formula for halting above-ground nuclear bomb tests by Jan. 1, 1963.
In 1968, Richard M. Nixon was elected U.S. president, defeating Vice-President Hubert H. Humphrey and American Independent candidate George C. Wallace.
In 1974, Ella T. Grasso was elected governor of Connecticut, the first woman to win a gubernatorial office without succeeding her husband. In 1924, Nellie T. Ross of Wyoming was elected to serve out the remaining term of her late husband, William B. Ross.
In 1979, cartoonist Al Capp, creator of the comic strip "Li'l Abner," died.
In 1981, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and nine premiers, all except Quebec's, announced a deal had been reached on patriating the Constitution from Britain. The agreement also included an amending formula and a two-tiered Charter of Rights. The Queen officially proclaimed the Constitution on April 17, 1982.
In 1992, U.S. chess legend Bobby Fischer clinched a $5 million chess match against Russian Boris Spassky, marking a triumphant return after 20 years in self-imposed obscurity.
In 1994, at age 83, former U.S. president Ronald Reagan announced he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.
In 1995, an intruder armed with a knife broke into 24 Sussex Drive and made it as far as the bedroom where Prime Minister Jean Chretien and his wife were sleeping. The intruder came face-to-face with Aline Chretien, who slammed and locked the door, then called security.
In 1996, Russian President Boris Yeltsin had quintuple bypass heart surgery.
In 1996, Quebec Lt-.Gov. Jean-Louis Roux resigned after admitting he wore a Nazi swastika in the Second World War and took part in anti-conscription protests during which Jewish stores were damaged.
In 1996, U.S. President Bill Clinton won re-election, becoming the first Democratic presidential candidate in 52 years to win two consecutive elections.
In 1997, Saskatchewan farmer Robert Latimer was convicted for a second time of second-degree murder in the 1993 death of his disabled daughter in what he said was mercy killing. His first conviction in 1994 was overturned on appeal. While a judge originally set aside the mandatory sentence, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled in 2001 that Latimer must serve the minimum sentence of 10 years in prison. He was granted full parole on Dec. 6, 2010.
In 1998, in a scientific breakthrough, researchers said they had found a way to grow almost any type of human cell in a laboratory dish. They suggested the technique could eventually be used to repair damaged organs.
In 1999, in a landmark anti-trust case, a U.S. judge ruled Microsoft was a monopolist, and accused it of abusing its power and limiting consumer choice. Parts of the ruling were overturned on appeal and the software giant settled out of court with the U.S. Justice Department two years later.
In 1999, Onex Corp. pulled its $2.2-billion bid to buy Air Canada and Canadian Airlines, after a Quebec Court ruled the takeover offer was illegal.
In 2001, an inquiry ordered by the Manitoba government called for Thomas Sophonow to receive $2.6 million in compensation. Sophonow was tried three times, and convicted twice, before being cleared of the 1981 murder of a Winnipeg teen.
In 2002, Prime Minister Jean Chretien's control over his government suffered a body blow when 56 Liberal MP's, including former finance minister Paul Martin, defied him to support a controversial opposition motion to elect Commons committee chairs by secret ballot, giving the Canadian Alliance a 174-87 victory in the House.
In 2003, 54-year-old Gary Ridgway, who became known as the "Green River Killer," admitted to being the worst serial killer in U.S. history. He pleaded guilty to 48 murders over two decades. He escaped the death penalty in exchange for showing authorities where he buried the bodies of some victims.
In 2003, the NDP led by Premier Lorne Calvert won a fourth term by a slim majority in the Saskatchewan provincial election. Results: NDP 30 seats, Saskatchewan Party 28 and the Liberals were shut out entirely, losing their only seat.
In 2004, Saskatchewan became the seventh jurisdiction in Canada to allow same-sex marriages.
In 2006, Saddam Hussein was found guilty of crimes against humanity for a campaign against Shia Muslims in 1982 and sentenced to death by hanging for the killing of 148 people in the town of Dujail. (He was hanged on Dec. 30.)
In 2007, Hollywood film and TV writers went on strike. It ended in February 2008.
In 2007, 20-year-old RCMP officer Doug Scott was shot and killed in the Baffin Island hamlet of Kimmirut after responding to an impaired driving complaint.
In 2009, Nidal Malik Hasan, a U.S. Army major and psychiatrist, killed 13 people and wounded 30 in a shooting rampage at the Fort Hood, Texas, army base. (He was convicted by a military jury and sentenced to death in August 2013.)
In 2009, the ball, arguably the most popular plaything of all time, finally earned a place inside a glass case at the National Toy Hall of Fame in New York.
In 2010, Mount Merapi, Indonesia's most volatile volcano, unleashed its most powerful eruption since 1930, sending hot clouds of gas, rocks and debris avalanching down its slopes at highway speeds, smothering entire villages and killing 90 people. Since it first erupted on Oct. 26, it went on to claim 353 lives in the following weeks.
In 2012, Montreal mayor Gerald Tremblay resigned in the midst of a construction corruption scandal, becoming the highest-profile political casualty of the controversies rocking Quebec.
In 2013, Toronto Mayor Rob Ford revealed he had smoked crack cocaine while in a "drunken stupor" - a shocking about-face after months of denials over drug use. Ford apologized but said he would not resign.
In 2013, the Senate voted to suspend Mike Duffy, Pamela Wallin and Patrick Brazeau without pay — but with benefits intact — for the remainder of the parliamentary session, amid expense scandals that had engulfed the Prime Minister's Office. (Duffy was acquitted on all charges, RCMP did not lay charges against Wallin and Brazeau's charges were withdrawn.)
In 2017, a gunman opened fire at the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, Texas, killing 26 people and wounding about 20 others. The suspect, kicked out of the Air Force following a court martial in 2012 because of domestic violence, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound after he crashed his car when chased by bystanders, one of whom was armed and had shot him at the church.
In 2017, Montreal elected Valerie Plante as the city's first female mayor, defeating incumbent Denis Coderre.
In 2018, the federal government said it had shortchanged hundreds of thousands of veterans and their survivors over seven years, and was preparing to compensate them a total of $165 million. Veterans Affairs Minister Seamus O'Regan said his department miscalculated adjustments to the disability pensions of 270,000 veterans between 2003 and 2010 because it didn't properly account for a change in personal tax exemptions.
In 2018, Lowe's Companies Inc. announced it was closing 31 properties across Canada in a bid to streamline its business. The closures included 27 stores, two regional support centres in Mississauga, Ont. and St. John's, N.L., a truss plant in St. John's, N.L. and a block plant in Kamloops, B.C.
In 2018, Irving Pulp and Paper Ltd. was hit with one of largest penalties ever imposed in Canada for an environmental violation. The company, based in Saint John, N.B., was fined $3.5 million for dumping improperly treated effluent into the Saint John River over a two-year period.
In 2018, the woman in charge of CBC's English-language TV, radio, and online services announced she was leaving the public broadcaster to "pursue other opportunities." Heather Conway had spent five years overseeing all platforms, including CBC-TV, CBC News Network, CBC Radio One and Two and CBC.ca.
In 2018, a United Nations report said Earth's protective ozone layer is healing. So is the gaping ozone hole over the South Pole. Experts credited a 1987 treaty that banned ozone-depleting chemicals and new technology for the global environmental success story.
In 2019, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a Chinese ban on the import of Canadian pork and beef products estimated to have cost farmers almost $100 million was being lifted. China had suspended imports in June, saying its customs inspectors detected residue from a restricted feed additive in a batch of Canadian pork products. A subsequent investigation found forged veterinary health certificates attached to the batch, which led to an RCMP investigation. But the suspension came at a challenging time in Canada-China relations following Canada's detention late in 2018 of a top executive at the Chinese tech company Huawei, and the subsequent arrest of two Canadians in Beijing — a move widely seen as retaliation for the December arrest of Meng Wanzhou.
In 2019, thousands of scientists from around the world signed an open letter published in the journal BioScience that "We declare ... clearly and unequivocally that planet Earth is facing a climate emergency. The letter included 11,258 signatures from 153 countries — including 409 from Canada. It was another example of a growing willingness by scientists to leave their labs in an attempt to persuade the public to take seriously what research is telling them.
In 2019, novelist Ernest J. Gaines, whose poor childhood on a small Louisiana plantation town germinated the stories of black struggles that grew into universal stories of grace and beauty, died at 86. "A Lesson Before Dying," published in 1993, was an acclaimed classic. Gaines that year was awarded a "genius grant" by the MacArthur Foundation, receiving $335,000 to spend over the next five years. Both "The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman" (1971) and "A Gathering of Old Men" (1984) became honoured television movies.
In 2020, a Minnesota judge ruled that all four Minneapolis police officers charged in George Floyd's death would be tried together and that the trial will be held locally. Judge Peter Cahill turned down defence requests to move the trial, rejecting their argument that pre-trial publicity would make it impossible for the four men to get a fair trial.
In 2020, General Motors announced it would resume making pickup trucks at its assembly plant in Oshawa, Ont. The company made the announcement after it reached a tentative contract with Unifor overnight.
In 2020, the first Black baby doll to have an Afro was inducted into the U.S. National Toy Hall of Fame. Baby Nancy was launched in 1968 by Operation Bootstrap, a non-profit Black community self-help organization that emerged in the aftermath of the Watts riots in Los Angeles. Other 2020 inductees included sidewalk chalk and the wooden block game Jenga.
In 2021, B.C. announced it was phasing out all mink farms, with the provincial health officer saying the threat of COVID-19 outbreaks at the facilities was simply too great a health hazard. Dr. Bonnie Henry and B.C. Agriculture Minister Lana Popham announced that in addition to the breeding ban, live mink would not be allowed on the province's nine farms by April 2023. All operations had to cease completely and have all their pelts sold by 2025.
In 2021, a British Columbia Supreme Court judge ruled in favour of Edward Rogers in his family feud over who should be directors of Rogers Communications. Justice Shelley Fitzpatrick's decision validated the changes made by Edward Rogers in opposition to the wishes of his mother and two sisters.
In 2021, former Canadian Football League wide receiver Joshua Boden was found guilty of the second-degree murder of a Burnaby, B.C., mother. The B.C. Prosecution Service confirmed Boden was found guilty of the 2009 killing of Kimberly Hallgarth. Boden played for the Lions in 2007 but was released by the team in 2008 and signed with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats later that year, although he never played a regular-season game with them before he was cut.
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The Canadian Press