Today in History for Nov. 26:
On this date:
In 1539, in England, the monastery at the Fountains Abbey was surrendered to the Crown. It was the richest of the Cistercian houses, prior to the time of the Dissolution of all monasteries in England, under the reign of Henry VIII.
In 1789, a day of thanksgiving was set aside by U.S. President George Washington to observe the adoption of the Constitution of the United States.
In 1825, the first college social fraternity, Kappa Alpha, was formed at Union College in Schenectady, N.Y.
In 1832, the first streetcars in North America, drawn by horses, began service in New York.
In 1842, the founders of the University of Notre Dame arrived at the school's present-day site near South Bend, Indiana.
In 1857, Australia's first parliament opened in Melbourne.
In 1864, 12-year-old Alice Liddell received the first copy of "Alice in Wonderland," an early Christmas gift from Charles Dodgson, who wrote under the name Lewis Carroll.
In 1876, the inventor of air conditioning, Willis Carrier was born near Angola, N.Y. He built and installed the first air conditioning unit in 1902 to control heat and humidity in a New York City printing plant. Carrier, who launched the heating and air conditioning company that bears his name in 1915, died in 1950.
In 1917, the National Hockey League was founded in Montreal with Frank Calder as president. The NHL replaced the National Hockey Association. Its first teams were the Montreal Canadiens, Montreal Wanderers, Toronto Arenas, Ottawa Senators and Quebec Bulldogs.
In 1922, two British archeologists looked inside King Tut's tomb. Howard Carter and the Earl of Carnarvon, his sponsor, were the first to look in the tomb of Pharoah Tutankhamen near Luxor, Egypt, since it had been sealed 3,000 years before. Unlike other tombs, which had been looted over the centuries, Tut's tomb was complete with golden statues and a golden throne inlaid with gems. It took three years to empty the tomb of its valuables, which are now displayed in the Cairo Museum of Egyptian Antiquities.
In 1926, Vincent Massey was appointed the first Canadian ambassador to Washington.
In 1933, a judge in New York decided the James Joyce book "Ulysses" was not obscene and could therefore be published in the United States.
In 1939, basketball inventor James Naismith died in Lawrence, Kan., at age 78. The Almonte, Ont.-native devised 13 rules for the game while teaching at Springfield College in Massachusetts in December, 1891.
In 1940, the half million Jews of Warsaw, Poland, were forced by the Nazis to live within a walled ghetto. While Jews from smaller cities and villages were brought in over the next 18 months, starvation and diseases such as typhoid kept the number of people in the walled-in ghetto fairly constant. The Nazis began emptying the ghetto in July 1942 after the Treblinka concentration camp was completed. In the three years of its existence, the ghetto's population dropped from an estimated 450,000 to 37,000.
In 1943, during the Second World War, "HMT Rohna," a British transport ship carrying American soldiers, was hit by a German missile off Algeria; 1,138 men were killed.
In 1943, Sir Charles G.D. Roberts, noted Canadian poet and writer of animal stories, died.
In 1949, India adopted a constitution that made it a republic within the British Commonwealth.
In 1950, China entered the Korean War, launching an offensive against soldiers from the United Nations and South Korea.
In 1953, "Le Canada," a French-language Montreal newspaper, ceased publication after 50 years.
In 1955, the Grey Cup Game was played in B.C. for the first time. The Edmonton Eskimos defeated the Montreal Alouettes 34-19 in Vancouver.
In 1967, the new Bank Act was passed by the Senate and given royal assent. It set operating rules for chartered banks and allowed foreign banks to open branches in Canada. More than 35 affiliates of foreign banks had been operating in Canada at the time but had not been allowed to call themselves banks.
In 1975, the CRTC ordered cable TV companies to black out identical U.S. programs available on Canadian television at the same time.
In 1977, Tommy Prince, one of Canada's most decorated war heroes died in Winnipeg at age 64. Prince, a native of Manitoba's Brokenhead reserve, won 10 medals during the Second World War and the Korean War.
In 1981, the House of Commons unanimously passed a constitutional amendment entrenching native rights.
In 1982, the International Olympic Committee agreed to restore the two gold medals won in 1912 by American athlete Jim Thorpe. He was stripped of the medals in 1913 because he had played semi-pro baseball two years before.
In 1983, in the largest robbery in British history, a six-man gang stole about $40 million in gold bullion from the security firm Brinks-Mat Ltd., near Heathrow Airport in London.
In 1986, 42-year-old Ann Harrison of Toronto became the world's first double-lung transplant recipient. The emphysema victim received the lungs of an 18-year-old Kingston, Ont., car crash victim at Toronto General Hospital. When she died from an unrelated brain aneurysm at age 56 on April 20, 2001, she was also the world's longest-surviving double-lung recipient.
In 1988, the Roman Catholic Church announced that scientific tests proved the Shroud of Turin was not the burial cloth of Jesus Christ. Dating showed the cloth was no more than 700 years old.
In 1988, delegates at a Parti Quebecois convention agreed that once elected, a PQ government would immediately begin taking steps to bring about the province's political independence. But they also decided the PQ would seek approval for a new constitution from the majority of Quebecers -- probably in a referendum -- before declaring independence.
In 1990, Lee Kuan Yew resigned as Prime Minister of Singapore after 31 years, ending his reign as the world's longest-serving prime minister.
In 1992, the British government announced that Queen Elizabeth had volunteered to start paying taxes on her personal income. The Queen had also agreed to take her children off the public payroll.
In 1996, a bill to reform the Elections Act was passed in the House of Commons to allow for voting hours to be staggered across Canada, shorten a federal election campaign, and to create permanent lists of voters.
In 1998, a high-speed express passenger train rammed into a derailed passenger train, 280 kilometres northwest of New Delhi, killing over 200 people.
In 1998, in the first speech ever by a British prime minister to an Irish parliament, Tony Blair predicted that Northern Ireland's troubled peace accord would ultimately work because of a strengthened cooperative spirit uniting Britain and Ireland.
In 1998, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that with increasing prevalence of guns and drugs in Canadian schools, education authorities must be permitted to carry out warrantless searches of students.
In 1998, Don Morin resigned as premier of the Northwest Territories after a report found that he violated conflict-of-interest guidelines seven times relating to property deals in which he and his wife were involved.
In 2000, Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris certified George W. Bush as the winner and president-elect, with a 537-vote margin over Democrat Al Gore out of some six million votes cast in Florida. Vice-President Al Gore vowed to fight the certification in the courts. Bush eventually became president after a favourable Supreme Court ruling.
In 2002, a United Nations report said HIV and AIDS affect 42 million people around the world and for the first time, almost half the adults infected were women.
In 2003, a British Airways Concorde flew into retirement, looping over the Atlantic and English Channel at its top speed of 2,170 km/h in what the airline said was the last flight for any of the elegant supersonic jets. Thousands of Concorde fans cheered the plane's landing at Filton airfield, near Bristol in western England. The needle-nosed jet _ the last Concorde ever built _ went on display at Filton, where it was assembled in 1979 and from where the Concorde took its first British test flight in April 1969.
In 2004, the Ontario Court of Appeal ruled that denying retroactive same-sex benefits to widowed gays and lesbians violated their rights and was unconstitutional.
In 2007, Washington Redskins safety Sean Taylor was mortally wounded when he was shot during a botched armed robbery at his home in Palmetto Bay, Fla. (Taylor died the next day.)
In 2008, gunmen launched co-ordinated attacks with rifles and grenades on several popular tourist sites, a crowded train station and two luxury hotels (Taj Mahal and Oberoi) in India's financial capital, Mumbai, killing at least 174 people, including two Canadians, and taking several hostages. The attacks continued for over 60 hours during which gunmen specifically targeted Britons and Americans, but most of the dead were local Indians. More than 300 people were wounded, including two Canadians. A group called Deccan Mujahideen claimed responsibility.
In 2009, financial markets worldwide were rocked, including the TSX, after the government of Dubai announced a reorganization of its debt-laden economic development agency.
In 2009, Al-Jazeera English, the English-language service of the Qatar-based broadcaster, was approved by the CRTC for distribution via digital satellite in Canada.
In 2011, after a contentious 149-day lockout, NBA owners and players reached a tentative new labour deal. It was ratified on Dec. 8, making way for an abbreviated 66-game season.
In 2011, NASA launched "Curiousity," its six-wheeled, super-sized Mars rover. It went on an 8 1/2-month, 570 million-kilometre journey to the red planet and landed safely on Aug. 5, 2012.
In 2013, the NHL and Rogers announced the largest TV deal in NHL history, a 12-year, $5.2-billion pact giving Rogers sole national multimedia broadcast rights to all games. A sublicensing agreement preserved "Hockey Night in Canada" on CBC for another four years but Rogers retained editorial control and revenues.
In 2017, in the 105th Grey Cup on a snowy night in Ottawa, the Toronto Argonauts kicked a field goal with 53 seconds left to take their first lead of the game and followed that with an end zone interception to secure a 27-24 win over the favoured Calgary Stampeders. Two Grey Cup records were set: Argos QB Ricky Ray and receiver DeVier Posey hooked up for a 100-yard TD reception and Argos defensive back Cassius Vaughn recovered a fumble and returned it 110 yards for a touchdown. Ray also became the first starting quarterback to win a fourth championship.
In 2018, General Motors announced it would close five facilities in North America, including its production plant in Oshawa, Ont., as part of a global reorganization that would see the company focus on electric and autonomous vehicle programs. The automaker said the plan would save the company US$6 billion by 2020. The closure in Oshawa, planned for the end of 2019, would affect approximately 2,500 jobs.
In 2018, the Senate passed legislation ordering an end to five weeks of rotating strikes at Canada Post. Royal assent was granted after Senators approved Bill C-89 by a vote of 53-25, with four abstentions. Postal workers were told to be back on the job at noon the following day.
In 2018, after months of stop-and-start negotiations, Britain and the European Union finally signed an agreement governing the U.K.'s departure from the bloc in 2019. British Prime Minister Theresa May faced intense opposition, including from members of her own party, in selling the deal to her divided Parliament.
In 2018, Stephen Hillenburg, the former marine biology teacher who thought up, wrote, produced and directed the animated hit "SpongeBob SquarePants" died at age 57.
In 2019, Teamsters Canada announced it had reached a tentative agreement with Canadian National Railway Co. to renew the collective agreement for over 3,000 conductors, trainpersons and yard workers. The union said normal operations at CN would resume the next day at 6 a.m. local time across Canada - ending an eight day strike that brought freight trains to a halt country-wide. The railway workers had raised worries about long hours, fatigue and what they considered dangerous working conditions. CN rejected the union's claim that the strike concerns workplace health and safety, suggesting instead that it revolved around worker compensation.
In 2019, Former Nova Scotia premier Gerald Regan died at age 91. Nova Scotia's 19th premier, Regan served eight years in office after his Liberals won a minority government in 1970 and a majority government in 1974. He served as an MP in the early 1960s and returned to federal politics after winning election to the House of Commons in 1980. He served in the cabinets of former prime ministers Pierre Trudeau and John Turner, holding the labour, international trade and sports portfolios before leaving to pursue business opportunities after he and the Liberal government were defeated in 1984. However, his political legacy was overshadowed after his return to private life when the RCMP confirmed in October 1993 that he was being investigated for allegations of sexual misconduct dating back decades. A five-year legal battle ensued before Regan was declared not guilty on eight sex-related charges in December, 1998, but he never fully escaped the cloud. A funeral mass was held November 29 at St. Mary's Basilica. Regan was survived by his wife of 63 years, Carole, and the couple's six children, including son Geoff, who is a Liberal MP and is seeking a second term as Speaker of the House of Commons.
In 2019, Celebrity chef Gary Rhodes, who helped transform the stodgy reputation of British food, died at the age of 59. Rhodes’ family did not elaborate on the cause of death, only thanking everyone for their support and asking for privacy. Fellow celebrity chefs from around the world expressed their sympathies. British chef Jamie Oliver said Rhodes reimagined modern British cuisine with elegance and fun. Another fellow British chef, Gordon Ramsay, tweeted Rhodes was a chef who put British Cuisine on the map. Rhodes was a star in the TV show “Hell’s Kitchen” and fronted “MasterChef” and “Rhodes Around Britain.” He was also the author of several cookbooks.
In 2020, Quebec's highest court declared that a provision of the Criminal Code that allows for life sentences to be served consecutively is unconstitutional. The decision effectively reduced the sentence given to the man who murdered six people in a Quebec City mosque in 2017. Alexandre Bissonnette, who is 30, was sentenced in February 2019 to life in prison with no possibility of parole for 40 years. With concurrent sentences, he will be eligible to apply for parole after serving 25 years.
In 2020, AstraZeneca and Oxford University acknowledged a manufacturing error in their COVID-19 vaccine, raising questions about preliminary results reported earlier that showed the vaccine to be 90 per cent effective.
In 2021, Canada's borders were closed to visitors from southern Africa, following the discovery of the new Omicron variant of COVID-19. No Omicron cases had yet been detected in Canada.
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The Canadian Press