December 12th 2013 - This Date in History.

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20292


Events:C/P.


627 – Battle of Nineveh: A Byzantine army under Emperor Heraclius defeats Emperor Khosrau II's Persian forces, commanded by General Rhahzadh.
1098 – First Crusade: Massacre of Ma'arrat al-Numan – Crusaders breach the town's walls and massacre about 20,000 inhabitants. After finding themselves with insufficient food, they resort to cannibalism.
1388 – Maria of Enghien sells the lordship of Argos and Nauplia to the Republic of Venice.
1408 – The Order of the Dragon a monarchical chivalric order is created by Sigismund of Luxembourg, then King of Hungary.
1781 – American Revolutionary War: Second Battle of Ushant – A British fleet led by HMS Victory defeats a French fleet.
1787 – Pennsylvania becomes the second state to ratify the United States Constitution five days after Delaware became the first.
1862 – USS Cairo sinks on the Yazoo River, becoming the first armored ship to be sunk by an electrically detonated mine.
1870 – Joseph H. Rainey of South Carolina becomes the second black U.S. congressman, the first being Hiram Revels.
1897 – Belo Horizonte, the first planned city in Brazil, is founded.
1901 – Guglielmo Marconi receives the first transatlantic radio signal (the letter "S" [***] in Morse Code), at Signal Hill in St John's, Newfoundland.
1911 – Delhi replaces Calcutta as the capital of India.
1911 – King George V and Mary of Teck are enthroned as Emperor and Empress of India.
1915 – President of the Republic of China, Yuan Shikai, announces his intention to reinstate the monarchy and proclaim himself Emperor of China.
1917 – In Nebraska, Father Edward J. Flanagan founds Boys Town as a farm village for wayward boys.
1918 – The Flag of Estonia is raised atop the Pikk Hermann for the first time.
1925 – The Majlis of Iran votes to crown Reza Khan as the new Shah of Persia.
1935 – Lebensborn Project, a Nazi reproduction program, is founded by Heinrich Himmler.
1936 – Xi'an Incident: The Generalissimo of the Republic of China, Chiang Kai-shek, is kidnapped by Zhang Xueliang.
1937 – USS Panay incident: Japanese aircraft bomb and sink US gunboat USS Panay on the Yangtze River in China.
1939 – Winter War: Battle of Tolvajärvi – Finnish forces defeat those of the Soviet Union in their first major victory of the conflict.
1939 – HMS Duchess sinks after a collision with HMS Barham off the coast of Scotland with the loss of 124 men.
1940 – World War II: Approximately 70 people are killed in the Marples Hotel, Fitzalan Square, Sheffield, as a result of a German air raid.
1941 – World War II: Fifty-four Japanese A6M Zero fighters raid Batangas Field, Philippines. Jesús Villamor and four Filipino fighter pilots fend them off; César Basa is killed.
1941 – World War II: USMC F4F "Wildcats" sink the first 4 major Japanese ships off Wake Island.
1941 – World War II: The United Kingdom declares war on Bulgaria. Hungary and Romania declare war on the United States. India declares war on Japan.
1941 – Adolf Hitler announces extermination of the Jews at a meeting in the Reich Chancellery
1942 – World War II: German troops begin Operation Winter Storm, an attempt to relieve encircled Axis forces during the Battle of Stalingrad.
1942 – A fire in a hostel in St. John's, Newfoundland, kills 100 people.
1946 – A fire at a New York City ice plant spreads to a nearby tenement killing 37 people.
1948 – Malayan Emergency: Batang Kali Massacre – 14 members of the Scots Guards stationed in Malaysia allegedly massacre 24 unarmed civilians and set fire to the village.
1950 – Paula Ackerman, the first woman appointed to perform rabbinical functions in the United States, leads the congregation in her first services.
1956 – Beginning of the Irish Republican Army's "Border Campaign".
1958 – Guinea joins the United Nations.
1963 – Kenya gains its independence from the United Kingdom.
1964 – Prime Minister Jomo Kenyatta becomes the first President of the Republic of Kenya.
1969 – Strategy of tension: Piazza Fontana bombing – The offices of Banca Nazionale dell'Agricoltura in Piazza Fontana, Milan, are bombed.
1979 – Coup d'état of December Twelfth: South Korean Army Major General Chun Doo-hwan orders the arrest of Army Chief of Staff General Jeong Seung-hwa without authorization from President Choi Kyu-ha, alleging involvement in the assassination of ex-President Park Chung Hee.
1979 – President of Pakistan, Zia-ul-Haq, confers Nishan-e-Imtiaz on Nobel laureate Dr Abdus Salam.
1979 – The unrecognised state of Zimbabwe Rhodesia returns to British control and resumes using the name Southern Rhodesia.
1983 – the Australian Labor government led by Prime Minister Bob Hawke and Treasurer Paul Keating floats the Australian dollar.
1984 – Maaouiya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya becomes the third president of Mauritania after a coup d'état against Mohamed Khouna Ould Haidalla while the latter is attending a summit.
1985 – Arrow Air Flight 1285 crashes after takeoff in Gander, Newfoundland, killing 256, including 236 members of the United States Army's 101st Airborne Division.
1988 – The Clapham Junction rail crash kills thirty-five and injures hundreds after two collisions of three commuter trains – one of the worst train crashes in the United Kingdom.
1991 – The Russian Federation gains independence from the USSR.
2000 – The United States Supreme Court releases its decision in Bush v. Gore.
2012 – North Korea successfully launches its first satellite, Kwangmyŏngsŏng-3 Unit 2, using a Unha-3 carrier rocket.

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Today's Canadian Headline...


1894 DEATH OF A PRIME MINISTER
Windsor England - Sir John Thompson 1845-1894 dies at Windsor Castle of a heart attack a few minutes after being sworn in by Queen Victoria as a member of the Privy Council; his body is brought home by a British warship. Canada's 4th Prime Minister, since Dec. 5, 1892, he was a former Premier of Nova Scotia, brought to Ottawa by John A. Macdonald to serve as Justice Minister - 'The great discovery of my life,' said John A., 'was my discovery of Thompson.' Thompson was replaced by Mackenzie Bowell.

1901
St. John's, Newfoundland - Guglielmo Marconi 1874-1937 sends and receives first transatlantic radio message on Signal Hill 3,200 km away across Atlantic from Poldhu, Cornwall; from a box kite trailing a 121 metre long copper wire antenna. The first transatlantic wireless test signal is heard as the faint clicking of Morse code - of the letter 'S' repeated over and over. Here he is in his Cabot Tower laboratory on Signal Hill. Four days later, Marconi will be officially notified by the Anglo-American Telegraph Company that it will take legal action against him unless he immediately ceases his wireless experiments and removes his equipment from Newfoundland; Anglo-American has a fifty-year monopoly on electrical communications in Newfoundland starting in 1858, and is determined to hinder radio telegraphy, which it knows is a serious threat to its transatlantic electric telegraph business operated by submarine cables; Marconi soon decides to move his base of operations to Cape Breton.


In Other Events...

1996 Quebec Quebec - Jean Chrétien names Lise Thibault as Lieutenant Governor of Quebec; first woman and first handicapped person to hold the post; sworn in Jan. 30, 1997.
1996 Montreal Quebec - Moises Alou leaves the Expos to play for the Florida Marlins, then the Houston Astros.
1993 Montreal Quebec - Genie awards held in Montreal for the first time.
1992 Montreal Quebec - Quebec Premier Jacques Parizeau marries Lisette Lapointe.
1991 Ottawa Ontario - Justice Minister Kim Campbell brings in new rape shield law that defines consent, allows case questioning only when crucial to defendant; restores protection lost by ruling previous August.
1989 Revelstoke BC - CP Rail runs first regular freight train through 14.5 km Mount MacDonald Tunnel, the longest rail tunnel in the Americas.
1988 Toronto Ontario - The Canadian Football League extends its agreement with CFN through to 1990; CFL game rosters to consist of 20 non-imports, 14 imports and 2 quarterbacks; Roy McMurtry was appointed Chairman-Chief Executive Officer and Bill Baker President-Chief Operating Officer; sale of the Toronto Argonauts from Carling O'Keefe to Harry Ornest approved.
1986 Ottawa Ontario - Former Montreal Mayor Jean Drapeau named Canadian delegate to UNESCO in Paris.
1985 Quebec Quebec - Robert Bourassa 1933-1996 sworn in as 29th Premier of Quebec; formerly 26th Premier May 12, 1970 - Nov. 25, 1976; Liberal MLA for Bertrand; author of: Deux fois la Baie-James (1981), L'énergie du Nord: la force du Québec (1985) and Le défi technologique (1985); Claude Ryan his Minister of Education, Gérard-D. Lévesque Minister of Finance.
1985 Gander Newfoundland - US jet transport crashes on takeoff, killing 248 American soldiers on leave; possibly due to bomb planted by terrorists.
1984 Toronto Ontario - Ontario government ends Happy Hours in Ontario bars by banning mixed pricing and cut rate drinks.
1981 Edmonton Alberta - Oiler Wayne Gretzky notches another NHL record, reaching his 50 goal mark in only 39 games.
1980 Quebec Quebec - Jean Lesage 1912-1980 dies, politician, lawyer, born at Montreal June 10, 1912; 1945 first elected as a federal MP for Montmagny-L'Islet; re-elected 1949, 1953, 1957 and 1958; 1953 St. Laurent's Minister of Resources and Development and then of Northern Affairs and National Resources; May 31, 1958 elected leader of the Quebec Liberal Party; 1960-66 Premier of Quebec, political architect of Quebec's Quiet Revolution; elected in 1962 with a mandate to nationalize the electricity companies, under the slogan of 'Maîtres chez nous'.
1975 Toronto Ontario - Toronto Transit Commission bus collides with commuter train at level crossing, killing 9, injuring 20; worst accident in TTC history.
1970 Prince George, BC - Roy Spencer, father of Toronto Maple Leaf rookie Brian 'Spinner' Spencer shot and killed by the RCMP outside a Prince George TV station after he had forced it off the air at gunpoint because it was not carrying a game between the Leafs and the Chicago Blackhawks and a interview with his son; Brian Spencer was himself shot and killed in June 1988 in Florida.
1973 Ottawa Ontario - Royal Mint starts sale of commemorative coins to help finance 1976 Montreal Olympics.
1969 Halifax Nova Scotia - Royal Canadian Navy retires aircraft carrier HMCS Bonaventure after 12 years of service; later sold for scrap.
1968 Alberta - Harry Edwin Strom 1914- takes office as Social Credit Premier of Alberta, succeeding Ernest C. Manning.
1967 Ottawa Ontario - Ottawa joins consortium of Canadian companies exploring for oil and minerals in the Arctic.
1959 Los Angeles, California - Harry Warner dies at age 76; film executive, one of the Warner Brothers, born in Canada Dec 12, 1881.
1953 Hamilton Ontario - Governor-General Vincent Massey opens The Art Gallery of Hamilton.
1951 Ottawa Ontario - Parliament votes to set up the St. Lawrence Seaway Authority; as Canadian project manager in cooperation with US.
1951 Montreal Quebec - De Havilland DHC-3 Otter makes first test flight; larger version of the Beaver; 450 made; US Army and US Navy used Otters and the RCAF operated 69, some serving on UN duties overseas; used to pioneer water-bombing techniques.
1949 Victoria BC - Nancy Hodges 1912- elected Speaker of British Columbia Legislature; first female Speaker of a Canadian Legislature; also first woman in a Commonwealth legislative body.
1946 Montreal Quebec - Demonstration held in Montreal to protest despotism of Duplessis government.
1942 St. John's Newfoundland - Arsonist sets fire during barn dance in Knights of Columbus hostel, killing 99 people and seriously injuring another 100, mostly military personnel and their dates; reputedly set by German agent.
1938 Montreal Quebec - Camilien Houde re-elected Mayor of Montreal.
1936 Quebec Quebec - Creation of the Crédit Agricole du Québec/ Quebec Farm Credit Corporation.
1933 Boston Massachusetts - Ace Bailey collides with Bruins player Eddie Shore and ends up with a fractured skull; ends playing career after 7 seasons in the NHL; originally played for Toronto St. Pats, later the Toronto Maple Leafs, with Babe Dye and Hap Day; led NHL in both scoring and points in 1928-29; Stanley Cup team 1932-33; stayed active with Maple Leaf Gardens for decades.
1916 Midnapore Alberta - Father Albert Lacombe 1827-1916 dies in the early morning at the Lacombe Home in Midnapore; born in St. Suplice, Quebec, in 1827; after ordination served at Fort Garry; 1852 to Fort Edmonton; lived among the Cree and Blackfoot; negotiated truce between the Blackfoot and Canadian Pacific workers; 1883, Lacombe elected President of the CPR for one hour and given a lifetime rail pass; priest at St. Mary's Parish in Calgary; 1909 founded the Lacombe Home for the orphaned, aged, and indigent.
1885 Portage La Prairie, Manitoba - First CPR freight train heads east to Montreal with Manitoba wheat.
1883 Langevin Alberta - Canadian Pacific Railway crews digging for water strike natural gas at Langevin, west of present-day Medicine Hat.
1866 London England - Fire breaks out in John A. Macdonald's bedroom in the Westminster Palace Hotel during the Confederation conference; quickly extinguished.
1859 Montreal Quebec - Opening of the Victoria Bridge to rail traffic, as first passenger train crosses the iron tubular structure; formally opened by the Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII, on Aug. 25, 1860.
1858 Kingston Ontario - Province of Canada releases first decimal coins; only 421,000 cents are ready.
1843 Victoria BC - James Douglas 1803-1877 renames Fort Camosun Fort Victoria.
1843 Montreal Quebec - William Draper & Denis-Benjamin Viger form Draper-Viger Ministry with Dominick Daly, only member of previous Ministry not to resign.
1813 Astoria Oregon - William Black officially takes possession of Fort Astoria for Britain; renames it Fort George.
1813 Montreal Quebec - James McGill dies; merchant, philanthropist, born at Glasgow, Scotland Oct. 06, 1744; Montreal fur trader, land developer whose bequest of land and money led to the founding of McGill University.
1812 Toronto Ontario - Founding of the Loyal and Patriotic Society of Upper Canada to help destitute families and wounded soldiers in the War of 1812 and American invasion.
1783 Saint John New Brunswick - William Lewis & John Ryan publish first newspaper in New Brunswick, the 'Royal Saint John Gazette and Nova Scotian Intelligencer'.


End of C/P.