December 18th 2014 - This Date in History.

[henric]

23187



Events:C/P.

218 BC – Second Punic War: Battle of the Trebia – Hannibal's Carthaginian forces defeat those of the Roman Republic.
1271 – Kublai Khan renames his empire "Yuan" (元 yuán), officially marking the start of the Yuan dynasty of Mongolia and China.
1622 – Portuguese forces score a military victory over the Kingdom of Kongo at the Battle of Mbumbi in present-day Angola.
1655 – The Whitehall Conference ends with the determination that there was no law preventing Jews from re-entering England after the Edict of Expulsion of 1290.
1777 – The United States celebrates its first Thanksgiving, marking the recent victory by the Americans over British General John Burgoyne in the Battle of Saratoga in October.
1787 – New Jersey becomes the third state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.
1793 – Surrender of the frigate La Lutine by French Royalists to Lord Samuel Hood; renamed HMS Lutine, she later becomes a famous treasure wreck.
1867 – The Angola Horror train wreck occurred.
1878 – John Kehoe, the last of the Molly Maguires is executed in Pennsylvania.
1878 – The Al-Thani family become the rulers of the state of Qatar
1888 – Richard Wetherill and his brother in-law discover the ancient Indian ruins of Cliff Palace in Mesa Verde.
1892 – Premiere performance of The Nutcracker by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in Saint Petersburg, Russia.
1898 – Gaston de Chasseloup-Laubat sets the first officially recognized land speed record of 39.245 mph (63.159 km/h) in a Jeantaud electric car
1900 – The Upper Ferntree Gully to Gembrook, Victoria Narrow-gauge (2 ft 6 in or 762 mm) Railway (now the Puffing Billy Railway) in Victoria, Australia is opened for traffic.
1912 – The Piltdown Man, later discovered to be a hoax, is announced by Charles Dawson.
1916 – World War I: The Battle of Verdun ends when German forces under Chief of staff Erich von Falkenhayn are defeated by the French, and suffer 337,000 casualties.
1917 – The resolution containing the language of the Eighteenth Amendment to enact Prohibition is passed by the United States Congress.
1932 – The Chicago Bears defeat the Portsmouth Spartans 9–0 in the first ever NFL Championship Game. Because of a blizzard, the game is moved from Wrigley Field to the Chicago Stadium, the field measuring 80 yards (73 m) long.
1935 – The Lanka Sama Samaja Party is founded in Ceylon.
1939 – World War II: The Battle of the Heligoland Bight, the first major air battle of the war, takes place.
1944 – World War II: 77 B-29 Superfortress and 200 other aircraft of U.S. Fourteenth Air Force bomb Hankow, China, a Japanese supply base.
1956 – Japan joins the United Nations.
1958 – Project SCORE, the world's first communications satellite, is launched.
1966 – Saturn's moon Epimetheus is discovered by Richard L. Walker.
1969 – Capital punishment in the United Kingdom: Home Secretary James Callaghan's motion to make permanent the Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act 1965, which had temporarily suspended capital punishment in England, Wales and Scotland for murder (but not for all crimes) for a period of five years.
1971 – Capitol Reef National Park is established in Utah.
1972 – Vietnam War: President Richard Nixon announces that the United States will engage North Vietnam in Operation Linebacker II, a series of Christmas bombings, after peace talks collapsed with North Vietnam on the 13th.
1973 – Soviet Soyuz Programme: Soyuz 13, crewed by cosmonauts Valentin Lebedev and Pyotr Klimuk, is launched from Baikonur in the Soviet Union.
1973 – The Islamic Development Bank is founded.
1978 – Dominica joins the United Nations.
1987 – Larry Wall releases the first version of the Perl programming language.
1989 – The European Economic Community and the Soviet Union sign an agreement on trade and commercial and economic cooperation.
1997 – HTML 4.0 is published by the World Wide Web Consortium.
1999 – NASA launches into orbit the Terra platform carrying five Earth Observation instruments, including ASTER, CERES, MISR, MODIS and MOPITT.
2002 – 2003 California recall: Then Governor of California Gray Davis announces that the state would face a record budget deficit of $35 billion, roughly double the figure reported during his reelection campaign one month earlier.
2005 – The Chadian Civil War begins when rebel groups, allegedly backed by neighbouring Sudan, launch an attack in Adré.
2006 – The first of a series of floods strikes Malaysia. The death toll of all flooding is at least 118, with over 400,000 people displaced.
2006 – United Arab Emirates holds its first-ever elections.
2010 – Anti-government protests begin in Tunisia, heralding the Arab Spring.

[henric]

23188



Today's Canadian Headline...

1988 FRENCH ONLY OUTSIDE
Quebec Quebec - Robert Bourassa 1933-1996 passes Bill 178 requiring French only on outside signs; permits bilingual signs inside; exercises Quebec's constitutional right, Clause 33 of the Charter of Rights, the 'notwithstanding clause', to override the Dec. 15 decision of the Supreme Court, striking down sections of Quebec's Bill 101 requiring that commercial signs be in French only; a decision that called these sections an unreasonable violation of freedom of expression.

1950
Pusan Korea - 2nd Battalion, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, lands at Pusan; first Canadian troops in Korea.




In Other Events...

1997 Ottawa Ontario - Supreme Court of Canada hears arguments of amicus curiae André Joli-Coeur, since the Quebec government had refused to comment on the legality of a unilateral declaration of sovereignty.
1997 Montreal Quebec - Cardinal Jean-Claude Turcotte says in Le Devoir that it is up to the Quebec people, not the Supreme Court, to choose their own future; in response to protest from English Catholics, he later says his remarks lacked 'prudence'.
1997 Halifax, Nova Scotia - Nova Scotia government apologizes for 1992 Westray mine explosion that killed 26 miners.
1993 Canada - Grace Hartman dies at age 75; former national president of CUPE, first woman in Canada to lead a major national union.
1992 Halifax, Nova Scotia - John Crosbie cuts groundfish quotas up to 70%; says there are 'too many plants, too many boats, too many people chasing fish'; National Sea Products to close North Sydney and Lunenburg plants.
1992 Montreal Quebec - Air Canada President Hollis Harris says airline will post record loss of $300 m in 1992; will cut staff by 2,000.
1991 Quebec Quebec - Quebec completes major overhaul of Civil Code, governing all non-criminal law; after 35 years of reform.
1991 New York City - Céline Dion signs a $10 million contract with Sony Music.
1980 Montreal Quebec - Provigo acquires 87 grocery stores from Dominion Stores for $100 million.
1979 Ottawa Ontario - Liberal leader Pierre Trudeau decides to postpone his retirement; will lead he Party back to power in majority win over Conservatives.
1975 Ottawa Ontario - Ottawa abolishes Information Canada, Company of Young Canadians, and Opportunities For Youth program; due to cuts in government spending.
1974 Mississauga Ontario - Peter Demeter sentenced to life imprisonment for hiring unknown person to kill wife Christine and collect $1 million insurance money.
1971 Windsor Ontario - Thieves steal over $1 million from Windsor branch of the Royal Bank; 6 arrested several days later.
1969 Montreal Quebec - FLQ activist Pierre Vallières sentenced to 30 months in prison.
1968 Toronto Ontario - Henry Moore British sculptor donates 400 to 600 of his works to Art Gallery of Ontario.
1968 Cornwall Ontario - St. Regis Mohawks block Seaway International Bridge to protest customs duties on their US purchases; claim exemption under Jay's Treaty of 1794.
1968 Quebec Quebec - Quebec abolishes its Legislative Council.
1968 Quebec Quebec - Quebec government founds the multi-campus Université du Québec; Quebec's first public university and its fourth French language institution; includes six constituent universities, in Montreal, Trois-Rivières, Chicoutimi, Rimouski, Hull and Rouyn; two research institutes - the Institut national de la recherche scientifique and the Institut Armand-Frapper in Laval; as well as two superior schools, l'École nationale d'administration publique in Quebec City and l'École de technologie supérieure in Montreal; also Télé-université, which offers distance learning programs.
1954 Montreal Quebec - Canadiens star Maurice Richard gets his 400th career NHL goal in his 690th game.
1946 Bagotville Quebec - Daniel Johnson, père, elected MNA for Bagot; later Quebec Premier.
1946 Lethbridge Alberta - Four German prisoners of war hanged at the Lethbridge Provincial Jail for the murder of fellow prisoner Cpl. Karl Lehmann at the Medicine Hat POW camp in Sept. 1944.
1941 Kowloon, Hong Kong - Japanese troops cross the Lye Mun Passage after dark, in assault boats, landing craft and small boats towed by ferry steamers, to attack Hong Kong island; two platoons of the Winnipeg Grenadiers deployed to seize the hills known as Jardine's Lookout and Mount Butler where they engaged in intense fighting; heavily outnumbered, they are cut to pieces and both platoon commanders killed; the following day Brigadier Lawson is killed when the Japanese surround his West Brigade headquarters. All British and Canadian forces in Hong Kong will surrender on Christmas Day; Canadians lose 290 dead in battle, with 493 wounded; a total of 557 were killed or later died in Japanese prison camps.
1940 Britain - Munitions Minister Clarence Decatur 'CD' Howe 1886-1960 joins 152 other survivors of torpedoed liner 'Western Prince' in arriving safely in England.
1901 Indian Head, Saskatchewan - William Richard Motherwell 1860-1943 founds Territorial (later Saskatchewan) Grain Growers' Association at a meeting in the Indian Head Planing Mill; adopted resolutions dealing with such important matters as the appointment of a warehouse commissioner, loading platforms and car shortages; among those who attended that first convention were: Geo. Brown and G. Spring Rice, Regina; J. A. Brown, Spy Hill; Messrs. Barwell, Stevens, Invarson and McKinnon, Balcarres; H. Dorrell, Moose Jaw; George Lang, Indian Head; D. D. McFarlane, Welwyn; M. Snow, W. Gibson, J. Nix, Wolseley; R. J. Phin, Moosomin; Messrs. Wright and Fitzgerald, Grenfell; W. H. Ellis, J. B. Gordon and R. J. Campbell, Ellisboro; Robert Mills, W. P. Osler, I. Tinnel, Summerberry; Thomas Smith and E. Shaw, Kinlis; R. G. Ward, Firndale; W. M. Tate, Chickney; H. Oldors, Torlie; today a co-op of 75,000 farmers known as United Grain Growers.
1897 Ottawa Ontario - Cabinet creates Geographic Board of Canada by order-in-council.
1893 Toronto Ontario - Robert Machray 1831-1904 elected first Anglican Primate of all Canada; he is Archbishop of Rupertsland.
1892 Quebec Quebec - Louis Taillon replaces de Boucherville as Quebec Premier.
1889 Canso Nova Scotia - CPR telegraph links up with the Atlantic Cable at Canso.
1854 Quebec Quebec - Founding of the Quebec & Saguenay Railroad.
1813 Lewiston New York - John Murray leads 500 British and Canadians in capture of old Fort Niagara from the Americans in the War of 1812; Fort Niagara; captures 300 prisoners; Phineas Riall leads party of Indians in 2 week raid on Manchester, Fort Schlosser, Black Rock and Buffalo.
1792 Quebec Quebec - Jean-Antoine Panet 1751-1815 elected first President of the Lower Canada Assembly, which met in the Bishop's Palace at the top of Côte de la Montagne; already Speaker; first Quebec elections.
1603 Paris France - Pierre de Monts receives royal letters patent giving him trading rights in the territory north of peninsular Nova Scotia.

End of C/P.