Today in History for April 17:
In 1492, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain granted Christopher Columbus a commission to seek a westward ocean passage to Asia. Columbus considered himself a missionary who would carry Christ across the ocean to people who had never heard the gospel.
In 1521, Martin Luther went before the Diet of Worms to face charges stemming from his religious writings.
In 1610, English explorer Henry Hudson sailed from London. Two months later, he reached what is now the Hudson Strait in the Canadian Arctic.
In 1754, French troops from Montreal captured the British fort at the confluence of the Ohio and Allegheny rivers. The city of Pittsburgh now stands on the site.
In 1790, American scientist and statesman Benjamin Franklin died.
In 1851, the square-rigged ship "Marco Polo" was launched in Saint John, N.B. It was used mainly to carry immigrants from England to Australia, setting records that earned it the reputation as the fastest ship in the world.
In 1855, the city of Charlottetown was incorporated. In September 1864, it played host to the Charlottetown Conference on Atlantic Union, which turned into the discussions that led to confederation.
In 1856, Quebec City was made the seat of the Canadian government. It remained there until Ottawa became the capital three years later.
In 1892, Alexander Mackenzie, Canada's second prime minister (1873-78), died at age 70.
In 1918, the federal Parliament held its first private session to discuss First World War developments.
In 1919, New Brunswick women were granted the right to vote in provincial elections.
In 1941, Yugoslavia surrendered to Nazi troops during the Second World War.
In 1961, about 1,500 Cuban exiles, trained by the CIA, launched the disastrous "Bay of Pigs" invasion of Cuba in a failed attempt to overthrow Fidel Castro's government.
In 1964, Jerrie Mock of Columbus, Ohio, became the first woman to complete a solo airplane flight around the world.
In 1964, the Ford Motor Co. unveiled the Mustang at the New York World's Fair. It caused a sensation and 22,000 orders were taken the first day for the sporty vehicle, priced at an affordable $2,368.
In 1967, Prime Minister Lester Pearson announced the creation of the Order of Canada, a decoration to honour outstanding citizens.
In 1967, former politician and diplomat Roland Michener became the third Canadian-born governor general.
In 1969, Sirhan Sirhan was convicted in Los Angeles of the murder of U.S. Senator Robert Kennedy the previous June.
In 1970, the three "Apollo 13" astronauts splashed down in the Pacific Ocean, four days after their capsule was crippled by an oxygen tank explosion. The mishap caused their planned moon landing to be cancelled.
In 1975, Khmer Rouge guerrillas seized Cambodia's capital, Phnom Penh, and began a reign of terror in which more than one million people died.
In 1982, years of political wrangling ended when Queen Elizabeth signed the royal proclamation of Canada's constitution in a Parliament Hill ceremony. Patriating the Constitution, with a Charter of Rights and Freedoms, was a long-time goal of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. Section 15 of the Charter, the equality rights guarantee, was proclaimed three years later.
In 1986, the 335-year state of war between the Netherlands and the Scilly Isles ended. Although the war ended three years after its start in 1651, no one declared it officially over until the Dutch ambassador did so in 1986.
In 1998, the Toronto Dominion Bank and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce announced plans to merge. The decision came nearly three months after a similar announcement by the Royal Bank and the Bank of Montreal. The federal government rejected both mergers in December.
In 1998, Canadian Dave Williams and his space shuttle "Columbia" crewmates blasted off on a 16-day neuroscience research mission. Williams, a physician, was the first non-American to serve as a shuttle mission's Crew Medical Officer.
In 2002, four Canadian soldiers were killed when a U.S. fighter jet mistakenly bombed them during a live-fire training exercise near Kandahar, Afghanistan.
In 2004, Israel assassinated Palestinian leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi. He had led Hamas for less than a month after the March 22nd assassination of the militant Islamic movement's founder and spiritual leader, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.
In 2009, new and controversial changes to Canada’s Citizenship Act came into effect that restored or awarded citizenship to thousands of so-called "lost Canadians."
In 2011, Adrian Dix was voted the new leader of B.C.'s New Democrats, replacing Carole James.
In 2013, a massive explosion at a fertilizer plant in West, Texas, killed 15 people and injured more than 200 others. The blast left the factory a smouldering ruin and levelled buildings in a four-block radius.
In 2018, former U.S. first lady Barbara Bush died at age 92.
In 2018, the Vegas Golden Knights defeated the Los Angeles Kings 1-0, making them the first expansion team in NHL history to sweep its first playoff series.
In 2018, a Southwest Airlines flight was forced into an emergency landing in Philadelphia after an engine exploded, damaging the fuselage and fatally injuring a female passenger who was partially sucked out of a window broken by shrapnel.
In 2020, an 88-year-old Holocaust survivor became Israel's first victim of COVID-19. Arie Even was infected at an assisted living facility in Jerusalem. He had a limited funeral because of public gathering restrictions.
In 2020, the San Diego Comic-Con was cancelled for the first time in its 50-year-history over the COVID-19 pandemic. The event attracts major stars and major money, as over 135-thousand people flock to the fan convention every year.
In 2020, the federal government announced a slew of new programs to help the struggling economy as the COVID-19 pandemic grew. The $4-billion package included help for the oil and gas sector, arts and culture industries, companies in rural areas and early-stage start-ups.
In 2021, the global COVID-19 death toll reached more than three million -- about equal to the population of Kyiv, Ukraine, or Lisbon, Portugal. But the true number was believed to be significantly higher because of possible government concealment and the many cases overlooked in the early stages of the outbreak.
In 2021, Prince Philip was interred in the Royal Vault at St. George's Chapel following a service that honoured his lifetime of service to the United Kingdom, the Crown and his wife of 73 years -- Queen Elizabeth II.
In 2021, an Alberta man in his 60s who received the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine was Canada's second case of a blood clot disorder linked to the vaccine.
In 2024, a trio of men were found guilty of mischief for their roles in the 2022 border blockade at Coutts, Alta. Alex Van Herk, Marco Van Huigenbos, and Gerhard (George) Janzen were each found guilty of one count of mischief over $5,000. The three had been charged for their roles in a blockade that tied up cross-border traffic between Canada and the United States at Coutts for two weeks in early 2022 in protest of COVID-19 rules and restrictions.
In 2024, Peel Regional Police arrested nine people and laid 19 charges in a nearly $24-million gold and cash heist from Toronto's Pearson airport one year prior. The arrests followed a joint task force investigation that included American police that was dubbed Project 24-K.
In 2024, the NBA banned Toronto Raptors backup centre Jontay Porter from the league for life after its investigation found Porter violated league rules on betting. The probe found Porter disclosed confidential information to sports bettors that could have netted one person a $1-million payout, limited his own participation in games to influence bets and placed his own bets on NBA games.
In 2024, the House of Commons admonished a private citizen for the first time since 1913, part of the fallout of the ArriveCan app development. GC Strategies partner Kristian Firth was ordered to appear before the bar of the House after MPs accused him of refusing to answer certain questions at a committee hearing. During his appearance, Firth was ordered to respond to questions that MPs said he refused to answer during a House committee meeting the previous month.
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The Canadian Press