Today in History for Dec. 3:
In 1170, Thomas Becket, archbishop of Canterbury, returned to England after six years of exile in France. He would be martyred on Dec. 29 -- killed by soldiers sent by his former friend, King Henry II.
In 1552, Saint Francis Xavier died. The Jesuit priest is considered the greatest Roman Catholic missionary of all time.
In 1557, the first covenant toward organization of the Presbyterian Church was signed in Edinburgh, Scotland.
In 1818, Illinois was admitted as the 21st U.S. state.
In 1833, Oberlin College in Ohio opened. It was the first totally co-educational college in the U.S., and the first school to advocate abolition of slavery.
In 1857, English novelist Joseph Conrad was born in Berdychiv, Poland.
In 1887, "Saturday Night" magazine was founded in Toronto by Edmund Ernest Sheppard. The magazine was first published once a week in newspaper format. It went on sale at 6 p.m. on Saturday nights.
In 1892, the Canadian Department of Trade and Commerce was created.
In 1894, "Treasure Island" author Robert Louis Stevenson died in Samoa at age 44.
In 1917, the Quebec Bridge opened over the St. Lawrence. At nearly one kilometre in length, it’s the world’s longest cantilever span.
In 1919, the Canadian government appropriated $25 million for tenants to buy homes.
In 1921, badminton was organized in Canada under the Canadian Badminton Association.
In 1951, the Canadian and Ontario governments reached an agreement to proceed with power development on the St. Lawrence River.
In 1956, international telex was introduced in Canada.
In 1960, Edmonton International Airport was officially opened.
In 1967, a team of surgeons in Cape Town, South Africa -- headed by Dr. Christiaan Barnard -- performed the first successful human heart transplant. Louis Washkansky, a 53-year-old grocer, lived 18 days with the heart of a 25-year-old woman killed in an auto accident.
In 1970, the "October Crisis" ended when British Trade Commissioner James Cross was released by his FLQ kidnappers in Montreal. Cross was seized from his home in October, and another FLQ cell later kidnapped and murdered Quebec cabinet minister Pierre Laporte on Oct. 17. The kidnappings prompted the federal government to invoke the War Measures Act. Cross’ kidnappers and their families, a total of seven people, received safe conduct and transportation to Cuba. They later moved to France, but eventually returned to Canada.
In 1979, Chang Kuo-tao, 82, last surviving member of the 12 founding members of the Chinese Communist party, died in a Toronto nursing home.
In 1979, Iranians voted overwhelmingly in favour of a constitutional amendment making Ayatollah Khomeini leader of the country for life.
In 1986, U.S. President Ronald Reagan unveiled his country’s first $1-trillion budget.
In 1987, in a 461-page report presented in the House of Commons, Mr. Justice William Parker, the Chief Justice of the Ontario Supreme Court, ruled that former industry minister Sinclair Stevens broke conflict-of-interest rules 14 times while in the federal cabinet.
In 1989, U.S. President George Bush and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev concluded a two-day summit aboard the Soviet cruise liner Maxim Gorky in the Mediterranean. Gale and storm-tossed seas forced both leaders to cancel half of their scheduled ship-board talks.
In 1990, Mary Robinson was inaugurated as Ireland’s first woman president.
In 1991, Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev issued a desperate appeal to the republics to preserve the union, warning of possible warfare among them and catastrophe for the international community.
In 2006, Ed Stelmach was elected Alberta Conservative leader, replacing Premier Ralph Klein.
In 2006, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez won a landslide re-election victory.
In 2008, breakaway Anglicans from Canada and the U.S. formed a new church in Chicago, The Anglican Church in North America. The new church brought together conservative Anglicans who object to same-sex marriage blessings and gay bishops and offers believers a conservative Anglican theology.
In 2009, Comcast Corp. announced it was planning to buy a majority stake in NBC Universal for US$13.75 billion, giving America's largest cable TV operator control of the TV network, an array of cable channels and a major movie studio.
In 2009, in a surprisingly undiplomatic rebuke, Prime Minister Stephen Harper was publicly chided by his Chinese counterpart Wen Jiabao at a traditional Chinese welcoming ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing for taking too long to visit the country.
In 2010, at a climate change conference in Cancun, Mexico, Canada joined Russia and Japan to block the extension of the Kyoto Protocol beyond 2012.
In 2010, foreign firefighters and aircraft from a dozen countries poured into Israel in an unprecedented wave of international assistance as the country battled a huge forest fire sweeping through precious northern woodlands that killed at least 42 people and displaced thousands. The fire was doused by Dec. 6, thanks in part to rain.
In 2014, a grand jury in New York City declined to indict a white police officer on criminal charges in the July chokehold death of Eric Garner, an unarmed black man who was stopped on suspicion of selling loose, untaxed cigarettes. It triggered protests around the country and sent thousands into New York's streets.
In 2015, a South African appeals court convicted double-amputee Olympic sprinter Oscar Pistorius of murder, overturning a lower court's conviction on the lesser charge of manslaughter for the shooting death of girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine's Day in 2013. In July 2016, he was sentenced to six years in prison, but the State appealed the sentence. In November 2017, the South African Supreme Court of Appeal more than doubled it to 13 years and five months.
In 2015, former British Columbia premier Bill Bennett, an architect of financial restraint in the province and a signatory to Canada's Constitution, died at the age of 83 following a long fight with Alzheimer's disease.
In 2017, Metropolitan Opera suspended conductor James Levine after the New York Times published accounts from three accusers who said that Levine sexually abused them when they were teenagers. A fourth accuser later came forward.
In 2018, Canadian astronaut David Saint-Jacques blasted off in a Russian Soyuz rocket bound for the International Space Station. The rocket, which was also carrying Anne McClain of NASA and Oleg Kononenko of the Russian space agency, successfully docked with the space station six hours later. During his six-month mission in space, the 48-year-old Saint-Jacques was to conduct a number of science experiments, with some focusing on the physical effects of the weak gravity astronauts experience in orbit as well as how to provide remote medical care.
In 2018, Canadian weightlifter Christine Girard received her London 2012 Olympic gold and Beijing 2008 Olympic bronze medals in a ceremony at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa. She was the first Olympic champion in Canadian weightlifting history and the first Canadian ever to win two Olympic medals in the sport. Girard was bumped from bronze to gold in London and fourth to third in Beijing after other medalists were disqualified for doping violations.
In 2020, the civil servant leading the most extensive renovations on Parliament Hill's Centre Block in more than a century said the repairs would not erase the scars from an infamous attack. Rob Wright said a series of bullet holes in the Hall of Honour from a gunfight between security officers and Michael Zehaf-Bibeau would be left intact. Zehaf-Bibeau stormed Parliament Hill after fatally shooting Cpl. Nathan Cirillo in front of the National War Memorial in 2014. He was killed in the subsequent shootout.
In 2021, the Taliban's supreme leader banned forced marriage of women in Afghanistan, saying both men and women should be equal. The move was apparently meant to address one of the demands set by the international community for recognizing the Taliban as Afghanistan's government and restoring aid. But thousands of girls from grades seven to 12 were still not allowed to attend school, and most women were banned from returning to their jobs since the Taliban takeover.
In 2021, the National Advisory Committee on Immunization strongly recommended COVID-19 vaccine booster shots for people over the age of 50 in response to the spread of the Omicron variant. And it strongly suggested boosters for anyone who got two shots of the Oxford-AstraZeneca or Janssen vaccine, as well as front-line health care workers and First Nations, Inuit and Metis people.
In 2022, Health Canada authorized a new version of Moderna's COVID-19 booster vaccine that targets the Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants. The National Advisory Committee on Immunization said those were the dominant strains in circulation. The bivalent booster was meant for adults.
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The Canadian Press