Today in History for Nov. 13:
On this date:
In 354, African theologian Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, was born in Numidia, now Algeria. Augustine wrote many works that had a dominant influence on later Western Christian theology.
In 1637, Sir David Kirk was made co-proprietor and governor general of Newfoundland by King Charles I. Kirk, a privateer, had captured Quebec from the French in 1629.
In 1705, slaves in New France were declared ‘movable property'.
In 1775, American revolutionary forces led by General Richard Montgomery captured Montreal after Gov. Gen. Guy Carleton surrendered the city.
In 1789, Benjamin Franklin wrote in a letter to a friend, "In this world, nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes."
In 1794, U.S. President George Washington sent an army into western Pennsylvania to put down the Whiskey Rebellion, which was provoked by an excise tax in 1791.
In 1805, Viennese butcher Johann Lahner invented a new sausage -- he called it a frankfurter.
In 1833, the scientific study of meteors began when more than 200,000 shooting stars were sighted over eastern North America. The spectacle prompted many to believe the world was coming to an end.
In 1914, New York debutante Mary Phelps Jacob was granted the first patent for a brassiere.
In 1927, the Holland Tunnel opened to the public, providing access between lower Manhattan and New Jersey beneath the Hudson River.
In 1936, King Edward VIII told Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin he intended to marry twice-divorced Wallis Simpson.
In 1939, American inventor Henry Jeffers demonstrated a machine that could milk more than 1,600 cows in seven hours.
In 1950, a Canadian chartered airliner crashed on Mt. L'Obiou in the French Alps, killing all 59 people on board.
In 1956, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down laws calling for racial segregation on public buses.
In 1960, fire in a movie house in Hamouda, Syria, took the lives of 152 school children and left 355 seriously injured.
In 1962, the "Canon of the Mass" was changed for the first time since the beginning of the seventh century when Pope John decreed that St. Joseph's name be inserted immediately after that of the Virgin Mary.
In 1963, the first meeting of the Ontario Arts Council was held in Toronto.
In 1970, history's worst cyclone killed more than one million people in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh).
In 1971, the U.S. space probe "Mariner 9" went into orbit around Mars.
In 1974, Karen Silkwood, a technician and union activist at the Kerr-McGee Cimarron plutonium plant near Crescent, Okla., died in a car crash while on her way to meet a reporter.
In 1975, the World Health Organization announced that Asia was completely free of smallpox.
In 1977, the comic strip "Li'l Abner" by Al Capp appeared in newspapers for the last time.
In 1979, CJCD -- the first private radio station in the Northwest Territories -- went on the air in Yellowknife.
In 1982, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial was dedicated on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.
In 1982, Hughes Lapointe, former Liberal MP, cabinet minister under Louis St. Laurent, and lieutenant-governor of Quebec from 1966-78, died at the age of 71.
In 1985, Canada's National Research Council, in collaboration with the Red Cross, was reported to have developed the world's first microwave oven for thawing plasma.
In 1985, about 23,000 people were killed when the volcano Nevada del Ruiz, in Colombia's Central Cordillera region, erupted.
In 1989, in Washington, External Affairs Minister Joe Clark formally signed the ceremonial documents committing Canada as the 33rd member of the Organization of American States.
In 1989, Prince Franz Josef II, of Liechtenstein, the world's longest reigning monarch (51-year reign) at that time, died at age 83.
In 1989, champion swimmer Victor Davis died of head and spine injuries. His death came two days after he was hit by a car outside a suburban Montreal nightclub. He was 25. Police did not lay criminal charges in the accident.
In 1991, Paul-Emile Cardinal Leger died in a Montreal hospital at age 87. Leger, the brother of former governor general Jules Leger, was named Archbishop of Montreal in 1950 and was elevated to cardinal three years later.
In 1995, Montreal was chosen as the international headquarters for Convention on Biological Diversity, a United Nations agency. The convention was one of the key agreements adopted at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro by most of the world's leaders. It sets out commitments for sustaining the environment while continuing to achieve economic goals.
In 1995, a powerful bomb explosion in a building housing American and Saudi military personnel in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, killed seven people.
In 1997, Colorado Rockies outfielder Larry Walker won the N.L. MVP award, becoming the first Canadian to win a MVP award in major league baseball. The native of Maple Ridge, B.C. led the N.L. with 49 home runs while batting .366, driving in 130 runs and recording 409 total bases.
In 1998, U.S. President Clinton agreed to pay Paula Jones $850,000 to drop her sexual harassment lawsuit, with no apology or admission of guilt, ending the four-year legal battle that had spurred the impeachment proceedings against him.
In 1998, Michel Trudeau, 23, the youngest son of former Canadian prime minister Pierre Trudeau, drowned in Kokanee Lake after being swept away by an avalanche while back-country skiing in Kokanee Glacier Provincial Park, B.C.
In 2001, Northern Alliance soldiers marched into Kabul after Taliban forces abandoned the Afghanistan capital.
In 2003, L.A. Dodger closer Eric Gagne won the N.L. Cy Young Award, becoming the second Canadian to win it (Fergie Jenkins, 1971).
In 2004, Ellen Fairclough, Canada's first female cabinet minister, died at age 99 in Hamilton, Ont.
In 2010, Myanmar democracy leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi was released after more than seven years under house arrest.
In 2015, Islamic State extremists launched co-ordinated gun-and-suicide bombing attacks across Paris that left 130 people dead and over 350 injured. A majority of the victims were in a concert venue watching an American rock band perform. There were also gun attacks at multiple cafes and three suicide bombers outside France's national stadium, including one who tried but failed to get inside. On Nov. 18, the suspected ringleader of the attacks, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, died along with two others during a police raid on an apartment in the suburb of Saint-Denis.
In 2017, the Hockey Hall of Fame held the formal induction ceremony for NHL greats Dave Andreychuk, Mark Recchi, Teemu Selanne and Paul Kariya as well as Canadian women's star Danielle Goyette. Longtime Canadian university coach Clare Drake and Boston Bruins owner Jeremy Jacobs entered in the builder category.
In 2017, ride-hailing company Lyft announced it was coming to Toronto in what was to be its first expansion outside of the United States.
In 2018, Calgarians headed to the polls in a plebiscite on whether the city should host the 2026 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. More than 56 per cent voted no. Calgary city council voted unanimously on Nov. 19 to wind up the bid corporation.
In 2019, House investigators launched public impeachment hearings for just the fourth time in U-S history. As Trump called it a witch hunt and a hoax, William Taylor, the highest-ranking U-S official in Ukraine, said for the first time that Trump was overheard asking another ambassador about “the investigations” he’d urged Ukraine’s leader to conduct one day earlier. Republicans retorted that the Democrats still had no more than second- and third-hand knowledge of allegations that Trump held up millions of dollars in military aid for the Eastern European nation facing Russian aggression. Trump was accused of trying to trade that aid for Ukrainian investigations into former Vice-President Joe Biden and the Democratic National Committee.
In 2020, China finally issued congratulations to U.S. President-elect Joe Biden. Beijing, along with Moscow, had not immediately joined the international throng that congratulated Biden after he and running mate Kamala Harris secured enough Electoral College votes to unseat Donald Trump. A spokesman for the Chinese foreign ministry said "We respect the choice of the American people.''
In 2020, the Miami Marlins hired Kim Ng as their general manager, making her the highest-ranking woman in baseball operations in the major leagues and likely the first female general manager for a men's team in a major professional sport in North America. Ng started her Major League Baseball career as an intern 30 years ago and won three World Series rings while spending 21 years in the front offices of the Chicago White Sox, New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers.
In 2021, Canada's Ivanie Blondin, Valeri Maltais and Isabelle Weidemann won gold in women's team pursuit at a World Cup speedskating event. The trio's first podium-topping performance of the season came in a time of three minutes 0.280 seconds, just ahead of Japan and the Netherlands in Poland.
In 2023, former fashion executive Peter Nygard was found guilty of four counts of sexual assault, but was acquitted of a fifth count, plus a charge of forcible confinement.
In 2023, Maple Ridge, B.C. was announced to be the site of a billion-dollar lithium-ion battery plant. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made the announcement alongside B.C. Premier David Eby. The pair said the new E-One Moli facility will bolster Canada's role as a global leader in clean technology.
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The Canadian Press