Today in History for July 2:
In 311, Miltiades was elected the 32nd pope of the Catholic Church. During his pontificate, Christianity was finally tolerated by Rome, following the Emperor Constantine's conversion to the Christian faith.
In 1489, Thomas Cranmer, the first Protestant Archbishop of Canterbury, was born. He was the primary author of the "Book of Common Prayer" and "Thirty-Nine Articles of the Anglican Church."
In 1566, French astrologer Nostradamus, died.
In 1808, explorer Simon Fraser reached the Pacific Ocean near what is now Vancouver. Fraser thought he had been on the Columbia River, but was actually on the river that now bears his name.
In 1821, Sir Charles Tupper, Canada's sixth prime minister, was born in Amherst, N.S. He led the federal government for a few months in 1896. Tupper, who was also the first president of the Canadian Medical Association, died in 1915.
In 1865, William Booth formed the Salvation Army at a meeting in London. Booth, a successful revivalist preacher, was originally in the Methodist church but had resigned because it would not let him preach. His speech at a mission in Whitechapel is considered by the Salvation Army as the date of its formation. The Army spread to Canada in 1882.
In 1881, U.S. president James Garfield was shot. He died from his wound three months later. It was just four months after his inauguration that he was shot at the Washington, D.C., railway station by Charles Guiteau, an erratic lawyer and disappointed office-seeker.
In 1885, the Plains Cree Chief Big Bear surrendered at Fort Carlton, Sask.
In 1900, the first rigid zeppelin airship, created by Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin, took flight near Lake Constance in Germany. It carried five people, reached an altitude of 396 metres and flew a distance of six kilometres in 17 minutes.
In 1900, stage director and playwright Tyrone Guthrie was born in Tunbridge Wells, England. Guthrie was the founding artistic director of the Shakespearean Festival in Stratford, Ont. He died in 1971.
In 1912, five people died when the dirigible "Alcron" exploded over Atlantic City.
In 1924, Edmonton's temperature reached 36.7 degrees Celsius, the highest in more than 100 years.
In 1926, Arthur Meighen's Conservative government lost a Commons non-confidence motion by one vote. Meighen became prime minister three days earlier when MacKenzie King resigned over Governor General Lord Byng's refusal to call an election. After Meighen's defeat, Byng agreed to a Sept. 14 election, which King's Liberals won.
In 1931, Peter Kurten, dubbed "The Monster of Dusseldorf," died by guillotine in France for raping and killing eight women and children in a 10-month period.
In 1937, American aviator Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan disappeared over the Pacific while attempting to circle the globe. After taking off from New Guinea and reporting by radio that they were lost and running out of fuel, the pair did not reach their destination of Howland Island and were never heard from again.
In 1940, a German U-boat torpedoed the liner "Arandora Star" while transporting German and Italian prisoners to Canada during the Second World War. Over 750 prisoners and crew died.
In 1941, the Royal Canadian Air Force was authorized to enlist women. The Canadian army and navy soon followed suit.
In 1941, New York Yankees outfielder Joe DiMaggio broke the major league single-season record by hitting safely in his 45th consecutive game. DiMaggio's streak ended at 56 games on July 17.
In 1961, American author Ernest Hemingway, plagued by ill health, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at his home in Idaho. He was 62.
In 1962, volunteer doctors provided emergency services in Saskatchewan when most of its estimated 700 doctors went on strike to protest the province's compulsory medical plan, which went into effect the previous day.
In 1968, legislation allowing for easier access to divorce in Canada went into effect. The new "Divorce Act" authorized the granting of divorce solely on the grounds of marriage breakdown.
In 1969, the first college of veterinary medicine in Western Canada opened at the University of Saskatchewan.
In 1974, Ralph Steinhauer became the first aboriginal (he was a Cree) Lieutenant-Governor in Canada, for the province of Alberta.
In 1976, North and South Vietnam were officially united after 20 years of war.
In 1982, using a lawn chair hoisted by 42 helium-filled weather balloons, Larry Walters took off from San Pedro, Calif. He rose to an altitude of nearly 4,900 metres and travelled 24 kilometres before landing safely in Long Beach. Aviation officials fined him $1,500.
In 1984, Karl Saucek, a 37-year-old stuntman from Hamilton, survived a plunge over Niagara Falls in a lightweight metal-and-plastic barrel.
In 1990, more than 1,400 Muslim pilgrims died in a stampede inside a pedestrian tunnel leading to the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia.
In 1992, the federal government closed Newfoundland's northern cod fishery for two years to protect dwindling stocks and allow it time to recover. The moratorium, which was later extended, affected more than 19,000 fishermen and plant workers.
In 1994, gunmen killed Colombian soccer player Andres Escobar, who accidentally scored a goal against his own team in the World Cup, in Medellin, Colombia.
In 1997, Mr. Justice Gilles Letourneau released his Somalia public inquiry report that denounced the highest levels of Canada's military leadership. It said military leaders tried to cover up the death of a civilian in March of 1993, lied to the commission and may have broken the law to hide the truth about the Somalia affair.
In 1997, screen legend Jimmy Stewart -- star of such movies as "It's a Wonderful Life" and "The Philadelphia Story" -- died at his California home at age 89.
In 1999, Mario Puzo, the best-selling author who won two Academy Awards in the 1970s for screen adaptations of his novel "The Godfather," died at age 78.
In 2000, in a stunning election upset, Mexico's Opposition leader Vicente Fox was elected president, ending the 71-year reign of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party.
In 2001, Robert Tools became the first person to receive a fully self-contained artificial heart when doctors implanted the device in Louisville, Ky. Tools, who was 59, lived with the device whirring in his chest for 151 days.
In 2002, American multi-millionaire adventurer Steve Fossett became the first to circle the world solo in a balloon, travelling more than 31,000 kilometres. He started June 19 from Northam, Western Australia and landed in the Outback, 1,400 kilometres northwest of Sydney.
In 2003, Vancouver won the right to host the 2010 Winter Olympics ahead of Salzburg, Austria, and Pyeongchang, South Korea.
In 2003, the second outbreak of SARS in Toronto was declared over by the World Health Organization.
In 2010, an explosion tore through a Canadian Forces recruitment centre in Trois-Rivieres, Que., in the early morning. There were no injuries. "Resistance internationaliste" claimed responsibility.
In 2010, an F3 tornado destroyed more than a dozen homes in Raymore, Sask., and on the Kawacatoose First Nation. No one died. Environment Canada said the twister was about 500 metres wide, cut a path 45 kilometres long and may have been on the ground for as long as one hour.
In 2010, a tanker truck hauling fuel on a rural eastern Congo highway overturned and exploded in a massive fireball that killed at least 242 people. Many of the dead were villagers who had descended on the truck to siphon fuel illegally from the wreckage.
In 2015, a U.S. judge granted $134.2 million in damages to the widow of an American soldier (Christopher Speer) killed in Afghanistan and another soldier (Layne Morris) partially blinded by a hand grenade in their lawsuit against former Guantanamo Bay prisoner Omar Khadr.
In 2015, officials in Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana announced an US$18.7 billion settlement with BP that resolved years of litigation over the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, the biggest offshore oil spill in U.S. history and the worst ever in the Gulf of Mexico. The settlement raised BP's spill-related costs to over US$53 billion.
In 2017, race favourite "Holy Helana" easily captured the Queen's Plate, the first jewel of the Canadian Triple Crown of thoroughbred horse racing.
In 2018, twelve boys, aged 11-16, and their soccer coach were found alive by rescue divers after they disappeared when flooding trapped them in a northern Thailand cave they were exploring on June 23. (Guided by experienced divers, all were brought out safely between July 8-10.)
In 2019, Saskatchewan's lieutenant governor died of pancreatic cancer at 78. William Thomas Molloy held the position since March 2018. The chief justice of Saskatchewan, along with members of the province's Appeal Court, assumed the lieutenant-governor's duties starting in May while Molloy was undergoing treatment.
In 2019, ex-Chrysler C-E-O Lee Iacocca died in Bel Air, California at age 94. Iacocca put the Mustang in Ford's lineup in the 1960s and enjoyed a 32-year career at Ford and then Chrysler, helping launch some of Detroit's most significant cars including the minivan, the Chrysler K-car and the Ford Escort. Iacocca also wrote two best-selling books and was courted as a 1988 U-S presidential candidate.
In 2020, the Supreme Court of Canada announced the dismissal of a new appeal from British Columbia First Nations over the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion. The court dismissed the appeal from the Squamish Nation, Tsleil-Waututh Nation, the Ts'elxweyeqw Tribes and Coldwater Indian Band, effectively ending the years-long legal battle over the project.
In 2020, sources said a member of the Canadian Armed Forces was in custody after someone rammed a truck through the gates and drove up the path toward Rideau Hall, the official residences that house Governor General Julie Payette and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, before police intervened. Neither Trudeau nor Payette was in residence at the time. The Mounties said the man was armed.
In 2020, officials in several Manitoba and Saskatchewan communities declared states of emergency after a rain-heavy weather system sloshed through the area causing flooding. The mayor of Humboldt, Sask., said much of the ground was already saturated due to earlier rainy weather when more rain hit on Tuesday night, leading to the latest trouble.
In 2020, FBI agents arrested British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell in New Hampshire. Maxwell lived with Jeffrey Epstein for years and was his frequent travel companion on trips around the world. The indictment said she assisted, facilitated and contributed to Epstein's abuse of minor girls by — among other things — helping him recruit, groom, and ultimately abuse girls under age 18.
In 2021, after nearly 20 years, the U.S. military left Afghanistan's Bagram Airfield. The facility was the epicentre of the war to oust the Taliban and hunt down the al-Qaida perpetrators of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The airfield was handed over to the Afghan National Security and Defence Force in its entirety.
In 2021, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his wife, Sophie, got their 2nd doses of COVID vaccine. The prime minister got a shot of Moderna, following his first dose of Oxford-AstraZeneca In April. Sophie got her second shot a day earlier -- also Moderna. Trudeau said his wife had a reaction that caused her to have an uncomfortable night.
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The Canadian Press