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Canada’s First Newspaper Halifax Gazette

March 23, 2012 by · Comments Off on Canada’s First Newspaper Halifax Gazette 

Canada’s First Newspaper Halifax Gazette, Today is March 23: In 752, Pope Stephen II was elected to succeed Pope Zacharias. Stephen died just two days later.

In 1540, Waltham Abbey in Essex became the last monastery in England to transfer its allegiance from the Roman Catholic Church to the newly established Church of England.

In 1670, Fathers Dollier de Casson and Galine claimed Lake Erie for France.

In 1743, George Frideric Handel’s oratorio, “The Messiah,” had its London premiere. The first performance of the work had taken place in Dublin the previous year. During the “Hallelujah Chorus” at the London performance, King George II rose excitedly to his feet. The audience followed suit and a tradition was born.

In 1752, the “Halifax Gazette,” Canada’s first newspaper, began publishing weekly. It lasted until 1766 when it was suspended for criticizing the Stamp Act and was replaced by the “Nova Scotia Gazette.”

In 1775, Patrick Henry addressed the Virginia Provincial Convention. According to biographer William Wirt, it was during this speech that Henry declared, “Give me liberty, or give me death!”

In 1848, the first official party of settlers landed in New Zealand, at Dunedin.

In 1893, the first Canadian Club meeting was held in Hamilton, Ont.

In 1903, the Wright brothers applied for a patent on their airplane.

In 1919, Benito Mussolini founded his Fascist political movement in Milan, Italy.

In 1929, Dr. Roger Bannister, the first man to run a mile in under four minutes, was born.

In 1933, the German Reichstag adopted the Enabling Act, which effectively granted Adolf Hitler dictatorial powers.

In 1944, Maurice Richard of Montreal scored all five Canadiens goals in a 5-1 Stanley Cup playoff win over Toronto.

In 1944, Germany took control of Romania during the Second World War.

In 1949, royal assent was given to the North America Bill, passed by the British Parliament, for the union of Canada and Newfoundland. It became Canada’s 10th province eight days later.

In 1956, Pakistan was declared an Islamic republic within the British Commonwealth.

In 1964, the federal government endorsed the fluoridation of water to reduce tooth cavities.

In 1965, the first U.S. two-man space flight began as “Gemini 3” blasted off with astronauts Virgil “Gus” Grissom and John Young aboard.

In 1966, Pope Paul VI and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Michael Ramsay, met in the Sistine Chapel of Rome. They discussed renewing formal relations, severed in the 16th century, between their two churches. It was the first meeting of a pope and the head of the English church since 1397.

In 1969, Group of Seven artist Arthur Lismer died at the age of 84. One of the original members of the Group, English-born Lismer came to Canada in 1911 and met painters Tom Thomson and J.E.H. MacDonald while working in an engraving firm. Widely recognized as a painting teacher, Lismer was the founder of the Children’s Art Centre at the Art Gallery of Toronto (now the Art Gallery of Ontario).

In 1973, the 20,000-tonne freighter “Anita” disappeared without a trace in the Bermuda Triangle.

In 1983, the first artificial-heart transplant patient died. American doctor Barney Clark lived with the implant for 112 days.

In 1993, Russia’s constitutional court ruled that President Boris Yeltsin violated the constitution by seizing emergency powers. Russia’s parliamentarians began impeachment proceedings but Yeltsin narrowly escaped impeachment when the vote on March 28th fell short of the two-thirds majority needed.

In 1994, Wayne Gretzky of the Los Angeles Kings scored his 802nd career regular season goal, overtaking Gordie Howe as the greatest goal-scorer in NHL history. Gretzky scored in the second period of a game against the visiting Vancouver Canucks. Gretzky retired after the 1998-99 season with 894 career regular season goals.

In 1994, Luis Donaldo Colosio, 44, a presidential candidate in Mexico’s election, was assassinated during a campaign appearance.

In 1998, “Titanic” sank the competition at the 70th annual Academy Awards. It won 11 Oscars, including best picture and best director for Canadian-born director James Cameron. Its theme song, “My Heart Will Go On,” was a huge hit for Canada’s Celine Dion.

In 1998, Prince Charles and sons Harry and William arrived in Vancouver for a week-long, mainly recreational visit.

In 1998, Liberal Senator Andrew Thompson resigned from the Senate, six weeks after the first suspension from the Upper Chamber. Fellow senators suspended him without pay when he failed to return from Mexico to explain his chronic absenteeism. At age 73, Thompson was only two years away from forced retirement. His suspension and resignation did not affect his pension.

In 1999, Paraguay’s Vice-President Luis Maria Argana was gunned down on a street in Asuncion.

In 2000, Rwandan President Pasteur Bizimungu resigned, plunging the country into its worst political crisis since the 1994 genocide.

In 2002, Ernie Eves, a former Ontario finance minister, was elected to replace Premier Mike Harris at the Ontario Conservative leadership convention.

In 2005, Prime Minister Paul Martin signed a deal with President George W. Bush and President Vicente Fox that provided for sweeping co-ordination with the United States and Mexico on security, trade and public health issues.

In 2006, Canadian hostages James Loney and Harmeet Sooden and Briton Norman Kember were freed from their four-month captivity in a multi-national operation involving Canadian special forces soldiers operating for the first time in Iraq.

In 2009, Suncor Energy Inc. and formerly government-owned Petro-Canada unveiled merger plans to create a $46-billion global energy giant. The combined company, which would operate under the Suncor name, would be the largest energy company in Canada and the fifth largest in North America.

In 2009, the University of Winnipeg became the first university in Canada to ban the sale of bottled water on campus. The ban followed a referendum in which three-quarters of students who voted said they were in favour of ditching water sold in bottles.

In 2010, U.S. President Barack Obama signed into law a US$940-billion landmark health care reform bill, presiding over the biggest shift in U.S. domestic policy since the 1960’s and capping a divisive, year-long debate.

In 2010, Ken Cavanagh, journalist and broadcaster, who worked for The Canadian Press, CTV, CFTO, CBC and CITY-TV, died in Toronto at age 77.

In 2010, Britain expelled an Israeli diplomat for the first time in more than 20 years, after concluding there was compelling evidence that Israel was responsible for the use of forged British passports in the plot to slay a senior Hamas operative in Dubai on Jan. 20, 2010.

In 2011, Oscar-winning film legend Elizabeth Taylor died of congestive heart failure. She was 79. Her enduring fame and glamour made her one of the last of the old-fashioned movie stars. She won Academy Awards for “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” and “Butterfield 8” and also played the title role in the historical epic “Cleopatra.” Taylor was also known for her stormy personal life and eight marriages, including two to Richard Burton.

In 2011, the controversial “faint hope” clause, which allowed those convicted of first and second-degree murder to request an early parole hearing after serving 15 years, was repealed.

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