Today in History for Jan. 3:
In 1661, female actors appeared on an English stage for the first time.
In 1777, the United States adopted the Stars and Stripes as its official flag.
In 1777, American General George Washington's army routed the British in the Battle of Princeton, N.J.
In 1793, slavery was abolished in Canada.
In 1800, Upper Canada Attorney-General John White died in a duel with John Small, the province's top civil servant, at the government building in York (now Toronto). White had called Small's wife a duke's discarded mistress.
In 1827, Letitia Youmans, the founder of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union in Canada, was born near Hamilton.
In 1833, Britain seized control of the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic. Argentina occupied the islands in 1982, but Britain took them back after a 74-day war.
In 1863, Canada's first covered skating rink opened in Halifax.
In 1868, the Meiji Restoration re-established the authority of Japan's emperor and heralded the fall of the military rulers known as shoguns.
In 1871, the patent for oleomargarine was granted to Hentry Bradley of Binghamton, N.Y.
In 1888, waxed paper straws were patented in the U.S.
In 1892, J.R.R. Tolkein, author of "The Hobbit" and "Lord of the Rings," was born in Bloemfontein, South Africa.
In 1901, British politician Winston Churchill spoke at Toronto's Massey Hall on the Boer War in South Africa.
In 1912, the first Canadian hockey game played on artificial ice saw the New Westminster Royals beat the host Victoria Aristocrats 8-3.
In 1922, the Royal Mint produces Canada's first five-cent pieces, made mostly of nickel.
In 1935, federal wildlife conservation officials expressed concern the beaver was in danger of following the musk-ox and buffalo to near-extinction. They suggested setting up beaver farms to augment the shrinking population of Canada's symbol.
In 1938, the first March of Dimes campaign to fight polio was organized.
In 1941, Canada and the United States acquired air bases at Gander and Goose Bay, Nfld., on a 99-year lease.
In 1945, the first Canadian troops conscripted for overseas duty in the Second World War left Halifax for Britain.
In 1946, William Joyce, better known as "Lord Haw Haw," was hanged in Britain for treason. Joyce broadcast Nazi propaganda from Germany during the Second World War.
In 1947, U.S. congressional proceedings were televised for the first time as viewers in Washington, Philadelphia and New York got to see some of the opening ceremonies of the 80th Congress.
In 1957, the Hamilton Watch Company introduced the first electric clock.
In 1958, New Zealand explorer Sir Edmund Hillary, 38, who conquered Mount Everest in 1953, reached the South Pole by an overland route -- the first man to do so since Capt. Robert Scott reached the pole in 1912.
In 1959, Alaska became the 49th state of the United States.
In 1961, the United States severed diplomatic relations with Cuba.
In 1967, Dallas nightclub owner Jack Ruby died of cancer. He had shot and killed Lee Harvey Oswald, the alleged assassin of U.S. President John Kennedy in November 1963.
In 1980, conservationist Joy Adamson, author of "Born Free," was killed in northern Kenya by a servant in a wage dispute.
In 1983, the Times-Transcript published for the first time in Moncton, N.B., replacing the morning Times and the evening Transcript.
In 1985, the Grange Commission released its report on mysterious baby deaths at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. The 224-page report by Justice Samuel Grange concluded that eight of 36 babies who died between June 1980 and March 1981 received deliberate overdoses of the heart drug digoxin. It recommended the province compensate nurse Susan Nelles for legal fees incurred in fighting four murder charges, which never went to trial for lack of evidence.
In 1990, Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega surrendered to U.S. authorities after six days in the Vatican Embassy in Panama City. Noriega had been on the run since Dec. 20, when American troops invaded Panama to drive him from office and arrest him. He was taken to Miami, where he was convicted on racketeering and drug charges and imprisoned. (In April 2010, he was deported to France and convicted of laundering drug money. In December 2011, he was deported to Panama to face additional punishment.)
In 1992, Baton Broadcasting Inc. cancelled the Miss Canada pageant after 45 years because of society's outlook and philosophy regarding beauty pageants. Nicole Dunsdon, crowned in October 1991, was the last Miss Canada.
In 1993, U.S. President George Bush and Russian President Boris Yeltsin signed the START 2 treaty, calling for the elimination of nearly three-quarters of American and Russian nuclear warheads by the year 2003.
In 1994, Indian prisoners seeking revenge for the murder of a fellow inmate sparked the deadliest prison riot in Venezuelan history. One-hundred and six prisoners were killed and 54 wounded.
In 1994, a Russian plane with 120 people aboard crashed minutes after takeoff from the Siberian city of Irkutsk. There were no survivors.
In 1995, CI小蓝视频 became the first Canadian bank to begin selling personal auto insurance policies.
In 1998, nine people were killed in three avalanches that roared through the southeastern British Columbia mountains.
In 1999, the fiercest storm to hit southern and central Ontario dumped more than 100 cm of snow in some places. Seven people died while shovelling snow. The storm paralyzed Toronto, prompting Mayor Mel Lastman to call in the army. It was also the worst snow storm in the U.S. Midwest in 30 years; Chicago received 55 cm of snow and 23 people were killed.
In 2000, Jacob Ghermezian, the immigrant entrepreneur whose family business empire is worth billions of dollars and includes the West Edmonton Mall, died in Edmonton at age 97.
In 2004, an Egyptian charter jet returning French tourists to Paris crashed shortly after takeoff from the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, killing all 148 people aboard.
In 2009, Israeli troops launched a ground offensive in Gaza with tanks and helicopter gunships following a week of punishing aerial and naval bombardment of the Gaza Strip. The assaults left more than 500 Gazans dead and more than 2,500 injured.
In 2012, celebrated Czech writer Josef Skvorecky died in Toronto at age 87. He fled to Canada with his wife, writer and actress Zdena Salivarova, in the wake of the 1968 Soviet invasion to publish the works of dissident writers. His own works included, "The Cowards," "The Bass Saxophone" and "The Engineer of Human Souls," which won the Governor General's Literary Award in 1984. He was named a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 1986 and appointed to the Order of Canada in 1992.
In 2018, the board of directors of Toronto-based Soulpepper Theatre Company relieved prominent co-founder and artistic director Albert Schultz of his duties amid sexual assault and harassment allegations against him.
In 2019, veteran Democrat Nancy Pelosi resumed her role as Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives following the American mid-term elections. She became the first woman in history to hold the gavel twice in her political career. Pelosi presided over the 116th Congress which included 102 women in the House and 25 in the Senate, a new record, and also set a new threshold for black, Hispanic, Muslim, Indigenous and LGBTQ members.
In 2019, China's burgeoning space program achieved a lunar milestone - landing a probe on the mysterious and misnamed "dark" side of the moon.
In 2020, Australia launched one of the largest evacuations in its history, as more than 200 wildfires burned across the country. The Victoria state government ordered as many as 140,000 permanent residents and tens of thousands more vacationers to leave the region before fires closed roads and trapped them.
In 2021, Canada hit another bleak COVID-19 milestone with federal officials saying the country had surpassed 600-thousand cases. The COVID-19 death toll had reached 15-thousand-865 people.
In 2024, an unnamed school district in British Columbia was ordered by the province's human rights tribunal to pay $5,000 to a student for failing to accommodate her anxiety disorder. Tribunal vice-chair Devyn Cousineau wrote in a decision released in December that the school district "failed to take reasonable steps'' to investigate and address the student's anxiety.
In 2024, San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge finished the installation of new suicide-prevention netting. City crews installed stainless-steel nets on both sides of the 2.7-kilometre bridge, responding to years of pleading from advocate groups.
In 2024, the PEI Coalition for Women in Government said there is a concerning trend of online harassment targeting women and non-binary candidates. The coalition said two-thirds of female and non-binary candidates in the previous year's provincial election who were interviewed said they faced some sort of online harassment during the campaign.
In 2024, the U.S. called on the United Nations Security Council to take urgent action against Yemen's Houthi rebels for attacking ships in the Red Sea trade route. The rebels said the ships they attacked were either linked to Israel or were heading to Israeli ports. Canada was one of 12 countries, including the U.S., that signed a statement warning the Houthi rebels they will bear the responsibility for the consequences of their continued actions.
In 2024, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's office clarified comments it made about the cost of his family's vacation in Jamaica. After initially saying the family was paying for their stay, the Prime Minister's Office said they were vacationing "at no cost at a location owned by family friends." In a statement, the PMO's office also said the federal ethics commissioner was consulted on the details of the trip prior to it to ensure that the rules were being followed.
In 2024, Russian and Ukraine exchanged hundreds of prisoners in the single biggest release of captives since the start of the war almost two years prior. Ukrainian authorities said 230 prisoners of war returned home while Russia's Defence Ministry says 248 Russian servicemen were freed under the deal that was sponsored by the United Arab Emirates. It was also the first prisoner exchange between the warring nations in almost five months.
In 2024, at least 100 people were killed and more than 200 others injured in Iran after two bombs went off at a memorial ceremony for a slain Iranian general. The attack appeared to be the deadliest attack against Iran since its Islamic Revolution in 1979. The explosions happened near the grave site of General Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Iraq four years earlier.
In 2024, Curling Canada appointed three-time Canadian champion and former world curling men's champion Nolan Thiessen as its new chief executive officer. The 43-year-old retired from competitive curling in 2016 before becoming an athlete liaison for Curling Canada. He replaced Katherine Henderson, who left the organization in August to become CEO of Hockey Canada.
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The Canadian Press
