Today is September 30th:
Today's highlight in history:
In 1947, Canada was elected to the United Nations Security Council to fill one of the elected two-year terms vacated by Australia, Poland and Brazil. In addition to the 10 elected, non-permanent members, the Council has five permanent members --Britain, China, Russia, the United States, and France.
Also on this date:
In 430, Father St. Jerome died. Converted at age 19, Jerome spent the last half of his life rendering the Scriptures into the contemporary or vulgar Latin of his day as well as preparing commentaries on nearly every book of the Bible.
In 1399, King Henry IV ascended the throne of England. He had usurped the crown from Richard II, beginning the Lancastrian dynasty and planting the seeds of the "Wars of the Roses."
In 1846, ether was used as an anesthetic for the first time. Dr. William Morton, a Massachusetts dentist, used the gas experimentally to make Eben Frost unconscious so he could extract an ulcerated tooth.
In 1871, British garrison troops throughout Canada were called home, to be replaced by Canadian militia.
In 1880, the first photograph was taken of a nebula, or space cloud.
In 1901, car registration in France became compulsory for vehicles driving over 28 kilometres per hour.
In 1907, Alexander Graham Bell formed the Aerial Experiment Association at Baddeck, N-S. The group built several successful gasoline-powered biplanes. McCurdy made the first manned flight in Canada on Feb. 23, 1909. The group also worked on hydrofoil boats.
In 1924, American novelist and short-story writer Truman Capote was born in New Orleans.
In 1927, Babe Ruth of the New York Yankees hit his 60th homer of the season, establishing a record that stood for 34 years.
In 1929, the first British Broadcasting Corporation television broadcast took place in London.
In 1938, the Munich agreement, which ceded a large section of Czechoslovakia to Germany, was signed by the leaders of Britain, France, Germany and Italy. British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain said it would guarantee "peace in our time," but it did not prevent Adolf Hitler from seizing the rest of Czechoslovakia in March, 1939.
In 1944, Canadian troops captured the port of Calais, France, during the Second World War.
In 1946, an international military tribunal in Nuremberg, Germany found 22 top Nazi leaders guilty of war crimes.
In 1949, the Berlin Airlift officially ended.
In 1950, the Canadian government announced its decision to free the exchange rate of the Canadian dollar. The dollar was pegged at 92.5 cents U-S in 1962, then allowed to float again about a decade later.
In 1953, John Galt's Canada Co. was formally liquidated at London, England. Chartered in 1826, the company played an important role in colonizing the western part of Upper Canada.
In 1953, McGill University in Montreal, announced the development of a radar defence system for North America.
In 1954, nine of the world's most powerful nations agreed at Bonn on the arming of West Germany.
In 1954, the first nuclear-powered submarine, the "USS Nautilus," was commissioned by the U-S Navy.
In 1955, American actor James Dean, star of the movies "Rebel Without A Cause" and "Giant," died in a car accident in Salinas, Calif. He was 24.
In 1963, the republic of Nigeria was proclaimed.
In 1966, the Bechuanaland Protectorate became independent and was renamed the Republic of Botswana.
In 1966, Canadian-born Lord Thomson of Fleet bought control of the "Times of London" newspaper.
In 1966, the Republic of Botswana became an independent and sovereign member of the Commonwealth.
In 1970, Telesat Canada and Hughes Aircraft Co. of California signed a $31- million contract to build Canada's first telecommunications satellite.
In 1974, R-C-M-P officers prevented about 200 natives, members of the Native People's Caravan, from entering Parliament. The natives had attempted to break through a single line of police stationed 50 metres in front of Parliament. The Caravan, which began Sept. 15 in Vancouver, demanded settlement of territorial claims and better social conditions for native people.
In 1981, the International Olympic Committee chose Calgary as the site of the 1988 Winter Olympic Games.
In 1985, the Calgary-based Northland Bank collapsed -- the second failure of a western bank in a month. The Edmonton-based Canadian Commercial Bank closed its doors on September 1st.
In 1988, Carolyn Waldo won a gold medal in solo sychronized swimming at the Seoul Olympics. Two days later she won gold in the duet competition, becoming the first Canadian female to win two golds at a Summer Olympics.
In 1993, Canada's Supreme Court voted 5-4 to deny a Victoria woman's bid for a doctor-assisted suicide. The high court ruled Criminal Code sanctions against assisting in a suicide did not infringe on the rights of Sue Rodriguez. The following February, Rodriguez -- who had Lou Gehrig's disease -- committed suicide with the help of an unidentified doctor.
In 1993, the most deadly earthquake to strike India in half a century, hit across several villages across Maharashtra state in southwestern India, killing more than 20,000 people.
In 1994, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled a man accused of sexual assault could use the defence that he was too drunk to know what he was doing.
In 1997, France's Roman Catholic Church apologized for its silence during the systematic persecution and deportation of Jews by the pro-Nazi Vichy regime.
In 2004, Merck & Co. Inc. pulled its arthritis drug Vioxx from pharmacies worldwide after discovering, in a new clinical trial, that the drug increased the risk of heart attack and stroke.
In 2004, the Russian government approved the Kyoto climate-change accord, which after ratification in parliament, would bring the treaty into legal force for member nations.
In 2004, Air Canada emerged from 18 months of bankruptcy protection.
In 2008, a Tory campaigner resigned after the discovery of a plagiarized speech delivered in the House of Commons by Stephen Harper in 2003. Large chunks were taken from a speech given by then Australian prime minister John Howard in the Australian parliament two days earlier.
In 2008, The Guinness World Records website listed Labatt Park in London, Ont. as the oldest baseball park in the world. The diamond opened in 1877 at the forks of the Thames River as Tecumseh Park.
In 2009, at least 1,100 people died in Indonesia after two large earthquakes hit 240 kilometres south of Padang, on Sumatra Island, in two days.
In 2009, former Toronto Maple Leafs captain Mats Sundin announced his retirement from hockey after nearly two decades in the NHL. He spent 13 seasons with Toronto, becoming the longest-serving European captain in NHL history, before signing with Vancouver in 2008 as a free agent. Sundin, an eight-time NHL all-star, is first among Swedish players with 564 goals, 785 assists and 1,349 points.
In 2009, Nova Scotia soldier Cpl. Matthew Wilcox, 24, was sentenced in Sydney to four years in prison and dismissed from the military for shooting his tent mate, Cpl. Kevin Megeney, 25, to death in Afghanistan in 2007. Wilcox was convicted in July of negligent performance of duty and criminal negligence causing death.
In 2009, Guy Laliberte, the creator of the famed Cirque de Soleil, became Canada's first "space tourist" aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. Laliberte paid $35 million for the privilege and hoped his 12-day stay aboard the International Space Station would help raise awareness of drinking water problems around the world. He hosted the first multimedia event from the station on Oct. 9 to highlight that crisis.
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