Today in History for April 14:
On this date:
In 73 AD, rather than face defeat at the hands of the Romans, Jews in the fortress of Masada committed mass suicide.
In 1682, Archpriest Avvakum, the leader of a traditionalist movement within the Russian Orthodox Church known as the Old Believers, was martyred. At Czar Theodore's order, he and several other prisoners were locked in a log cabin and burned alive.
In 1759, German composer George Frideric Handel died at age 74 in London.
In 1775, the first society for the abolition of North American slavery was organized by Quakers in Philadelphia.
In 1828, the first edition of Webster's Dictionary of the English Language was published.
In 1865, American President Abraham Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth while watching a play at a Washington theatre. Lincoln, who had just led the Union side to victory in the U.S. Civil War, died the next day. He was succeeded by Vice President Andrew Johnson.
In 1871, Parliament passed a bill to create a uniform Canadian currency.
In 1892, the city of Windsor, Ont., was incorporated.
In 1902, James Cash Penney opened his first store, ``The Golden Rule,'' in Kemmerer, Wyo.
In 1912, the ``Titanic'' struck an iceberg south of Newfoundland's Grand Banks during its maiden voyage from England. The luxury liner sank overnight with the loss of more than 1,500 lives. The wreckage was found on the ocean floor in 1985.
In 1939, John Steinbeck's ``The Grapes of Wrath'' was first published.
In 1945, the Canadian Army completed its liberation of the Netherlands during the Second World War by occupying the city of Arnhem. On the Pacific front, Allied planes firebombed Tokyo and damaged the Imperial Palace.
In 1956, Ampex Corp. demonstrated its first commercial videotape recorder.
In 1960, the Montreal Canadiens became the only team to win five consecutive Stanley Cups. The Canadiens blanked the host Toronto Maple Leafs 4-0 to take the NHL final in four straight games. It was the last game for legendary Habs winger Maurice ``The Rocket'' Richard.
In 1975, the Ontario Court of Appeal ruled women could sue ex-husbands for damages.
In 1981, the first test flight of a space shuttle ended when ``Columbia'' landed in California.
In 1983, the first cordless telephone was introduced. It could operate up to 180 metres from its base.
In 1986, Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu was elected Anglican Archbishop of South Africa. He became the first black head of the church in that country.
In 1992, the Supreme Court of Canada quashed David Milgaard's 1970 conviction for murdering Saskatoon nursing aide Gail Miller. Milgaard left a Manitoba prison two days later, after the Saskatchewan government decided not to re-try him. The province later compensated Milgaard for his two decades behind bars. Larry Fisher was convicted of the murder in 1999 and sentenced to life. (Fisher died in prison on June 9, 2015 at age 65.)
In 1992, Libya cut itself off from the world for 24 hours to mark the sixth anniversary of a U.S. air raid. The same day, the World Court in The Hague rejected Libya's bid to block sanctions for refusing to turn over suspects in the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am jet over Lockerbie, Scotland.
In 1997, a federal court judge upheld the Canadian Wheat Board's monopoly on grain sales, calling it a legal and reasonable infringement on farmers' freedoms. (In 2011, the Harper government stripped the board of its monopoly over western wheat and barley sales.)
In 2003, Jean Charest led the Liberals to a majority government in the Quebec election, handing federal forces control over the province after almost a decade of Parti Quebecois reign. Party standings were: Liberals 76; PQ 45 and the ADQ 4.
In 2003, Abu Abbas, ringleader of the infamous 1985 hijacking of an Italian cruise liner and founder of the Palestine Liberation Front, was captured in Baghdad by U.S. Special Forces.
In 2003, U.S. forces easily completed the seizure of Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's hometown, ending the last significant battle of the war in Iraq. Maj.-Gen. Stanley McChrystal, a vice-chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said major combat operations were over.
In 2007, social activist, journalist, broadcaster and writer June Callwood died at the age of 82 in Toronto after a long battle with cancer.
In 2008, Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines, squeezed by record high fuel prices and a slowing economy, merged in a stock-swap deal to create, at the time, the world's biggest carrier.
In 2010, a series of strong earthquakes, the largest of which was magnitude 6.9, struck the mountainous Tibetan area of Yushu, Qinghai in western China, killing 2,698 people and injuring more than 12,000 as about 15,000 houses made of mud and wood collapsed.
In 2010, Quebec premier Jean Charest named former Supreme Court justice Michel Bastarache to head a public inquiry into how Quebec judges are appointed. (His report in January 2011 largely dismissed allegations of political tampering.)
In 2011, Rejean Hinse, who was wrongfully imprisoned in 1961 for armed robbery before being acquitted by the Supreme Court of Canada in 1997, was awarded $13.1 million in compensation -- believed to be the largest settlement of its kind in Canada.
In 2011, a furious storm system spawned a three-day outbreak of 241 tornadoes that barreled across six American states, leaving 45 people dead. The violent weather began in Oklahoma before cutting across the Deep South the next day and hitting North Carolina and Virginia the following day.
In 2013, Justin Trudeau was elected leader of the federal Liberal party in a landslide, first-ballot win.
In 2014, Islamic extremist group Boko Haram abducted 276 female students from a school in northeast Nigeria. 57 girls managed to escape.
In 2016, the Supreme Court of Canada, in a long-awaited landmark decision that was 15 years in the making, unanimously ruled that 600,000 Metis and off-reserve Indians across the country are ``Indians'' under the Constitution and are the federal government's fiduciary responsibility.
In 2016, more than a year after the Supreme Court struck down Canada's ban on assisted suicide, the federal government introduced new legislation spelling out the conditions in which seriously ill or dying Canadians could seek medical help to end their lives.
In 2018, Canadian Brooke Henderson won her sixth career LPGA Tour tournament with a four-stroke victory at the Lotte Championship in Hawaii.
In 2018, Czech filmmaker Milos Forman, whose American movies ``One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest'' and ``Amadeus'' won a deluge of Academy Awards, including best director Oscars, died at age 86.
In 2019, Tiger Woods won his fifth Masters title. Woods shot a 2-under 70 for one-stroke victory at Augusta National Golf Club. It was his first title win since the 2008 U-S Open, capping a remarkable recovery from debilitating injuries and embarrassing personal problems. It's the first time Woods has ever come from behind on the final day to win a major championship, leaving him three behind Jack Nicklaus's record of 18 major titles. Woods last won the Masters in 2005.
In 2020, Chip Ganassi Racing fired driver Kyle Larson for using a racial slur during a live stream of a virtual race. The star driver had been competing in an iRacing virtual event when he appeared to lose communication on his headset with his spotter and used the N-word.
In 2020, U.S. President Donald Trump says said he would halt payments to the World Health Organization pending a review of its warnings about the novel coronavirus and China.
In 2021, Liberal MP William Amos issued a mea culpa after being caught on camera in the nude during a virtual House of Commons session. Amos, who had represented the Quebec riding of Pontiac since 2015, said his video was accidentally turned on while changing from his jogging clothes into his work clothes.
In 2022, Defence Minister Anita Anand said up to 150 Canadian Armed Forces members would soon be flying out of CFB Trenton in Ontario bound for Poland as the Russian invasion of Ukraine continued. They were going to provide Ukrainian refugees there with general and spiritual support as well as limited medical care. The troops were also going to help Ukrainians leave Poland so they could resettle in other countries, including Canada.
In 2022, the Kremlin sustained a major blow in its war on Ukraine. The flagship of the country's Black Sea fleet sank after being badly damaged and its crew evacuated. Ukrainian officials said their forces hit the vessel with missiles. Russia acknowledged a fire aboard the Moskva -- but no attack.
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The Canadian Press