Today in History for April 28:
In 1220, Bishop Poore laid the first five stones of the famed Salisbury Cathedral in England, one each for himself, Archbishop Stephen Langton, Pope Honorius III, Earl William and Countess Ela of Salisbury.
In 1559, the English parliament approved the Church of England's "Book of Common Prayer."
In 1789, the mutiny on the "Bounty" occurred when British Captain William Bligh was cast adrift with 18 loyal crewmen by mutineers led by the ship's mate, Fletcher Christian. The mutineers settled on the isolated Pacific island of Pitcairn. The Bligh party sailed 6,400 kilometres in their open boat to Timor, where they were rescued.
In 1817, the Rush-Bagot treaty was signed by Canada and the U.S. It limited the number of warships the two countries could maintain on the Great Lakes and Lake Champlain. In 1871, the Treaty of Washington completed disarmament.
In 1919, the Covenant of the League of Nations was unanimously accepted by delegates from 42 countries.
In 1945, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, his mistress, and 16 other Fascists were executed by a partisan firing squad near Milan. Also, the British and U.S. governments received a message from Gestapo chief Heinrich Himmler guaranteeing an unconditional German surrender to western Allies but not Russia. Winston Churchill responded that surrender must be to the "Big Three" -- Britain, United States and Russia.
In 1967, Muhammad Ali was stripped of his heavyweight boxing title after refusing induction into the U.S. army on religious grounds.
In 1968, Walter Stitch was believed to have become, at the age of 98, the first great-great-great-grandfather in Canada. His great-great-granddaughter gave birth to a son in Halifax.
In 1969, Charles de Gaulle resigned as president of France when his proposed constitutional reforms were defeated in a referendum.
In 1986, the Soviet Union informed the world of the nuclear accident two days earlier at Chernobyl.
In 1996, a hockey era ended as the Winnipeg Jets lost their final game. The visiting Detroit Red Wings beat the Jets 4-1 to win their playoff series in six games. The Jets moved to Phoenix for the next season and were renamed the Coyotes. (In 2011, the Atlanta Thrashers franchise relocated to Winnipeg and was reborn as the Jets.)
In 1996, Australia's worst modern-day massacre saw Martin Bryant kill 35 people at a popular tourist site and a nearby cottage in Hobart, Tasmania. Bryant is serving a life prison sentence.
In 1999, the British department store chain Marks and Spencers announced it would close its 38 Canadian stores.
In 2002, Israel and the Palestinian Authority accepted a U.S. proposal to end a month-long siege of Yasser Arafat's compound at Ramallah. Six suspected Palestinian terrorists were to be sent to prison supervised by British or U.S. guards.
In 2003, the Air India trial opened in Vancouver. The two men charged in the worst mass murder in Canadian history, Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri, pleaded not guilty in the 1985 bombing that killed 329 people. In March 2005, they were found not guilty of murder and conspiracy charges.
In 2007, former Supreme Court of Canada justice Bertha Wilson died in Ottawa at age 83. Wilson was the first woman named to the high court when she was appointed in 1982.
In 2008, General Motors said it would eliminate nearly 3,500 jobs in North American plants that produce pickup trucks and big sport utility vehicles, including 1,000 at the Oshawa, Ont., plant.
In 2011, Phillip and Nancy Garrido pleaded guilty to kidnapping and raping Jaycee Dugard, who gave birth to two daughters while being held for 18 years in a hidden compound in the couple's California backyard. (Nancy was sentenced to 36 years to life while her husband was given the maximum possible, 431 years to life.)
In 2011, Canada's Patrick Chan claimed his first world figure skating title. (He also won again in 2012 and 2013.)
In 2018, Russia's controversial floating nuclear power plant headed out for its first sea voyage, towed out of the St. Petersburg shipyard where it was constructed, en route to Murmansk, where its reactors are to be loaded with nuclear fuel. It will be put into service in 2019 in the Arctic off the coast of Chukotka.
In 2020, Britain's Paediatric Intensive Care Society said there had been an increase in the number of children with inflammatory problems requiring intensive care in the past three weeks. Doctors in Britain, Italy, and Spain had been warned to look out for a rare inflammatory condition in children that is possibly linked to COVID-19.
In 2022, Health Canada said it would end a ban on gay men donating blood. Canadian Blood Services said the ban would be replaced by new screening criteria based on sexual history and behaviour.
In 2023, a new federal law was set to require platforms like Netflix, YouTube and TikTok to contribute and promote Canadian content on the internet. The Liberals' Online Streaming Act passed its final vote in the Senate and received royal assent.
In 2023, a Halifax-based firm was awarded a major subcontract as part of the $1.2-billion upgrade of the military's fleet of search-and-rescue helicopters. Defence Minister Anita Anand said IMP Aerospace is to deliver 13 upgraded Cormorant helicopters to the Canadian Armed Forces following work done at its Halifax facilities. The main contractor -- Leonardo U-K -- is to build three new helicopters to increase the size of the Cormorant fleet to 16.
In 2024, Quebec officials announced a $603-million investment over the following five years to counter what the province views as a decline of the French language. French-language minister Jean-Francois Roberge said the government's nine priorities include better monitoring of language trends, boosting the French cultural offering and improving students' mastery of the language. The strategy includes 21 measures, some of which are already in place.
In 2024, Ontario said it would limit cellphone use in classrooms, restrict access to all social media networks and ban vaping on school properties starting in the fall. The province's education minister Stephen Lecce said the parents and teachers he spoke to have expressed concern over the growing problem of cellphone distractions in class and the disturbing rise of vaping in schools. Quebec and British Columbia had already made similar moves to ban the use of cellphones in class, but Lecce said Ontario would be the first province to block access to all social media platforms on school networks and devices.
In 2024, Pro-Palestinian student activists in Montreal set up camp at McGill University, following the lead of similar protests across the United States. More than two dozen tents were pitched at the school's downtown campus, with a steady stream of visitors dropping off donations and supplies. The activists were demanding their schools divest and cut ties with Israeli institutions and companies in response to Israel's offensive in Gaza.
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The Canadian Press
