Today in History for June 19:
In 325, the month-long Council of Nicea closed. Known as the first ecumenical council in the history of the Church, it formulated the "Nicene Creed" and established the method for calculating when Easter falls.
In 1566, James VI of Scotland was born. Upon the death of Elizabeth I in 1603, he ascended the English throne as James I. He is best remembered for authorizing the publication known today as the King James Version of the Bible.
In 1721, almost half of Montreal was destroyed by fire.
In 1815, artist Cornelius Kreighoff, famed for his portraits of life in 19th-century Quebec, was born in Amsterdam, Holland. He died in 1872.
In 1816, the Seven Oaks Massacre occurred in what is now Winnipeg. A group of Metis killed Hudson's Bay Co. governor Robert Semple and 20 of his men when they tried to stop the Metis from transferring supplies to the rival North West Co.
In 1846, the first baseball game with set rules was played in Hoboken, N.J.
In 1862, slavery was outlawed in U.S. territories.
In 1867, deposed Mexican emperor Maximilian was executed.
In 1896, Wallis Warfield Simpson was born in Pennsylvania. The two-time divorcee became the Duchess of Windsor when she married the former King Edward VIII in 1937, a few months after he abdicated in favour of the woman he loved. The Duchess died in Paris in 1986.
In 1903, the city of Regina was incorporated.
In 1910, Father's Day was celebrated for the first time, in Spokane, Wash. Most historians credit Sonora Smart Dodd of Spokane, Wash., with the idea of making Father’s Day a national day of recognition. According to the story, Dodd heard a sermon about the sacrifices made by mothers and thought her own father, Civil War veteran William Jackson Smart, deserved equal accolades because he had raised her and her five siblings after their mother died. Dodd arranged her first Father’s Day celebration on June 19, 1910.
In 1914, 188 people died in the Hillcrest mine disaster at Crows Nest Pass, Alta.
In 1917, during the First World War, King George V ordered the Royal Family to drop their German titles and surnames. The family took the name Windsor.
In 1937, Scottish dramatist and novelist J.M. Barrie died. He was best known for "Peter Pan."
In 1948, the Russian military government of East Germany announced it would cut road, rail and canal links between West Germany and Berlin -- and the Berlin Blockade began. Western air forces flew in food and fuel supplies until the blockade ended on May 12, 1949.
In 1953, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed at New York's Sing Sing prison after they were convicted of spying for the Soviet Union.
In 1958, the Canadian Parliament approved the establishment of the joint North American Air Defence Command, or NORAD.
In 1963, Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space, returned from a three-day space flight.
In 1973, Karen Kain and Frank Augustyn of the National Ballet of Canada won first prize at the International Ballet Competition in Moscow.
In 1977, Pope Paul VI proclaimed a 19th-century Philadelphia bishop, John Neumann, the first male American saint.
In 1978, the comic strip "Garfield" appeared for the first time.
In 1983, B.C. Place, Vancouver's 60,000-seat domed stadium, opened.
In 1986, artificial heart recipient American Murray Haydon died of kidney failure at age 59. His death came 16 months and two days after receiving the implant.
In 1987, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a Louisiana law requiring public schools to teach creationism if they taught evolution. The court ruled that the state law violated the First Amendment.
In 1992, the last two western hostages in Lebanon were freed after three years in captivity. Henrich Struebig and Thomas Kemptner were immediately flown home to Germany. Their release brought an end to a decade in which at least 92 western hostages were taken.
In 1992, Russian President Boris Yeltsin told Canada's Parliament his country had abandoned totalitarianism for democracy.
In 1999, Prince Edward married Sophie Rhys-Jones at Windsor Castle. The Queen gave her youngest son and his wife the titles of Earl and Countess of Wessex.
In 1999, Brett Hull scored the controversial skate-in-the-crease Stanley Cup winning goal in the third overtime period, helping the Dallas Stars defeat the Buffalo Sabres 2-1 in Game 6. The game ended at about 1:30 a.m. ET on June 20.
In 1999, author Stephen King was seriously injured when he was struck by a van driven by Bryan Smith on a two-lane highway in North Lovell, Maine.
In 2003, the U.S. Air Force decided not to court martial the two pilots who mistakenly bombed Canadian troops in Afghanistan in April 2000 -- killing four. The pilots, Maj. Harry Schmidt and Maj. William Umbach, had been charged with involuntary manslaughter, aggravated assault and dereliction of duty and faced up to 64 years in prison if convicted.
In 2009, Darrell Dexter was sworn in as Nova Scotia's new premier, the first NDP government in Atlantic Canada's history.
In 2009, Nortel Networks Corp. announced a deal to sell itself piece-by-piece rather than try to restructure under bankruptcy protection, winding down a company with a 127-year-old history in Canada.
In 2013, Bob Rae, one-time Ontario NDP premier and former interim federal Liberal leader, announced he was leaving politics after 35 years.
In 2013, James Gandolfini, whose portrayal of mob boss Tony Soprano in HBO's "The Sopranos" helped create one of TV's greatest drama series, died of cardiac arrest while vacationing in Rome. He was 51.
In 2016, the Cleveland Cavaliers became the first team in NBA Finals history to overcome a 3-1 deficit by beating the defending champion Golden State Warriors 93-89 in Game 7, capturing the franchise's first title and ending Cleveland's 52-year pro sports championship drought. LeBron James, the Ohio-native who returned to the Cavs in 2014 and promised a title, was named MVP for a third time.
In 2016, Dustin Johnson captured his elusive first major by winning the U.S. Open at Oakmont by three strokes, atoning for his past mishaps in the majors.
In 2021, Canada's chief public health officer said the Delta variant was now in all provinces and at least one of the territories.
In 2024, once the centre of environmental and Indigenous rights battlegrounds, British Columbia's old-growth forests began receiving permanent protection. The province's government reached a deal with two Vancouver Island First Nations to protect about 760 square kilometres of Crown land in Clayoquot Sound. The deal involves 10 new conservancies to protect old-growth forests on Meares Island and in the Kennedy Lake area. Those areas were sites of protests that led to hundreds of arrests in the 1980s and 1990s.
In 2024, an audience of 11 million viewers watched Pat Sajak sign off for the last time as host of Wheel of Fortune. It was the highest ratings for the show since April 2020.
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The Canadian Press