Today in history: March 19

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On this date, March 19, in history:

In 1229, having negotiated a treaty with Muslims for Christian access to Jerusalem, Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II — a reluctant participant in the sixth crusade — crowned himself king at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. His treaty, however, was denounced by both faiths, and the Catholic patriarch of Jerusalem pronounced an interdict on the city. Frederick was excommunicated for making peace instead of war.

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In 1825, the Hudson’s Bay Company established Fort Vancouver on the Columbia River, near the present Portland, Ore.

In 1831, the first American bank robbery took place in New York City. The thief received a five-year prison term.

In 1860, the New Brunswick legislature decided not to invite the Prince of Wales, who was visiting Canada, because it would be too expensive. The next day, it was decided to erase the previous day’s debate from the record.

In 1885, the Northwest Rebellion began when a provisional government led by Louis Riel was proclaimed in Batoche, Sask.

In 1928, Halifax station CHNS broadcast an experimental two-hour school music broadcast, which included a performance by the Harmonica Band of St. Patrick’s Boys’ School. That fall, CHNS began Canada’s first regular school broadcast series, a two-hour weekly show.

In 1931, Nevada Gov. Fred Balzar signed a measure legalizing casino gambling.

In 1937, the Commons passed a bill banning Canadians from enlisting to fight in the Spanish Civil War. Many Canadians did so anyway.

In 1941, the United States and Canada signed a pact to develop the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence waterway, later known as the St. Lawrence Seaway.

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In 1945, Adolf Hitler issued his so-called “Nero Decree,” ordering the destruction of German facilities that could fall into Allied hands during the Second World War.

In 1945, the USS Franklin was struck by a Japanese bomb. More than 900 were killed in the largest loss of life in American naval history.

In 1953, the Academy Awards were televised for the first time. The Greatest Show on Earth was named best picture. Gary Cooper won the best actor award for High Noon. Shirley Booth won best actress for her role in Come Back, Little Sheba.

In 1964, Quebec had its greatest one-day snowfall, 99 centimetres, at Cape Whittle.

In 1976, Buckingham Palace announced the separation of Princess Margaret and her husband, the Earl of Snowdon, after 16 years of marriage. Their marriage was dissolved in 1978.

In 1981, two people died and five were injured at Cape Canaveral, Fla., when they entered a chamber in the shuttle Columbia, where oxygen had been replaced by nitrogen.

In 1982, Quebec signed a $6 billion contract to export electricity to the United States.

In 1987, U.S. televangelist Jim Bakker resigned as chairman of his PTL ministry amid a sex and money scandal involving Jessica Hahn, a former church secretary. Bakker was convicted in 1989 of bilking his followers and served five years in prison.

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In 1990, Latvia’s political opposition claimed victory in its first free elections in 50 years. Reformers also claimed victories in crucial runoffs held in Russia, Byelorussia (now Belarus) and Ukraine.

In 1996, Sarajevo was reunited after four years when Muslim-Croat authorities took control of the last district in the Bosnian capital held by Serbs.

In 2003, two hours after the U.S. deadline for Saddam Hussein to get out of Iraq expired, George Bush announced war had begun. Cruise missiles and bombs hit selective targets in and around Baghdad, while ground forces rolled into Iraq from Kuwait.

In 2004, the Quebec Court of Appeal upheld a lower-court ruling that the traditional definition of marriage was discriminatory and unjustified. Quebec became the third province to allow same-sex marriage after Ontario and British Columbia.

In 2005, innovative automaker John DeLorean died at age 80. He left a promising career in Detroit to develop the gull-winged sports cars featured as a souped-up time travel machine in the Back to the Future movies.

In 2007, Defence Minister Gordon O’Connor formally apologized for misleading the House of Commons over the monitoring of prisoners taken by Canadian troops during fighting in Afghanistan.

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In 2008, Arthur C. Clarke, a visionary science-fiction writer who co-wrote 2001: A Space Odyssey and won worldwide acclaim with more than 100 books on space, science and the future, died in Colombo, Sri Lanka, at age 90.

In 2010, Health Canada announced it authorized the use of caffeine as a food additive in all carbonated soft drinks, not just cola-type beverages.

In 2010, 2,000 traditional Anglicans in Canada accepted Pope Benedict XVI’s invitation to join the Roman Catholic Church under an agreement that would allow them to keep their liturgy, have their own bishop but acknowledge the Pope’s supremacy.

In 2011, the Vancouver Whitecaps defeated visiting Toronto FC 4-2 in their first game in Major League Soccer. It was the first all-Canadian clash in MLS history and also marked the Whitecaps’ return to the top soccer league in North America since the old NASL folded in 1984.

In 2012, NDP candidate Craig Scott, a law professor, human rights lawyer and neophyte politician, easily hung on to the late Jack Layton’s Toronto-Danforth riding in a federal byelection.

In 2012, a gunman on a motorbike opened fire in front of a Jewish school in Toulouse, France, killing a rabbi and his two young sons, and the principal’s 8-year-old daughter. An Islamist extremist, also wanted in the earlier killing of three French paratroopers, was killed in a police raid on March 22.

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In 2013, Pope Francis was officially installed as the 266th pope of the Roman Catholic Church.

In 2016, a FlyDubai Boeing 737 passenger jet nosedived and exploded in a giant fireball after trying to land for a second time in strong winds in the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don. All 62 people on board were killed.

In 2018, Uber said it was suspending all of its self-driving vehicle testing, including operations in Toronto, after the first fatal pedestrian crash involving a fully autonomous test vehicle. A 49-year-old female was struck a day earlier in a Phoenix suburb and later died in hospital.

In 2019, the Liberal-dominated justice committee pulled the plug on its probe of the SNC-Lavalin affair, prompting fresh howls of outrage from the Conservatives and NDP. Conservative and New Democrat MPs unsuccessfully pressed the House of Commons justice committee to recall former attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould so she could shed more light on the simmering controversy. The Liberal members tabled a motion calling for the committee to begin a study of the rise of hate crimes in Canada and said the federal ethics commissioner was best suited to investigate the political controversy.

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In 2019, the federal Liberal government delivered a budget that allocated billions of dollars to everything from pharmacare to helping workers learn new job skills to easing the burden on first-time home buyers. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government projected a $19.8-billion deficit for the 2019-20 fiscal year. That was $200 million more borrowing than anticipated in a year that was supposed to see the federal books deliver a surplus, according to the Liberal election platform from the 2015 campaign.

In 2020, New Brunswick declared a state of emergency over COVID-19.

In 2020, a 60-year-old man from Alberta became the first recorded death in the province from COVID-19. The province’s chief medical officer said the man had underlying health conditions and appeared to have contracted the virus in the community, not through travel.

In 2020, China exonerated the doctor who was reprimanded for warning about the novel coronavirus outbreak and later died of the disease. An official media report said police in Wuhan revoked the admonishment of 34-year-old Dr. Li Wenliang and issued a “solemn apology” to his family.

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In 2020, the Academy of Country Music postponed its awards show because of COVID-19.

In 2020, Italy surpassed China as the country with the most novel coronavirus-related deaths.

In 2020, the Queen left London for Windsor Castle a week earlier than she usually does over concerns about COVID-19. The 93-year-old was seen driving away from Buckingham Palace with her dogs sitting next to her.

In 2020, the 73rd Cannes Film Festival was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Cinema’s largest annual gathering was scheduled to open May 12.

In 2021, a 61-year-old woman made history when she was sworn in as the first female president of Tanzania. Dressed in a hijab and holding up a Quran with her right hand, Samia Suluhu Hassan took the oath of office at the state house in the East African country’s largest city Dar es Salaam. The inauguration followed the death of Tanzania’s president from apparent heart failure, though the country’s exiled opposition leader believes the staunch skeptic of COVID-19 actually died of the virus.

In 2021, one of the two Canadians known as The Two Michaels finally had his trial in China on charges on spying and illegally sending state secrets abroad. But the proceedings were held behind closed doors, and the outcome was unknown. Canadian consular officials were denied permission to attend the hearing against entrepreneur Michael Spavor at a court in Dandong, China. Spavor and former diplomat Michael Kovrig had been jailed there since December 2018 in what Canada believes was apparent retaliation for the arrest days earlier in Vancouver of Chinese telecom executive Meng Wanzhou. The Canadian Embassy’s deputy chief of mission Jim Nickel said Spavor’s trial today lasted two hours, with no verdict announced. The Intermediate People’s Court said Spavor and his lawyers were present, and that a sentence would be delivered at a later date. The two Michaels were eventually released from China.

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In 2021, Canadian researchers warned they have clear evidence linking COVID-19 to increased risk of pregnancy complications including preterm birth, low birth weight and stillbirth. Their article in the Canadian Medical Association Journal said the risks rise if the infection is severe. The researchers said doctors should be aware of the data when managing pregnancies affected by COVID-19, and adopt effective strategies to prevent or reduce risks to women and fetuses.

In 2021, Nova Scotia writer Budge Wilson died at the age of 93. Among her many accolades, Wilson earned seventeen Our Choice awards — presented by the Canadian Children’s Book Centre. She was also recognized by the Canadian Library Association — winning the Young Adult Canadian Book Award. Her success wasn’t contained to Canada either — her collection of short stories The Leaving was named a Notable Book by the American Library Association.

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