Today in History for Dec. 7:
In AD 374, Ambrose, an early church father, was consecrated Bishop of Milan, Italy. His influential works on theology and ethics made him -- along with Jerome, Augustine, and Gregory the Great -- one of the "four doctors" of the Western (Latin) Church.
In 1661, under pressure from the British Parliament, the American colony of Massachusetts suspended its Corporal Punishment Act of 1656, which had imposed harsh penalties on Quakers and other religious Nonconformists.
In 1729, 1.2 million hectares -- including Norfolk, Wentworth and Haldimand counties of Ontario -- were surrendered by the Mississauga Indians.
In 1770, Samuel Hearne left the Prince of Wales Fort at Hudson Bay on an expedition that would make him the first European to see the Arctic Ocean.
In 1787, Delaware became the first U.S. state.
In 1829, the British rulers of India outlawed the custom of suttee -- the immolation of widows on their husbands鈥� funeral pyres.
In 1837, the rebellion in Upper Canada erupted into violence when government officials were shot at Montgomery鈥檚 Tavern just outside Toronto.
In 1876, the Canadian steamship "Northern Light" began the first regular service from P.E.I. to the mainland.
In 1877, the first successful gramophone was demonstrated. It was invented by Thomas Edison and built by his mechanic, John Kruesi.
In 1899, Sir John A. Macdonald鈥檚 son, Hugh, led Manitoba鈥檚 Conservative party to an election victory.
In 1907, Christmas Seals were sold for the first time in the United States to help fight tuberculosis. The seals went on sale for the first time ever in Denmark in 1904 and were the idea of Copenhagen postman Einar Holboell. The seals first appeared in Canada in 1908.
In 1916, David Lloyd George became prime minister of Britain.
In 1941, Japanese planes began their attack on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor (Hawaii). Over 300 Japanese planes from aircraft carriers attacked in waves. Eight battleships were sunk or disabled, and almost 200 planes were destroyed before they could get off the ground. About 2,500 soldiers and civilians were killed. Hours later, Canada declared war on Japan -- the first of the Western allies to do so. The United States, Britain and other allied countries followed the next day. The United States declared war on Japan鈥檚 allies Germany and Italy on Dec. 11.
In 1953, the Ford Motor Company announced regular production of the first transparent top automobile.
In 1960, the RCMP told Justice Minister Davie Fulton that Defence Minister Pierre Sevigny was having an affair with East German prostitute Gerda Munsinger. Sevigny ended the affair, no further action was taken and the incident remained secret for six years when it became a major scandal.
In 1960, more than 20 economists from Canadian universities urged the federal government to fire James Coyne, governor of the Bank of Canada. In an open letter addressed to Finance Minister Donald Fleming, the economists cited their lack of confidence in the policies of the central bank. Coyne initially refused to quit, but when confronted with a bill firing him, he stepped down on July 13, 1961.
In 1965, the Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox churches formally reconciled themselves by reversing a mutual excommunication of each other, dating back over 900 years to July 1054.
In 1972, America鈥檚 last Moon mission began, as "Apollo 17" blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Fla.
In 1972, Imelda Marcos, wife of Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos, was stabbed and wounded by an assailant who was then shot dead by her bodyguards.
In 1975, Calgary鈥檚 Ken Read became the first Canadian male to win a World Cup Alpine ski race when he captured the downhill in Val-d鈥橧sere, France.
In 1982, Charles Brooks Jr., a prisoner on death row at a Huntsville, Texas, prison, became the first person in the U.S. to be executed by lethal injection.
In 1982, Canadian sprinter Harry Jerome died at age 42. He was the first man to hold both the world 100-yard and 100-metre records, and won the 100-metre bronze medal at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.
In 1983, in Madrid, Spain, an Aviaco DC9 collided on a runway with an Iberia Air Lines Boeing 727 that was accelerating for takeoff, killing all 42 people aboard the DC9 and 51 aboard the Iberia jet.
In 1985, Robert Graves, the English poet and novelist who wrote more than 135 novels and books of poetry and criticism, including the historical novels "I, Claudius" and "Claudius the God," died in Spain at age 90.
In 1987, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev set foot on U.S. soil for the first time, arriving for a Washington summit with President Ronald Reagan.
In 1987, 43 people were killed after a gunman aboard a Pacific Southwest Airlines jetliner in California apparently opened fire on a fellow passenger, the two pilots and himself, causing the plane to crash.
In 1988, a major earthquake devastated northern Armenia. Official estimates put the death toll at 25,000.
In 1989, East Germany鈥檚 Communist party agreed to co-operate with the opposition in paving the way for free elections and a revised constitution.
In 1989, Conservative MP Jean-Luc Joncas, member for the Quebec riding of Metapedia-Mantane, was charged with 22 counts of fraud, breach of trust, forgery and uttering forged documents after a six month RCMP investigation.
In 1995, British Columbia鈥檚 NDP government became the first in Canada to order automakers to produce less-polluting vehicles.
In 1999, NASA said it failed to detect a signal from the "Mars Polar Lander" during the "last best chance" to hear signs of life.
In 2000, BCE Inc. received federal approval for its $2.3 billion purchase of CTV Inc., making it the largest communications company in Canada.
In 2000, the National Assembly passed Bill 99, Quebec鈥檚 answer to Ottawa鈥檚 Clarity Act. Bill 99 says the federal Parliament has no right to interfere in a sovereignty referendum and Quebec鈥檚 people alone have the right to decide the legal status of Quebec.
In 2002, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein apologized for the invasion of Kuwait 12 years earlier while urging Kuwaitis to rise up and expel U.S. troops.
In 2003, Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe pulled his country out of the Commonwealth after the 54-member organization continued the country鈥檚 suspension for human rights abuses and defiance of democracy.
In 2006, Giuliano Zaccardelli was forced to resign as RCMP commissioner after misleading a parliamentary committee probing the Maher Arar case. He was the first RCMP commissioner to be forced out under a cloud of controversy.
In 2006, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that aboriginal people have the right to cut timber on Crown land for domestic use.
In 2008, the Buffalo Bills and Miami Dolphins played in the first-ever NFL regular season game to be held in Canada. Miami won 16-3 at Toronto's Roger's Centre.
In 2009, goaltender Martin Brodeur tied Terry Sawchuk's NHL record with his 103rd shutout. (He retired with 125 shutouts.)
In 2009, Prime Minister Stephen Harper became the first Canadian leader to address South Korea's National Assembly, using his speech to emphasize ties between the two countries.
In 2009, former Newfoundland cabinet minister Jim Walsh, who was a high-profile Liberal member of the legislature from 1989 to 2003, was found guilty of two of three charges in the province's legislature spending scandal uncovered by the province's auditor general.
In 2011, former junior hockey coach and convicted sex offender Graham James pleaded guilty in a Winnipeg courtroom via videolink to sexually abusing two of his former players, retired NHL star Theoren Fleury and Todd Holt. Two charges related to a third complainant, Greg Gilhooly, were stayed. (In March 2012, James was sentenced to two years in prison.)
In 2012, the federal government approved the foreign takeovers of Nexen Inc. and Progress Energy Resources Corp. by China's CNOOC and Malaysia's Petronas respectively. Ottawa insisted though it will only consider future takeover deals in the oilsands by state-owned companies in exceptional circumstances.
In 2016, Time magazine named U.S. president-elect Donald Trump as its Person of the Year.
In 2017, Minnesota Sen. Al Franken announced he would resign from Congress following a wave of sexual misconduct allegations and the collapse of support from his Democratic colleagues, a swift political fall for a once-rising Democratic star.
In 2017, The Moose Jaw Times-Herald (Sask.) published its final edition, closing down after more than 125 years in the business. It was founded as a weekly paper in 1889 and went daily in 1906.
In 2017, the Australian Parliament voted to allow same-sex marriage across the nation, with the law to take effect in early January 2018. Gay marriage was endorsed by 62 per cent of Australian voters who responded to the government-commissioned postal ballot.
In 2017, the National Energy Board released its decision to allow Kinder Morgan Canada to bypass some bylaws in Burnaby, B.C. that stood in the way of its Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project. It was met with outrage by those opposed to the project, calling it overreach, and welcomed by proponents who said it was for the good of the country.
In 2018, just two days after being named host of the Academy Awards, comedian Kevin Hart stepped down following an outcry over past homophobic tweets. Capping a swift and dramatic fallout, Hart wrote on Twitter that he was withdrawing as Oscars host because he didn't want to be a distraction. The comedian had refused to apologize for the tweets, saying he had already addressed it several times.
In 2020, the national chief of the Assembly of First Nations said he would not seek re-election next summer. Perry Bellegarde has led the political advocacy organization that represents more than 600 First Nations since 2014. He noted that he has successfully advocated for laws protecting Indigenous children and languages, helped secure more than $27 billion in new funding and brought widespread attention to key issues.
In 2020, Chuck Yeager, the retired U.S. Air Force pilot who was the first aviator to break the sound barrier, died at 97. Yeager enlisted in the Army Air Corps in 1941. He joined combat operations in the Second World War, returning stateside four years later after flying more than 60 aerial wartime missions. Yeager exceeded the speed of sound on Oct. 14, 1947, on a Bell X-1 rocket.
In 2021, Quebec drugmaker Medicago said its two-dose, plant-based COVID-19 vaccine was 71 per cent effective at preventing COVID-19 infection. Its large, late-stage study included several variants, but not Omicron, which wasn't circulating during the study period. The federal government invested $173 million in Medicago's vaccine as part of efforts to rebuild Canada's biomanufacturing sector.
In 2021, Assembly of First Nations National Chief RoseAnne Archibald said the month's Indigenous delegation to the Vatican was postponed because of the Omicron variant. The delegation planned to travel to Rome the week of Dec. 18 to meet with Pope Francis. Indigenous leaders wanted the Pope to come to Canada and deliver an apology for the role the Catholic Church played in operating the residential school system. (Francis eventually made the voyage in July 2022.)
In 2023, the federal government announced a new oil and gas cap policy that would force the industry to cut emissions by more than one-third by 2030. If companies don't meet the requirement, they will have to buy offset credits or contribute to a decarbonization fund that would lower that amount to cutting just 20 to 23 per cent.
In 2023, Cindy Woodhouse, Assembly of First Nations regional chief for Manitoba, defeated David Pratt, vice-chief of the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations, to become the new national chief of the AFN.
In 2023, R.J. Simpson was elected the next premier of the Northwest Territories. He won on the second round of voting by newly elected members of the territory's legislature.
The Canadian Press
