On This Day in History

December 18. 1988:

FRENCH ONLY OUTSIDE
Quebec Quebec - Robert Bourassa 1933-1996 passes Bill 178 requiring French only on outside signs; permits bilingual signs inside; exercises Quebec's constitutional right, Clause 33 of the Charter of Rights, the 'notwithstanding clause', to override the Dec. 15 decision of the Supreme Court, striking down sections of Quebec's Bill 101 requiring that commercial signs be in French only; a decision that called these sections an unreasonable violation of freedom of expression.

 

December 19, 1917:

FIRST TWO NHL GAMES PLAYED
Montreal Quebec/ Toronto Ontario - NHL starts inaugural season: original members of the league are the Montreal Canadiens, the Montreal Wanderers, Toronto Arenas, Ottawa Senators and Quebec Bulldogs. Quebec will not start playing with the league until 1919; Quebec's best player Joe Malone joins the Canadiens and on opening night scores five goals, including likely the first goal ever scored in the NHL, as Montreal beats Ottawa 9-4. Malone will go on to score 44 goals during the 24-game season. In the game in Toronto, Montreal Wanderers Dave Ritchie also scores what may have been the first NHL goal in a 10-9 victory over the Toronto Arenas; also first NHL game played on artificial ice; Harry Hyland of the Wanderers also scores five goals in this game; it will be the team's lone victory in the NHL: less than a month later, their arena burns down and they withdraw from the league. Sixteen of the players on that first day wind up in the Hockey Hall of Fame. The rules: each team can only dress a maximum of 12 players. There are no bluelines, no icing rules and no forward passing beyond the centre-ice red line. Minor penalties are three minutes long, and there is no limit on overtime.

 

Frank Zappa's birthday.....(December 21, 1940 - December 4, 1993)

 

Good 'Ol Frank...drink a bit

 

On December 22nd in 1864, during the Civil War, Union Gen. William T. Sherman sent a message to President Lincoln from Georgia, saying, “I beg to present you as a Christmas gift the city of Savannah.”

 

On December 23rd in 1986, the experimental airplane Voyager, piloted by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager, completed the first non-stop, around-the-world flight without refueling as it landed safely at Edwards Air Force Base in California.

 

On December 26th in 1941, Winston Churchill became the first British prime minister to address a joint meeting of the United States Congress.

 

December 26, 1791:

PITT SPLITS CANADA IN TWO
London England - British PM William Pitt passes the Constitutional Act, dividing Quebec along the Ottawa River, into Upper and Lower Canada, each with a Lieutenant-Governor and a Legislature; Lower Canada keeps French civil law. The so-called 'Canada Act' gives colonies first powers to pass duties for revenue, a form of responsible government, but the governors and council retain the right to control revenue from the sale of Crown Lands, letting them bypass the Assembly.

 

On December 28th in 1981, Elizabeth Jordan Carr, the first American test-tube baby, was born in Norfolk, Va.