Trump’s election, the Brexit vote, and the Fort McMurray fire: news from 2016

4 – Robert Stigwood, the impresario who managed the Bee Gees and produced the 1970s blockbusters “Grease” and “Saturday Night Fever,” died at age 81.

5 – President Barack Obama unveiled an array of measures tightening control of firearms in the U.S., using his presidential powers after the Republican-controlled Senate refused to pass legislative changes.

6 – North Korea’s declaration that it had tested a hydrogen bomb for the first time was greeted with widespread condemnation — but also skepticism and doubt — as world powers vowed to impose new international sanctions.

6 – Canadian musicians fared well at the fan-voted People’s Choice Awards in Los Angeles. Shawn Mendes won Favourite Breakout Artist, The Weeknd won Favourite R&B Artist and Justin Bieber won Favourite Song for “What Do You Mean?”

6 – In his first year of eligibility, Ken Griffey Jr. was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame with a record 99.3 per cent of the vote. Mike Piazza, the top offensive catcher in baseball history, was also elected.

6 – Pat Harrington, Jr., the actor best known for his role as Dwayne Schneider, the cocky handyman on the long-running television sitcom “One Day at a Time,” died of complications from Alzheimer’s disease. He was 86.

7 – Paris police shot and killed a man wearing what turned out to be a fake explosive vest who threatened them with a butcher knife at a police station as France grimly marked the first anniversary of the newsroom massacre at the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine.

8 – Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman was captured for a third time in a daring raid by Mexican marines in the seaside city of Los Mochis. He escaped from Mexican maximum-security facilities in 2001 and in July 2015. He was later ordered extradited to the U.S. but appealed the ruling.

10 – David Bowie, the musician who broke pop and rock boundaries with his creative musicianship, nonconformity, striking visuals and a genre-spanning persona he christened Ziggy Stardust, died after an 18-month battle with cancer, two days after turning 69 and releasing his new album “Blackstar.” His hits included “Space Oddity,” “Changes, “Fame,” ”Golden Years” and “Let’s Dance.”

10 – Alexander Ovechkin scored his 500th career goal to become the 43rd NHL player to reach the milestone, and at 801 games, the fifth-fastest — trailing only Hall-of-Famers Wayne Gretzky (575 games), Mario Lemieux (605), Mike Bossy (647) and Brett Hull (693).

11 – Canadian mega-pop star Justin Bieber’s “Sorry” finally took over top spot on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, ending Adele’s 10-week run at the top with “Hello.” Both debuted on the chart on Nov. 14, 2015.

11 – Alabama used three long touchdowns to outlast Clemson to win the U.S. College Football Playoff championship 45-40.

11 – Canadian tennis star Daniel Nestor became the first player in ATP Tour history to record 1,000 doubles victories over his career.

13 – Shaw Communications announced it was selling its media division to Corus Entertainment for $2.65 billion, dividing the Shaw telecom empire into separate media and network companies. The move followed Shaw’s acquisition in 2015 of Wind Mobile for $1.6 billion.

13 – The Canadian dollar closed below 70 cents US for the first time in nearly 13 years, finishing the day at 69.71 cents US, down 0.43 of a cent.

14 – British actor Alan Rickman, a classically trained stage star and sensual screen villain in the “Harry Potter” saga and other films, died after a battle with cancer. He was 69.

15 – Rene Angelil, the Quebec impresario who guided Celine Dion to superstardom and then married her, died of throat cancer. He was 73.

15 – Six Quebecers on a humanitarian mission were among 30 people killed after four al-Qaida inspired terrorists attacked a hotel and cafe in Burkina Faso’s capital, Ouagadougou. The terrorists were killed by Burkina Faso and French security forces.

18 – Guitarist Glenn Frey, who co-founded the Eagles and formed one of history’s most successful songwriting teams with drummer Don Henley with such hits as “Lyin’ Eyes” and “Life in the Fast Lane,” died of health complications and pneumonia. He was 67. The Eagles’ Greatest Hits and “Hotel California” are among the bestselling albums in history.

18 – Suncor Energy reached a friendly takeover deal with Canadian Oil Sands after bumping up its all share offer by 12 per cent, bringing the total price tag to $4.24 billion, plus $2.4 billion in COS debt.

19 – Three high-ranking Canadian Olympic Committee officials – chief sport officer Caroline Assalian, executive director of operations Judy Crute and human resources manager Robert Cousin – were dismissed days after the release of a critical report on how the organization handled allegations of sexual harassment by its former president, Marcel Aubut.

20 – Four Islamic militants stormed the Bacha Khan University in Charsadda, Pakistan, killing 21 people, most of them students, and triggering an hours-long gunbattle with security forces.

21 – The Islamic extremist group al-Shabab attacked a beachfront restaurant in Mogadishu, killing 20 people before Somalia’s security forces ended the deadly siege.

21 – Kathryn Smith became the NFL’s first full-time female assistant coach after coach Rex Ryan and the Buffalo Bills promoted her to be the team’s special teams quality control coach.

22 – A young gunman killed two teen brothers at a home in the remote Dene community of La Loche, Sask., then went to the community school and killed a male teacher and a female aide and wounded seven others before he was apprehended by the RCMP. A 17-year-old boy pleaded guilty in October to two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of second-degree murder and seven counts of attempted murder.

25 – Toronto police officer James Forcillo was cleared of second-degree murder but found guilty of attempted murder for continuing to fire after dying teen Sammy Yatim had fallen to the floor of an empty streetcar in July 2013. The shooting was captured on cellphone videos and went viral online, sparking public outrage. In July, Forcillo was sentenced to six years in prison, but was granted bail pending an appeal of his conviction.

26 – The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal ruled the federal government discriminated against children on reserves in its funding of child welfare services. The quasi-judicial body was ruling on a 2007 complaint from the Assembly of First Nations and The First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada.

26 – Character actor Abe Vigoda, who played the over-the-hill detective Phil Fish in the 1970s TV series “Barney Miller” and the doomed Mafia soldier in “The Godfather,” died at age 94.

27 – Edmonton city council passed a bylaw that made the Alberta capital the first Canadian city to legalize ride-sharing services such as Uber. It came into effect on March 1.

29 – The Nanaimo Daily News in British Columbia stopped publishing, ending 141 years in business. The Guelph Mercury in Ontario, which dated back to 1867, also published its last print edition.

29 – Five snowmobilers from Alberta died in an avalanche in the Renshaw area east of McBride, B.C.

FEBRUARY

2 – NDP candidate Melanie Mark became the first indigenous woman elected to the British Columbia legislature after winning a byelection in the party stronghold of Vancouver-Mount Pleasant.

3 – U.S. home improvement retailer Lowe’s announced it would buy Quebec-based Rona Inc. in a friendly $3.2 billion cash deal. The deal closed on May 20.

3 – The NHL suspended Calgary Flames defenceman Dennis Wideman 20 games for cross-checking linesman Don Henderson during a game on Jan. 27. It was the second-longest suspension in NHL history for abusing an official. Wideman served 19 games before an independent arbitrator reduced it to 10 games, returning nine days of earnings he had forfeited as a result of the suspension.

4 – Earth, Wind & Fire founder Maurice White died at age 74 after a decades-long struggle with Parkinson’s Disease. The band sold more than 90 million albums and had hits like “September,” ”Shining Star” and “Boogie Wonderland.”

4 – Marco Muzzo, who caused a horrific crash that killed three young children and their grandfather in Vaughan, Ont., pleaded guilty to four counts of impaired driving causing death and two of impaired driving causing bodily harm. He was sentenced in March to 10 years in prison followed by a 12-year driving ban.

6 – Twin 17-year-old brothers were killed in an after-hours toboggan run down a Calgary luge-bobsled Olympic training facility. Their personal sled crashed into a large gate separating the luge and bobsled tracks. Six other male teens were injured.

6 – A shallow 6.4-magnitude earthquake in Tainan, Taiwan, toppled a 17-storey apartment building. A total of 116 people were confirmed dead.

7 – The Denver Broncos’ No. 1-ranked defence was dominant in a 24-10 win over the Carolina Panthers in Super Bowl 50. Peyton Manning became the first quarterback to lead two teams to Super Bowl victories after earlier winning with Indianapolis in 2006. Denver linebacker Von Miller was named MVP.

11 – In what was hailed as one of the biggest eureka moments in the history of physics, scientists announced they had finally detected gravitational waves, the ripples in the fabric of space and time that Albert Einstein predicted in 1916 as part of his general theory of relativity. Astronomers will now be able to “hear” the universe in action.

12 – Pope Francis met with Patriarch Kirill in Cuba in the first-ever meeting between a pontiff and the head of the Russian Orthodox Church.

14 – Twenty-six-year-old rookie Quebec police officer Thierry Leroux was shot and killed as he and another officer were responding to a domestic call in Lac-Simon, a small Algonquin reserve in northwestern Quebec. The gunman was found dead inside the home of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.

15 – Taylor Swift took home album of the year honours at the Grammys for “1989.” “Uptown Funk” by Mark Ronson, featuring vocals from Bruno Mars, won record of the year and Ed Sheeran nabbed song of the year with “Thinking Out Loud.” Best new artist went to Meghan Trainor. Kendrick Lamar had the night’s biggest haul with five Grammys, but they were all in the rap categories.

15 – Also at the Grammys, two Canadians won their first ever golden gramophone. Justin Bieber scored the best dance recording as part of a collaboration with Skrillex and Diplo on the song “Where Are U Now.” The Weeknd won for best urban contemporary album for “Beauty Behind the Madness” and for best R&B performance on “Earned It (Fifty Shades of Grey)” from the original soundtrack for the film “Fifty Shades of Grey.”

16 – McGill University astrophysicist Victoria Kaspi received the Gerhard Herzberg Canada Gold Medal for Science and Engineering in Ottawa, becoming the first woman to receive the award in its 25-year history.

16 – Boutros Boutros-Ghali, a veteran Egyptian diplomat who helped negotiate his country’s landmark peace deal with Israel but then clashed with the United States when he served a single term as U.N. secretary-general, died. He was 93.

17 – Montreal-based aerospace and rail equipment company Bombardier Inc. said it would cut 7,000 positions – or 11 per cent of its workforce – over two years, with a third of the job losses in Canada. The bad news was tempered with the announcement that Air Canada signed a letter of intent to purchase 45 of Bombardier’s new CSeries planes with options for an additional 30, in a deal that could be worth about $3.8 billion.

17 – Claude Jutra, the late filmmaker who epitomized Canadian cinematic excellence, had his name stripped from Quebec’s film awards amid allegations he abused a boy for 10 years. A day after the release of a Jutra biography that said he slept with young boys, Montreal La Presse published a bombshell interview with a man who said Jutra’s abuse of him began at age six. Jutra committed suicide in 1986 after battling Alzheimer’s disease.

18 – The newly elected federal Liberal government decided against pursuing an appeal of an Alberta court’s decision to grant former Guantanamo Bay inmate Omar Khadr bail, pending his U.S. appeal of his U.S. convictions and sentence for war crimes in Afghanistan.

18 – Harper Lee, the elusive Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist whose “To Kill a Mockingbird” became an enduring bestseller and Oscar-winning film with its child’s-eye view of racial injustice in a small Southern town, died at age 89.

18 – A tour helicopter with a Canadian family of four on board crashed and sank into the water near the Pearl Harbor Visitors Center in Hawaii. The pilot and three family members surfaced but a teenage boy was trapped underwater and had to be cut free from his seat. He died in hospital a few days later.

19 – The judicial books were closed on the 2011 Stanley Cup riot in Vancouver as two men were handed the highest prison sentences for crimes committed during the melee. William Fisher and Jeffrey Milne received 36 months and 32 months respectively. In all, prosecutors laid 912 charges against 300 suspects.

19 – Marc Wabafiyebazu, the teenaged son of Canada’s former consul general to Miami, pleaded no contest to reduced charges of third-degree felony murder related to a 2015 double killing in Miami — even though he had no part in the gunplay that left his 18-year-old brother dead. He was sentenced to six months in a boot camp, followed by 10 months of modified house arrest and a maximum eight years probation. (Note: He was deported to Canada in September after completing boot camp.)

21 – Denny Hamlin won the Daytona 500, edging Martin Truex Jr. by 0.010 seconds, the closest finish in the history of NASCAR’s most prestigious race.

22 – Country music singer Sonny James died at a hospice in Nashville. He was 87. During his career, James recorded romantic ballads like “Young Love” (1956) and converted a number of pop and R&B hits into country tunes like “Only the Lonely” and “Only Love Can Break a Heart.” He started an impressive run on top of the country charts with 16 consecutive No. 1 songs between 1967 and 1971.

24 – The Indonesia Supreme Court overturned the acquittal of Canadian schoolteacher Neil Bantleman and an Indonesian teaching assistant who were convicted of sexually abusing students at an international school in Jakarta. It reimposed the original 10-year sentence and added one more year.

25 – Immigration Minister John McCallum introduced a new bill that, if passed, would remove terrorism or other crimes against the national interest as grounds for revoking citizenship from dual nationals.

26 – Gianni Infantino pulled off a stunning victory to take over as FIFA president, and called for a fresh start for soccer’s scandal-wracked world body.

26 – Former Alberta Progressive Conservative premier Don Getty, who in the 1950s quarterbacked the Edmonton Eskimos to a Grey Cup championship, died at age 82. He served as Alberta’s 11th premier from 1985 to 1992.

28 – At the 88th Academy Awards, “Spotlight,” the story of the Boston Globe’s Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation into child sex abuse by Catholic priests, won best picture, Leonardo DiCaprio won the Oscar for best actor (“The Revenant”), Brie Larson took best actress (“Room”) and Alejandro Inarritu repeated as best director (“The Revenant”).

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MARCH 2016

1 – A Calgary woman who received a legal exemption for doctor-assisted death ended her life in Vancouver with the help of two physicians. She was in the final stages of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.

2 – Edmonton-based Katz Group agreed to sell the Rexall Health drugstore chain, including its 470 retail pharmacies, in a C$3-billion deal with U.S. health care company McKesson.

2 – NASA astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko returned to Earth after an unprecedented year at the International Space Station, landing their Soyuz capsule in barren Kazakhstan.

4 – A Turkish court sentenced two Syrian smugglers to four years and two months each in prison over the deaths of five people including 3-year-old Alan Kurdi, whose death galvanized world attention on the refugee crisis when a photo was published of him lying lifeless on a beach.

4 – Joey Feek, who with her husband, Rory, formed the award-winning country duo Joey + Rory, died after a two year battle with cervical cancer. She was 40.

4 – Pat Conroy, the beloved author of “The Great Santini” and “The Prince of Tides” and other bestsellers who drew upon his bruising childhood and the vistas of South Carolina and became one of America’s most compelling and popular storytellers, died at age 70.

6 – Former U.S. first lady Nancy Reagan — the helpmate, backstage adviser and fierce protector of Ronald Reagan in his journey from actor to president, and then finally during his 10-year battle with Alzheimer’s disease — died at age 94.

6 – The final episode aired of “Downton Abbey,” the PBS drama series set in early 1900s Britain about the aristocratic Crawley family and their household servants, ending its popular six-year run.

7 – Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning announced his retirement after an illustrious 18-year NFL career, a month after winning his second Super Bowl title. He won five league MVP awards and holds dozens of NFL records, including career TD passes (539), passing yards (71,940) and most wins (200).

7 – A jury awarded Fox sportscaster Erin Andrews $55 million in her lawsuit against a stalker who rented a hotel room next to her and secretly recorded a nude video and posted it online, finding that the hotel companies and the stalker shared in the blame.

7 – The Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame announced the induction of “Swinging Shepherd Blues,” a Canadian jazz classic composed by renowned jazz flutist Moe Koffman.

8 – George Martin, the legendary producer and “Fifth Beatle” who quietly guided the Fab Four’s meteoric rise to pop culture icons in the 1960s, died at age 90.

8 – The Golden State Warriors set an NBA record with their 45th straight regular season home victory, which included the final 18 games of last season. (They extended the streak to 54 games before losing to the Boston Celtics on April 1.)

9 – Legendary Canadian singer-songwriter, producer and musician Ray Griff died at the age of 75. The Canadian Country Music Association Hall-of-Famer was one of Canada’s most prolific songwriters, penning upwards of 2,000 tunes and having more than 750 of his songs recorded by such artists as Tennessee Ernie Ford, Crystal Gayle, Conway Twitty, Eddy Arnold, Jerry Lee Lewis, Wayne Newton, Dolly Parton, Mel Tillis, Loretta Lynn and George Jones. He also recorded more than 30 albums and produced other artists such as Dick Damron and Jason McCoy.

14 – 18-year-old Brooke Henderson ranked No. 10 in the Rolex women’s world golf rankings, becoming the first Canadian to crack the top-10.

15 – Michael Jackson’s estate announced it agreed to sell its half stake in the Sony/ATV Music Publishing catalogue to Sony Corp. for $750 million. It gave Sony sole ownership of works by The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Eminem and Taylor Swift, but did not include rights to Jackson’s master recordings or songs that he wrote.

16 – Statistics Canada announced the population topped 36 million for the first time. As of January 1, 2016, it stood at 36,048,500.

18 – Keith Emerson, co-founder of the classically-flavoured progressive-rock band Emerson, Lake and Palmer, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. He was 71. Emerson, a talented keyboardist and composer, teamed up with vocalist/guitarist Greg Lake and drummer Carl Palmer in the 1970s to produce six platinum-selling albums.

18 – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced seven new Senate appointments, including Justice Murray Sinclair and Paralympian Chantal Petitclerc, all of whom would sit as independents.

18 – Brussels police raiding an apartment building captured Europe’s most wanted fugitive, Belgian-born Salah Abdeslam, arresting the prime suspect in the Nov. 13 terror attacks in Paris.

18 – An 81-year-old cancer victim, who became the first person in Ontario to be given legal permission for a doctor-assisted suicide, died less than 24 hours after the courts approved of doctors helping him end his life.

19 – A FlyDubai Boeing 737 passenger jet nosedived and exploded in a giant fireball before dawn 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.

20 – Barack Obama arrived in Havana, the first sitting U.S. president to visit Cuba in nearly 90 years, enhancing a new post-Cold War era in U.S.-Cuba relations.

22 – ISIL suicide bombers killed 32 people and wounded 279 others in a pair of bombings at the Brussels airport and another at a subway station near the city’s European Union headquarters.

22 – Former Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, whose scandal-plagued time in office propelled him to international infamy, died at age 46. He succumbed to cancer 18 months after doctors discovered a softball-sized malignant tumour in his abdomen.

22 – The Trudeau government’s first budget was tabled, projecting a deficit far exceeding its election promise of $10 billion annually and to balance the books by 2019-20. It would add $113.2 billion to the federal debt over the next five years with no firm date for a balanced budget.

23 – Death claimed Baseball Hall of Fame broadcaster and former player Joe Garagiola at age 90 and actor Ken Howard, star of the 1970s TV drama “The White Shadow” and president of the actors’ union, at age 71.

24 – Former CBC radio host Jian Ghomeshi was acquitted on all four charges of sexual assault and one count of choking. Justice William Horkins said he could not rely on the three complainants given their changing and shifting memories and evidence.

24 – A U.S. court convicted former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic of genocide and nine other charges and sentenced him to 40 years in prison for orchestrating Serb atrocities throughout Bosnia’s 1992-95 war that left 100,000 people dead. Karadzic appealed the decision.

24 – Dutch soccer great Johan Cruyff, who revolutionized the game as the personification of “Total Football,” died of lung cancer. He was 68. Cruyff won European Cups three times with Ajax as a player and once with Barcelona as a coach. He was European player of the year three times and, in 1999, was named Europe’s best player of the 20th century.

24 – Comedian Garry Shandling, who created the comic masterpiece “The Larry Sanders Show” which starred him as an egomaniacal late-night TV host with an angst-ridden show-biz life behind the scenes, died of an apparent heart attack. He was 66.

25 – The Rolling Stones performed before a jubilant crowd of hundreds of thousands at a sports venue in the Cuban capital of Havana. They were the biggest mainstream rock act to play in Cuba since the 1959 revolution ushered in the Communist regime, which banned rock and roll.

27 – A breakaway Pakistani faction of the militant Taliban group claimed responsibility for a massive suicide bombing targeting Christians celebrating Easter at a park in Lahore, Pakistan, killing 70 – mostly women and children – and wounding over 300.

28 – Wally Crouter, known as Canada’s longest-serving morning man, died at the age of 92. He joined Toronto’s CFRB in 1946 where he became a top-rated morning host. He retired in 1996 and was inducted as a pioneer into the Canadian Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame.

29 – Drunk driver Marco Muzzo, 29, who pleaded guilty to killing three children and their grandfather in a horrific drunk driving crash north of Toronto in September of 2015, was sentenced to 10 years in prison followed by a 12-year driving ban.

29 – Former federal Liberal cabinet minister Jean Lapierre, his wife, two brothers and a sister were among seven killed in a plane crash in a field near the airport in Havre-aux-Maisons in the Iles-de-la-Madeleine as they headed to eastern Quebec to attend his father’s funeral.

29 – Nine members of one family, including three children under five, died in a house fire on Pikangikum First Nation, a remote northern community near the Manitoba-Ontario border.

29 – Patty Duke, who as a teen won an Oscar for playing Helen Keller in “The Miracle Worker” and maintained a long and successful career throughout her life while battling personal demons, died of sepsis from a ruptured intestine. She was 69.

30 – The Toronto Raptors registered their 50th victory of the regular season, setting a franchise record. They ended the season with 56 wins.

30 – The Ottawa Senators were the last of the Canadian NHL teams to be mathematically eliminated from a playoff berth, marking only the second time it has happened in league history (1970).

31 – Prince Edward Island agreed to provide abortions within the province by the end of the year, ending decades of forcing women to travel to neighbouring provinces to access the procedure.

31 – British comedian Ronnie Corbett, half of much-loved duo The Two Ronnies, died at the age of 85. In 1971 he teamed up with Ronnie Barker for the sketch show, which ran for a dozen series over 16 years and at its peak had 17 million viewers.

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APRIL 2016

1 – Burton Cummings was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in recognition of his 40-year solo career, and was the first artist to join the Hall of Fame’s new home at the National Music Centre in Calgary. Cummings was inducted into the Hall in 1987 as part of The Guess Who.

3 – R&B star The Weeknd won Junos for Album of the Year (“Beauty Behind the Madness”) and Single of the Year (“Can’t Feel My Face”) during the televised show in Calgary, adding to the three awards he took the previous night at a gala dinner. Alessia Cara won Breakthrough Artist of the Year, Justin Bieber nabbed the Fan Choice Award, while Walk Off the Earth was voted Group of the Year.

3 – A massive leak of 11.5 million documents from a Panama-based law firm, dubbed the Panama Papers, showed the hidden offshore assets of businesses, celebrities and politicians around the world, including 12 current or former heads of state, raising questions over the widespread use of such tactics to avoid taxes and skirt financial oversight.

4 – Villanova junior Kris Jenkins’ 3-point buzzer-beater lifted the Wildcats to a 77-74 victory over North Carolina to capture the NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship, their first national championship since 1985.

4 – The U.S. defeated Canada 1-0 in overtime to win the world women’s hockey championship. It was the third straight title for the Americans.

4 – Voters delivered Premier Brad Wall and his Saskatchewan Party a resounding three-peat majority victory in the provincial election, taking 51 seats in the 61-seat legislature. The New Democrats added only one seat to their pre-election total of nine, but leader Cam Broten lost his riding of Saskatoon Westview.

4 – Allen Iverson, Shaquille O’Neal, Yao Ming and WNBA star Sheryl Swoopes were among the 10 people inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame.

6 – Country music legend Merle Haggard, who rose from poverty and prison to international fame through his songs about outlaws, underdogs and an abiding sense of national pride in such hits as “Okie From Muskogee” and “Sing Me Back Home,” died of pneumonia at age 79, on his birthday. A masterful guitarist, fiddler and songwriter as well as singer, the Country Music Hall of Famer with the firm, direct baritone recorded for more than 40 years, releasing dozens of albums and No. 1 hits.

6 – The Edmonton Oilers won a final game at Rexall Place, a 6-2 victory over the Vancouver Canucks, bidding farewell to the organization’s home for the past 42 years dating back to their WHA roots. More than 150 Oilers alumni were on hand for the post-game ceremony, including Hall-of-Famers of the Stanley Cup dynasty years Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier, Jari Kurri, Paul Coffey, Glenn Anderson and Grant Fuhr.

7 – Trent Harmon was crowned the last “American Idol”, as the Fox TV singing contest –once a ratings powerhouse — ended its 15-year-run.

8 – A fugitive suspect in the Nov. 13 Paris attacks was arrested in Belgium after a raid Belgian authorities said was linked to the deadly March 22 Brussels bombings. Mohamed Abrini was the last identified suspect still at large from the Paris attacks that killed 130 people.

8 – Pope Francis released a major church document entitled “The Joy of Love,” that made no explicit change in church doctrine and upheld church teaching on the lifelong bond of marriage between a man and a woman. He said Catholics should look to their own consciences rather than rely exclusively on church rules to negotiate the complexities of sex, marriage and family life, demanding the church shift emphasis from doctrine to mercy in confronting some of the thorniest issues facing the faithful.

8 – 1980s groundbreaking L.A. rappers N.W.A., led by Dr. Dre and Ice Cube, were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame along with a quartet of 1970s era FM radio rockers — Chicago, Cheap Trick, Deep Purple and Steve Miller.

10 – Rank-and-file New Democrats voted 52 per cent in favour of replacing Tom Mulcair as federal leader, and also voted to pursue the principles of the radical, anti-fossil fuel Leap Manifesto. Mulcair said he would remain as leader until his successor is chosen, within 24 months.

10 – Danny Willet shot 5-under to win the Masters at Augusta National as defending champ Jordan Spieth imploded, starting the back nine at 7-under with a five stroke lead before going bogey, bogey, quadruple-bogey and finished tied for second, three shots back.

10 – Kevin Koe led Canada to its first men’s world curling title in four years with a 5-3 win over Denmark in the gold-medal game in Basel, Switzerland.

11 – Over 400 people were forced out of their homes and a state of emergency was declared in Bay de Verde, N.L., after a massive fire destroyed a fish plant, dealing a devastating economic blow to the area with the possible loss of 700 seasonal jobs.

11 – Five mental health workers arrived at the remote Ontario First Nation of Attawapiskat after the chief declared a state of emergency on April 9 following a rash of suicide attempts by young people.

13 – In the final game of the regular season, 3-point master Stephen Curry led the Golden State Warriors to an NBA record 73rd win, breaking the mark set by Michael Jordan’s 1995-96 Chicago Bulls who went 72-10. (Curry ended the year with 402 3-pointers, shattering the previous record of 286 he set in 2015.)

13 – L.A. Laker Kobe Bryant ended his illustrious 20-year NBA career with a 60-point farewell performance in a 101-96 victory over the Utah Jazz. He won five championship rings, was selected to 18 All-Star games, and finished third in all-time scoring with 33,643 points – behind only Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Karl Malone.

14 – The Supreme Court of Canada unanimously ruled that 600,000 Metis and off-reserve Indians across the country are “Indians” under the Constitution and are the federal government’s fiduciary responsibility, in a long-awaited landmark decision that was 15 years in the making.

14 – More than a year after the Supreme Court struck down Canada’s ban on assisted suicide, the federal government introduced new legislation spelling out the conditions in which seriously ill or dying Canadians could seek medical help to end their lives.

14 – The first of two powerful earthquakes struck southern Japan. The quakes, within 28 hours of each other, killed 48 people and injured nearly 2,000 others.

15 – The Supreme Court of Canada struck down two federal laws from the previous Conservative government’s tough-on-crime agenda, ruling both to be unconstitutional. The decisions meant an end to rules for minimum sentences for specific drug crime convictions and limits on credit for pre-trial detention in certain conditions where bail is denied.

16 – A powerful 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck Ecuador, killing 654 people, including four Canadians, and injuring thousands.

19 – Brian Pallister’s Progressive Conservatives routed Premier Greg Selinger and the New Democrats to put an end to 16 years of NDP governments in the province. The Tories won 40 of the 57 seats, the NDP held on to just 14 and the Liberals took three. Selinger resigned as a result of the defeat.

20 – Mitsubishi Motors Corp., the Japanese automaker tarnished by a massive recall-coverup in the early 2000s, owned up to another scandal, saying employees had intentionally falsified fuel mileage test data of more than 620,000 light vehicles it manufactured.

21 – Music icon Prince, the dazzlingly talented and charismatic singer, songwriter, arranger and multi-instrumentalist who created a gender- and genre-defying blend of rock, pop, funk and soul, died of an accidental overdose of the painkiller fentanyl at his Paisley Park estate in suburban Minneapolis. He was 57.

21 – Justice Charles Vaillancourt exonerated suspended Sen. Mike Duffy of all 31 charges of fraud, breach of trust and bribery in the Senate expenses scandal – dismissing 27 counts and finding him not guilty in four others – and delivered a scathing indictment of the inner workings of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s office. Senate officials restored Duffy’s standing after a three-year hiatus from the upper chamber. His first day back was on May 3.

22 – Leaders from 175 countries, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, signed the Paris Agreement on climate change in New York on the first day it was open for signatures. States that didn’t sign have a year to do so. Many expect the climate change agreement to be implemented long before the original deadline of 2020.

22 – Toronto Blue Jays first baseman Chris Colabello was suspended 80 games for testing positive for a performance-enhancing substance known to boost recovery time in athletes, not bulk up their size.

24 – Singer Billy Paul, best known for the No. 1 hit ballad “Me and Mrs. Jones,” died at age 80. He had been diagnosed earlier with pancreatic cancer. “Me and Mrs. Jones,” a seductively arranged confession to an extramarital affair, was released in 1972 and won a Grammy for best R&B male vocal performance.

25 – A federal appeals court reinstated the four-game “Deflategate” suspension the NFL gave New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, overturning a lower court decision and affirming the league commissioner office’s power in a battle with the players union.

25 – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau condemned the “cold-blooded murder” of Calgarian John Ridsdel, 68, beheaded by terrorists in the Philippines after a large ransom demand wasn’t met. Ridsdel was one of four tourists — including fellow Canadian Robert Hall, a Norwegian man and a Filipino woman — who were kidnapped Sept. 21, 2015 by Abu Sayyaf militants from a marina on southern Samal Island. Hall was beheaded June 13th when the deadline for his ransom passed.

27 – The Toronto Wolfpack was announced as the newest expansion team to join the English Rugby Football League, making it the first transatlantic pro sports team.

28 – Bombardier announced a US$5.6 billion deal with Delta Air Lines, which placed a firm order for 75 CS100 aircraft with options for an additional 50 more, in what would be the largest order for the Montreal company’s troubled CSeries passenger jet program.

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MAY 2016

2 – B.C. Mountie Cpl. Catherine Galliford, whose sexual harassment lawsuit against the RCMP prompted similar cases across the country, reached an out-of court settlement with the force. Galliford launched court action four years earlier after going on sick leave in 2006.

2- Parti Quebecois Leader Pierre Karl Peladeau announced his immediate departure from politics, less than a year after he was hailed by many as the saviour of the sovereigntist movement, choosing his family over politics.

2 – Beyonce charted all 12 songs from her new album, “Lemonade,” on the Billboard Hot 100, the most at the same time by a female artist, breaking the record of 11 set by Taylor Swift in 2010.

3 – A raging forest fire whipped up by shifting winds sliced through the middle of the northern oilsands capital of Fort McMurray, forcing all 80,000 residents to flee. More than 2,400 buildings were lost but firefighters managed to save almost 90 per cent of the city from destruction. The Insurance Bureau of Canada estimated the insured damage totalled $3.58 billion, by far the costliest insured disaster in Canadian history. (A phased re-entry for fire evacuees began on June 1.)

4 – Japanese autoparts maker Takata announced it would recall another 35 to 40 million air bag inflators, bringing the total to 69 million, the largest auto recall in history. The total continued to grow and eventually reached 78 million.

5 – Montreal-born singer Andy Kim was inducted into the Canadian Music Industry Hall of Fame. Kim had top-10 hits with “Rock Me Gently,” “Baby, I Love You,” and he co-wrote “Sugar, Sugar” and “Jingle Jangle” for The Archies.

7 – Canadian-owned Nyquist won the Kentucky Derby by 1 1/4 lengths, the fourth consecutive favourite to win the first jewel of thoroughbred horse racing’s Triple Crown.

9 – Toronto rapper Drake posted a record-shattering 20 songs on the Billboard Hot 100 chart (dated May 21) – including his first No. 1 as a lead artist (“One Dance” featuring WizKid & Kyla) – with 18 coming from his new album “Views,” which also debuted at No. 1 on the all-genre Billboard Album 200 chart.

10 – Golden State superstar Stephen Curry became the first unanimous NBA MVP, earning the award for the second straight season after leading the defending champion Warriors to a record-setting 73-9 season. He averaged an NBA-best 30.1 points per game to go with 6.7 assists and 5.4 rebounds.

10 – Lawyers for former students of residential schools in Newfoundland and Labrador sought provincial Supreme Court approval of a proposed $50 million compensation deal with the federal government.

11 – Former CBC radio star Jian Ghomeshi apologized in court to former CBC colleague Kathryn Borel for his “sexually inappropriate” conduct in the workplace. The apology was one of the conditions of a peace bond he signed in return for having the sexual assault charge against him withdrawn.

19 – Toronto-born Morley Safer, the veteran “60 Minutes” correspondent who was equally at home reporting on social injustices and who exposed a military atrocity in Vietnam that played an early role in changing Americans’ view of the war, died at age 84 a week after announcing his retirement. Safer did 919 stories in his 46 years on “60 Minutes,” from his first in 1970 about U.S. Sky Marshals to his last in March, a profile of Danish architect Bjarke Ingels.

19 – The RCMP announced they would not charge Sen. Pamela Wallin after a criminal review of her Senate travel expenses, nearly three years after they first started looking at the Saskatchewan senator and weeks after a judge dismissed 31 criminal charges against Sen. Mike Duffy.

19 – EgyptAir flight 804 from Paris to Cairo crashed into the Mediterranean Sea, killing all 66 on board, including two Canadians.

21 – Nick Menza, former drummer for the influential metal band Megadeth, died after collapsing on stage during a performance of his progressive jazz trio OHM in Southern California. He was 51.

21 – Exaggerator won the 141st running of the Preakness Stakes, the second jewel in thoroughbred horse racing’s Triple Crown. Canadian-owned Kentucky Derby winner Nyquist finished third.

23 – Canada successfully defended its world men’s hockey championship title with a 2-0 win over Finland in the tournament final.

24 – Iconic Canadian rock band The Tragically Hip posted on their website that frontman Gord Downie was battling terminal brain cancer, first diagnosed in December and followed by surgery and treatment. Doctors cleared Downie for the band’s summer, 10-city cross-Canada tour.

25 – Matthew de Grood, 24, was found not criminally responsible for the 2014 stabbing deaths of five young people at a house party near the University of Calgary celebrating the end of the school year. He was ordered to stay at a secure psychiatric facility pending assessment by the Alberta Review Board.

25 – 11 states sued the Obama administration over its directive to public schools to let transgender students use the bathrooms and locker rooms that match their gender identity.

26 – Conservatives bid a formal farewell to Stephen Harper, whose speech at the Conservative party convention was his first since stepping down as leader after his party’s October election defeat.

27 – Barack Obama became the first sitting U.S. president to visit Hiroshima. He paid tribute to the 140,000 people killed when U.S. forces dropped the world’s first atomic bomb on Aug. 6, 1945. (A second atomic bomb, dropped on Nagasaki three days after Hiroshima, killed 70,000 more.)

28 – The Cincinnati Zoo’s special response team shot and killed an endangered male silverback gorilla named Harambe to protect a three-year-old boy who climbed over a fence and fell into its enclosure. Harambe at one point dragged the child through shallow water. His death set off a torrent of criticism online with some vilifying the zoo for shooting the animal, while others blamed the mother for not watching her child more closely.

29 – Matthew Tkachuk scored in overtime as the London Knights downed the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies 3-2 to capture Canadian junior hockey’s Memorial Cup.

29 – IndyCar rookie Alexander Rossi pulled off a stunning upset in winning the historic 100th running of the Indianapolis 500.

30 – Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne formally apologized in the legislature to First Nations, Metis and Inuit communities for the “brutalities” suffered at residential schools and announced $250 million for new initiatives.

31 – The Liberal government’s controversial Bill C-14 on assisted dying sailed through the House of Commons, approved by a vote of 186-137. Days later, the Senate voted to adopt the legislation in principle but sent it back to the House of Commons to include those who aren’t terminally ill. On June 17, almost two weeks past the SCOC deadline, senators caved and accepted the legislation, which limits the right to assisted dying to those whose natural death is “reasonably foreseeable.”

31 – Fisheries Minister Hunter Tootoo, citing “addiction issues,” resigned from the federal cabinet and left the Liberal caucus.

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JUNE 2016

1 – Christopher Neil, dubbed “Swirl Face,” was sentenced to 5 1/2 years after pleading guilty to five child-sex crimes that occurred over a 10-year period in Cambodia, Vancouver and Maple Ridge, B.C. After time served, he would have to serve another 14 months.

2 – New York’s Metropolitan Opera announced Canadian conductor Yannick Nezet-Seguin would succeed James Levine as music director but would not take over until the 2020-21 season.

3 – Boxing legend Muhammad Ali, the heavyweight champion and outspoken civil rights activist whose irrepressible personality and showmanship transcended sports and captivated the world, died after a lengthy battle with Parkinson’s disease. He was 74. He converted to Islam in the mid-1960s, changing his name from Cassius Clay. Citing his religious beliefs as a Muslim, he defied the draft at the height of the Vietnam war, angering white Americans. He was eventually stripped of his heavyweight title in 1967. He fought in three different decades, finished with a record of 56-5 with 37 knockouts and was the first man to win heavyweight titles three times.

4 – Former Canadian teen idol and singer Bobby Curtola, who also made his mark internationally in 1962 with the singles “Fortune Teller” and “Aladdin,” died at age 73. Curtola’s career began at 16 and his work in the 1960s yielded 25 Canadian Gold singles and 12 Canadian Gold albums. He was named to the Order of Canada in 1997.

5 – Novak Djokovic beat Andy Murray 3-6, 6-1, 6-2, 6-4 to capture the French Open title and complete a career Grand Slam, and claim his 12th Grand Slam overall.

8 – An International Tennis Federation tribunal suspended five-time Grand Slam champion Maria Sharapova for two years for testing positive for meldonium at the Australian Open. The Court of Arbitration of Sport lowered it to 15 months.

10 – Detroit Red Wings legend Gordie Howe died at age 88. “Mr. Hockey” played 32 pro hockey seasons and won the NHL scoring title and MVP award six times each. He was 52, and a grandfather, when he finally retired in 1980 — eight years after he was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame and nine years after being appointed into the Order of Canada.

12 – A gunman opened fire inside a crowded LGBTQ nightclub in Orlando, killing 49 people and injuring 53 others in the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history. The early morning three-hour shooting rampage and hostage siege ended when a SWAT team shot and killed the gunman.

12 – Lin-Manuel Miranda’s “Hamilton,” the hip-hop stage biography of Alexander Hamilton, with a record 16 nominations, won 11 Tony Awards including Best Musical but fell just short of the 12-Tony record held by “The Producers.”

12 – The Pittsburgh Penguins captured their fourth Stanley Cup in franchise history with a 3-1 victory over the San Jose Sharks in Game 6 of the NHL Final. Penguins captain Sidney Crosby was named playoff MVP.

12 – Canadian Brooke Henderson won her first major title, beating top-ranked Lydia Ko with a birdie on the first hole of a playoff to capture the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship. The 18-year-old became the second-youngest winner in a major championship, with Ko the youngest in 2015 at the Evian Championship in France.

13 – Microsoft announced it was buying professional networking site LinkedIn for about US$26.2 billion.

14 – Two-year-old Lane Graves was snatched by an alligator as he waded in shallow water at the Seven Seas Lagoon at Disney’s Grand Floridian resort. Divers found his body after a 16-hour search.

16 – Jo Cox, 41, a British MP who championed the cause of Syrian refugees and campaigned for Britain to stay in the EU, was killed by a gun- and knife-wielding attacker after a meeting with constituents. The suspect gave his name in court as “death to traitors, freedom for Britain.”

17 – A Hamilton, Ont., jury found Dellen Millard, 30, and Mark Smich, 28, guilty of first-degree murder in the killing of Tim Bosma, 32, who vanished on May 6, 2013 after taking two men for a test drive in a truck he had listed for sale online. His charred remains were found in an incinerator on Millard’s farm near Waterloo, Ont.

17 – The IAAF upheld its ban on Russia’s track and field team for the Rio Olympics in a landmark decision that punished the world power for systematic doping. (The IOC backed the ban. It later rejected calls from anti-doping organizations to ban Russia’s entire team and approved the entry of two-thirds (271 athletes). The IOC also banned the entire Rusian Paralympic team.)

19 – 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.

19 – Dustin Johnson captured his illusive first major by winning the U.S. Open at Oakmont by three strokes, atoning for his past mishaps in the majors.

19 – Hometown rapper Drake won a record five awards, including Video of the Year and Best Hip Hop Video at the iHeartRadio Canada Much Music Video Awards in Toronto.

20 – A suicide bomber killed 14 Nepalese security guards who were on a minibus en route to the Canadian Embassy in Kabul.

20 – Finance Minister Bill Morneau and his provincial and territorial counterparts (except Manitoba and Quebec) reached an agreement-in-principle to expand the Canada Pension Plan. The average Canadian worker earning $55,000 would pay an additional $7 a month starting in 2019 and increasing to $34 by 2023.

22 – NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman announced the league’s first expansion in 16 years, granting Las Vegas a franchise – with a price tag of US$500 million. The new team is set to begin play in the 2017-18 season. In 2000, Minnesota and Columbus paid $80 million each to join the league.

23 – Britain narrowly voted to leave the 28-nation European Union after a bitterly divisive Brexit referendum campaign, sending global markets plunging and the pound falling to a 31-year low.

23 – A federal court jury in Los Angeles found that Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page and singer Robert Plant did not steal the intro for their classic rock anthem “Stairway to Heaven” from a riff of Spirit’s 1960s instrumental “Taurus.”

23 – The Philadelphia 76ers selected LSU forward Ben Simmons with the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft. Jamal Murray of Kitchener, Ont., went seventh overall to the Denver Nuggets.

23 – The Federal Court of Appeal quashed the federal government’s approval in 2014 of Enbridge’s $7.9-billion Northern Gateway pipeline proposal that would link Alberta’s oilsands to B.C.’s north coast, saying Ottawa failed in its duty to consult with B.C. First Nations groups that would be affected.

26 – Austin Clarke, the Toronto-based writer who won the Scotiabank Giller Prize and the Commonwealth Writers Prize for his 2002 novel “The Polished Hoe,” died at age 81.

27 – The Hockey Hall of Fame announced its newest inductees: forward Eric Lindros, late coach Pat Quinn, goaltender Rogie Vachon and Russian winger Sergei Makarov.

27 – Ron MacLean was officially back as host of “Hockey Night in Canada,” returning to the chair he occupied for nearly 30 years before being ousted in favour of music journalist and CBC talk show star George Stroumboulopoulos when Rogers Media acquired the NHL rights in 2014.

28 – Three suicide attackers armed with guns and bombs killed 43 people and wounded 238 others at Istanbul’s busy Ataturk Airport.

28 – Volkswagen announced a US$14.7 billion settlement in environmental and consumer claims in the U.S. over its emissions-cheating scandal. (A separate Canadian class-action lawsuit is before the Ontario Superior Court.)

29 – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, U.S. President Barack Obama and Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto met in Ottawa for the North American Leaders’ Summit, colloquially known as the Three Amigos summit. They presented a united front against the global forces of protectionism and pledged that 50 per cent of the countries common electricity come from non-emitting sources by 2025. Obama later addressed the House of Commons, the first by a U.S. president since Bill Clinton in 1995.

29 – Bombardier’s CSeries program finally got off the ground with delivery of the CS100 passenger jet to Swiss International Air Lines at Montreal’s Mirabel airport. It was the first carrier to accept the plane, after 2 1/2 years of delay and at least $2 billion in cost overruns.

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JULY 2016

1 – A 10-hour siege began at an upscale Dhaka restaurant that left 20 hostages dead; 13 hostages were rescued when Bangladeshi commandos stormed the restaurant early the next morning, killing six of the attackers and capturing one.

2 – Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel, the Romanian-born Holocaust survivor whose classic “Night” became a landmark testament to the Nazis’ crimes and launched his long career as one of the world’s foremost witnesses and humanitarians, died at age 87.

2 – Michael Cimino, the Oscar-winning director whose film “The Deer Hunter” became one of the great triumphs of Hollywood’s 1970s heyday and whose disastrous “Heaven’s Gate” helped bring that era to a close, died at age 77.

3 – 15-1 longshot Sir Dudley Digges surged past Scholar Athlete and favourite Amis Gizmo in the deep stretch to win the 157th running of the Queen’s Plate, the first jewel of the Canadian Triple Crown of thoroughbred racing.

3 – 18-year-old Smith Falls, Ont.-native Brooke Henderson defended her title at the LPGA Cambia Portland Classic with a four-stroke victory.

3 – An Islamic State suicide bomber detonated a truck in downtown Baghdad, killing 175 people and wounding nearly 200 others who were out shopping shortly after midnight and celebrating ahead of the holiday marking the end of Ramadan.

4 – Nigel Farage, who was instrumental in the campaign to have Britain leave the European Union, resigned as leader of the U.K. Independence Party, arguing that he achieved his political ambition.

4 – The final leg of a five-year voyage ended when NASA’s solar-powered Juno spacecraft fired its main rocket engine and gracefully slipped into orbit around Jupiter.

5 – In Louisiana, 37-year-old black man Alton Sterling was shot and killed after being tackled to the ground by two white Baton Rouge officers in front of a convenience store. The killing was captured on cellphone video and sparked a national debate over race and policing.

6 – An appeals court judge sentenced double-amputee Olympic runner Oscar Pistorius to six years in prison for the 2013 murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. The prosecutor’s office appealed the length of the sentence calling it “shockingly too lenient.” (In 2014, he was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to five years, but served only one year in prison before being moved to house arrest.)

6 – A white police officer fatally shot black motorist Philando Castile during a traffic stop in suburban Minneapolis. His girlfriend livestreamed the aftermath of his death on Facebook.

7 – A sniper seeking revenge killed five Dallas police officers and wounded nine other officers as well as two civilians near the end of a peaceful protest of two fatal police shootings of black men in Louisana and Minnesota. Police cornered Micah Johnson, a 25-year-old black U.S. army veteran, in a parking garage. He was killed by a robot-delivered bomb after negotiations failed.

8 – The Supreme Court laid out a new framework for ensuring the right to a timely criminal trial – from charge to conclusion – not exceed 18 months in provincial court, or 30 months in a superior court.

9 – Serena Williams beat Angelique Kerber 7-5, 6-3 to win her seventh Wimbledon title and tie Steffi Graf for the most major women’s singles championships in the Open era with 22.

10 – Britain’s Andy Murray defeated Canadian Milos Raonic 6-4, 7-6 (3), 7-6 (2), capturing his second Wimbledon title and third major championship. Raonic was the first Canadian to play in a men’s singles Grand Slam final; Canadian teen Denis Shapovalov won the boys’ title, defeating Alex De Minaur 4-6, 6-1, 6-3.

10 – Portugal overcame the loss of injured captain Cristiano Ronaldo to beat host France 1-0 in the European Championship final, securing their country’s first major international football title.

10 – Mixed martial arts promotional company UFC was sold for $4 billion to a group of investors led by Hollywood talent agency WME-IMG.

11 – Sara Baillie, 34, was found murdered in her Calgary home. An Amber Alert was issued for her 5-year-old daughter Taliyah Marsman. The girl’s body was found three days later near Chestermere, Alta. Edward Downey, a family acquaintance with a 20-year criminal history, is charged with two counts of first-degree murder.

11 – At the General Synod in Toronto, Anglican delegates failed to pass a resolution authorizing same-sex marriages by a single vote. The decision was reversed the next day after the discovery of a vote processing error led to a recount.

12 – 27 people died when two commuter trains slammed into one another head-on on a single track near the southern Italian town of Andria. Dozens more were injured.

12 – Remigio Pereira, a member of the Canadian classical-pop quartet The Tenors, altered a line in O Canada to insert a political statement before the Major League Baseball all-star game in San Diego. He sang “We’re all brothers and sisters, all lives matter to the great” instead of “With glowing hearts we see thee rise. The True North strong and free.” He also held up a sign bearing the message “all lives matter” on one side and “united we stand” on the other. Social media lit up with widespread condemnation. On November 21st, the other Tenors announced they would move ahead as a trio.

13 – David Cameron officially resigned as British prime minister, the biggest casualty of the Brexit vote. Months ahead of schedule, Home Secretary Theresa May was sworn in as his successor as her last opponent in the party leadership race dropped out two days earlier.

14 – A large truck plowed through revellers gathered for Bastille Day fireworks in the French Riviera city of Nice, killing at least 85 people and injuring 200 others as it bore down for nearly two kilometres along the famed waterfront Promenade des Anglais. The carnage ended when the terrorist, a 31-year-old Tunisian-born Nice resident, died in a shootout with police.

15 – Forces loyal to Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan quashed a military coup attempt in a night of explosions, air battles and gunfire that claimed the lives of 290 people and left over 1,400 wounded. The government declared a three-month state of emergency and detained over 16,000 military, judiciary and other institutions. In addition, nearly 80,000 government workers lost their jobs, suspected of possible ties to U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom the government accused of masterminding the coup.

17 – A black former U.S. Marine ambushed law enforcement officers in Baton Rouge, fatally shooting two police officers and a sheriff’s deputy and injuring three others before being shot dead himself.

17 – Will Power captured his third Honda Indy Toronto title on the temporary road course at Exhibition Place. Toronto native James Hinchcliffe finished third for his first career podium at his home race.

17 – Henrik Stenson earned his first major, beating Phil Mickelson by three strokes in an epic duel in the British Open at Royal Troon. Stenson tied a major closing-round record of 8-under and his 20-under 264 was the lowest 72-hole score in major championship history.

19 – Prolific writer-director-actor Garry Marshall, whose deft touch with comedy and romance led to a string of TV hits that included “Happy Days,” “Laverne & Shirley” and “Mork and Mindy” and the box-office successes “Pretty Woman” and “Runaway Bride,” died of complications from pneumonia after having a stroke. He was 81.

20 – The federal government’s new tax-free child benefit took effect, replacing the universal child care benefit, the Canada child tax benefit and the national child benefit supplement.

21 – Billionaire Donald Trump formally accepted the Republican Party nomination for president of the United States, capping his stunning takeover of the GOP with a playbook drawn from reality TV as he defied seemingly every rule of politics.

22 – North Battleford shut down its water intake plant on the North Saskatchewan River because of a major oil spill from a Husky Energy pipeline about 40 kilometres upstream near Maidstone. Prince Albert followed suit on July 25, but officials ran a 30-km giant hose to the South Saskatchewan River to bolster the city’s water supply.

22- An 18-year-old German-Iranian man opened fire in a crowded Munich shopping mall and a nearby McDonald’s, killing nine people and wounding 16 others before killing himself.

24 – Jhonattan Vegas rallied with a final round 64 to finish at 12-under and win the RBC Canadian Open at Glen Abbey by one stroke. Canadian amateur Jared Du Toit began the day in the final pairing, but finished tied for ninth at 9-under.

24 – Ken Griffey Jr. and Mike Piazza were inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Griffey, the first pick of the 1987 amateur draft, became the highest pick ever inducted. Piazza, a 62nd-round pick the next year — No. 1,390 — is the lowest pick to enter the Hall of Fame.

24 – Hollywood voice double Marni Nixon, whose singing was heard in place of the leading actresses in such classic movie musicals as “West Side Story,” ”The King and I” and “My Fair Lady,” died at age 86.

25 – Seeking a wider digital audience, Verizon announced it was buying Yahoo for US$4.83 billion in a deal that marked the end of an era for a company that defined much of the early Internet but struggled to stay relevant in an online world dominated by Google and Facebook.

26 – A young Japanese man went on a stabbing rampage at a facility for the mentally disabled where he had been fired, killing 19 patients months after he gave a letter to Parliament outlining the bloody plan and saying all disabled people should be put to death. He later turned himself into police.

26 – The Swiss-engineered Solar Impulse 2 completed the world’s first solar-powered round-the-world flight when it landed in Abu Dhabi, where it first took off on an epic 16-stop, 40,000-kilometre journey that began more than a year earlier.

26 – Hillary Clinton captured the Democratic Party nomination for president, becoming the first woman ever to lead a major U.S. political party in the race for the White House.

26 – Queen’s Plate runner-up Amis Gizmo cruised to a convincing 5 1/2-length victory in the 81st running of the Prince of Wales Stakes, the second jewel of the Canadian Triple Crown of thoroughbred racing.

29 – A British Columbia Supreme Court judge stayed the guilty verdict against John Nuttall and Amanda Korody on terror charges in a plot to blow up the B.C. legislature on Canada Day in 2013. Justice Catherine Bruce ruled they were entrapped by the RCMP in a police-manufactured crime.

29 – Florida confirmed the first four cases in the U.S. mainland of the Zika virus transmitted by mosquito, all in a Miami-area neighbourhood. (The total grew to 14.)

30 – A hot air balloon made contact with high-tension power lines before it caught on fire and crashed into a pasture in near Lockhart, Texas, killing all 16 on board.

31 – Top-ranked Novak Djokovic won his fourth Rogers Cup men’s title, beating Japan’s Kei Nishikori 6-3, 7-5. Simona Halep defeated Madison Keys 7-6 (2), 6-3 to capture the women’s title.

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AUGUST 2016

2 – B.C.’s new 15 per cent property transfer tax on foreign homebuyers took effect, in an attempt to make housing in Metro Vancouver more affordable for average British Columbians.

3 – Ardent nationalist, author and publisher Mel Hurtig died of pneumonia in a Vancouver hospital. He was 84. Hurtig was perhaps best known as publisher of “The Canadian Encyclopedia” and co-founder of the Council of Canadians, a group dedicated to preserving the country’s sovereignty.

5 – The Summer Olympics officially kicked off in Rio de Janiero, the first Olympic Games in South America. Canada finished 10th in the overall medal standings with 22 (4 gold, 3 silver, 15 bronze).

6 – Canada won its first medal of the Rio Olympics after the women’s 4×100 relay swim team – Penny Oleksiak, Sandrine Mainville, Chantal Van Landeghem and Taylor Ruck – won bronze.

7 – 16-year-old Toronto teen Penny Oleksiak won a silver medal in the women’s 100-metre butterfly for Canada’s second medal in as many days at the Summer Games in Rio.

7 – Jim Furyk fired a PGA-record 58 in the final round of the Travelers Championship, settling for third place at 12-under three shots behind champion Russell Knox.

8 – A suicide bomber killed at least 67 people and wounded dozens more in an attack that struck a government-run hospital in the southwestern city of Quetta. Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a breakaway faction of the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility.

8 – Canada won two bronze medals at the Rio Olympics, Kylie Masse in the women’s 100m backstroke and the women’s Rugby Sevens squad defeated Britain 33-10 in the sport’s Olympic debut.

8 – Whistler-Blackcomb Holdings, the owner of one of Canada’s biggest and most popular ski resorts, announced it was being sold to Colorado-based Vail Resorts under a friendly C$1.4 million takeover deal.

9 – Canadian divers Meaghan Benfeito and Roseline Filion captured the bronze medal in the women’s 10-metre synchronized platform, defending the medal they won at the 2012 London Games.

10 – 16-year-old Penny Oleksiak anchored the Canadian women’s 4×200-metre freestyle relay team to a bronze medal at the Rio Olympics. It was her third medal of the Games (adding to a pair of bronze in freestyle relays), becoming the first Canadian to win three medals before turning 17.

10 – Aaron Driver, a known ISIL supporter under a peace bond since 2015, detonated an explosive inside a taxi cab in front of his court-imposed home in Strathroy, Ont., after being confronted by police. He was killed by police gunfire in the ensuing fracas. RCMP said the FBI alerted them about a martyrdom video and that Driver planned an imminent suicide bombing in an urban centre during rush hour.

11 – 16-year-old Canadian swimmer Penny Oleksiak picked up Canada’s first gold medal at the Rio Olympics, tying with American Simone Manuel for the gold medal in the women’s 100-metre freestyle in an Olympic record 52.70 seconds. As for other firsts: Oleksiak became the first Canadian to win four medals at a single Summer Games (adding to a butterfly silver and a pair of bronze in the freestyle relays); the youngest Canadian gold medallist; the first Canadian to win three or more medals before turning 17; the first Canadian woman to win an Olympic medal of any colour in the 100-metre freestyle event, dating back to 1912. She’s also the first Olympic gold medallist born in this millennium.

11 – Three years after sparking a firestorm of controversy, a notorious video featuring the late Toronto mayor Rob Ford smoking crack cocaine was made public after an extortion charge was withdrawn against Ford’s friend and driver Alexander (Sandro) Lisi, who tried to retrieve the infamous footage.

12 – New York Yankee call-ups Tyler Austin and Aaron Judge hit back-to-back homers to become the first teammates to homer in their first major league at-bats in the same game.

12 – Canada’s Rosie MacLennan defended her Olympic gold medal in women’s trampoline, becoming the first Canadian summer athlete to successfully defend an individual Olympic title. Rowers Lindsay Jennerich and Patricia Obee won the silver medal in the women’s lightweight double sculls and swimmer Hilary Caldwell won bronze in the women’s 200-metre backstroke.

13 – Canada’s Brianne Theisen-Eaton fought back to capture the bronze medal in the women’s heptathlon. Canada defeated New Zealand to win a bronze medal in women’s cycling team pursuit.

13 – U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps won the gold medal as part of the 4×100 medley relay team. He won five golds and a silver at the Rio Games to solidify his title as most decorated athlete in Olympic history, with a record 23 gold medals and 28 medals overall.

14 – Jamaica’s Usain Bolt won a record third consecutive gold medal in the 100-metre sprint. Canada’s Andre De Grasse won the bronze medal with a personal best 9.91 seconds, one-tenth of a second behind Bolt.

14 – Britain’s Andy Murray became the first tennis player in Olympic history with two singles gold medals, winning his second in a row by wearing down Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina 7-5, 4-6, 6-2, 7-5.

14 – Britain’s Justin Rose won the first golfing gold medal at the Olympics since Canadian George S. Lyon won gold at the 1904 St. Louis Games.

15 – CBC announced hip-hop performer Shad would exit his role as host of its prominent arts and culture radio program “q” after his Aug. 16 show. His departure followed a a turbulent start in April 2015 when he was parachuted into the job as a replacement for Jian Ghomeshi, who was fired in October 2014 amid the beginnings of a scandal that would see him tried and acquitted of charges of sexual assault and choking. Later a separate charge of sexual assault was withdrawn. (CBC Radio 2 Morning host Tom Powers took the reins in October.)

16 – Canada’s Derek Drouin won the gold medal in the men’s high jump at the Rio Olympics, the first gold medal in athletics since Donovan Bailey’s 100-metre triumph in 1996 and the first Olympic high jump gold since Duncan McNaughton at the 1932 Los Angeles Games.

16 – Mauril Belanger, a Liberal MP for more than two decades and a lifelong advocate for francophone rights in English Canada, died after a very public battle with the neurodegenerative disease ALS, commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.

18 – Jamaica’s Usain Bolt won a record third consecutive gold medal in the 200-metre sprint. Canada’s Andre De Grasse won the silver medal, becoming the first Canadian to win two individual track medals in the same Olympics since 1932.

18 – Canadian Erica Wiebe won gold in the 75-kilogram wrestling event, Damian Warner took bronze in the decathlon while diver Meaghan Benfeito captured a bronze medal in the women’s 10-metre platform.

19 – Canada claimed a bronze medal in the men’s 4×100-metre relay at the Rio Olympics, reaching the podium after the U.S team was disqualified for an illegal baton exchange. Andre De Grasse ran a blistering anchor leg and became the first Canadian to win three sprint medals at a single Games.

19 – The Canadian women’s soccer team won bronze for the second straight Olympics, defeating host Brazil 2-1. In equestrian, Eric Lamaze and his brown mare Fine Lady 5 also took the bronze medal.

19 – Lou Pearlman, 62, credited for starting the boy-band craze and launching the careers of the Backstreet Boys, ‘NSync and O-Town, died in prison from an infection of the inner lining of the heart. He was serving a 25-year sentence for a $300-million Ponzi scheme.

20 – Canadian Catharine Pendrel won bronze in the women’s mountain bike event at the Rio Olympics, just ahead of teammate Emily Batty.

20 – Iconic Canadian rockers The Tragically Hip played what many believed was their final show to a sold-out crowd at the K-Rock Centre in the band’s hometown of Kingston, Ont. It was broadcast live by the CBC and more than 400 public screenings were held across the country. In late 2015, frontman Gord Downie was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. (Their 10-city tour raised more than $1 million for brain cancer research in Canada.)

20 – An Islamic State child suicide bomber killed at least 51 people and wounded nearly 70 others at an outdoor Kurdish wedding party in Gaziantep, near Turkey’s border with Syria.

21 – 16-year-old swimmer Penny Oleksiak led the Canadian delegation into the Summer Games closing ceremony at the Rio Olympics. She had won a gold, silver and two bronze medals. Canada finished 10th in the overall medal standings with 22 (4 gold, 3 silver, 15 bronze), to equal the total from the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, the high-water mark for a non-boycotted Games.

22 – Quebec-based Alimentation Couche-Tard announced a US$4.4-billion friendly acquisition of Texas-based CST Brands that would make it the largest convenience store operator in Canada and the U.S.

22 – Elsie Wayne, the former Saint John mayor and MP, died at age 84. She was first elected to Saint John common council in 1977 and became the city’s first female mayor in 1983. In 1993, she was one of two Progressive Conservatives to win their seats in the House of Commons. Wayne retired from politics in 2004 without ever having lost an election.

23 – A Montreal jury convicted Richard Henry Bain of the lesser charge of second-degree murder in the 2012 shooting death of lighting technician Denis Blanchette outside the Metropolis nightclub where the sovereigntist Parti Quebecois was celebrating its election victory. He was also found guilty of three counts of attempted murder.

24 – A pre-dawn 6.2 magnitude earthquake levelled the central Italian towns of Amatrice, Accumoli and Pescara del Tronto, killing 297 people – including one Canadian – and leaving thousands homeless.

24 – A brazen, hours-long militant attack on the American University of Afghanistan left 12 people dead and dozens more wounded.

26 – 10 months after his federal election defeat and stepping down as Conservative party leader, former prime minister Stephen Harper finally resigned his House of Commons seat, ending a career in politics that spanned more than two decades.

26 – The Liberal government announced it would provide up to 600 Canadian soldiers – including engineers and medical units – to future UN peacekeeping operations around the world, as well as equipment such as helicopters and planes.

28 – Gene Wilder, the frizzy-haired actor who brought his deft comedic touch to such unforgettable roles as the neurotic accountant in “The Producers” and the mad scientist of “Young Frankenstein,” died from complications from Alzheimer’s disease. He was 83.

31 – The first commercial flight between the United States and Cuba in more than a half century landed in the central city of Santa Clara, reconnecting the U.S. with an island cut off from most Americans by a trade embargo on Cuba and formal ban on U.S. citizens engaging in tourism on the island.

31 – Brazil’s vice-president Michel Temer was sworn in as interim president after the Senate voted to remove Dilma Rousseff from office for breaking fiscal responsibility laws in her management of the federal budget.

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SEPTEMBER 2016

1 – A massive explosion and fireball erupted at SpaceX’s main launch pad during a routine pre-launch rocket engine test, destroying the rocket as well as a satellite that Facebook was counting on to spread Internet service to areas of sub-Saharan Africa.

4 – At 21 years, 6 months and 28 days, Toronto Blue Jays closer Roberto Osuna became the youngest pitcher in Major League Baseball history to record 30 saves in a season. He finished the year with 36 saves.

4 – Pope Francis declared Mother Teresa a saint, honouring the tiny nun who won a Nobel Peace prize for her work with the poor and infirm. The ceremony at St. Peter’s Basilica was attended by an estimated 120,000 people.

5 – Peter Mansbridge announced he would retire from the CBC’s flagship news program The National after anchoring Canada Day coverage July 1, 2017, when the country will mark its 150th birthday. Mansbridge’s career has spanned nearly five decades, including 28 years at the helm of The National as anchor and chief correspondent.

10 – Angelique Kerber won her first U.S. Open title and second career major, defeating Karolina Pliskova 6-3, 4-6, 6-4.

11 – Stan Wawrinka defeated defending champ Novak Djokovic 6-7 (1), 6-4, 7-5, 6-3 for his first U.S. Open title and third Grand Slam trophy overall.

11 – Alberta singer Brett Kissel won three CCMA Awards, including Fan Favourite and Male Artist of the Year. Dean Brody was named Songwriter of the Year for “Bring Down The House,” which also earned him the titles of Single of the Year and CMT Video of the Year. Gord Bamford captured Album of the Year for “Tin Roof.” Jess Moskaluke was named Female Artist of the Year for the third consecutive time.

14 – German drug and farm chemical maker Bayer AG announced it agreed to acquire seed and weed-killer company Monsanto in an all-cash deal valued at US$66 billion.

15 – An Edmonton judge convicted Travis Vader of second-degree murder in the deaths of seniors Lyle and Marie McCann, an Alberta couple who vanished shortly after they left on a camping trip in 2010. Their bodies have never been found. (Vader’s lawyer appealed the conviction, citing a major error in the ruling hinged on Section 230 of the Criminal Code that had been declared unconstitutional in 1990. In late October, the judge acknowledged the error and changed his verdict to manslaughter.)

15 – Convicted sex offender Graham James, the disgraced former junior hockey coach who abused players under his charge, was granted full parole. Several conditions will remain in place until his seven-year sentence expires in 2019.

16 – Death claimed W.P. Kinsella, 81, the B.C.-based author of “Shoeless Joe,” the award-winning novel that became the film “Field of Dreams,” in a doctor-assisted death and three-time Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Edward Albee, 88, who challenged theatrical convention in masterworks such as “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”

17 – A pipe bomb exploded in Seaside Park, N.J., before a charity five-kilometre race to benefit Marines and sailors. The race was cancelled and no one was injured. The next night, a blast in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighbourhood injured 29 people, and another unexploded device was found several blocks away. Ahmad Khan Rahami, 28, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Afghanistan was wounded and apprehended on Sept. 19 after a shootout with police.

18 – Fantasy-saga “Game of Thrones” won the Emmy for Best Drama Series for the second consecutive year, and with a cumulative 38 awards bested “Frasier” by one to claim most honoured prime-time series ever. Canadian Tatiana Maslany took home Best Actress in a Drama Series for playing multiple clones with varying personalities in the sci-fi series “Orphan Black.”

18 – The Paralympics wrapped up in Rio de Janeiro and Canada finished with 29 medals (eight golds, 10 silvers and 11 bronzes), good for 14th overall. China led all nations with 239 medals.

19 – Haitian-Canadian electronic and hip hop producer Kaytranada won the the $50,000 Polaris Music Prize for his album “99.9%,” deemed the best full-length Canadian album of the past year based on artistic merit.

20 – Actress Angelina Jolie filed for divorce from actor Brad Pitt, bringing an end to Hollywood’s most glamorous and photographed couple. Though together for 12 years, Pitt and Jolie Pitt only wed in August of 2014. They have six children.

21 – More than 19,000 students were evacuated from every school in P.E.I. after Ottawa RCMP received a fax from someone threatening to detonate bombs at several schools. No bombs were found.

24 – The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and their two children, Prince George and Princess Charlotte, arrived in Victoria for a week-long visit to B.C. and the Yukon.

24 – Musician and accordionist Stanley “Buckwheat” Dural Jr., who rose from a cotton-picking family in southwest Louisiana to introduce zydeco music to the world through his namesake band Buckwheat Zydeco, died of lung cancer. He was 68.

25 – Golfing icon Arnold Palmer, who brought a country club sport to the masses with a hard-charging style, charisma and a commoner’s touch, died at age 87. “The King” joined the PGA Tour in 1955 and won the Canadian Open for the first of his 62 titles. He went on to win seven majors (four Masters, two British Opens and the U.S. Open). Beyond his golf, Palmer was a pioneer in sports marketing, paving the way for scores of other athletes to reap in millions from endorsements.

25 – Miami Marlins pitcher Jose Fernandez, 24, died when the boat he owned slammed at high speed into a rock jetty just off Miami’s South Beach. The crash also killed the two other male occupants. Fernandez won the National League Rookie of the Year award in 2013 and became a two-time All-Star.

25 – Calgary Stampeder practice squad defensive back Mylan Hicks, 23, was fatally shot trying to defuse an argument outside a Calgary nightclub. Nineteen-year-old Nelson Tony Lugela was charged with second-degree murder.

26 – Retired Canadian-Iranian professor Homa Hoodfar was released from Tehran’s notorious Evin prison and flown out of the country to recuperate with family in Oman. She was arrested in June when she ran afoul of Iranian authorities on allegations of “dabbling in feminism.” She returned to Canada on Sept. 29.

27 – The federal government gave conditional approval to the $36-billion Pacific NorthWest Liquefied Natural Gas project planned for British Columbia’s northwest coast.

28 – Shimon Peres, a former Israeli president and prime minister who was celebrated around the world as a Nobel prize-winning visionary who pushed his country toward peace during a remarkable seven-decade career, died two weeks after suffering a stroke. He was 93.

29 – Team Canada scored two late third period goals, capped by Brad Marchand’s short-handed marker with 43 seconds left in regulation, to claim a second straight World Cup title with a 2-1 victory over Team Europe in a sweep of the best-of-three final.

30 – Rogers Communications announced a sweeping overhaul of its magazines that will see Flare, Sportsnet, MoneySense and Canadian Business become online-only publications. Maclean’s, the national current affairs magazine founded more than a century ago, will go from weekly to monthly issues and Chatelaine and Today’s Parent will be published six times a year.

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OCTOBER 2016

2 – Hall of Fame broadcaster Vin Scully signed off for the last time, ending 67 years behind the mic for the Los Angeles Dodgers. Scully closed his broadcast by telling viewers, “I have said enough for a lifetime and for the last time I wish you a very pleasant good afternoon.”

3 – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the federal Liberal government would establish a “floor price” on carbon pollution of $10 a tonne in 2018 that increases to $50 a tonne by 2022, and promised to unilaterally impose some form of carbon pricing in provinces or territories that won’t do it themselves by 2018.

4 – Category 4 hurricane Matthew slammed into southwestern Haiti. At least 473 were killed. It went on to batter the U.S. East Coast from Florida to the Carolinas, and was responsible for 43 more deaths. The post-tropical remnants were absorbed into a system off the coast of the Carolinas and caused flooding in Atlantic Canada. The worst hit was Cape Breton with more than 200 millimetres of rain.

4 – Edwin Encarnacion slammed a three-run walk-off homer in the 11th inning to lift the Toronto Blue Jays to a 5-2 victory over the Baltimore Orioles in a drama-filled American League wild-card game.

6 – RCMP Commissioner Bob Paulson delivered an emotional apology and announced a $100-million settlement of two class-action lawsuits stemming from the harassment allegations from former female officers and employees dating back as long as four decades.

10 – Torrential rain, which was associated with the remnants of Hurricane Matthew, caused widespread flooding in communities in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. Much of mainland Nova Scotia received more than 100 millimetres of rain while parts of the Sydney area received more than 200 millimetres.

12 – Maple Leafs rookie Auston Matthews, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2016 draft, became the first player in NHL history to score four goals in his regular-season debut but Toronto still fell to the Ottawa Senators 5-4 in overtime in the season opener for both teams.

13 – Singer-songwriter Bob Dylan won the Nobel Prize in literature, the first time in the 115-year history of the prestigious award that it was bestowed to someone primarily seen as a musician.

13 – Thailand’s King Bhumibol Adulyadej died at the age of 88. He had been the world’s longest reigning monarch (70 years).

13 – Former Alberta premier Jim Prentice was among four people killed in a plane crash shortly after taking off from the airport in Kelowna B.C. Prentice, 60, also a former federal cabinet minister, quit politics in May 2015 after the Alberta NDP swept the Progressive Conservatives from power.

16 – Country music singer Randy Travis was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame and stunned the audience by performing “Amazing Grace,” the first time he had sung since suffering a life-threatening stroke in 2013. He was inducted along with fiddler Charlie Daniels and record producer Fred Foster.

19 – Canadian country music star Shania Twain, the genre’s most successful female singer, was given the Artist of the Lifetime Award at the CMT Artists of the Year show. Twain made her name in the mid-’90s with her big pop-country songs and her music videos that combined sex appeal, female empowerment and high fashion.

21 – Bombardier said it planned to eliminate 7,500 positions – more than 10 per cent of its global workforce – through the end of 2018, the Montreal-based aerospace giant’s second mass round of layoffs in less than a year. About 2,000 positions will be cut across Canada, including 1,500 in Quebec.

22 – Telecom giant AT&T announced plans to buy Time Warner, owner of the Warner Bros. movie studio as well as HBO and CNN, for US$85.4 billion.

24 – New Brunswick’s Court of Appeal ordered a new trial for Dennis Oland, who was convicted of second-degree murder in the 2011 death of his millionaire father, Richard.

25 – Vancouver-born, Montreal-based Madeleine Thien won the 2016 Governor General’s Literary Award for fiction for her novel “Do Not Say We Have Nothing,” set in China before, during and after the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. In November, it won the $100,000 Scotiabank Giller Prize.

25 – Police charged former registered nurse Elizabeth Tracey Mae Wettlaufer with first-degree murder in the killings of eight nursing home residents between 2007 to 2014 at two long-term care facilities in Woodstock, Ont., and London.

27 – Nine new non-partisan senators were appointed by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the first senators chosen under an arm’s-length process that saw more than 2,700 people apply to fill the 21 vacancies in the 105-seat upper house.

28 – Justice Malcolm Rowe was formally appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada — the first justice appointed under a new process brought in by the Trudeau government in which people were asked to apply for the job and be vetted by an independent advisory board.

30 – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau arrived in Brussels to sign Canada’s free trade deal with the European Union, reached after seven years of negotiation.

30 – Country songwriter Claude “Curly” Putman, who co-wrote (with Bobby Braddock) iconic country songs “He Stopped Loving Her Today” and ”D-I-V-O-R-C-E,” died at age 85. He also wrote “The Green, Green Grass of Home” which became a country hit for Porter Wagoner and an international hit for Tom Jones.

31 – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced six new independent senators who will represent Ontario in the Senate.

31 – The Manitoba government named a stretch of a northern highway in honour of musician Tom Cochrane. The 322-kilometre section of Highway 391 that leads to Cochrane’s hometown of Lynn Lake will be called Tom Cochrane’s Life is a Highway, named after his 1991 megahit.

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NOVEMBER 2016

1 – Unifor reached a tentative agreement with Ford, concluding its negotiations with the three big North American automakers. The so-called Detroit Three committed to investing more than $1.5 billion in their Canadian operations as a result of contract talks.

1 – Canadian comedy pioneer Dave Broadfoot, who was considered a national treasure for his political satire on the CBC’s “Royal Canadian Air Farce,” died at the age of 90. In the 1950s and ’60s, he appeared on the small screen in the “Wayne and Shuster Show,” “The Ed Sullivan Show,” “The Big Revue” and “Comedy Cafe.” It was in 1973 that Broadfoot began his 15-year-run on “Air Farce,” where he endeared audiences with memorable characters including Sgt. Renfrew of the RCMP who “never gets his man” and a hockey-playing dunce named Big Bobby Clobber. Broadfoot won numerous honours, including a Juno for comedy, a Governor General’s Performing Arts Award and was named an officer of the Order of Canada.

1 – 13-year-old Letisha Reimer was killed and her friend was injured at a high school in Abbotsford, B.C., in a random knife attack. Twenty-one-year-old Gabriel Klein was charged with second-degree murder and aggravated assault in connection with the attack.

2 – The Chicago Cubs completed a comeback from a 3-1 World Series deficit to capture their first championship since 1908, outlasting the Cleveland Indians 8-7 in 10 innings of a Game 7 thriller.

2 – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced six new independent senators who will represent Quebec in the Senate.

7 – Canadian Leonard Cohen, the iconic writer, poet, composer and baritone-voiced singer-songwriter who seamlessly blended spirituality and sexuality in hits like “Hallelujah,” ”Suzanne” and “Bird on a Wire,” died in Los Angeles at age 82.

7 – Janet Reno, a blunt spoken prosecutor and the first woman to serve as U.S. attorney general, died of complications from Parkinson’s disease at age 78.

7 – The Yukon Liberals won the territorial election, defeating the Yukon Party, which had been in power since 2002.

8 – Brash billionaire Donald Trump was elected the 45th president of the United States, an astonishing victory for a celebrity businessman and political novice whose campaign was like no other in modern times. His triumph over Hillary Clinton ended eight years of Democratic dominance of the White House.

9 – A New Brunswick jury found Jean-Claude Savoie not guilty of criminal negligence causing death after his African rock python escaped its enclosure in August 2013 and killed Connor Barthe, 6 and Noah Barthe, 4, during a sleepover in Savoie’s apartment.

11 – Robert Vaughn, the debonair, Oscar-nominated actor whose many film roles were eclipsed by his hugely popular turn in television’s “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.,” died after a brief battle with acute leukemia. He was 83.

11 – Guitarist Doug Edwards, the former Skylark band member who crafted the sound of the 1973 hit “Wildflower,” died in Vancouver at age 70 after a battle with cancer. The song went gold in Canada and hit No. 9 on the U.S. Billboard charts and was covered by over 70 musicians. It was inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2011.

12 – Rocker Leon Russell, a top session player in the 1960s and ’70s who later had a successful solo career with such hits as “Tight Rope” and “Lady Blue,” died at age 74. He was primarily a keyboard player, playing backup for Joe Cocker, Bob Dylan, the Beach Boys and many other artists.

12 – Dawn Coe-Jones, a member of the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame (2003) who helped blaze a trail for Canadian women on the pro tour, died of cancer at the age of 56. She played on the LPGA Tour from 1984 to 2008 ending with three victories and 44 career top-10 finishes.

14 – Justin Trudeau arrived in Cuba, the first official visit by a Canadian prime minister since his father Pierre in 1976.

14 – Genie award-winning stage and screen actress Janet Wright, the frank-talking and resilient comedy star best known for her portrayal of long-suffering matriarch Emma Leroy on “Corner Gas,” died in Vancouver at the age of 71.

14 – The Hockey Hall of Fame enshrined four more members – former Hart Trophy winner Eric Lindros, two-time Vezina Trophy winner Rogie Vachon, Soviet forward and Calgary Flames standout Sergei Makarov, and the late player/coach/GM Pat Quinn in the builder’s category.

17 – Chicago Cubs slugger Kris Bryant was named National League MVP, and Los Angeles Angels centre fielder Mike Trout the American League winner for the second time in three years.

20 – At least 146 people were killed in an early morning passenger train derailment in northern India. More than 200 others were injured.

20 – It was a big night for Canadians at the fan-voted American Music Awards, with Drake and Justin Bieber each taking home four awards. Drake, with a record 13 nominations, won awards for Rap/Hip-Hop Artist, Rap/Hip-Hop Song (Hotline Bling), Rap/Hip-Hop Album (Views), and Soul/R&B Song (Work by Rihanna featuring Drake). Bieber captured Pop/Rock Male Artist, Pop/Rock Song (Love Yourself), Pop/Rock Album (Purpose), and Video of the Year (Sorry).

21 – In just his fifth PGA tournament, Hamilton, Ont.-native Mackenzie Hughes holed an 18-foot par putt from off the green on the second day of a playoff against three other golfers to win the RSM Classic and become the first rookie in 20 years to go wire-to-wire for his first PGA Tour victory.

22 – The Dow Jones industrial average closed above 19,000 for the first time.

22 – Ottawa announced plans to enter into discussions with U.S. aerospace giant Boeing to purchase 18 Super Hornet jets as a stop-gap until it can decide on a permanent replacement for Canada’s aging fleet of CF-18 fighter planes, a process expected to last up to five years.

24 – Florence Henderson, the wholesome actress who went from Broadway star to television icon when she became Carol Brady, the ever-cheerful mom residing over “The Brady Bunch,” died at age 82.

25 – Fidel Castro, who led his bearded rebels to victorious revolution in 1959, embraced Soviet-style communism and defied the power of 10 American presidents during his half-century of rule in Cuba, died at age 90. His death came 10 years after a life-threatening illness led him to turn over power to his younger brother Raul.

26 – The Laval Rouge et Or rallied to defeat the Calgary Dinos 31-26 in the Vanier Cup and capture their ninth Canadian university football championship.

27 – The Ottawa Redblacks stunned the heavily favoured Calgary Stampeders 39-33 in overtime to capture the team’s first Grey Cup in just their third year of existence and the first for the city since the Rough Riders won in 1976.

28 – Gen. Jonathan Vance was disappointed and angry and put the Canadian military on notice after a Statistics Canada survey found an estimated 960 cases of sexual assaults and other misconduct among active military personnel.

28 – RCAF pilot Capt. Thomas McQueen was killed when his CF-18 fighter jet crashed during a routine training mission over the Cold Lake Air Weapons Range at the Alberta-Saskatchewan boundary.

28 – A radicalized 18-year-old Somali-born college student plowed his car into a group of pedestrians at Ohio State University and then got out and began stabbing people with a butcher knife before he was shot to death by a campus police officer. Eleven people were hurt, one critically.

28 – A chartered plane carrying members of Brazil’s Chapecoense first division soccer team crashed into a Colombian mountainside near the Medellin airport, killing 71 people. Three soccer players, two crew members and a journalist survived. Aided by dramatic, cockpit recordings, investigators determined the jet apparently ran out of fuel.

29 – The federal cabinet approved the expansion of two pipelines – Kinder Morgan Canada’s controversial Trans Mountain (Alberta to Burnaby, B.C.) and Enbridge’s Line 3 (Alberta to Wisconsin) – and closed the books on the Northern Gateway pipeline (Alberta to Kitimat, B.C.) and formalized a moratorium on crude oil tankers on B.C.’s north coast.

30 – Substitutes Benoit Cheyrou and Tosaint Ricketts scored two minutes apart in extra time to send Toronto FC to the MLS Cup final with a 5-2 win and a wild 7-5 aggregate victory over the Montreal Impact. It took extra time and 12 goals to decide a scintillating two-legged Eastern Conference final. The win sent Toronto into the MLS Championship game against the Seattle Sounders on December 10th, the first Canadian team to go for the title.

DECEMBER

1 – former Laval mayor Gilles Vaillancourt pleaded guilty to three fraud-related charges and was incarcerated after defence and Crown lawyers agreed to a six-year prison term. He must reimburse about $7 million, mostly from Swiss bank accounts, as well as hand over his condominium to the city he headed for 23 years.

2 – fire tore through a cluttered illegally occupied Oakland warehouse during a late night dance party, killing at least 36 people.

4 – New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady won his 201st career game (including playoffs), surpassing Peyton Manning as the winningest pivot in NFL history.

6 – Toronto rapper Drake’s album “Views” was the year’s bestseller on iTunes in the U.S., while his hit “One Dance” was the most popular single.

7 – Time magazine named U.S. president-elect Donald Trump as its Person of the Year.

7 – singer-guitarist Greg Lake, a prog-rock pioneer who co-founded King Crimson and Emerson, Lake and Palmer, died after a long battle with cancer. He was 69. ELP, with keyboardist Keith Emerson and drummer Carl Palmer, released six platinum-selling albums characterized by songs of epic length, classical influence and ornate imagery, and toured with elaborate light shows and theatrical staging.

7 – former Liberal MP Warren Allmand died at the age of 84. He was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumour in March. He represented the Montreal riding of Notre Dame De Grace from 1965 to 1997, held several portfolios in the Pierre Trudeau cabinet, including solicitor general when he tabled a bill in 1976 to abolish Canada’s death penalty.

8 – Finance Minister Bill Morneau announced Viola Desmond, a Nova Scotia businesswoman who challenged racial segregation, will be the first Canadian woman featured on the front of a Canadian banknote; her $10 bill goes into circulation in 2018.

8 – John Glenn, whose 1962 flight as the first U.S. astronaut to orbit the Earth made him an all-American hero and propelled him to a long career in the U.S. Senate, died. The last survivor of the original Mercury 7 astronauts was 95.

8 – Ottawa announced Canada will spend $2.3 billion to replace the military’s ancient search-and-rescue planes with 16 new C-295 aircraft from European aerospace giant Airbus.

8 – rock legend Mick Jagger, the 73-year-old frontman of The Rolling Stones, welcomed the birth of his eighth child, a son, and first with 29-year-old girlfriend Melanie Hamrick.

8 – Billboard magazine announced Adele as its top artist for 2016 and her “25” as the top album. The top Hot 100 song was “Love Yourself” by Justin Bieber. His “Sorry” was second, making him just the third artist (Usher, 2004 and The Beatles, 1964) in the chart’s 58-year history to have the year’s top two songs. Drake was the top R&B/hip-hop act. His song “One Dance” was the top R&B/hip-hop song and his “Views” the top album in that category.

10 – the Seattle Sounders defeated host Toronto FC 5-4 in penalty kicks to win its first MLS Cup.

10 – a car- and suicide-bombing near an Istanbul soccer stadium killed at least 44 people and wounded 149. The attack was claimed by a Turkey-based Kurdish militant group.

12 – former Portuguese prime minister Antonio Guterres was sworn in as Secretary-General of the United Nations, becoming the ninth UN chief in the body’s 71-year history.

13 – a federal task force on legalized recreational marijuana released a 106-page report covering everything from advertising and branding to penalties for illicit production and trafficking, all legislated under a proposed Cannabis Control Act. Among the recommendations: storefront and mail-order sales to Canadians 18 years and older, with personal growing limits of four plants per person.

13 – Syrian rebels announced an agreement was reached with Russia for a ceasefire in Aleppo to evacuate remaining civilians and rebels from besieged districts. The city had been split between rebel and government control since 2012.

13 – Canadian-born actor Alan Thicke, a versatile performer who gained his greatest renown as the beloved dad on the sitcom “Growing Pains,” died after his aorta artery ruptured. He was 69. Thicke, father of “Blurred Lines” singer Robin Thicke, was also a composer, writer and once a popular talk show host on Canadian television before making his name in the U.S. He composed the original theme for “The Wheel of Fortune” and other shows including “The Facts of Life” and “Diff’rent Strokes.” In 2013, he was inducted into Canada’s Walk of Fame.

13 – 16-year-old swimmer Penny Oleksiak was named the winner of the Lou Marsh Trophy as Canada’s athlete of the year by a panel of sports journalists from across the country. She won four medals at the Rio Olympics last summer, including gold in the 100-metre freestyle. She added four more medals at the short-course world championship in Windsor, Ont.

14 – behemoth online retailer Amazon brought its video-streaming service, Amazon Prime Video, to Canada as part of a global launch in more than 200 countries and territories.

14 – Feld Entertainment, parent company of The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus, announced Michelle Wilson will be the first woman ringmaster in its 146-year history.

14 – a riot involving 185 prisoners at the Saskatchewan Penitentiary in Prince Albert left one inmate dead, eight prisoners injured and a large part of the institution uninhabitable.

14 – a father, three young children and a baby died in a fire that destroyed their home in the First Nation community of Oneida Nation of the Thames in Port Colborne, Ont.

15 – the federal government announced it was moving to ban all products containing asbestos by 2018. The comprehensive ban is designed to include construction materials and brake pads that currently use the cancer-causing fibre. Canada closed its last asbestos mines in 2011, but has continued to obstruct international efforts to list it as a hazardous substance.

15 – Ottawa announced $500 million fund to bring high-speed, broadband Internet access to 300 rural and remote communities by 2021.

15 – a jury took less than two hours to convict Dylann Roof of all 33 counts in the racially motivated slaughter of nine black church members last year in South Carolina.

15 – Rupert Murdoch’s media giant Twenty-First Century Fox agreed to take over European broadcaster Sky PLC in a US$14.6 billion deal. Twenty-First Century Fox already owned just over 39 per cent of Sky but an earlier attempt to acquire the rest was scuttled by the 2011 phone-hacking scandal that rocked Murdoch’s British newspapers and the media establishment.

17 – Dr. Henry Heimlich, the surgeon who created the life-saving Heimlich manoeuvre for choking victims, died at age 96.

18 – Zsa Zsa Gabor, the jet-setting Hungarian-born actress and socialite who helped to invent the celebrity-dominated tabloid culture with multiple marriages, conspicuous wealth and jaded wisdom about the glamorous life, died at age 99.

18 – gunmen attacked a medieval castle tourist attraction in Karak, Jordan, killing 10 people, including retired Newfoundland teacher Linda Vatcher, 62. Her son was injured in the attack. The Islamic State group later claimed responsibility.

18 – Canadian entertainer Gordie Tapp, a comedian, musician, script writer and pitchman, died from complications of pneumonia at age 94. Born in London, Ont., the member of the Order of Canada and Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame inductee kicked off his career in radio before moving into TV. During the 1950s, he was a founding member of “Main Street Jamboree,” a radio and TV show out of Hamilton, and hosted the CBC music-variety program “Country Hoedown” from 1956 to 1965. Tapp eventually took his act south of the border to the popular American variety series “Hee Haw,” inspiring other Canadian performers to follow his lead.

19 – a Turkish policeman assassinated Russia’s ambassador to Turkey, Andrei Karlov, in front of a shocked gathering at a photo exhibit in Ankara and then, pacing near the body of his victim, appeared to condemn Russia’s military role in Syria. The assailant was later killed in a shootout with police.

19 – two Islamic extremists plowed a semi-trailer into a crowded Christmas market in central Berlin, killing 12 people and injuring 48 others. The truck’s passenger died as paramedics were treating him. The driver escaped and after an intensive manhunt was killed in a shootout with police in Milan on Dec. 23.

19 – despite weeks of lobbying and a day of protests, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump won all but two of the Electoral College votes he claimed on Election Day, ensuring he will become America’s 45th president.

20 – the late rapper Tupac Shakur and Seattle-based rockers Pearl Jam led a class of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees that also included Joan Baez, Yes, Electric Light Orchestra and Journey. The induction ceremony will take place on April 7.

20 – a series of powerful fiery chain-reaction explosions ripped through the stalls of a Mexican fireworks market, killing at least 35 people and leaving dozens more badly burned.

21 – the CRTC declared broadband Internet access a basic service across the country. As part of the decision, telecom firms will have access to an escalating $750-million industry-sponsored fund over the next five years to invest in broadband infrastructure.

22 – the Tragically Hip frontman Gord Downie was chosen as The Canadian Press Newsmaker of the Year, marking the first time in the Newsmaker’s 70-year history that an entertainer had been selected for the title. His spirited fight with terminal brain cancer and his widespread impact on Canadian culture and advocacy for aboriginals struck a chord with Canadians in 2016.

22 – Jaromir Jagr took over sole possession of second place on the NHL’s career points list with 1,888, breaking a tie with Mark Messier. He trails only Wayne Gretzky with 2,857 points.

25 – British pop superstar George Michael, first a teenybopper heartthrob with WHAM! and then a mature solo artist who blended soul and dance music with social commentary, was found dead in bed at his London home. He was 53. He sold well over 100 million albums globally and earned numerous Grammy and American Music Awards. Michael made his homosexuality known after he was arrested in 1998 for lewd behaviour in a public toilet in Los Angeles and his later years were marked by occasional brushes with the law and a series of driving incidents related to substance abuse.

26 – sprinter Andre De Grasse was voted the winner of the Lionel Conacher Award as The Canadian Press male athlete of 2016. He won silver in the 200 metres in Rio and bronze in both the 100 and 4×100-metre relay.

26 – a Russian military plane crashed two minutes after taking off from the southern Russian city of Sochi, killing all 92 people aboard, including dozens of singers from the country’s world-famous Red Army choir who were going to the Russian Air Force base in Syria to perform at a New Year’s concert.

27 – actress Carrie Fisher, the daughter of Hollywood royalty who found enduring fame as Princess Leia in the original “Star Wars,” died at age 60. She had been hospitalized since Dec. 23 when she suffered a medical emergency aboard a flight to Los Angeles. Fisher turned her struggles with addiction and mental illness into bestselling books, a hit film and popular stage performances.

27 – teenage swimming sensation Penny Oleksiak was voted the winner of the Bobbie Rosenfeld Award as The Canadian Press female athlete of the year. The 16-year-old won gold and silver medals and helped Canada win a pair of relay bronze at the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

28 – Debbie Reynolds, who lit up the screen in “Singin’ in the Rain’ and other Hollywood classics, died at age 84, a day after the death of her daughter Carrie Fisher.

28 – DeMar DeRozan became the Toronto Raptor’s career scoring leader, surpassing Chris Bosh’s 10,275 points.

29 – U.S. President Barack Obama sanctioned Russian intelligence services and their top officials, kicked out 35 Russian officials and closed down two Russian-owned compounds in the U.S. in retaliation for alleged Russian hacking of the U.S. presidential campaign in an effort to sway the election for Donald Trump.

29 – a ceasefire agreement between Syria’s government and the country’s mainstream rebel groups went into effect in the war-ravaged nation. The truce was brokered by Russia and Turkey.

The Canadian Press

by Canadian Press

Trump’s election, the Brexit vote, and the Fort McMurray fire: news from 2016

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