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William Lyon Mackenzie King

William Lyon Mackenzie King

:Not to be confused with William Lyon Mackenzie, Mackenzie King's grandfather. The Right Honourable William Lyon Mackenzie King, PC, LLB, PhD, MA, BA (December 17, 1874 – July 22, 1950) was the tenth Prime Minister of Canada from December 29, 1921, to June 28, 1926; September 25, 1926, to August 7, 1930; and October 23, 1935, to November 15, 1948. He had the longest combined time in the Prime Minister position in British Commonwealth history.

Early life

King was born in Berlin, Ontario (now Kitchener). A grandson of William Lyon Mackenzie, leader of the Upper Canada Rebellion in 1837, King held five university degrees. He obtained three from the University of Toronto: B.A. 1895, LL.B. 1896, and M.A. 1897. After studying at the University of Chicago, Mackenzie King proceeded to Harvard University, receiving an M.A. in political economy 1898 and a Ph.D. 1909. He was first elected to Parliament as a Liberal in a 1908 by-election, and was re-elected in a 1909 by-election following his appointment as Canada's first Minister of Labour. He lost his seat in the 1911 general election, which saw the Conservatives defeat his Liberals. Following his defeat, he went to the United States to work for the Rockefeller family, assisting them in labour relations. He returned to Canada to run in the 1917 election, which focused almost entirely on the conscription issue, and lost again, due to his opposition to conscription, which was supported by the majority of English Canadians. In 1919, he was elected leader at the first Liberal leadership convention, and soon returned to parliament in a by-election. King remained leader until 1948. In the 1921 election, his party defeated Arthur Meighen and the Conservatives, and he became Prime Minister.

The "King-Byng" Affair

Main article: King-Byng Affair In his first term as Prime Minister, he was opposed by the Progressive Party, which did not support trade tariffs. King called an election in 1925, in which the Conservatives won the most seats, but not a majority in the House of Commons. King held onto power with the support of the Progressives. Soon into his term, however, a bribery scandal in the Department of Customs was revealed, which led to more support for the Conservatives and Progressives, and the possibility that King would be forced to resign. King asked Governor General Lord Byng to dissolve Parliament and call another election, but Byng refused, the only time in Canadian history that the Governor General has exercised such a power. King resigned, and Byng asked Meighen to form a new government. When Meighen's government was defeated in the House of Commons a short time later, however, Byng called a new election in 1926. King and the Liberals returned to power. A main point of his election campaign was based on how Byng was a British Lord and not a citizen of Canada, something he promised to rectify.

Depression and war

In his second term, King introduced old-age pensions. In February 1930, he appointed Cairine Wilson, whom he knew personally, as the first female senator in Canadian history. His government was in power during the beginning of the Great Depression, but lost the election of 1930 to the Conservative Party, now led by Richard Bedford Bennett. King's Liberals were returned to power once more in the 1935 election. The worst of the Depression had passed, and King implemented relief programs such as the National Housing Act and National Employment Commission. His government also created the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in 1936, Trans-Canada Airlines (the precursor to Air Canada) in 1937, and the National Film Board of Canada in 1939. 1939, Churchill, and King at a Québec Conference]] King hoped an outbreak of war in the 1930s could be avoided. He had met with Hermann Göring and Adolf Hitler, whom he said was a reasonable man who cared for his fellow man, working to improve his country in the midst of the Depression. He confided in his diary that he thought Hitler "might come to be thought of as one of the saviours of the world" and told a Jewish delegation that "Kristallnacht might turn out to be a blessing." This kind of ignorance took a blunt tone in action in that the King government, especially through the civil servant, Charles Frederick Blair, refused to allow significant Jewish immigration regardless of how the situation for the Jewish population in Europe deterioriated into the Holocaust. It was an attitude epitomized by a comment, by one civil servant, when asked how many Jews were allowed to immigrate immediately after World War II, he replied "None is too many." That quote became the title of a famous history book later written which was instrumental in making Canada's anti-semetic immigration policy in that period public knowledge. One such example of this happening was with the ocean liner St. Louis. The St. Louis was carrying 907 Jewish people seeking shelter from the happenings of the war in Europe. Of the 907 people on the ship, none entered Canada. Fourty-four well-known Canadians, including professors, editors, and industrialists urged King to offer them sanctuary, but King would not hear of it. This was captured in a 1976 movie "The Voyage of the Damned". King realized the necessity of World War II before Hitler invaded Poland in 1939, but unlike World War I when Canada was automatically at war as soon as Britain joined, King asserted Canadian autonomy by waiting until September 10, when a vote in the House of Commons took place, to support the government's decision to declare war. During this time Canada was able to aquire a substantial amount of weapons from the United States. As a belligerent nation upon delcaring war Canada would not be able to purchase weapons from the United States. King's promise not to impose conscription contributed to the Liberals' re-election in the 1940 election. But after the fall of France in 1940, Canada introduced conscription for home service, and only volunteers were to be sent overseas. King wanted to avoid a repeat of the Conscription Crisis of 1917. By 1942, the military was pressing King hard to send conscripts to Europe. In 1942, King held a national plebiscite on the issue asking the nation to relieve him of the commitment he had made during the election campaign. He said that his policy was "conscription if necessary, but not necessarily conscription." French Canadians voted overwhelmingly against conscription, but the majority of English Canada supported it. For the next two years, King tried to avoid the issue with a massive campaign to recruit volunteers, despite heavy losses in the Dieppe Raid in 1942, in Italy in 1943, and after the Battle of Normandy in 1944. At the end of 1944, he finally decided it was necessary to send conscripts to Europe. This led to a brief political crisis (see Conscription Crisis of 1944), but the war ended just a few months later. Few of the conscripts ever saw combat. King was extremely unpopular among Canadian servicemen and women during the war. His appearances at Canadian Army installations in Britain (and, after 6 June 1944, in Europe) were invariably greeted with boos and catcalls. King's treatment of Japanese Canadians during the war would come under fire in later years. In the midst of World War II, thousands of Japanese Canadians were moved from the Pacific Coastal areas where they had lived into internment camps and shantyvilles farther east, ostensibly to avoid the danger of spies living in Canada. Similar precautions were not taken against German Canadians, however. King was not alone in his forced emigration of Japanese Canadians, as the United States government had a similar plan in effect during the war years. However, Japanese Canadians were unable to return to their home on the Pacific Coast, unlike Japanese Americans. Additionally, the property of Japanese Canadians was sold at public auctions during their exile, leaving them with little to stay for in Canada. As a result, Japanese Canadians were offered the option of "repatriation" to Japan at the expense of the King government, instead of being moved back to the west coast.

Canadian autonomy

Throughout his term, King led Canada from a colony with responsible government to an autonomous nation within the British Commonwealth. During the Chanak Crisis of 1922, King refused to support the British without first consulting parliament, while Conservative leader, Arthur Meighen, pronounced "ready, aye, ready". The British were disappointed with King's response, but this was the first time that Canada had really asserted an independent foreign policy. After the King-Byng Affair, King went to the Imperial Conference of 1926, and argued for greater autonomy of the Dominions. This resulted in the Balfour Declaration, which announced the equal status of all members of the Commonwealth of Nations, including Britain. In the lead up to World War II, King played two roles. On one hand, he told English Canadians that Canada would no doubt enter war if Britain did. On the other hand, he and his right hand man Ernest Lapointe told French Canadians that Canada would only go to war if it was in the country's best interests. With the dual messages, King slowly led Canada towards war without causing strife between Canada's two main linguistic communities. As his final step in asserting Canada's autonomy, King ensured that the Canadian Parliament made its own declaration of war on the day after Britain.

Post-war Canada

Mackenzie King's Liberal Party was re-elected in the election of 1945. King had been considered a minor player in the war by both United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, despite hosting a wartime conference in Quebec City in 1943. Still, King thought Roosevelt showed him more attention as an Allied leader than, paradoxically, his fellow Commonwealth premier Churchill. King helped found the United Nations in 1945. In 1948, he retired after 22 years as prime minister, and was succeeded as Liberal Party leader and Prime Minister of Canada by Louis St. Laurent.

Personal life

Louis St. Laurent Mackenzie King was a cautious politician who tailored his policies to prevailing opinions. "Parliament will decide," he liked to say when pressed to act. Privately, he was highly eccentric with his preference for consulting spirits, including those of Leonardo da Vinci, Louis Pasteur, his dead mother and his dog, Pat. He sought personal reassurance from the spirits, rather than political advice. Indeed, after his death, one of the mediums said that she had not realized that he was a politician. King did ask whether his party would win the 1935 election, one of the few times politics came up during his seances. His occult interests were not widely known during his term in office, however, and only became publicized by biographers after his death who used the extensive diaries that he kept most of his life. He never married, but had a close female friend, Joan Patteson, a married woman, with whom he spent much of his leisure time. His country retreat at Kingsmere in Gatineau Park, near Ottawa, is open to the public. Mackenzie King died on July 22, 1950, at his home near Ottawa. He is buried in Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Toronto. He is pictured on the Canadian fifty-dollar bill.

Supreme Court appointments

King appointed the following Justices to the Supreme Court of Canada:
- Francis Alexander Anglin (Chief Justice) - (appointed a Puisne Justice by Wilfrid Laurier in 1909)
- Sir Lyman Poore Duff (Chief Justice) - (appointed a Puisne Justice by Wilfrid Laurier in 1906)
- Arthur Cyrille Albert Malouin
- Edmund Leslie Newcombe
- Thibaudeau Rinfret (Chief Justice)
- John Henderson Lamont
- Robert Smith
- Lawrence Arthur Dumoulin Cannon
- Albert Blellock Hudson
- Robert Taschereau
- Ivan Rand
- Roy Lindsay Kellock
- James Wilfred Estey
- Charles Holland Locke

Quotations

We had no shape
Because he never took sides;
And no sides
Because he never allowed them to take shape. :from F.R. Scott, "[http://www.library.utoronto.ca/canpoetry/scott_fr/poem5.htm W.L.M.K.]"

William Lyon Mackenzie King
Sat in a corner and played with string,
Loved his mother like anything,
William Lyon Mackenzie King. :Dennis Lee, "William Lyon Mackenzie King"

"Conscription if necessary, but not necessarily conscription." " Until the control of the issue of currency and credit is restored to government and recognized as its most conspicuous and sacred responsibility, all talks of the sovereignty of Parliament and of democracy is idle and futile... Once a nation parts with the control of its credit, it matters not who makes the laws....Usury once in control will wreck the nation."

External links

- [http://www.biographi.ca/EN/ShowBio.asp?BioId=42131 Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online]
- [http://warmuseum.ca/cwm/newspapers/canadawar/wlmking_e.html Canadian Newspapers and the Second World War - William Lyon Mackenzie King]
- [http://www.broadcasting-history.ca/news/ramfiles_Early_37-52/Pm-mk.rm Mackenzie King declares war against Nazi Germany (.rm file)]
- [http://www.parl.gc.ca/information/about/people/key/bio.asp?lang=E&query=1879&s=M Federal Political Experience from the Library of Parliament]
- [http://www.library.utoronto.ca/canpoetry/scott_fr/poem5.htm William Lyon Mackenzie King Poem by F.R. Scott] King, William Lyon Mackenzie King, William Lyon Mackenzie King, William Lyon Mackenzie King, William Lyon Mackenzie King, William Lyon MacKenzie King, William Lyon MacKenzie King, William Lyon MacKenzie King, William Lyon MacKenzie King, William Lyon MacKenzie King, William Lyon Mackenzie King, William Lyon MacKenzie King, William Lyon Mackenzie King, William Lyon MacKenzie King, William Lyon Mackenzie

William Lyon Mackenzie

William Lyon Mackenzie (March 12, 1795 – August 28, 1861) was a Canadian journalist and rebel. Mackenzie was born in Scotland and immigrated to Upper Canada in 1820. From 1824 to 1834 he published the newspaper the Colonial Advocate in York, Upper Canada (Toronto, Ontario), attacking the upper class clique known as the "Family Compact" which was in control of the government. In response to this, a mob threw his printing press into Lake Ontario in 1826. In 1828 he was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada, but was expelled five times for libel, each time being re-elected. In 1834 he became the first mayor of Toronto, and in 1836 he founded the newspaper, The Constitution, to promote the policies of his Reform Party. In 1837 he led the Upper Canada Rebellion against Sir Francis Bond Head and the Family Compact, which was quickly put down. Mackenzie escaped to the United States, and set up a provisional Republic of Canada government on Navy Island in the Niagara River. He was later imprisoned in the U.S. for his involvement in the Caroline Affair. An amnesty allowed his return to Canada in 1849, and he was a member of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada from 1851 to 1858.

Books

- Catechism of Education (1830)
- Sketches of Canada and the United States (1833)

External links

- [http://www.biographi.ca/EN/ShowBio.asp?BioId=38684 Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online] Mackenzie, William Lyon Mackenzie, William Lyon Mackenzie, William Lyon Mackenzie, William Lyon Mackenzie, William Lyon Mackenzie, William Lyon Mackenzie, William Lyon

The Right Honourable

The Right Honourable (abbreviated "The Rt Hon." or "The Right Hon.") is an honorific prefix which is traditionally applied to certain classes of people in the United Kingdom, Canada, and other Commonwealth Realms.

Entitlement

People entitled to the prefix in a personal capacity are:
- Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom and the Privy Council of Northern Ireland
- This includes all current and former members of the Cabinet of the United Kingdom, which is a committee of the Privy Council;
- Barons, viscounts and earls (marquesses are "The Most Honourable" and dukes are "The Most Noble" or "His Grace", and, if Privy Councillors, retain these higher styles); and
- The holders of certain offices of state in some Commonwealth realms (e.g. in Canada, the Governor General, Prime Minister and Chief Justice). In order to differentiate peers who are Privy Counsellors from those who are not, sometimes the suffix PC is added to the title. In addition some people are entitled to the prefix in an official capacity, i.e. the prefix is added to the name of the office, but not the name of the person:
- The Lord Mayors of London, Dublin, Cardiff, Belfast, York and Bristol; and of Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Adelaide, Brisbane and Hobart; and
- The Lord Provosts of Edinburgh and Glasgow. All other Lord Mayors and Lord Provosts are "The Right Worshipful".

Corporate entities

The prefix is also added to the name of various corporate entities, e.g.:
- The Right Honourable the Lords Spiritual and Temporal (of the United Kingdom &c.) in Parliament Assembled (the House of Lords);
- The Right Honourable the Knights, Citizens and Burgesses (now usually the Honourable the Commons of the United Kingdom &c.) in Parliament Assembled (the House of Commons); and
- The Right Honourable the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty (the Board of Admiralty)
- The Right Honourable the Lords of the Committee of the Privy Council appointed for the consideration of all matters relating to Trade and Foreign Plantations (the Board of Trade) See also the corporate use of "Most Honourable," as in "The Lords of Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council" (the Privy Council).

Use of the honorific

The honorific is normally only used on the front of envelopes and other written documents: for example, The Right Honourable Tony Blair, MP is otherwise referred to simply as "Mr Blair". In the House of Commons, members refer to each other as "the honourable member for ..." or "the right honourable member for ..." depending upon whether or not they are Privy Counsellors. However the title "the honourable member" is only a parliamentary term and is not used outside the House. When a married woman holds this style, she uses her own given name in her style. So, when Mrs. Denis Thatcher was made a Privy Counsellor, she didn't become The Right Honourable Mrs. Denis Thatcher or The Right Honourable Mrs Thatcher, but became The Right Honourable Margaret Thatcher.

Outside the United Kingdom

Generally within the Commonwealth, ministers and judges are The Honourable unless they are appointed to the Privy Council of the United Kingdom, in which case they are The Right Honourable. Such persons generally include Prime Ministers and judges of the Court of Appeal of New Zealand, and several other Commonwealth prime ministers.

Australia

In Australia some Premiers of the Australian colonies in the 19th century were appointed members of the UK Privy Council and were thus entitled to be called The Right Honourable. After Federation in 1901, the Governor-General, the Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia, the Prime Minister and some other senior ministers held the title. There has never been an Australian Privy Council. In 1972 Labor Prime Minister Gough Whitlam declined appointment to the Privy Council, but the practice was resumed by Malcolm Fraser in 1975. In 1983 Bob Hawke declined the appointment, and the appointment of Australians to the Privy Council was abolished shortly thereafter. The last Governor-General to be entitled to the style was Ninian Stephen. The last politician to be entitled to the style was Ian Sinclair, who retired in 1998. The only living Australians holding the title The Right Honourable for life are:
- Doug Anthony, former Deputy Prime Minister
- Sir Zelman Cowen, former Governor-General
- Malcolm Fraser, former Prime Minister
- Ian Sinclair, former Leader of the National Party and Speaker of the House of Representatives
- Sir Ninian Stephen, former Governor-General
- Reginald Withers, former Senator, Minister, and Lord Mayor of Perth. The Lord Mayors of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide and Hobart are styled The Right Honourable, but the style (which has no connection with the Privy Council) attaches to the title of Lord Mayor, and not to their names, and is relinquished upon leaving office.

Canada

In Canada, members of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada receive the honorific The Honourable, with only the occupants of the most senior public offices being made The Right Honourable, as they used to be appointed to the British Privy Council. L'Honorable and le Très Honorable are used in French by the federal government, but the Office québécois de la langue française (the Quebec government body setting standards for the French language) considers them improper loan expressions and advises the use of Monsieur and Madame (Mr. and Ms.) instead. Although appointments of Canadians to the British Privy Council have ceased, the following public servants are domestically awarded the style The Right Honourable for life:
- the Governor General of Canada
- the Prime Minister of Canada
- the Chief Justice of Canada. (Governors General also use the style His/Her Excellency during their term of office.) Several prominent Canadians (mostly politicians) have become members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom and have thus been entitled to use the title Right Honourable, either because of their services in Britain (e.g. serving as envoys to London) or as members of the Imperial War Cabinet, or due to their prominence in the Canadian Cabinet. These include:
- Sir John A. Macdonald (1879)1
- Sir John Rose (1886)
- Sir John Sparrow David Thompson (1894)1
- Sir Samuel Henry Strong (1897)4
- Sir Wilfrid Laurier (1897)1
- Sir Richard John Cartwright (1902)
- Sir Henri Elzéar Taschereau (1904)4
- Sir Charles Tupper (1907)1
- Sir Charles Fitzpatrick (1908)4
- Sir Robert Laird Borden (1912)1
- Sir George Eulas Foster (1916)
- Sir Louis Henry Davies (1919)4
- Lyman Poore Duff (1919)6
- Arthur Lewis Sifton (1920)
- Arthur Meighen (1920)1
- Charles Doherty (1920)
- Sir William Thomas White (1920)
- William Lyon Mackenzie King (1922)1
- William Stevens Fielding (1923)
- Francis Alexander Anglin (1925)4
- Sir William Mulock (1925)
- George Perry Graham (1925)
- R.B. Bennett (1930)1
- Sir George Halsey Perley (1931)
- Ernest Lapointe (1937)
- Vincent Massey (1941)3
- Raoul Dandurand (1941)
- Louis St. Laurent (1946)2
- James Lorimer Ilsley (1946)
- Clarence Decatur Howe (1946)
- Ian Alistair Mackenzie (1947)
- James Garfield Gardiner (1947)
- Thibaudeau Rinfret (1947)4
- John George Diefenbaker (1957)1
- Georges-Philéas Vanier (1963)5
- Lester Bowles Pearson (1963)1 1 - As Prime Minister. 2 - Tupper was appointed when he was no longer Prime Minister and St. Laurent was appointed when he was a cabinet minister under Mackenzie King. 3 - Massey became Governor General over a decade later. He was made "Right Honourable" while serving as Canada's High Commissioner to London. 4 - As Chief Justice of Canada 5 - As Governor General of Canada. 6 - Duff did not become Chief Justice until 1933. Canadian appointments to the British Privy Council were ended by the government of Lester Pearson. Since then, the style may only be granted for life by the Governor General to eminent Canadians who have not held any of the offices that would otherwise entitle them to the style. It has been granted to the following individuals:
- Paul Joseph James Martin (1992)
- Martial Asselin (1992)
- Ellen Fairclough (1992)
- Jean-Luc Pépin (1992)
- Alvin Hamilton (1992)
- Don Mazankowski (1992)
- Jack Pickersgill (1992)
- Robert Stanfield (1992)
- Herb Gray (2002)

Ireland

The Irish Privy Council was abolished with the creation of the Irish Free State in 1922; nevertheless the Lord Mayor of Dublin, like his counterparts in the United Kingdom, retains the usage of the honorific; the Lord Mayor of Cork has never been entitled to the title. The remaining members of the Privy Council of Northern Ireland are entitled to be styled The Right Honourable.

New Zealand

In New Zealand, the Prime Minister is customarily appointed to the British Privy Council and is styled The Right Honourable. However, the current Prime Minister, Helen Clark, has not recommended any new Privy Counsellors. The Governor-General is also usually a Privy Counsellor, but the current Governor-General, Dame Silvia Cartwright, is not. In any case the Governor-General as a plenipotentiary representative is entitled to the style "Excellency". At present there are only two Privy Counsellors in the New Zealand Parliament, both appointed by previous Prime Ministers: Helen Clark (appointed by Jim Bolger upon becoming Leader of the Opposition in 1993) and Winston Peters, leader of New Zealand First (appointed by Jim Bolger upon becoming Deputy Prime Minister and Treasurer in 1996). Privy Counsellors recently retired include the former Speaker of the House, Jonathan Hunt (appointed by Geoffrey Palmer in recognition of long service in 1989), who retired from Parliament in 2005 to become New Zealand's High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, and former Prime Minister Jenny Shipley (appointed upon becoming Prime Minister in 1997), who stepped down from Parliament at the 2002 election.

External links

- [http://www.pch.gc.ca/progs/cpsc-ccsp/pe/titre_e.cfm Current list of Canadian notables possessing some form of honorific] (incl. Rt. Hon.) Category:Titles

Queen's Privy Council for Canada

The Queen's Privy Council for Canada (French: Conseil privé de la Reine pour le Canada) is the ceremonial council of advisers to the Queen of Canada, whose members are appointed by the Governor General of Canada for life on the advice of the Prime Minister. It was established by the British North America Act, and is modelled on the Privy Council of the United Kingdom. Britain and Canada are the only two Commonwealth Realms to have privy councils. Other Realms, as well as Canadian provinces, have Executive Councils which are the equivalent of the federal Cabinet in Canada. The formal authority of the council is exercised by the Prime Minister and the Canadian Cabinet, who make up a minority of the Council's members. Their actions are supported by the Privy Council Office which is headed by the Clerk of the Privy Council as chief civil servant and the President of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada as the Cabinet minister in charge. All Orders of the Governor in Council must be made on the recommendation of a Privy Councillor, invariably a government minister. Among the ceremonial duties of the Privy Council is the proclamation of the new Sovereign following a demise of the Crown. Constitutional scholar and former Member of Parliament Ted McWhinney has suggested that Canada could cut its ties with the monarchy and become a republic without passing an amendment to the Constitution of Canada by simply failing to proclaim a new monarch upon the demise of the old. This suggestion, included in McWhinney's book The Governor General and the Prime Ministers, due to be released in December 2005, has not yet elicited a response from the federal government or from other constitutional experts. John Aimers of the Monarchist League of Canada has argued that McWhinney is assuming it would be politically possible to achieve such a change in the status of the Crown without input from the provinces, and that his proposal ignores what Aimers asserts are prescriptive clauses of the Constitution Act, 1867 such as Sections 9 and 17 [http://themonarchist.blogspot.com/2005_02_01_themonarchist_archive.html 1]. McWhinney's suggestion does not address the basic constitutional principle that "The King never dies", i.e. there is never a vacancy or abeyance in the Crown, as succession to the Crown occurs automatically at the instant of the death of the previous monarch, without the need for any formal action such as proclamation or coronation. See Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England, vol. 1 ch. 7. At present the membership of the Council comprises all current and former federal cabinet ministers, and Chief Justices of Canada. As well, all former Governors General are members as are all former Speakers of the House of Commons. The Leader of the Opposition and leaders or other members of Opposition parties are inducted into the Privy Council from time to time, either as an honour or so that sensitive information can be disclosed to them under the Official Secrets Act. For this reason, new members of the Security Intelligence Review Committee are inducted into the Privy Council if they are not already members. Other persons recommended by the Prime Minister have been sworn into the Privy Council as an honour. Under Paul Martin, Parliamentary Secretaries have also been sworn into the Privy Council. Ministers are not automatic appointees, although generally they are made members at the same time as their appointment as ministers, and various non-cabinet members have been appointed since 1891. Provincial premiers do not automatically become Privy Councillors, but have been made members on special occasions (e.g., the centennial of Canadian Confederation, 1967 and the patriation of the Constitution of Canada, 1982. On Canada Day 1992, the 125th anniversary of Canadian Confederation, Brian Mulroney appointed eighteen prominent Canadians to the Privy Council, including former Premier of Ontario David Peterson and businessman Conrad Black. The use of Privy Council appointments as purely an honour has not been employed by his successors. Privy Councillors are entitled to the style The Honourable (or if a serving or former Governor General, Prime Minister or Chief Justice of Canada, The Right Honourable as are certain other eminent individuals). The post-nominal initials "P.C." (or "C.P." in French) are also used. Until 1967, the style Right Honourable was only employed in Canada by those appointed to the Imperial Privy Council in London. Such appointees were usually, prime ministers, Supreme Court Chief Justices, certain senior members of the Canadian Cabinet and other eminent Canadians. Canadian appointments to the Imperial Privy Council ended under Lester Pearson and, instead, the Governor General assumed the right to assign holders of these positions (as well as former Governors-General) and other eminent Canadians the title of Right Honourable. From 1967 until 1992 the only members of the Canadian Privy Council granted the style Right Honourable were prime ministers, chief justices and governors-general. In 1992, several eminent Privy Councillors, most of whom were long-retired from active politics, were granted the style. In 2002, Jean Chrétien recommended that Herb Gray, a Privy Councillor of long standing, be given the style upon his retirement from Parliament. Governors General are entitled to use the style "Right Honourable" while they are in office; however, unless they are already members of the Privy Council by virtue of being a former Cabinet minister or having been inducted for another reason, they do not become members of the Privy Council until their term as Governor General has concluded. The Canadian Privy Council has met in the presence of the Sovereign only twice: in Ottawa in 1957 and in Halifax in 1959. The full Privy Council meets to proclaim the accession of a new sovereign and to give consent to Royal Marriages. The last meeting of the full Privy Council was in 1981 to give formal consent to the marriage of the Prince of Wales to Lady Diana Spencer. Following the announcement of the Prince of Wales' engagement to Camilla Parker-Bowles, however, the Department of Justice announced its decision that the Privy Council was not required to meet to give its consent to the marriage as the union would not result in offspring and thus would have no impact on the succession to the throne. However, the consent given is symbolic in nature only. The Canadian Privy Council itself has no direct legal power to stop a Royal Marriage, as the Royal Marriages Act, 1772, a part of Canadian law, predates the creation of the Queen's Privy Council of Canada and assigns the authority to withhold assent to a marriage to the Sovereign in consultation with the British Privy Council.

External link

- [http://www.pco-bcp.gc.ca/default.asp?Language=E&Page=home Privy Council Office] Category:Privy councils Category:Canadian ministers Category:Members of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada

Doctor of Philosophy

Doctor of Philosophy, or Ph.D. (an abbreviation for the Latin "Philosophiæ Doctor"; or alternatively Doctor philosophiæ, D.Phil.), was originally a degree granted by a university to a learned individual who had achieved the approval of his peers and who had demonstrated a long and productive career in the field of philosophy. The appellation of "Doctor" (from Latin: teacher) was usually awarded only when the individual was in middle age. It indicated a life dedicated to learning, to knowledge, and to the spread of knowledge. The degree was popularised in the 19th century at the Friedrich Wilhelm University in Berlin as a degree to be granted to someone who had undertaken original research in the sciences or humanities. From here it spread to the U.S., arriving at Yale University in 1861, and then to the UK in 1921. This displaced the existing Doctor of Philosophy degree in some Universities; for instance, the D.Phil. (higher doctorate in the faculty of philosophy) at the University of St Andrews was discontinued and replaced with the Ph.D. (research doctorate). However some UK universities such as Oxford and Sussex retain the D.Phil. appellation for their research degrees. Some ability to carry out original research must be documented by producing a dissertation or thesis of book length. The degree is often a prerequisite for permanent employment as a university lecturer or as a researcher in some sciences, though this varies on a regional basis. In others such as engineering or geology, a doctoral degree is considered desirable but not essential for employment.

Time

The successful completion of a doctoral program typically takes 3 to 7.5 years depending upon the specific field of study, prior experience and/or training, and the progress made by the doctoral candidate in his or her studies. In some fields such as some specific branches of physics, a doctoral degree is practically essential for employment. In some sciences, a newly-graduated doctoral student is unlikely to find work as a tenure-track professor and must undertake one or a series of postdoctorate positions. The predicted age of the student upon graduation is also considered before admission to a PhD program in the US in many universities in conjunction with the assumption of the time needed to finish the PhD. It is rare for students to be admitted to a PhD program in engineering, mathematics, or in the sciences in the US, if they will be 42 years of age or older upon graduation. The average length of time needed by many engineering students is 6 to 7.5 years in many US colleges within major universities. The thought is that graduates older than 42 years upon graduation will not produce the body of work over their lifetime to be worth the time and effort within the university to justify the student's admission to the PhD program.

Assessment

The doctoral candidate's progress is usually overseen by a thesis advisor, or supervisor, who chairs a thesis committee which supervises the doctoral candidate. In the US, doctoral programs typically require a series of required and optional courses at the beginning of the program, but education in the latter portion of the program tends to consist of informal discussions with the thesis advisor and individual research by the student. Many US universities separate the program into two portions (doctoral student and doctoral candidate) with a required doctoral examination before allowing a student to be formally admitted to a doctoral program. Alternatively, a student may be admitted to the program, but is still required to complete a comprehensive examination on his or her field before progressing to the dissertation state (see the discussion of ABD, below).

Funding

The funding of students varies from field to field, and many graduate students in the sciences and engineering work as teaching assistants or research assistants while they are doctoral students. In Australia, PhD students are quite often offered a scholarship to study their PhD. The most common of these is the Australian Postgraduate Award (APA) scholarship, which provides a living stipend to students of approximately AUD$19,000 a year (tax free). Most universities also offer a similar scholarship that matches the APA amount, but is funded by the university. In recent years, with the tightening of research funding in Australia, these scholarships have become increasingly harder to obtain. In addition to the more common APA and University scholarships, Australian students also have other sources of funding in their PhD. These could include, but are not limited to, scholarships offered by schools, research centres and commercial enterprise. For the latter, the amount is determined between the university and the organisation, but is quite often set at the APA (Industry) rate, roughly AUD$10,000 more than the usual APA rate.

Oral defense

In some countries, a Ph.D. candidate is required to present an oral defense of his thesis, known in the UK as a viva (short for viva voce, Latin for "by live voice") before a committee. In France, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland, before a degree can be granted, the dissertation has to be defended in what is, using a medieval term, called a disputation: an expert in the field, often from another university, is appointed who will present the dissertation, subject it to a critical examination and discuss it with the author. In the context of the disputation, the critical examiner is termed the opponent, and the author of the dissertation the respondent. The dissertation has to be generally available in its final or at least in a preliminary published form a few weeks before the disputation, which is open to the public; after the opponent is finished, anyone present is allowed to ask critical questions (anyone who does is called an "opponent ex auditorio"—an opponent from the auditorium). The final grade is decided after the disputation in a meeting between the opponent and a grading committee of three or (sometimes) four people. In theory, also the points raised by oppenenti ex auditorio affect the grade. It has happened, that such opponent has caused the committee not to pass the respondent, although this would be extremely extraordinary nowadays. In the United States a final oral defense before one's dissertation committee is required although it is rare that at this stage the thesis is not accepted. Nonetheless, there are typically several candidates per decade in each college of each major US university who somehow do fail to defend successfully. Most who fail do not complete the process at a subsequent defense. It is a largely unwritten rule in the US that unqualified candidates are eliminated during the coursework or dissertation research phases, and are never permitted to defend, hence the rarity of failing to pass the final defense in most cases. Minor edits are often (most times) required during the defense by committee members, and must be made prior to the final signing of the committee's recommendation paperwork by all committee members. At the end of the defense, the candidate is excused from the room, and the committee votes in secret whether to grant the degree. Upon successfully voting in the affirmative unanimously, the committee then calls the candidate back in to the room by addressing him or her using the honorific Dr. (with their last name) if successful, or Mr. or Ms. (with their last name) if unsuccessful. Technically, the candidate becomes a Doctor of Philosophy at the instant that all committee members vote in the affirmative. The rare case of not successfully defending is also true in the Netherlands, where the oral defense ("promotie") typically happens after the thesis has already been approved by examiners. The oral defense is ended after a preset amount of time by the University-appointed 'pedel' or custos who is in charge of the protocol and will end the dissertation with the words "Hora est!" (latin for it is time or the hour has come). In contrast, viva voces in British universities are by no means a rubber stamp. Whilst many (perhaps most) theses are passed with some minor corrections or revisions required by the examiners, very few are passed with no corrections whatsoever, and indeed a pass-without-correction is considered a particular honour. Moreover, it is not uncommon for British theses to be failed, as well — in which case, either major re-writes are required, followed by a new viva, or else the thesis may be awarded the lesser degree of M.Phil (Master of Philosophy) instead.

Comparative value

A Ph.D. does not confer commensurate advantage in every sphere. For example, many commercial organizations regard a professional Master's degree, such as an MBA, or professional designation, such as CPA, as the highest level of education that is desirable. It is not uncommon in engineering fields in the US for individuals to omit any mention of an earned Ph.D. in their resume when job hunting, to avoid the stigma of being considered all book learning bound, and unable to accomplish practical engineering tasks successfully. Traditional views of the value of academic study in commerce are changing but scepticism about the commercial value of a Ph.D. prevails. Medical schools may offer research Ph.D. degrees as part of their M.D. programs, although an M.D. by itself is frequently enough to teach medicine.

Criticism

The Ph.D. is often the topic of scholarly debate and criticism, given its almost exclusive concern with research and publication to the alleged neglect of numerous other faculty responsibilities that include teaching, collegial evaluation, collective and individual curricular planning, etc. Solutions have met with varying degrees of success. In the 1960s, the prestigious Carnegie Foundation helped promote and establish the Doctor of Arts degree as an alternative to the Ph.D. The D.A. degree, with its focus on content specialty, curriculum design, and pedagogy, was designed to help prepare expert teachers in various fields. Its well-defined disciplinary focus makes it different from the Ed.D. (Doctor of Education) while still embracing the Ed.D.'s concern for issues in education. The D.A. continues to be offered in many universities across the United States and in other countries, though a few D.A. programs have since been converted to the Ph.D. model. Still, the D.A. has many steadfast supporters. Other solutions include a re-thinking of the Ph.D. in order to address its perceived shortcomings.

Etymology

There are many other doctoral degrees with different designations, e.g. D.A. (Doctor of Arts), D.M.A. (Doctor of Musical Arts), Ed.D. (Doctor of Education), Th.D. (Doctor of Theology), etc. Johns Hopkins University was the first university in the United States to confer doctoral degrees. First Ph.D. in Business was granted by the University of Chicago in 1920s. In the United Kingdom, Ph.D.s are distinguishable from higher doctorates (such as D.Litt. (Doctor of Letters) or D.Sc. (Doctor of Science), which are issued by a committee on the basis of a long record of research and publication). In German speaking countries and most eastern European countries, the corresponding degree is simply called "Doctor" and is further distinguished by subject area with a Latin suffix (e.g. "Dr.med." - doctor medicinæ - which is not equal to a Ph.D., "Dr.rer.nat - doctor rerum naturalium (Doctor of Science), "Dr.phil." - doctor philosophiæ. For a full list of these titles, see the German entry for Doktor). While the Ph.D. is the most common doctoral degree, and even often (mis)understood to be synonymous with the term “doctorate,” the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) recognize numerous doctoral degrees as equivalent, and do not discriminate between them. Sometimes a university grants an honorary Ph.D. or D.A., or other doctoral degree, with the added designation of honoris causa (Latin for for the sake of honor), or Dr.h.c. In recent years, the term Ph.D. (ABD), an abbreviation for "All But Dissertation", has also come into usage. Seen primarily in the US where significant prerequisite coursework is often a part of the doctoral program, the Ph.D. (ABD) is not an official degree. As an unofficial designation, however, it serves to note when a Ph.D. student has completed all graduate coursework for the doctorate, has passed the cumulative and/or qualifying examinations, has been formally advanced to final candidacy and may have conducted original research, but has not submitted a dissertation to satisfy the final requirement for formal conferral of the Ph.D. degree. In some schools a student can write an additional thesis at this point and receive a Master of Philosophy (MPhil) degree; in others, the MPhil (sometimes Candidate in Philosophy, CPhil) is conferred on an ABD student who has been advanced to candicacy for the Ph.D., having completed all requirements except the doctoral thesis or dissertation.

Bibliography

- Estelle M Phillips and Derek.S. Pugh How to Get a PhD: A Handbook for Students and Their Supervisors ISBN 033520550X,
- MacGillivray, Alex; Potts, Gareth; Raymond, Polly. Secrets of Their Success (London: New Economics Foundation, 2002) Philosophy, Doctor of ja:Ph.D.

Bachelor of Arts

A Bachelor of Arts (B.A. or A.B., from the Latin Artium Baccalaureus) is an undergraduate academic degree awarded for a course or program in the arts and/or sciences.

Duration

A BA program generally lasts three years in the United Kingdom (except Scotland), New Zealand and Australia or four years in the United States. BA programs are increasingly taking about five (rather than four) years to complete in the USA because a student must take more than 12 credit hours a semester (12 hours is considered full-time) in order to complete it in 4 years; college students are increasingly choosing to work either full or part-time and stretch out their college education out a bit more. In Canada, most BA programs last four years, although Quebec universities offer a three-year degree after graduation from a provincial CEGEP programme. Some Canadian universities outside of Quebec offer three-year BA degrees, particularly in British Columbia, Alberta, and Ontario, but these degrees are seen by prospective employers and graduate schools as being less prestigious than their four-year (honours degree) counterparts.

Coursework

In the United States and Canada, a Bachelor of Arts degree usually requires a student to take a majority of their courses (usually 1/2 or 3/4) in the arts, namely social sciences, humanities, music, or fine arts. The curriculum of a traditional Bachelor of Arts degree is centered around providing a well-rounded, liberal arts education. In the United States, colleges and universities often award Bachelor of Arts degrees even to those who pursue a majority of their coursework (i.e., major) in traditional, "hard" science fields such as biology and chemistry. This is particularly common at some prestigious American universities, such as Princeton University, Columbia University, Harvard University, and liberal arts colleges. In the UK, usage varies: most universities maintain an Arts/Science distinction but some, e.g. Oxford and Cambridge traditionally awarded BAs (which automatically leads to an MA after 4 years) to undergraduates regardless of subject. Most of the Ancient universities of Scotland award an MA to arts undergraduates but a BSc to science undergraduates. A Bachelor of Arts receives the designation BA or AB for a major/pass degree and BA(Hons) or AB(Hon) for an honours degree.

Difference between the BA and BS

The Bachelor of Arts (BA) and Bachelor of Science (BS or BSc) are very similar in some countries, in that they are the most common of undergraduate degrees. In the United States and Canada, both degrees consist of a general education component (usually requiring matriculants to take courses in the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, and mathematics). They typically also require students to declare a major, take a certain number of elective courses, and sometimes have basic skills components (such as writing exams or computer proficiency exams). However, in countries that do not require a general education component - such as Australia - the subjects studied are likely to be almost completely different in each degree. The BS typically requires more courses in the major than the BA. Also, the BS tends to be awarded significantly more often in the natural sciences than in the humanities. Finally, the BA is used four times as often by so-called "arts and sciences colleges" than professional/technical schools. Beyond these differences, the variation between the BA and the BS is dependent on the policies of the individual colleges and universities.

EU harmonisation

European Union members states' ministers of education have agreed on a harmonisation of the education cycles within the EU. One part of this agreement is the division into an undergraduate and a graduate level of higher education. Following this so-called "Bologna/Berlin declaration" (see Bologna process for more information), universities in the EU are now in the process of reorganising their courses in order to offer Bachelor and Master degrees. Many universities have already changed to the bachelor/master model, and the others soon will. Subjects of the humanities and social studies can be completed with a BA at an increasing number of universities in Germany already, for example. This means EU countries are giving up their traditional magister or diploma courses to make switching and comparing universities easier. The reason for this rationalisation is because the English magister ("master") and baccalaureus ("bachelor") classifications developed separately from most European countries. For example the baccalaureus is gained at the end of secondary education in some countries. For a fuller explanation of why this is so see Degrees of Oxford University. The BA is supposed to last three/four years, the MA one/two years, but altogether no longer than five years.

December 17

December 17 is the 351st day of the year (352nd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 14 days remaining.

Events

- 283 - St Gaius becomes Pope.
- 384 - St Siricius becomes Pope.
- 1586 - The reign of Emperor Go-Yozei, the 107th imperial ruler of Japan, begins.
- 1637 - The Shimabara Rebellion breaks out in Japan.
- 1777 - France becomes the first nation to recognize the United States.
- 1843 - "A Christmas Carol", a fictional short story by Charles Dickens, is first published.
- 1862 - General Ulysses S. Grant issues General Order No. 11, expelling Jews from Tennessee, Mississippi, and Kentucky.
- 1903 - First powered flight, by the Wright Brothers.
- 1919 - Uruguay becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.
- 1935 - First flight of the Douglas DC-3 airplane.
- 1939 - German battleship Admiral Graf Spee is scuttled by Captain Hans Langsdorff outside Montevideo four days after the Battle of the River Plate.
- 1941 - German siege of Sevastopol begins
- 1944 - Western Defense Command issues proclamation ending requirement of Japanese internment.
- 1944 - In what became known as the Malmédy massacre, around 80 American POW are executed by Waffen-SS troops of Jochen Peiper’s Kampfgruppe.
- 1961 - India seizes Goa from Portugal
- 1961 - A fire at a circus in Niteroi, Brazil kills 323 people.
- 1967 - Harold Holt, Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1908) disappears while swimming near Portsea, Victoria
- 1969 - The U.S. Air Force announces that its UFO investigations have found no evidence of extraterrestrial spacecraft.
- 1969 - SALT I talks begin
- 1970 - My Lai trial begins
- 1970 - Coastal cities events Mass riots in the coastal cities of Poland ended in massacre of shipyard workers in Gdynia
- 1973 - The American Psychiatric Association removes homosexuality from its list of mental illnesses.
- 1978 - The Workers Party of Jamaica is founded by Trevor Munroe.
- 1981 - U.S. army officer James Dozier is abducted by the Red Brigades in Verona, Italy
- 1983 - A fire at a night club in Madrid kills 82.
- 1989 - The first episode of The Simpsons airs on the Fox network
- 1989 - Brazil holds its first free election in 25 years.
- 1989 - Full-scale street manifestations and riots in Timisoara ignite the Romanian Revolution
- 1997 - A chartered Yakovlev-42 from Ukraine crashes into the mountains near Katerini, Greece killing 70
- 1998 - Claudia Benton is murdered in her West University, Texas home by Angel Maturino Resendiz. She is his fifth murder victim in his fourth incident.
- 2002 - A peace accord is signed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
- 2003 - First supersonic flight by Scaled Composites SpaceShipOne
- 2003 - The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, the third and final film in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy, opens in theaters.

Births

- 1239 - Kujo Yoritsugu, Japanese shogun (d. 1256)
- 1267 - Emperor Go-Uda of Japan (d. 1324)
- 1619 - Prince Rupert, Royalist commander in the English Civil War (d. 1682)
- 1632 - Anthony Wood, English antiqurian (d. 1695)
- 1685 - Thomas Tickell, English writer (d. 1740)
- 1706 - Émilie du Châtelet, French mathematician and physicist (d. 1749)
- 1734 - Maria I of Portugal, Portuguese queen (d. 1816)
- 1749 - Domenico Cimarosa, Italian composer (d. 1801)
- 1770 - Ludwig van Beethoven, German Composer (d. 1827)
- 1778 - Humphry Davy, English chemist (d. 1829)
- 1787 - Jan Evangelista Purkyně, Czech anatomist (d. 1869)
- 1796 - Thomas Chandler Haliburton, Canadian novelist (d. 1865)
- 1799 - Titian Peale, American artist (d. 1885)
- 1807 - John Greenleaf Whittier, American poet and abolitionist (d. 1892)
- 1830 - Jules de Goncourt, French publisher (d. 1870)
- 1853 - Herbert Beerbohm Tree, English actor (d. 1917)
- 1853 - Emile Roux, French physician (d. 1933)
- 1859 - Paul César Helleu, French artist (d. 1927)
- 1872 - Mistinguett, French actress and singer (d. 1956)
- 1873 - Ford Madox Ford, English writer (d. 1939)
- 1874 - William Lyon Mackenzie King, tenth Prime Minister of Canada (d. 1950)
- 1887 - Josef Lada, Czech painter (d. 1957)
- 1888 - King Alexander I of Yugoslavia (d. 1934)
- 1892 - Sam Barry, American basketball coach (d. 1950)
- 1893 - Erwin Piscator, German film director (d. 1966)
- 1894 - Arthur Fiedler, American conductor (d. 1979)
- 1901 - Lee Strasberg, Austrian-born actor and director (d. 1982)
- 1903 - Erskine Caldwell, American author (d. 1987)
- 1903 - Ray Noble, English musician
- 1906 - Simo Häyhä, Finnish soldier (d. 2002)
- 1908 - Willard Frank Libby, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1980)
- 1911 - André Claveau, French singer (d. 2003)
- 1916 - Penelope Fitzgerald, English writer (d. 2000)
- 1929 - Jacqueline Hill, British actress (d. 1993)
- 1929 - William Safire, American columnist
- 1930 - Bob Guccione, American magazine publisher
- 1930 - Bob Mathias, American athlete
- 1930 - Armin Mueller-Stahl, German actor
- 1938 - Gordon Lightfoot, Canadian musician
- 1938 - Peter Snell, New Zealand athlete
- 1939 - Eddie Kendricks, American musician (d. 1992)
- 1941 - Gene Clark, American musician (d. 1991)
- 1942 - Paul Butterfield, American musician (d. 1987)
- 1943 - Ron Geesin, Scottish musician
- 1943 - Lauren Hutton, American model and actress
- 1944 - Jack L. Chalker, Canadian novelist
- 1944 - Bernard Hill, English actor
- 1945 - Elvin Hayes, American basketball player
- 1945 - Ernie Hudson, American actor
- 1949 - Paul Rodgers, British singer (Free)
- 1951 - Ken Hitchcock, Canadian hockey coach
- 1955 - Brad Davis, American basketball player
- 1966 - Kristiina Ojuland, Estonian politician
- 1968 - Paul Tracy, Canadian race car driver
- 1970 - Joshua Seth, American voice actor and hypnotist
- 1971 - Antoine Rigaudeau, French basketball player
- 1971 - Alan Khan, South African Radio DJ and breakfast TV host on am2day
- 1973 - Paula Radcliffe, English runner
- 1975 - Nick Dinsmore, American professional wrestler
- 1975 - Milla Jovovich, Ukrainian-born actress and model
- 1979 - J M McDermott, American Fantasy Novelist
- 1981 - Alexander R. Scott, American artist

Deaths

- 1187 - Pope Gregory VIII
- 1195 - Baldwin V, Count of Hainaut (b. 1150)
- 1273 - Jalal al-Din Muhammad Rumi, Persian poet and mystic (b. 1207)
- 1663 - Queen Nzinga of Ndongo and Matamba (b. 1583)
- 1721 - Richard Lumley, 1st Earl of Scarbrough, English statesman (b. 1640)
- 1763 - Frederick Christian, Elector of Saxony (b. 1722)
- 1812 - Kaspar Hauser, German foundling (b. 1812)
- 1830 - Simón Bolívar, Latin American politician and activist (b. 1783)
- 1897 - Alphonse Daudet, French writer (b. 1840)
- 1907 - William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin, Irish-born physicist (b. 1824)
- 1909 - King Léopold II of Belgium (b. 1835)
- 1917 - Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, English physician (b. 1836)
- 1957 - Dorothy L. Sayers, English writer (b. 1893)
- 1964 - Victor Franz Hess, Austrian-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1883)
- 1987 - Irving Allen, American producer (b. 1916)
- 1987 - Marguerite Yourcenar, Belgian novelist (b. 1903)
- 1992 - Dana Andrews, American actor (b. 1909)
- 1998 - Claudia Benton, Peruvian child psychologist (b. 1959)
- 1999 - Grover Washington Jr., American musician (b. 1943)
- 2003 - Ed Devereaux, Australian actor (b. 1925)
- 2003 - Otto Graham, American football player (b. 1921)

Holidays and observances

- National Day in Bhutan (1907)
- Roman Empire - Saturnalia, in honor of Saturn, began.
- Wright Brothers Day-US (by Presidential Proclamation)

External links

- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/17 BBC: On This Day] ---- December 16 - December 18 - November 17 - January 17 -- listing of all days ko:12월 17일 ms:17 Disember ja:12月17日 simple:December 17 th:17 ธันวาคม

July 22

22 July is the 203rd day (204th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 162 days remaining.

Events

- 1298 - Battle of Falkirk - Edward I (Longshanks) of England and his longbowmen defeat William Wallace and his scottish schiltrons outside the town.
- 1499 - Battle of Dornach - The Swiss decisively defeat the Imperial army of Emperor Maximilian I.
- 1587 - Colony of Roanoke: A second group of English settlers arrive on Roanoke Island off of North Carolina to re-establish the deserted colony.
- 1793 - Alexander Mackenzie reaches the Pacific Ocean becoming the first Euro-American to complete a transcontinental crossing north of Mexico.
- 1796 - Surveyors of the Connecticut Land Company name an area in Ohio "Cleveland" after Gen. Moses Cleaveland, the superintendent of the surveying party.
- 1805 - Napoleonic Wars: War of the Third Coalition - inconclusive battle of Cape Finisterre fought between a combined French and Spanish fleets under Admiral Pierre-Charles Villeneuve of Spain and a British fleet under Admiral Robert Calder.
- 1812 - Napoleonic Wars: Peninsular War - Battle of Salamanca - British forces led by Arthur Wellesley (later the Duke of Wellington) defeat French troops near Salamanca, Spain.
- 1864 - American Civil War: Battle of Atlanta - Outside of Atlanta, Georgia, Confederate General John Bell Hood leads an unsuccessful attack on Union troops under General William T. Sherman on Bald Hill.
- 1908 - Albert Fisher establishes the Fisher Body Company to manufacture carriage and automobile bodies.
- 1916 - In San Francisco, California, a bomb explodes on Market Street during a Preparedness Day parade killing 10 and injuring 40.
- 1933 - Wiley Post becomes first person to fly solo around the world traveling 15,596 miles in 7 days, 18 hours and 45 minutes.
- 1934 - Outside Chicago's Biograph Theatre, "Public Enemy No. 1" John Dillinger is mortally wounded by FBI agents.
- 1937 - New Deal: The United States Senate votes down President Franklin D. Roosevelt's proposal to add more justices to the Supreme Court of the United States.
- 1942 - The United States government begins compulsory civilian gasoline rationing due to the wartime demands.
- 1942 - Holocaust: The systematic deportation of Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto begins.
- 1943 - Allied forces capture the Italian city of Palermo.
- 1944 - The Polish Committee of National Liberation publishes its manifesto, starting the period of Communist rule in Poland
- 1946 - King David Hotel bombing: Irgun bombs King David Hotel in Jerusalem, headquarters of the British civil and military administration, killing 90.
- 1962 - Mariner program: Mariner 1 spacecraft flies erratically several minutes after launch and has to be destroyed.
- 1977 - Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping is restored to power.
- 1991 - Serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer is arrested after the remains of 11 men and boys are found in his Milwaukee apartment.
- 1992 - Near Medellín, Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar escapes from his luxury prison fearing extradition to the United States.
- 1997 - The second Blue Water Bridge opens between Port Huron, Michigan and Sarnia, Ontario.
- 2002 - Israel assasinates Salah Shahade, the Commander-in-Chief of Hamas's military arm, Ezzedeen-al-qassam Brigades, along with 14 civilians.
- 2003 - Members of 101st Airborne of the United States, aided by Special Forces, attack a compound in Iraq, killing Saddam Hussein's sons Uday and Qusay, along with Mustapha Hussein, Qusay's 14-year old son, and a bodyguard.
- 2005 - A man is shot dead by police as the hunt begins for the London Bombers. See 7 July 2005 London bombings and 21 July 2005 London bombings
- 2005 - Microsoft releases the final name for its next-gen operating system, Longhorn. The name will be "Windows Vista".

Births

- 1210 - Joan of England, queen of Alexander II of Scotland (d. 1238)
- 1478 - King Philip I of Castile (d. 1506)
- 1510 - Alessandro de' Medici, Duke of Florence (d. 1537)
- 1519 - Pope Innocent IX (d. 1591)
- 1535 - Katarina Stenbock, queen of Gustav I of Sweden (d. 1621)
- 1559 - Lawrence of Brindisi, Italian monk (d. 1619)
- 1621 - Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury, English politician (d. 1683)
- 1711 - Georg Wilhelm Richmann, Russian physicist (d. 1753)
- 1713 - Jacques-Germain Soufflot, French architect (d. 1780)
- 1733 - Mikhail Shcherbatov, Russian philosopher and writer (d. 1790)
- 1784 - Friedrich Bessel, German mathematician and astronomer (d. 1846)
-