Top stories of 2018 – Jan.-June

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JANUARY 2018

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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 30/12/2018 (1914 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

JANUARY 2018

1 – DeMar DeRozan scored a career-high and Toronto Raptors franchise single-game record 52 points in a 131-127 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks in overtime.

1 – J.T. Miller’s overtime goal lifted the hometown Rangers to a 3-2 victory over the Buffalo Sabres in the NHL Winter Classic at Citi Field in New York.

1 – Ontario’s minimum wage jumped to $14 an hour from $11.60 as part of the Liberal government’s labour reforms. A further scheduled increase to $15 in January 2019 was cancelled by the new Progressive Conservative government that was elected in June.

3 – The board of directors of the Toronto-based Soulpepper Theatre Company relieved prominent co-founder and artistic director Albert Schultz of his duties after he was accused of sexual assault and harassment.

4 – Conservative leader Andrew Scheer removed Sen. Lynn Beyak from the party caucus after she refused to remove “racist” comments posted to her Senate website. The comments were include in letters expressing support for Beyak’s earlier defence of the residential school system. Scheer said in a statement that racism would not be tolerated in the party.

4 – Ray Thomas, a founding member of British rock group The Moody Blues, died at age 76. No cause of death was given, but Thomas disclosed in 2014 that he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer.

5 – Tyler Steenbergen broke a tie with 1:40 left as Canada beat Sweden 3-1 to win the world junior hockey championship in Buffalo.

5 – Actor Jerry Van Dyke, the younger brother of Dick Van Dyke who was best known for his role as the dim-witted sidekick in television’s “Coach,” died at age 86.

5 – Legendary American astronaut John Young, the ninth man to walk on the moon who later commanded the first space shuttle flight, died at age 87 following complications from pneumonia.

5 – Former NHL referee Bruce Hood died of prostate cancer at age 81. Hood officiated 1,033 regular-season games, 157 playoff games, three All-Star games and three Canada Cups. He was instrumental in the formation of the NHL Officials Association in 1969.

8 – Federal ethics commissioner Mary Dawson cleared Finance Minister Bill Morneau of allegations that he and his father benefited from insider information to save half a million dollars on the 2015 sale of shares in their family-built company Morneau Shepell. The sale that came just days ahead of a major tax announcement that critics said triggered a dip in the stock.

8 – Quarterback Tua Tagovailoa came off the bench to spark a second-half comeback and threw a game-ending 41-yard TD pass to DeVonta Smith that gave No. 4 Alabama a 26-23 overtime victory against No. 3 Georgia in the U.S. College Football Playoff national championship.

8 – Winnipeg-born actor Donnelly Rhodes, best-known in Canada for his roles in “Sidestreet” and “Da Vinci’s Inquest,” died of cancer. He was 80.

9 – Same-sex couples married across Australia after the country’s last legal impediment to gay marriage expired just after midnight.

9 – Breitbart News Network announced that former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon would step down as executive chairman of the conservative news site after a public break with U-S President Donald Trump for comments made in “Fire and Fury,” an explosive book by Michael Wolff that questioned the president’s fitness for office.

10 – Guitarist Fast Eddie Clarke, the last surviving member of British hard rock band Motorhead’s classic lineup, died in hospital after being treated for pneumonia. He was 67.

12 – American sportscaster Keith Jackson, who laid down the soundtrack to Saturday for a generation of U.S. college football fans with phrases such as his signature “Whoa, Nellie!” died at age 89. From the World Series to the Olympics, the NFL and the NBA, he did it all over a career spanning five decades.

13 – A cellphone and TV alert mistakenly sent by a Hawaii emergency official that warned a ballistic missile was headed for the state sent the islands into a panic. It took security officials 38 minutes to correct the error.

14 – Sears Canada shuttered its few remaining stores for good. The longtime staple of Canada’s retail landscape declared bankruptcy in 2017 and announced that it would liquidate inventory and lay off its remaining 15,000 employees.

15 – Gospel singer Edwin Hawkins, best known for the crossover hit “Oh Happy Day” and as a major force for modern gospel music, died at age 74. He had been suffering from pancreatic cancer.

15 – Dolores O’Riordan, who helped make Irish rock band The Cranberries a global success in the 1990s, died suddenly in London at age 46. An inquest later found she drowned after drinking. The Cranberries’ hits included “Linger” and ”Zombie.”

17 – The Bank of Canada raised its trend-setting interest rate a quarter point to 1.25 per cent.

18 – Bruce McArthur, a 66-year-old self-employed landscaper, was arrested and charged with first-degree murder in the presumed deaths of two men who disappeared from Toronto’s gay village in 2017. He was later charged with six more counts of first-degree murder after police discovered dismembered skeletal remains hidden at the bottom of large planters at a Toronto home and in a ravine behind the residence.

19 – A Quebec jury found former railway employees Tom Harding, Richard Labrie and Jean Demaitre not guilty of criminal negligence causing death in the 2013 rail disaster that claimed 47 lives in the small community of Lac-Megantic when a runaway train carrying crude oil derailed and exploded.

20 – Taliban militants stormed the luxury Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul, killing 18 people, including 14 foreigners. Afghanistan security forces killed six militants to end the 13-hour overnight siege.

23 – Legendary South African jazz musician and anti-apartheid activist Hugh Masekela died after a decade-long fight with cancer. He was 78.

23 – At 33 years, 24 days old, Cleveland Cavaliers star LeBron James surpassed Kobe Bryant as the youngest player in NBA history to score 30,000 career regular-season points.

23 – A New York federal court ruled the civil rights anthem “We Shall Overcome,” which had been quoted by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and was made popular by folk singer Pete Seeger, is part of public domain. Song publisher Ludlow Music had claimed ownership of the song based on a copyright filed in 1960. The ruling came in a lawsuit filed by the We Shall Overcome Foundation, a group that wanted to make a documentary about the song, and Butler Films.

23 – Major League Baseball suspended Houston Astros pitcher Dean Deetz for the first 80 games of the year after testing positive for a performance-enhancing substance.

24 – Nova Scotia Progressive Conservative Leader Jamie Baillie was forced to resign after an investigation found he acted inappropriately and breached the legislature’s policy on workplace sexual harassment.

25 – Ontario Progressive Conservative leader Patrick Brown stepped down amid allegations of sexual misconduct involving two women dating back to his time as a federal M-P. Brown vehemently denied the allegations but the party later rejected his bid to run in the subsequent leadership race and in the riding he was nominated in for the June provincial election.

25 – Liberal MP Kent Hehr resigned from the federal cabinet after the sport and disabilities minister was accused of making inappropriate sexual remarks while he was an Alberta MLA a decade earlier.

25 – Tommy Banks, a renowned Edmonton jazz pianist and former senator, died at the age of 81. He hosted “The Tommy Banks Show” and numerous other TV programs from 1968-83 and performed around the world. Banks was a member of the senate from 2000 until 2011.

26 – A New Brunswick judge ordered the RCMP to pay $550,000 for failing to properly arm and train its members in Moncton in responding to an active shooter event. The Labour Code charges were laid after a gunman went on a shooting rampage in June 2014 that left three Mounties dead and two wounded.

27 – Scott Moe was elected leader of the Saskatchewan Party, replacing three-term premier Brad Wall who announced his retirement in August 2017.

27 – Caroline Wozniacki won her first Grand Slam title in defeating top-seeded Simona Halep in three-sets at the Australian Open.

27 – IKEA founder Ingvar Kamprad died at age 91. He turned a small-scale mail order business he founded at age 17 on his family’s farm into a furniture empire by letting customers piece together simple and inexpensive furniture themselves.

27 – A Taliban suicide bomber killed 103 people and injured 235 others in Kabul by driving an ambulance filled with explosives through a security checkpoint and detonating it in the heart of the Afghan capital near government buildings.

27 – A U.S. federal copyright board raised the music streaming royalties for songwriters and music publishers from 10.5 per cent to 15.1 per cent to narrow the financial divide separating them from recording labels.

27 – Major League Baseball suspended Pittsburgh Pirates sophomore pitcher Nik Turley for the first 80 games of the year after testing positive for the performance-enhancing substance Ipamorelin.

28 – Roger Federer beat Marin Cilic in five sets to win his sixth Australian Open title and boost his career record Grand Slam men’s singles titles to 20. Ottawa’s Gabriela Dabrowski and her Croatian partner Mate Pavic won the mixed doubles title.

28 – Vancouver Canucks rookie Brock Boeser helped the Pacific Division defeat the Atlantic Division 5-2 to win the NHL All-Star game in Tampa. Boeser was named game MVP.

28 – Tennessee Titans tight end Delanie Walker caught two TD passes, including an 18-yarder with 1:31 remaining, as the AFC rallied to beat the NFC 24-23 in a rain-soaked Pro Bowl in Orlando. Walker was voted the offensive MVP and Denver linebacker Von Miller was the defensive MVP.

28 – Bruno Mars won all six Grammys he was nominated for, including album, record and song of the year. Alessia Cara became the first Canadian-born winner of best new artist as she won her first Grammy. The Weeknd’s “Starboy” picked up best urban contemporary album while the late Leonard Cohen won for best rock performance for “You Want It Darker.”

29 – The Cleveland Indians announced the baseball team was removing the divisive Chief Wahoo logo from their jerseys and caps starting in the 2019 season.

30 – Houston point guard James Harden became the first player in NBA history to score 60 points as part of a triple-double as the Rockets beat the Orlando Magic 114-107.

30 – Mark Salling, who played bad-boy Noah “Puck” Puckerman in the hit TV musical-comedy “Glee,” committed suicide just weeks after pleading guilty in U.S. federal court to possessing child pornography. He was 35.

31 – Ontario Superior Court ruled that doctors who have a moral or religious objection to treatments such as assisted dying, contraception or abortions have to refer patients to another doctor who can provide the service.

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FEBRUARY 2018

1 – The Court of Arbitration for Sport overturned IOC suspensions and reinstated results for 28 Russian athletes accused of doping at the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi. The ruling returned medals for seven Russian athletes, including two gold medals.

1 – Dennis Edwards, a former member of the famed Motown group The Temptations, died after a long illness just two days shy of his 75th birthday. Edwards replaced founding member David Ruffin in 1968. He was a member on and off for about two decades and part of the lineup that released “Papa Was A Rollin’ Stone,” ”Ball of Confusion (That’s What The World Is Today)” and “Cloud Nine.”

2 – Former provincial cabinet minister Andrew Wilkinson was elected as the new B.C. Liberal leader a year after the party lost its 16-year grip on power.

4 – The Philadelphia Eagles captured their first Super Bowl title in a thrilling 41-33 victory over the New England Patriots in Minneapolis where both offences combined for a post-season record 1,151 yards. Eagles backup quarterback Nick Foles was named game MVP after he threw for 373 yards and three TDs and even caught a TD pass.

4 – Actor John Mahoney, who played the cranky, blue-collar dad in TV’s “Frasier,” died after a brief hospitalization. He was 77.

6 – SpaceX, the private rocket company run by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, successfully launched its Falcon Heavy rocket that is designed to hoist supersize satellites as well as equipment into space.

6 – Billionaire casino mogul Steve Wynn stepped down as chairman and CEO of the resorts bearing his name as he faced investigations by gambling regulators and allegations of sexual misconduct.

7 – Major League Baseball suspended Washington Nationals catcher Raudy Read for the first 80 games of the year after testing positive for the performance-enhancing substance Boldenone.

9 – The Winter Olympics officially kicked off in Pyeongchang, South Korea. Canada finished third overall with a record 29 medals — 11 gold, eight silver and ten bronze.

9 – A jury in Battleford, Saskatchewan found farmer Gerald Stanley not guilty of second-degree murder in the shooting death of Colten Boushie. The 22-year-old member of the Red Pheasant First Nation died on Stanley’s farm near Biggar in August 2016. The verdict was seen by many as an example of how the justice system fails Indigenous people. Boushie’s relatives met with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his justice and public safety ministers to talk about what they considered a travesty of justice.

11 – Vic Damone, whose mellow baritone and easy-listening romantic ballads brought him million-selling records and sustained a half-century career in recordings, movies and nightclub, concert and television appearances, died at a Miami Beach hospital from complications of a respiratory illness. He was 89.

12 – Marty Allen, the baby-faced, bug-eyed comedian with wild black hair who was a staple of TV variety shows, game shows and talk shows for decades, died at age 95.

13 – Longtime Toronto Blue Jays radio broadcaster Jerry Howarth announced his retirement after 36 years of calling Blue Jays games. The 71-year-old cited health issues that had affected his voice in recent years.

14 – A former student opened fire at a high school in Parkland, Fla., killing 17 people and wounding 14 others. The 19-year-old suspect, who was expelled in 2017 for disciplinary reasons, was taken into custody without a fight about an hour after he left the scene.

14 – Heavy metal pioneers Metallica and Afghanistan’s National Institute of Music won the 2018 Polar Music Prize, Sweden’s most prestigious music award typically shared by popular and classical artists. Metallica was the first heavy metal band to win the prize since its inception in 1992.

16 – Thirty-six-year-old Roger Federer added another highlight to his age-defying career resurgence, returning to the top of the world rankings for the first time in more than five years and becoming the oldest player – male or female – to reach the top spot.

16 – A federal indictment brought by U.S. special counsel Robert Mueller accused 13 Russians of an elaborate plot to disrupt the 2016 presidential election, charging them with running a huge but hidden social media trolling campaign aimed in part at helping Republican Donald Trump defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton. It marked the first criminal charges against Russians believed to have secretly worked to influence the outcome.

16 – Barbara Ann Alston of The Crystals died of the flu at the age of 74. She sang lead on girl group’s hit “There’s No Other (Like My Baby)” and backup on “Da Doo Ron Ron” and “Then He Kissed Me.”

17 – New Brunswick teenager Rebecca Schofield, who turned a terminal prognosis into a social media movement with the hashtag #BeccaToldMeTo that inspired acts of kindness across the globe, died of brain cancer at age 18.

18 – Austin Dillon won the 60th running of the Daytona 500, capturing the race by leading only the final lap after surviving a 12-car melee with two laps remaining.

19 – Nearly four years after the infamous abduction of schoolgirls in Chibok, Nigeria, Islamic extremist group Boko Haram kidnapped another 111 girls from the nearby town of Dapchi. On March 21st, 105 girls were released after negotiations. Five other died during the ordeal, and one girl remained in captivity.

21 – The Rev. Billy Graham, who transformed American religious life through his preaching and activism, becoming a counsellor to presidents and the most widely heard Christian evangelist in history, died at age 99.

22 – After 11 hours of deliberations, a Winnipeg jury acquitted 56-year-old Raymond Cormier of second-degree murder in the death of Indigenous teenager Tina Fontaine. Her body, wrapped in a blanket and weighed down by rocks, was pulled from the Red River eight days after she was reported missing in August 2014.

22 – The Vegas Golden Knights defeated the Calgary Flames 7-3 to earn their 84th point of the year – an NHL record for an expansion team in its inaugural season.

22 – Nanette Fabray, the vivacious actress, singer and dancer who became a star in Broadway musicals and on television, died at age 97. She won a Tony in 1949 for the musical “Love Life” and on TV played Bonnie Franklin’s mother in the hit 1980s sitcom “One Day at a Time.”

23 – Rick Gates, a former senior adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump’s election campaign, pleaded guilty to federal conspiracy and false-statements charges, switching from defendant to co-operating witness in special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe of Trump’s campaign and Russia’s election interference.

26 – Dellen Millard and Mark Smich were sentenced to life with no chance of parole for 25 years after being found guilty in the 2012 death of Laura Babcock of Toronto. The sentences were to be served consecutively to life sentences handed out when both men were earlier also convicted of first degree murder in the 2013 killing of Tim Bosma, a Hamilton man who disappeared after going on a test drive of a pickup truck put up for sale online.

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MARCH 2018

1 – U.S. President Donald Trump announced steep tariffs on steel and aluminum imports to help protect the American economy and project jobs. Canada, Mexico and the European Union were granted a temporary exemption of the tariffs of 25 per cent on steel and 10 per cent on aluminum that took effect March 23, but that exemption came to an end as June 1.

1 – The Recording Industry Association of America announced that Twenty One Pilots’ 14-track album “Blurryface” had become the first album since the advent of digital sales and streams to have every song certified at least gold. “Hometown” was the last song to cross over into gold territory.

2 – Canadian Country Music Hall-of-Famer Ronnie Prophet died at age 80. He recorded more than 25 albums and charted five singles during the 1970s on the Billboard Country charts, including Sanctuary and Shine On. He was also named country male vocalist of the year at the Juno awards in 1978 and 1979.

2 – A destructive nor’easter pounded coastal areas from Maryland to Maine with hurricane-force winds and sideways-blown rain and snow. The storm flooded coastal towns, downed trees and power lines, and was blamed for nine deaths. At the height of the storm, more than two million homes and businesses were without electricity.

2 – A serial bomber began his reign of terror in the Texas capital of Austin when a package bomb killed a 39-year-old man. Four more bombings in the coming weeks killed a 17-year-old boy and injured four others. On March 21, the suspect detonated an explosive device inside his vehicle as authorities closed in.

3 – Roger Bannister, who as a lanky medical student at Oxford in 1954 electrified the sports world and lifted postwar England’s spirits when he became the first athlete to run a mile in under 4 minutes, died at age 88.

3 – David Ogden Stiers, a prolific actor best known for playing aristocratic surgeon Maj. Charles Winchester III on the TV series “M.A.S.H.”, died after battling bladder cancer. He was 75.

3 – Family physician Ryan Meili was elected Saskatchewan NDP leader. Meili had entered politics in March 2017, winning a provincial byelection in Saskatoon after two previous failed bids for the party leadership.

4 – The Cold War-era merman romance “The Shape of Water” won the Academy Award for best picture. The movie filmed in Hamilton and Toronto was produced by Canadian J. Miles Dale and Guillermo del Toro, who also won for best director. Frances McDormand was named as best actress for “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” while Gary Oldman took the best actor award for his portrayal of Winston Churchill in “Darkest Hour.”

4 – Five months of political uncertainty in Germany came to an end when Chancellor Angela Merkel gained the needed support of the Social Democrats to remain in a coalition with her conservative bloc, ending the longest time Germany had been without a new government after elections in its postwar history.

4 – Russell Solomon, founder of the Tower Records chain that became an international phenomenon, died at age 92. He first began selling music as a teenager out of his father’s Sacramento drug store in 1941 and eventually grew the business into a global chain operating 271 stores and selling a billion dollars worth of records at its height in the 1990s. It filed for bankruptcy protection for a second time and was liquidated in 2006.

4 – Former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found unconscious on a bench in the city of Salisbury, England. The British government said they were the victims of a military-grade Russian nerve agent. The attempted murders prompted the biggest Western expulsion of Russian diplomats since the Cold War as Britain and 18 other countries, including Canada, later expelled over 100 Russian diplomats. Russia responded by expelling Western diplomats.

8 – A new $10 bill featuring civil rights icon Viola Desmond was unveiled by Finance Minister Bill Morneau and Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz at a ceremony in Halifax. Desmond became the first black person – and the first non-royal woman – to appear on a regularly circulating Canadian bank note.

8 – Canada and the other 10 members of the old Trans-Pacific Partnership signed a revised trade agreement, just over one year after U-S President Donald Trump withdrew his country from the original 12-nation deal. The new trade pact was renamed the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership.

9 – Democratic Institutions Minister Karina Gould announced the birth of her days-old son, becoming the first federal cabinet minister to give birth while in office.

9 – A B.C. judge rejected a challenge of Canada’s polygamy laws that was launched after two men were found guilty of the offence in July 2017. Winston Blackmore and James Oler were found guilty in B.C. Supreme Court of having multiple wives, but a lawyer for Blackmore had argued the law infringed on the charter right to freedom of religion and expression.

9 – Martin Shrkeli, the American pharmaceutical executive dubbed “Pharma Bro” who was vilified for jacking up the price of a lifesaving HIV drug, was sentenced in a New York federal court to seven years in prison for defrauding investors in two failed hedge funds.

9 – Cross-country skier Brian McKeever carried the Canadian Flag at the opening ceremony of the Pyeongchang Paralympic Games. Canada finished third overall with a national record 28 medals — eight gold, four silver and 16 bronze.

9 – Brenda Lucki was named as the new commissioner of the RCMP. The 31-year veteran of the force was the first woman to ever be permanently appointed as its leader.

10 – Former Toronto city councillor Doug Ford narrowly defeated former Tory legislator Christine Elliott in the Ontario Progressive Conservative party’s leadership race. Elliott initially disputed the results, but conceded defeat the next day.

10 – Canadian Robert Wickens became only the third driver since 1993 to win the pole for his IndyCar debut. The next day, he led the St. Petersburg race for 69 of the 110 laps until contact with Alexander Rossi on a restart took him out of contention and he finished a heartbreaking 18th. Sebastien Bourdais won the event for the second straight time.

10 – Major League Baseball suspended Kansas City Royals sophomore outfielder Jorge Bonifacio for the first 80 games of the year after testing positive for the performance-enhancing substance Boldenone.

10 – French couturier Hubert de Givenchy, a pioneer of ready-to-wear who was among an elite cadre of Paris-based designers who redefined fashion after the Second World War, died at age 91.

11 – At the Canadian Screen Awards, “Maudie,” starring Sally Hawkins as real-life Nova Scotia folk artist Maud Lewis and Ethan Hawke as her fish peddler husband, took a leading seven film trophies, including best picture as well as best actress for Hawkins and best supporting actor for Hawke.

11 – Brad Gushue of Newfoundland and Labrador earned his second consecutive Canadian men’s curling championship when his final stone drew the button for a 6-4 victory over Alberta’s Brendan Bottcher.

11 – Paul Casey rallied from five shots back and closed with a 6-under 65 to win the Valspar Championship by one shot over Tiger Woods and Patrick Reed. Corey Conners, the Canadian rookie who started the final round with a one-shot lead, shot six-over and tied for 16th.

11 – Golfer Jerry Anderson, the first Canadian to win on the European Tour after he shot a 27-under par at the Ebel European Masters – Swiss Open in 1984, died at the age of 62. He also competed on the PGA Tour in 1990 and 1992 and won the Nationwide Tour’s Ben Hogan Texarkana Open in 1991.

12 – Suspended music director emeritus James Levine, whose 46-year career at the Metropolitan Opera in New York established him as a towering figure in classical music, was fired by the company after an investigation found evidence of sexual abuse and harassment.

12 – Nokie Edwards, the influential lead guitarist for the “surf rock” pioneers The Ventures, died at age 82. The group helped create the driving, twangy surf sound that influenced the Beach Boys and were best known for the hits “Walk, Don’t Run” and the theme for the TV show “Hawaii Five-O.”

12 – Washington Capitals superstar Alex Ovechkin scored twice to reach 600 regular season goals, becoming the 20th player and fourth-fastest in NHL history to reach that milestone in fewer than 1,000 games.

13 – U.S. President Donald Trump ousted Rex Tillerson as secretary of state, tweeting in a surprise morning announcement that Tillerson would be replaced by CIA director Mike Pompeo.

14 – Renowned theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, whose brilliant mind ranged across time and space though his body was paralyzed by ALS, died at age 76. Hawking wrote so lucidly of the mysteries of space, time and black holes that his book, “A Brief History of Time,” became an international bestseller, making him one of science’s biggest celebrities since Albert Einstein.

14 – Tens of thousands of students from Maine to Hawaii walked out of their classrooms to demand action on gun violence and school safety in the wake of the Feb. 14 massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.

15 – A newly built pedestrian bridge at the Florida International University in Miami collapsed while undergoing stress tests, falling onto a busy six-lane highway, crushing cars and killing six people. The $14.2 million project was supposed to take advantage of a faster, cheaper and safer method of bridge-building promoted by the university.

15 – University of Maryland-Baltimore County beat Virginia 74-54 to become the first No. 16 seed to knock off a No. 1 at March Madness, the U.S. college men’s basketball tournament. Previously, No. 1 seeds were a combined 135-0.

15 – Toys R Us sought court approval to liquidate its remaining 735 stores in the U.S., a day after its U.K. counterpart announced it would shutter all 75 locations in the country. The last U.S stores closed on June 29. Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. bought the 82 stores in Canada for $300 million.

17 – Mike MacDonald, a pioneer of the Canadian standup comedy scene, died from heart complications at the Ottawa Heart Institute. He was 63. MacDonald was a regular on the Just for Laughs stage and also appeared on several American shows, including “Late Show with David Letterman” and “The Arsenio Hall Show.” He also starred in multiple CBC and Showtime specials.

17 – China’s legislature unanimously approved the reappointment of Communist Party Leader Xi Jinping as president with no term limit.

17 – Cambridge Analytica, a voter-profiling firm based in the U.K., was reported to have improperly harvested Facebook data of some 87 million users, including 622,000 in Canada, in order to help manipulate the outcomes in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Canadian Christopher Wylie, a former Cambridge Analytics employee, emerged as a primary source for one of the reports in the New York Times. Facebook drew continued criticism for its alleged inaction to protect users’ privacy and lost over US$70 billion in market value. Cambridge Analytica filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection in May to liquidate operations.

18 – Vladimir Putin rolled to a crushing re-election victory for another six-year term as Russia’s president.

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

20 – Former Beatles drummer Ringo Starr received his long-awaited knighthood from Prince William. He used his real name Richard Starkey for the big event.

20 – Former Liberal MP Judy Foote was named the next lieutenant-governor of Newfoundland and Labrador, making her the first woman to serve as the Queen’s representative in the province. Janet Austin, CEO of the Metro Vancouver YWCA, was named B.C.’s next lieutenant-governor.

20 – A N.L. Supreme Court judge ruled the Roman Catholic Episcopal Corporation of St. John’s is not liable for abuse at the notorious Mount Cashel orphanage in the 1950s because a senior priest likely didn’t believe boys who reported it. One of the lawyers representing many of the more than 80 plaintiffs swiftly announced plans to appeal.

20 – Chris Janson was inducted into the Grand Ole Opry at age 31, becoming its youngest member.

21 – W. Thomas Molloy, a lawyer, treaty negotiator and former chancellor of the University of Saskatchewan, was sworn in as Saskatchewan’s 22nd lieutenant-governor.

21 – The Just For Laughs company was sold to an investor group led by Canadian-born comedian Howie Mandel and U.S. talent agency ICM Partners. In October 2017, the company was rocked after several women came forward with allegations of sexual assault and sexual harassment against its founder and majority stakeholder, Gilbert Rozon, who stepped down as president and said he would sell his shares.

21 – Breaking five days of silence, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg apologized for a “major breach of trust,” admitted mistakes and outlined steps to protect user data in light of a privacy scandal involving the Trump-connected data-mining firm Cambridge Analytica.

23 – An Isamic extremist gunman killed four hostages being held in a supermarket in France, including a police officer who took the place of a female hostage. Earlier in the day, the gunman had shot at six police officers who were out jogging, injuring one.

23 – Kaetlyn Osmond became the fourth Canadian to win the women’s world figure skating championship, and the first since Karen Magnussen in 1973.

23 – Giant pandas Da Mao and Er Shun, and their Toronto-born cubs Jia Panpan and Jia Yueyue, departed from the Toronto Zoo and arrived in Calgary to prepare for a five-year stay to complete a 10-year loan from China.

24 – Hundreds of thousands of teenagers and their supporters rallied in Washington for the March for Our Lives, a student-led movement to urge U.S. lawmakers to enact tougher gun control that was galvanized by the Parkland, Fla., high school massacre. Companion marches took place in hundreds of other American cities, over a dozen Canadian cities, as well as London, Paris, Munich, Sydney, Tokyo and Edinburgh.

25 – At the Juno Awards broadcast gala, the late Gord Downie won artist of the year, Shawn Mendes grabbed the Juno Fan Choice award, while Montreal rockers Arcade Fire scored album of the year for “Everything Now.” Jessie Reyez won breakthrough artist of the year. Barenaked Ladies, accompanied by former bandmate Steven Page, were inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame.

25 – Canada’s Jennifer Jones completed a perfect run at the world women’s curling championship with a 7-6 extra end victory over Sweden in the gold medal game.

26 – Canada joined the U.S. and several European countries in expelling over 100 Russian diplomats following a nerve-agent attack in the United Kingdom early in March that left a former Russian spy and his daughter in critical condition.

26 – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau formally exonerated six Tsilhqot’in chiefs who were hanged by B.C.’s colonial government following a deadly confrontation with white road builders during the so-called “Chilcotin War of 1864.”

27 – Songwriter Kenny O’Dell died at age 73. He wrote the 1973 Grammy-winning Best Country Song “Behind Closed Doors” for Charlie Rich and the 1984 Grammy-nominated Song of the Year “Mama He’s Crazy” for The Judds.

28 – The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops released a letter saying Pope Francis felt he could not personally apologize to Canada’s Indigenous communities for the Catholic Church’s part in residential schools and the trauma experienced by their students. A papal apology was one of 94 recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The conference later issued a background paper suggesting that under the church’s decentralized structure, it was best for Canadian bishops to pursue engagement and reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples.

28 – A judge accepted guilty pleas Alexandre Bissonnette on six counts of first-degree murder and six of attempted murder in connection with the January 2017 attack on a mosque in Quebec City.

29 – Houston Astros George Springer became the first major leaguer to hit a leadoff homer in the season opener for the second year in a row.

30 – LeBron James recorded his 867th consecutive game with at least 10 points, breaking Michael Jordan’s NBA record set between 1986-2001. James began his streak on Jan. 6, 2007.

30 – Noor Salman, the widow of the gunman who killed 49 people at a gay Orlando nightclub, was acquitted on charges of lying to the FBI and helping her husband in the 2016 attack.

31 – Canadian Steve Nash, Jason Kidd and Grant Hill were among the 13-member class to be inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in September. The Hall of Fame made the announcement on Twitter. Nash, from Victoria, was a two-time NBA most valuable player and eight-time all-star while Kidd earned 10 all-star selections. Other inductees were Ray Allen, Maurice Cheeks, Tina Thompson, coach Lefty Driesell, Charlie Scott, longtime executive Rick Welts, NBA executive Rod Thorn, Katie Smith, the late Ora Mae Washington and Croatian star Dino Radja.

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APRIL 2018

1 – Emmy Award-winning writer-producer Steven Bochco, who created the groundbreaking police drama “Hill Street Blues,” died after a battle with cancer. He was 74. Bochco created several other hit television shows including “L.A. Law,” ”NYPD Blue,” and “Doogie Howser, M.D.”

1 – Arike Ogunbowale’s 3-point buzzer beater lifted Notre Dame to a 61-58 victory over Mississippi State for its second NCAA women’s basketball title.

1 – Former Guatemalan dictator Efrain Rios Montt died at age 91. He seized power in a 1982 coup and presided over one of the bloodiest periods of the country’s civil war as soldiers waged a scorched-earth campaign to root out Marxist guerrillas.

2 – China’s defunct Tiangong 1 space station mostly burned up on re-entry into the atmosphere over the central South Pacific Ocean.

2 – Donte DiVincenzo’s 31-point effort led Villanova over Michigan 79-62 to win its second NCAA men’s basketball championship in three years.

2 – Vancouver Canucks’ superstar twins Henrik and Daneil Sedin announced plans to retire at the end the regular season, ending a 17-year career that saw them become the team’s career points leaders and the only brothers in NHL history to register 1,000 points each.

2 – Washington Capitals superstar Alexander Ovechkin played in his 1,000th career regular season game.

2 – Canadian rapper Drake became the first lead male performer to have two 10-week No. 1s on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. “God’s Plan” remained atop the chart since debuting there in late January, while “One Dance” featuring WizKid and Kyla reigned for 10 weeks in 2016.

3 – TV and film industry veteran Catherine Tait was appointed president and chief executive of CBC/Radio-Canada, becoming the first woman to head the organization since it was founded in 1952.

5 – A four-month-old baby girl died and 14 others suffering from influenza-like symptoms were taken to hospital from a crowded home on the Wesley First Nation, one of three reserves that make up the Stoney Nakoda First Nation about 60 kilometres west of Calgary.

6 – Sixteen people were killed when the Humboldt Broncos team bus collided with a transport truck at a rural intersection near Tisdale, Saskatchewan. The victims included 10 players on the junior hockey team, the head coach and assistant coach, radio announcer, statistician and trainer as well as the bus driver. Thirteen others were injured in the crash, which prompted an outpouring of support from around the world. A GoFundMe page for the victims and their families raised over $15 million, the largest ever in Canada.

7 – U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced a zero tolerance policy requiring all adult migrants illegally crossing the southwest border to be criminally prosecuted. Homeland Security later reported 2,342 children were separated from 2,206 adults from May 5 to June 9.

6 – Former South Korean President Park Geun-hye was formally convicted of an array of corruption charges and sentenced to 24 years in prison, a year after she was driven from office and arrested over a scandal that saw months of massive street rallies calling for her ouster.

6 – The Toronto Raptors clinched the No. 1 seed in the NBA’s Eastern Conference, a first in franchise history, and set a team record for regular season wins at 57. They ended the regular season with 59 wins.

7 – A poison gas attack in the rebel-held Damascus suburb of Douma killed 40 people. The U.S. later said it had proof the gruesome attack was carried out by the Syrian regime. On April 14, the U.S., Britain and France blasted three Syrian government targets with 105 cruise missiles in retaliation.

8 – Patrick Reed captured his first major, sinking a 3-foot par putt on the 18th hole to win the Masters by one stroke over Ricky Fowler.

8 – Sweden’s Niklas Edin won the gold medal at the men’s world curling championship, defeating Canada’s Brad Gushue 7-3.

8 – Kinder Morgan Canada suspended all non-essential activities and related spending on the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion in the face of mounting opposition from the B.C. government. The expansion, which would triple the amount of oil flowing from Alberta to Burnaby, B.C. for shipment to overseas markets, was approved by the federal government in 2016.

10 – Seventeen-year-old Canadian swimmer Taylor Ruck picked up her eighth medal (one gold, five silver and two bronze) at the Commonwealth Games in Australia, tying the record for the most medals at a single games set by Australian swimmers Susie O’Neill in 1998 and Emily Seebohm in 2010.

11 – An Algerian military plane carrying soldiers and their families crashed soon after takeoff into a field 30 kilometres south of Algiers, killing 257 people in the worst aviation disaster in the country’s history.

11 – Philadelphia 76ers rookie point guard Markelle Fultz became the youngest player in NBA history with a triple-double at 19 years and 317 days.

12 – Two black men were arrested for sitting at a Philadelphia Starbucks without ordering anything. Rashon Nelson and Donte Robinson were accused of trespassing after the manager called police, touching off a furor around the U.S. over racial profiling. They later settled with the city for a symbolic one-dollar each and a promise from officials to set up a $200,000 program for young entrepreneurs. Starbucks also closed stores in the U.S. on May 29 so nearly 175,000 employees could get training in unconscious bias.

12 – A law took effect in Alberta allowing turban-wearing Sikhs to ride motorcycles without helmets. It became the third province to make the exemption after B.C. and Manitoba.

13 – Academy Award-winning Czech-American filmmaker Milos Forman died at age 86. He won best directing Oscars for “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” and “Amadeus.”

14 – New Jersey rockers Bon Jovi, The Cars and four first-time nominees – Nina Simone, Dire Straits, The Moody Blues and Sister Rosetta Tharpe – were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

14 – Canadian Brooke Henderson won her sixth career LPGA Tour tournament with a four-stroke victory at the Lotte Championship in Hawaii.

15 – The Commonwealth Games in Australia came to an end with Canada finishing third overall with 15 gold, 40 silver and 27 bronze medals. While Canada’s total number of medals did not change from Glasgow in 2014, the number of golds plummeted from 31 to 15.

15 – At the Academy of Country Music Awards, Miranda Lambert won three awards, including her ninth consecutive victory as female vocalist of the year. That made her the most decorated act in ACM history with 32 wins.

16 – Canadian figure skater Patrick Chan announced his retirement after more than a decade on the world stage. He won Olympic gold in the team event at Pyeongchang, a pair of silver medals at the Sochi Games, three world titles and was the Canadian championship a record 10 times.

16 – Rapper Kendrick Lamar won the Pulitzer Prize for music, the first non-classical or jazz work to win the prestigious prize, for his raw and powerful Grammy-winning album “DAMN.”

16 – Harry Anderson, the actor best known for playing an off-the-wall judge in the TV series “Night Court,” was found dead in his home in North Carolina. He was 65.

17 – Former U.S. first lady Barbara Bush died at age 92. The spouse of one president and the mother of another was a long-time campaigner for social justice.

17 – The Vegas Golden Knights defeated the Los Angeles Kings 1-0, making them the first expansion team in NHL history to sweep its first playoff series.

17 – A Southwest Airlines flight was forced to make an emergency landing in Philadelphia after an engine exploded, damaging the fuselage and fatally injuring a female passenger who was partially sucked out of a window broken by shrapnel.

18 – Bruno Sammartino, one of the greatest icons in the history of professional wrestling, died at age 82 in Pittsburgh. Sammartino was a two-time champion of the World Wide Wrestling Federation, now the WWE, with reigns of more than 11 years combined.

19 – The Supreme Court of Canada unanimously upheld a New Brunswick law restricting alcohol imports from other provinces. The law had been challenged by a New Brunswick man who was fined $292 in 2012 for having a trunkload of beer and liquor from neighbouring Quebec.

19 – Miguel Mario Diaz-Canel Bermudez replaced Raul Castro as the president of Cuba, ending six decades of rule by a single family. Castro, 86, remained head of the Communist Party.

19 – The prosecutor in the Minnesota county where Prince died announced no criminal charges would be filed in the musician’s death, effectively ending the state’s two-year investigation into how Prince got a counterfeit painkiller containing the fentanyl that killed him.

20 – Arsene Wenger announced he was leaving Arsenal after 22 seasons in charge, ending the tenure of English soccer’s longest-serving manager.

20 – A Halifax judge sentenced American Lindsay Souvannarath, 26, to life in prison with no chance of parole for 10 years after she pleaded guilty to planning a 2015 Valentine’s Day shooting rampage at the Halifax Shopping Centre food court.

20 – Grammy-nominated electronic dance producer and DJ Avicii, born Tim Bergling, was found dead in Muscat, Oman. The Swedish Avicii was a pioneer of contemporary EDM and a rare DJ capable of worldwide arena tours. The 28-year-old who won two MTV Music Awards and one Billboard Music Award died of an apparent suicide.

21 – Verne Troyer, who played Dr. Evil’s small, silent sidekick “Mini-Me” in the “Austin Powers” movie franchise, died at age 49.

21 – Oakland A’s lefty Sean Manaea pitched a no-hitter in a 3-0 victory over the Boston Red Sox, thanks to a questionable error and an overturned call preserving the gem.

22 – An Islamic State suicide bomber carried out an attack at an Afghanistan voter registration centre in the capital Kabul, killing 57 people and wounding more than 100 others.

23 – A man drove a rental van into pedestrians on a busy stretch of sidewalk in north Toronto, killing 10 people and injuring 16 others. Alek Minassian, 25, was later arrested after a brief standoff with a lone police officer.

23 – The Duchess of Cambridge gave birth to a baby boy, Louis Arthur Charles. The third child of Kate and Prince William is fifth in line to the British throne.

25 – Canadians Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford officially announced their retirement from competitive pairs figure skating. They teamed up for two world championship titles and three Olympic medals over their careers.

25 – The Saskatchewan government filed an application with the province’s highest court in a bid to fight the federal carbon tax. It submitted a reference case to the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal asking it to decide whether the carbon plan was unconstitutional.

25 – Joseph DeAngelo, 72, was accused of being the Golden State Killer who terrorized suburban California neighbourhoods in a spate of brutal rapes and slayings in the 1970s and ’80s before leaving a cold trail that baffled investigators for decades. He was charged with eight counts of murder after being linked to the crimes through DNA. Authorities said he was responsible for a dozen slayings and 50 rapes.

26 – Bill Cosby was convicted of drugging and molesting Toronto native and Temple University employee Andrea Constand at his suburban Philadelphia home in 2004. It was the only criminal case to arise from a barrage of allegations from more than 60 women who said the former TV star drugged and molested them over a span of five decades. Cosby was later sentenced to three to 10 years in prison.

26 – A 118-year-old statue of “Oh! Susanna” songwriter Stephen Foster was removed from a Pittsburgh park after criticism that it was demeaning because it includes a slave sitting at his feet, plucking a banjo.

26 – The Cleveland Browns selected Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Baker Mayfield with the No. 1 overall pick in the NFL draft.

27 – North Korean leader Kim Jong Un made history by crossing over the Korean Demilitarized Zone to greet South Korean President Moon Jae-in for talks on North Korea’s nuclear weapons.

27 – In an Instagram statement, the members of the Swedish pop supergroup ABBA announced they had recorded two songs – their first new material in 35 years.

28 – Russia’s controversial floating nuclear power plant was towed out of the St. Petersburg shipyard where it was constructed en route to Murmansk, where its reactors were to be loaded with nuclear fuel. It was to be put into service in 2019 in the Arctic off the coast of Chukotka.

29 – Marvel superheroes amalgam “Avengers: Infinity Wars” set box office records for an opening weekend, earning US$250 million domestically and US$630 million globally. It also became the fastest movie at 11 days to surpass the $1 billion mark.

29 – T-Mobile announced an all-stock US$26.5 billion deal for Sprint allowing the United States’ third- and fourth-largest wireless companies to bulk up to a similar size as Verizon and AT&T, the industry giants.

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MAY 2018

3 – Federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh kicked Saskatchewan MP Erin Weir out of caucus. Singh said a third-party investigation into allegations made against Weir supported one claim of harassment and three claims of sexual harassment. Weir issued a statement criticizing the investigation’s “flawed process” and “exaggerated findings.”

4 – Following weeks of internal bickering, sex-abuse allegations and a financial investigation by police, the Swedish Academy announced the Nobel Prize in Literature would not be awarded in 2018. Two prizes were instead to be awarded in 2019. It was the first time since 1949 that the prestigious award had been delayed.

3 – Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano erupted just days after earthquakes rocked the Puna district of the Big Island. Rivers of lava spewed into a residential subdivision near the town of Pahoa, the first of a stream of frequent eruptions and earthquakes the rocked the island for months. By August, more than 700 homes had been destroyed and thousands of people had been displaced.

3 – Former Liberal MP Judy Foote was installed as the 14th lieutenant-governor of Newfoundland and Labrador and the first woman to serve as the Queen’s representative in the province.

5 – Justify splashed through the slop to win the Kentucky Derby by 2 1/2 lengths, the sixth consecutive favourite to win the first leg of thoroughbred horse racing’s Triple Crown.

7 – Nestle announced it paid US$7.15 billion to handle global retail sales of Starbucks’s coffee and tea outside of its coffee shops.

8 – A judge sentenced a young man who killed four people and injured seven others in La Loche, Sask. in January 2016 to life in prison with no chance of parole for 10 years. The teenager planned to appeal the sentence.

8 – President Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. from the 2015 Iran nuclear accord and abruptly restored harsh sanctions, dealing a profound blow to EU ally signatories of the pact and deepening his isolation on the world stage.

8 – Quebecor Inc. signed a deal to buy the remaining stake in Quebecor Media Inc. held by the Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec for $1.69 billion.

8 – Seattle Mariners leftie James Paxton threw a no-hitter against the Toronto Blue Jays to become just the second Canadian (Dick Fowler, 1945) to pitch one in the major leagues and the first to do it on Canadian soil.

9 – An alliance of Malaysian opposition parties, led by 92-year-old former authoritarian leader Mahathir Mohamad, won a parliamentary majority in a fiercely contested general election, ousting scandal-tainted Prime Minister Najib Razak and ending his coalition’s 60-year grip on power.

9 – Alex Krushelnyski scored at 6:48 of the fifth overtime period to give the Lehigh Valley Phantoms a 2-1 win over the Charlotte Checkers in the longest game in American Hockey League history. It began at 7 p.m. ET and lasted 146 minutes, 48 seconds, ending at 1:09 a.m. on May 10.

10 – Denis Shapovalov defeated Milos Raonic 6-4, 6-4 in a third-round matchup at the Madrid Open, in the first-ever tournament meeting between the two Canadians.

11 – The Toronto Raptors fired head coach Dwane Casey after being eliminated in the NBA playoffs by the Cleveland Cavaliers for the third consecutive season. Casey led Toronto to a franchise-record 59 wins and a top seed in the Eastern Conference. He was later hired as the new head coach of conference rivals the Detroit Pistons.

11 – The Toronto Maple Leafs stayed in-house and named Kyle Dubas as their new general manager. Dubas joined the team as assistant GM in July 2014.

11 – A federal judge in Saskatoon approved a multimillion-dollar settlement for Indigenous people who were taken from their families and placed in non-Indigenous foster homes in the so-called ’60s Scoop. The settlement included $750 million for the survivors, $50 million for an Indigenous healing foundation and $75 million for legal fees.

13 – Canadian-born actress Margot Kidder, best known for her role as Lois Lane opposite Christopher Reeve in the “Superman” films of the 1970s and 1980s, died at age 69. She went on to become an advocate for mental health issues after speaking out about living with bipolar disorder.

13 – Webb Simpson closed out with a double-bogey but still won The Players Championship by four strokes.

14 – The relocated U.S. embassy opened in Jerusalem, the first official recognition as Israel’s capital after 70 years, infuriating Palestinians. Israeli forces shot and killed more than 50 Palestinians and wounded more than 1,200 during mass protests along the Gaza border.

14 – Tom Wolfe, the white-suited wizard of “New Journalism” who exuberantly chronicled American culture from the Merry Pranksters through the space race before turning his satiric wit to such novels as “The Bonfire of the Vanities” and “A Man in Full,” died at age 88.

15 – Seattle Mariners All-Star second baseman Robinson Cano was suspended 80 games for violating baseball’s joint drug agreement. Cano tested positive for Furosemide, a diuretic.

15 – Washington State’s Court of Appeals ruled that photographs from the scene of Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain’s 1994 death would not be made public.

16 – Michigan State University announced a US$500 million settlement with 332 women and girls who were sexually assaulted by sports doctor Larry Nassar in the worst sex-abuse case in sports history. Nassar pleaded guilty to molesting the victims under the guise of treatment. Lawsuits were still pending against USA Gymnastics, the U.S. Olympic Committee and an elite gymnastics club in the Lansing-area.

18 – A Boeing 737 carrying 113 people crashed and erupted in flames shortly after takeoff in Havana. Three female passengers survived but two later died in hospital.

18 – A 17-year-old gunman opened fire at the Santa Fe High School in Texas, killing eight students and two teachers and wounding 13 others. He exchanged gunfire with police before surrendering.

19 – Prince Harry married American actress Meghan Markle at St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle. She became the first English royal of mixed race black heritage in modern history. The couple were bestowed the titles of Duke and Duchess of Sussex.

19 – Former Heisman Trophy winning quarterback Johnny Manziel announced on Twitter that he had signed with the CFL’s Hamilton Tiger-Cats. He was out of football for two years after an unsuccessful stint with the NFL’s Cleveland Browns and was traded to the Montreal Alouettes in late July.

19 – Kentucky Derby winner Justify captured the Preakness, the second jewel of thoroughbred horse racing’s Triple Crown.

20 – Ed Sheeran and rapper Kendrick Lamar won six awards each at the Billboard Music Awards. Sheeran won top artist and top male artist. Lamar won top rap artist and top Billboard 200 album for DAMN. Taylor Swift took home top female artist while the top Hot 100 song was “Despacito” by Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee featuring Justin Bieber.

20 – Twenty-one-year-old rookie Aaron Wise captured his first PGA Tour victory at the 50th AT&T Byron Nelson classic. Wise shattered the Nelson record at 23 under, to beat Marc Leishman by three strokes as both became the first to finish the Nelson at 20 under or better.

20 – The Vegas Golden Knights defeated the Winnipeg Jets 2-1 to become the first expansion team to reach the NHL Stanley Cup Final since St. Louis in 1967-68.

21 – LeBron James moved past Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (2,356) for the most field goals in NBA playoff history.

22 – Philip Roth, the prize-winning novelist and fearless narrator of sex, death, assimilation and fate died in a New York City hospital at age 85. His best known works included “Portnoy’s Complaint” and “American Pastoral.”

23 – The federal government blocked the proposed $1.5-billion takeover of Canadian construction company Aecon Group Inc. by Chinese state-owned CCCC International Holding Ltd. for reasons of national security.

24 – An international team of investigators determined the missile used to shoot down a Malaysia Airlines passenger jet over eastern Ukraine in July 2014, killing all 298 aboard, belonged to a Russia-based military unit.

24 – Fifteen people were wounded when two men entered an Indian restaurant in Mississauga, Ont., and detonated what police described as an improvised explosive device. Police said they did not believe the incident to be an act of terrorism or a hate crime.

25 – Voters overwhelmingly said yes in a referendum in Ireland on whether to end a ban on abortions.

25 – Stacey Cunningham became the first woman president in the 226-year history of the New York Stock Exchange.

25 – Disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein turned himself in to New York City police and was charged with rape and another sex felony in the first charges to result from the wave of allegations against him that sparked the national reckoning #MeToo movement over sexual misconduct.

27 – The QMJHL’s Acadie-Bathurst Titan won the franchise’s first Memorial Cup, defeating host Regina Pats 3-0 in the centennial game of the Canadian major junior championship.

27 – Will Power won the Indianapolis 500, becoming the first Australian to win the “Greatest Spectacle in Racing.”

28 – South Korean boy band BTS became the first K-pop group to reach No. 1 on the Billboard 200 album chart and “Love Yourself: Tear” was also the first primarily foreign language album to top the charts since the classical crossover quartet Il Divo did it with “Ancora” in 2006.

28 – Darius Rucker and Kane Brown became the first two solo acts who are also minorities to follow each other at No. 1 on the Billboard Country Airplay chart, which began in 1990. Rucker, who is black, took over No. 1 with “For The First Time” after Brown, who is biracial, had a two-week run with “Heaven.”

28 – The Stratford Festival’s opening night of its 2018 season in Ontario was cancelled and all its buildings evacuated after a bomb threat, which turned out to be a hoax.

28 – The Bank of Montreal and CIBC’s direct banking division Simplii warned that “fraudsters” might have accessed certain personal and financial information of up to a combined 90,000 customers. They institutions said they had been contacted by entities claiming to have accessed their client’s personal data and threatening to make it public. They later offered clients free credit monitoring and pledged to cover any money lost from affected bank accounts due to fraud.

29 – The federal Liberal government announced a deal to buy the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project and terminal assets from Kinder Morgan Canada for $4.5 billion. The deal was aimed at ensuring the twinning of the existing pipeline from the Alberta oilsands to Burnaby, B.C. would proceed after it ran into fierce opposition from the B.C. government among others. Ottawa said the pipeline would be sold shortly after completion to a third-party.

29 – ABC cancelled its hit reboot of “Roseanne” following Roseanne Barr’s racist tweet about former Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett.

29 – A U.S. judge sentenced Canadian Karim Baratov to five years in prison and fined him US$250,000 after he earlier pleaded guilty to nine felony hacking charges in connection with a massive security breach at Yahoo that U.S. federal agents said was directed by Russian government spies.

31 – The federal government announced it was imposing dollar-for-dollar tariff “countermeasures” on up to $16.6 billion worth of U.S. imports in response to the American decision to impose tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum imports as of June 1. The Canadian tariffs took effect on July 1.

31 – The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis announced a US$210 million settlement with 450 victims of clergy sexual abuse as part of its plan for bankruptcy reorganization. It was the second-largest payout in the scandal that rocked the Roman Catholic Church in the U.S.

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JUNE 2018

3 – Guatemala’s Volcano of Fire erupted in explosions of ash and molten rock, killing 75 people while a towering cloud of smoke blanketed nearby villages in heavy ash.

4 – Bloc Quebecois Leader Martine Ouellet announced she was stepping down, effective June 11, after a resounding defeat in a leadership vote.

4 – The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favour of Colorado baker Jack Phillips, who refused to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple due to his religious beliefs. The decision turned on what the court described as anti-religious bias on the Colorado Civil Rights Commission, which had ruled Phillips violated a state law banning discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

5 – Fashion designer Kate Spade, known for her sleek handbags, shoes, luggage and other accessories, was found hanged in the bedroom of her New York apartment in an apparent suicide. She was 55.

6 – Carrie Underwood extended her record to 18 as the most decorated act at the CMT Music Awards. She won female video of the year for “The Champion.” Blake Shelton was the only multiple winner, taking home male video of the year and the night’s top honour video of the year for “I’ll Name the Dogs.”

7 – Doug Ford and his Progressive Conservative Party rode a populist wave to a majority victory in the Ontario election, ending 15 years of scandal-plagued Liberal rule. The PCs won 76 seats, Andrea Horwath’s NDP took 40 while Kathleen Wynne’s Liberals plunged to seven and lost official party status. Wynne won her Toronto riding but promptly resigned as party leader. The Green Party won its first seat in Ontario when leader Mike Schreiner was elected in Guelph.

7 – The Washington Capitals won their first Stanley Cup championship with a 4-3 Game 5 win over the Vegas Golden Knights. Capitals captain Alexander Ovechkin won the Conn Smythe trophy as the playoffs MVP.

8 – The Golden State Warriors won their second straight NBA title, and third in four years, in the fourth consecutive finals matchup against the Cleveland Cavaliers.

8 – Anthony Bourdain, the celebrity chef, writer and host of the CNN series “Parts Unknown,” was found hanged in his hotel room in France in an apparent suicide while working on his series on culinary traditions. He was 61.

9 – Justify led all the way in winning the 150th running of the Belmont Stakes, becoming the 13th Triple Crown champion.

9 – No. 1 seed Simona Halep defeated Sloane Stephens 3-6, 6-4, 6-1 to win the French Open women’s title, her first career major title.

10 – “The Band’s Visit” won 10 Tony Awards, including best musical, best actor in a musical (Tony Shalhoub), best actress in a musical (Katrina Lenk) and best direction of a musical (David Cromer).

10 – Rafael Nadal defeated Dominic Thiem in straight sets to win his 11th French Open men’s title and 17th career Grand Slam trophy.

10 – Sebastian Vettel kept the lead from the pole position and coasted to victory at the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal, the 50th Formula 1 victory of his career.

12 – U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met in Singapore in an unprecedented U.S.-North Korea summit. They issued a joint statement where Kim committed to the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula while Trump agreed to halt annual military drills with South Korea. It did not include an agreement to take steps toward ending the technical state of warfare between the U.S. and North Korea.

12 – A U.S. federal judge cleared AT&T’s US$85 billion takeover of Time Warner.

13 – Canada, the U.S. and Mexico won the bid to co-host the 2026 World Cup of men’s soccer.

13 – Rock and Hall of Famer D.J. Fontana, Elvis Presley’s first and longtime drummer, died at age 87. He was the last surviving member of Elvis’ original core of musicians.

14 – The Toronto Raptors named Nick Nurse as their ninth head coach in franchise history. He had spent the previous five seasons as an assistant with the club.

14 – Deputy premier Joe Savikataaq was chosen to take over as Nunuvat premier after Paul Quassa was ousted in a non-confidence vote. It marked the first time a sitting premier was removed in the territory’s 19-year history.

14 – In what was believed to be a legal first in Canada, a court in Newfoundland and Labrador recognized three unmarried adults as the legal parents of a child born within their “polyamorous” family.

15 – In two landmark majority decisions, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that law societies in B.C. and Ontario were justified in not accrediting Trinity Western University’s proposed law school due to the private Christian school’s controversial requirement that students sign an agreement restricting sexual activity to heterosexual marriage.

17 – Brooks Koepka navigated his way through the challenging conditions at Shinnecock Hills for a 1-over 281 victory at the U.S. Open to become the first repeat champion since Curtis Strange in 1988-89 and seventh overall.

18 – Conservative Richard Martel took the federal Quebec riding of Chicoutimi-Le Fjord from the Liberals in a byelection precipitated by the resignation of rookie MP Denis Lemieux.

18 – Twenty-year-old troubled rapper-singer XXXTentacion was fatally shot during an apparent robbery while sitting in the driver’s seat of his luxury electric sports car as he left an upscale motor sports dealership in Deerfield Beach, Fla. Two suspects were later arrested.

20 – U.S. President Donald Trump abruptly reversed course and signed an executive order to end the forced separation of children from parents who crossed the southwest border illegally. Heart-rending photos of children held in cages and audio of them crying out for their parents stoked global outrage.

20 – WestJet Airlines launched Swoop, joining Flair Airlines as Canada’s only ultra-low cost airlines.

21 – Bill C-45, the Cannibas Act, was given royal assent, making Canada the first industrialized country to legalize recreational marijuana nationwide. The change went into effect on Oct. 17.

21 – The Phoenix Suns selected 7-foot-1 Arizona centre Deandre Ayton as the first overall pick in the NBA Draft.

22 – The Buffalo Sabres selected Swedish defenceman Rasmus Dahlin with the No. 1 pick in the NHL Draft.

24 – A dozen Canadian Forces members arrived at an isolated UN base in Mali to take part in the world’s most dangerous peacekeeping mission, beginning Canada’s year-long commitment to help bring peace and stability to the strife-riven African nation.

25 – A longstanding ban was lifted allowing Saudi women to drive freely through busy city streets for the first time after years of risking arrest if they dared to get behind the wheel.

26 – Bee Gee Barry Gibb, the last surviving member of the fraternal trio, received a knighthood from Prince Charles at Buckingham Palace.

26 – In a 5-4 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld President Donald Trump’s ban on travel from several mostly Muslim countries, rejecting a challenge that it discriminated against Muslims or exceeded his authority.

27 – Joe Jackson, the fearsome stage dad of Michael Jackson, Janet Jackson and their talented siblings, who took his family from poverty and launched a musical dynasty, died at age 89.

27 – A Los Angeles jury found that rapper-producer Dr. Dre, music mogul Jimmy Iovine and their former headphone company Beats Electronics owed US$25.2 million in royalties to ex-partner Steven Lamar. Apple Music acquired Beats in 2014 for US$3 billion.

28 – A man with a grudge against The Capital Gazette newspaper in Annapolis, Md., shot his way into the newsroom, killing four journalists and a staffer and wounding two others. Jarrod Warren Ramos was swiftly arrested and charged.

29 – Drake released his new 25-track album “Scorpion.” It went on to set a one-day worldwide streaming record on Apple Music at 170 million and Spotify of 132 million.

29 – Six people, including a former Humboldt Broncos player and his young family, were killed when two SUVs collided head on in southwestern Saskatchewan. Troy Gasper, his wife and three young children were in one of the vehicles and a 71-year-old woman was in the other.

30 – Race favourite Wonder Gadot won the 159th running of the Queen’s Plate by an impressive 4 3/4-lengths, capturing the first jewel of Canada’s Triple Crown.

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