On October 2

On this day in ...
... 1980 (30 years ago today), Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau announced that Canada's government would seek unilaterally to "patriate" its Constitution -- the term used in Canada to describe a revision that would permit modification within Canada's governmental structure rather than by the British Parliament, as then was required. The announcement took place amid internal political battles. One concerned the status of Québec within the Canadian federation, a question left unresolved following a referendum in May. Eventually the dispute moved to the judiciary. Finally, on April 17, 1982, British Queen Elizabeth II came to Canada to proclaim the new Constitution Act (above left). (credit for photo, also showing Trudeau, seated at left) Included in the package was an instrument on which we've posted, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

(Prior October 2 posts are here, here, and here.)

On July 1

On this day in ...
... 1960 (50 years ago today), the West African country that had become independent 3 years earlier, Ghana, "made a complete break today with the Constituion bequeathed her by Britain in 1957," The New York Times reported. A statement was read in which Britain's Elizabeth II declared, "Frome midnight I shall cease to be your Queen."; a new Constitution took effect; Ghana became a "republic within the British Commonwealth"; and its leader, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, made the transition from Prime Minister to President. Tomorrow, the Ghana national soccer team plays a quarterfinals match in this year's World Cup in South Africa (prior post).

(Prior July 1 posts are here, and here, and here.)

On January 16

On this day in ...
... 1970 (40 years ago today), the BBC reported that Libya's Muammar Gaddafi, then a 28-year-old Army colonel, had "taken the title of prime minister and appointed four members of his council to his new 12-member Cabinet." The move brought to an end a 4-month governmental administration by civilians that had begun when Gaddafi and other military officers ousted Libya's king by means of a bloodless coup. Today he is the "third longest serving head of state in the world after King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand and Britain's Queen Elizabeth II."

(Prior January 16 posts are here and here.)

On March 6

On this day in ...
... 1480, Spain ratified the Treaty of Alcáçovas, which had been concluded in that Portuguese town on September 4 of the previous year. Thus entered into force this bilateral agreement, by which Portugal gave up its claim to the Castillian throne and to the Canary Islands off the coast of Africa. In exchange, Spain "recognized the Portuguese primacy in Azores islands as well the North and West African coasts."

... 1944 (65 years ago today), at Gisborne, on the east coast of New Zealand’s North Island, Kiri Te Kanawa was born. Of Maori ancestry, she was adopted by an Irishwoman and a Maori man. In 1965, having won 2 singing contests, the soprano "was accepted without audition to study at the London Opera Centre." As is evident from the Nozze de Figaro aria below, she became an international operatic star -- a genuine diva. In sang a solo at the 1981 wedding of Prince Charles to Princess Diana. In 1982 Queen Elizabeth II named Te Kanawa a Dame of the British Empire. (photo credit)

(Prior March 6 posts are here and here.)

On November 6

On this day in ...

... 1153 (855 years ago today) , in England, the Treaty of Wallingford was signed. The pact "effectively ended The Anarchy, a dispute between Empress Matilda [left] and her cousin Stephen of England over the English crown." Matilda, the 1st woman to rule England, did so without challenge for just a year, 1141. The Wallingford accord required her challenger, Stephen, to recognize as his heir Matilda's son, who would be crowned Henry II in 1154.

... 1999, by a margin of 54.87% to 45.13%, Australians voted against "a proposal to break ties with the British monarchy and become a republic." Queen Elizabeth II, the woman who's ruled Britain since in 1952, thus remains Australia's head of state.

On June 2

On this day in ...
... 1953 (55 years ago today), Queen Elizabeth II was crowned in Westminster Abbey, London, England. Approximately 3 million people lined the streets to catch glimpses of the ceremony in person, while millions more watched in the 1st-ever coronation to be televised live. The New York Times gushed:

[F]or all her glorification she is first of all a wife and mother of two charming children.

Elizabeth had become queen a year earlier, at age 26, upon the death of her father, but the ritual took an additional year to plan.
... 1998 (10 years ago today), "Californians decisively rejected bilingual education" when they "approv[ed] a mandate for English-only instruction known as Proposition 227," by a vote of "61 to 39%." (credit for image by Margaret Scott)

On April 17

On this day in ...
... 1982, Queen Elizabeth II proclaimed Canada's Constitution Act. Effective the next day, the Act ended British authority in Canada, though it remains a constitutional monarchy and part of the Commonwealth. The Act also brought into force the written Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. These events were nominated as a Legal Wonder of the World in IntLawGrrls' contest. (Incidentally, nominations are still being accepted.)
... 1961, with U.S. support by sea and air, 1,400 Cuban exiles landed on "a beach surrounded by a mosquito-infested swamp" at the island country's Bahía de Cochinos. The troops of Fidel Castro, Cuba's Premier, routed the invaders in what has come to be known as the Bay of Pigs fiasco. Speaking of President John F. Kennedy, who gave the green light for an operation that had been in planning well before Kennedy's inauguration 2 months earlier, the BBC wrote:

It was the worst foreign policy embarrassment of his career.

On this day

On March 13, ...
... 1949, Rt. Hon. Dame Sian Elias (left) was born in London, England, the daughter of a father of Armenian heritage and a mother of Welsh heritage. Educated at Auckland University in New Zealand and Stanford University in the United States, she became a barrister in Auckland in the early 1970s. Appointed a Queen's Counsel in 1988 and a High Court judge in 1995, she became New Zealand's 1st woman Chief Justice, a position she holds to this day, in 1999. That same year she was named Dame Grand Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit and appointed to the Privy Council. She also serves as Administrator of the Government, the person who would assume the duties of the Governor-General, the "personal representative of" the "Head of State, Queen Elizabeth II of New Zealand," if the Governor-General should be unable to perform those duties.
... 1979, "members of the New Jewel party, a left-wing opposition group" in parliament, staged a coup d'état in Grenada, a Caribbean island state. The group's leader, Maurice Bishop, would govern until October 1983, when he was killed by "supporters of his deputy, Bernard Coard, who resented attempts to mend bridges with the US," according to BBC, which added that "[l]ater that month 6,000 US troops invaded Grenada." Detention occurring during the 1983 military action was held violative of the 1948 American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man in Coard v. United States, a 1999 decision of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights about which I've written here.

On September 9, ...

... 1543, at Stirling Castle, 9-month-old Mary Stuart was crowned Mary Queen of Scots. She'd become Scotland's queen, and Britain's youngest-ever monarch, when her father, James V, died 6 days after her birth. Mary's uncle was regent during her childhood. A Catholic, she was a lifelong rival of her Protestant cousin, Elizabeth I, Queen of England from 1588 to 1603. In 1587, following conviction for treason, Mary (left) was beheaded at Fotheringay Castle in England.
... 2007 (today), the U.S. Grandparents' Day happens to fall on the same day that, in 1955, Seeburg Co. introduced the 1st jukebox able to handle at 1 time 100 extended-play disks -- that's EPs, not CDs. Unrelated events to many, but not here: 1 of my grandmothers, Amelia Mary Mottes Bruni, devoted her worklife to soldering parts onto jukeboxes at Seeburg's Chicago factory. The other, Sarah Jane McGovern Amann, was a Ma Bell telephone operator in Libertyville, the Chicago suburb once recognized as the home of 2-time Presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson. Heartfelt thoughts of both on this day.