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John Diefenbaker

John Diefenbaker

The Right Honourable John George Diefenbaker, CH , PC , QC , BA , MA , LL.B , LL.D , FRSC , FRSA , D.Litt , DSL (September 18, 1895 – August 16, 1979) was the thirteenth Prime Minister of Canada (1957 – 1963). He was born on September 18, 1895, in Neustadt, Ontario, Canada to William and Mary (Bannerman). He received a BA in 1915, an MA in Political Science and Economics in 1916, and an LL.B in 1919 from the University of Saskatchewan. Diefenbaker married Edna Brower (1901-1951) in 1929. In 1953, after Edna's death, he married his second wife, Olive Palmer (1902-1976), who had a daughter from a previous marriage. Diefenbaker had no children of his own.

Early career

John George Diefenbaker served briefly in World War I in the Canadian Army from March 1916 to July 1917, acquiring the rank of Lieutenant in the 29th Light Horse. He was sent to England for pre-deployment training. He was never deployed to France, having suffered an injury that had him coughing up blood. He was invalided back to Canada where he was discharged from the Service as Medically Unfit for Service due to heart irregularities. He was called to the Saskatchewan Bar in 1919, and became a criminal lawyer. In 1920 Diefenbaker was elected as an alderman for the municipal council of the Town of Wakaw, Saskatchewan. He was unsuccessful in his re-election bid of 1923. His career as a lawyer was more successful than his political career at this time and he was appointed King's Counsel in 1929. Diefenbaker served as the leader of the Saskatchewan Conservative Party from 1936-1938 taking the party after it was wiped out in the 1934 provincial election that brought down the Tory government of Premier James T.M. Anderson. Diefenbaker's early political career was marked by a singular lack of achievement after his first political breakthrough; he ran unsuccessfully in over a dozen elections at the municipal, provincial and federal levels in Alberta and Saskatchewan before finally getting elected again. Diefenbaker was first elected to the federal Parliament in the 1940 federal election. He was one of only a handful of western Conservative MP's elected under the party's abortive National Government platform. He served as one of the few inspiring opposition MP's during the party's years in the political wilderness between 1935 and 1957. In 1952 Diefenbaker served as Canada's delegate to the United Nations. Diefenbaker was a contestant in four Progressive Conservative leadership conventions. In 1943, Diefenbaker lost to Manitoba Premier John Bracken. In 1948, Diefenbaker lost to Ontario Premier George Drew, before winning in 1956. He also lost an attempt to retain the leadership at the 1967 leadership convention and was defeated by Nova Scotia Premier Robert Stanfield. He was prime minister of Canada as a Progressive Conservative from June 21, 1957 to April 22, 1963. Although he spent less than six years as Prime Minister, he spent many years in the Opposition, keeping his opponents on their toes.

Prime Minister of Canada

He led the national Progressive Conservative Party of Canada from 1956-1967, and was Prime Minister of Canada from June 21, 1957 to April 22, 1963. He became Prime Minister as a result of an upset victory in the 1957 election, after which he was able to form a minority government. Diefenbaker returned to the polls in the 1958 election to win the largest majority government in Canadian history. Diefenbaker made what some believe to have been one of the most controversial policy decisions of the last century in Canada on February 20, 1959 when his government cancelled the development and manufacture of the Avro Arrow. The Arrow was a Mach 2 supersonic jet fighter built by A.V. Roe Canada (Avro), in Malton, Ontario, just west of Toronto. After cancelling the technologically advanced interceptor project, the Canadian government purchased American-made Bomarc missiles and CF-101 Voodoo interceptors to defend Canada in the event of a Soviet nuclear bomber attack from the north. However, while his government initially approved the Bomarc and Voodoo, it balked when it realised that both would be equipped with nuclear warheads. Diefenbaker's refusal to allow nuclear weapons into Canada led to several resignations from his Cabinet and the collapse of his government in 1963. His hostility to the United States administration and annoyance at the failure of President John F. Kennedy to consult with him on the matter ahead of time also led Diefenbaker to be skeptical of the seriousness of the Cuban Missile Crisis. It also caused him to fail to act quickly on an American request to put Canadian forces on Defcon 3 status. The Minister of National Defence, Douglas Harkness, defied Diefenbaker by putting the military on high alert two days prior to Cabinet's decision to authorize the move. Diefenbaker was also instrumental in bringing in the Canadian Bill of Rights in 1960. This was the first attempt to articulate the basic rights of Canadian citizens in law. Because the Bill of Rights was an ordinary federal statute and not a part of the Canadian Constitution, it did not codify such rights in an enforceable way, since it could not be used by courts to nullify federal or provincial laws that contradicted it (under the principle of Marbury v. Madison). Thus its effect on the decisions of the courts, unlike the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms of 1982, was limited. The Progressive Conservatives lost their majority in Parliament in the 1962 election. Immediately afterward, Diefenbaker's minority government began a program to reduce government spending, and raise tariffs and bank interest rates. He then reorganized his Cabinet, moving Finance Minister Donald Fleming into the Minister of Justice portfolio, replacing him with George C. Nowlan. In September 1962, Diefenbaker attended the Conference of Commonwealth Prime Ministers in London, where he attacked Britain's prospective entry into the European Economic Community, stating it would be at the expense of Canada's increased economic dependence on the United States. He also criticized South Africa's policy of apartheid, and successfully opposed its readmission into the Commonwealth after it declared itself a republic.

Party leader and Member of Parliament

Diefenbaker lost the 1963 federal election to Lester Pearson and the Liberals. Diefenbaker continued as PC party leader after the 1963 election. In the 1964 Great Flag Debate, Diefenbaker led the opposition to the Maple Leaf flag arguing for the retention of the Canadian Red Ensign. To the surprise of many, he ran an aggressive campaign in the 1965 election, and held Pearson's Liberals to a minority government. Pearson had called the election expecting to win a majority. His most passionate intervention as Leader of the Opposition was his opposition to the proposed maple leaf flag which he castigated as the "Pearson Pennant". Growing dissatisfaction with his leadership, however, led to open dissension within the party. Party president Dalton Camp called for a leadership review, a measure for which there was no provision in the party's constitution. Camp's efforts resulted in the Progressive Conservative Party calling a leadership convention in 1967. Although Diefenbaker stood as a candidate for the leadership, he was defeated by Nova Scotia Premier Robert Stanfield. Diefenbaker retained his parliamentary seat for the next twelve years until his death. In 1969, he was also named chancellor at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon. Diefenbaker died on August 16, 1979 in Ottawa, Ontario. According to his funeral plans his body was shipped from Ottawa to Saskatoon by train for burial. Thousands of Canadians lined the tracks to bid farewell to Dief before he was buried beside the Right Honourable John G. Diefenbaker Centre at the University of Saskatchewan. He had a special ceremony in place, so that the Maple Leaf flag was draped on his casket first, and then the Red Ensign that he defended so intensely in parliament was laid over it. His state funeral was carried out as he had planned years earlier. Interestingly, it was presided over by the short lived government of Prime Minister Joe Clark, a fellow Tory who had controversially excluded Diefenbaker from his cabinet. During the burial services, Clark took part in eulogizing Diefenbaker.

Legacy

In 1967, the boyhood home of Diefenbaker was moved from Borden, Saskatchewan to Wascana Park in Regina, Saskatchewan. In 2001, the Wascana Centre Authority shut the site to visitors, and in 2004 it was moved to the Sukanen Ship and Pioneer Village Museum, 13 km south of Moose Jaw. Lake Diefenbaker is named for the late prime minister. It is a reservoir on the South Saskatchewan River created following the construction of the Gardiner Dam. Saskatoon's airport is named John G. Diefenbaker International Airport in his honour. A planet in the BattleTech Wargame universe was also named after the late Prime Minister. Between 1993 and 2003 Diefenbaker was frequently touted as a "spiritual father" or symbol of Red Tory values or Progressive Conservatism espoused by the beleaguered PC Party and its membership. In his 2000 book In Defence of Civility, Tory strategist and former PC leadership candidate Senator Hugh Segal notes that Diefenbaker "defined Progressive Conservatism as the ultimate balance for free enterprise, profit-making and economic growth on the one hand, and social justice and respect for the interests of the common man on the other." Many Red Tory PCs, such as David Orchard and Heward Grafftey, who were embarrassed or not enamored with the more recent PC prime ministership of Brian Mulroney, frequently referenced their own political traditions, values and stances to the Diefenbaker era. Nevertheless, while during the tenth decade of Confederation Diefenbaker's political nemesis the Liberal leader Lester B. Pearson was somewhat overshadowed by Diefenbaker's flamboyant charisma, his reputation has considerably dimmed with the passage of time while Pearson's has continued to grow, as evidenced even in Regina by the rather ignominious retirement of the boyhood home as a tourist site. Ironically, in his memoirs, Diefenbaker stated that he never really liked the Progressive Conservative name adopted by the party in 1943. In Volume One: The Crusading Years of his autobiography One Canada Diefenbaker states "From its inception as Canada's first national political party in 1854, the Party has been called Conservative. The name was changed under Dr. Robert Manion. In the 1940 election, Conservative was nowhere mentioned. The party became the National Government Party. Perhaps more important was John Bracken's demand in 1943 that the Party change its name to Progressive Conservative. The sense of these moves escape me. I have always preferred the name Conservative."

Supreme Court appointments

Diefenbaker appointed the following Justices to the Supreme Court of Canada:
- Ronald Martland
- Wilfred Judson
- Roland Almon Ritchie
- Emmett Matthew Hall

Trivia

With the exception of recent Prime Ministers Kim Campbell, Jean Chretien, and the incumbent Paul Martin, Diefenbaker is the only former Prime Minister alive at the time of the creation of the Order of Canada not to receive it. Sitting politicians are not permitted to be given the order while in office and since Diefenbaker did not leave the House of Commons before his death, he never became eligible. A number of fallout shelters constructed for the Canadian Government were nicknamed "Diefenbunkers" after Diefenbaker, a name which persists to this day. The television show Due South had a wolf character who was named "Diefenbaker," after the Prime Minister. Nicknamed by the general public "Dief the Chief".

References

- Renegade in Power: The Diefenbaker Years, Peter C. Newman (1963)

External links

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

Queen's Counsel

Queen's Counsel (postnominal QC), during the reign of a male Sovereign known as King's Counsel (KC), are barristers or, in Scotland, advocates appointed by letters patent to be one of "Her Majesty's Counsel learned in the law". They do not constitute a separate order or degree of lawyers. They are, however, more than merely a professional rank, as their status is conferred by the Crown and recognised by the courts. Queen's Counsel have the privilege of sitting within the Bar of court, and wear silk gowns of a special design (hence the informal title Silks). See Court dress.

History: England

The Attorney-General, Solicitor-General, and King's Sergeants were King's Counsel in Ordinary. The first Queen's Counsel "Extraordinary" was Sir Francis Bacon, who was given a patent giving him precedence at the Bar in 1597, and formally styled King's Counsel in 1603 (W. S. Holdsworth, History of English Law (1938) vi 473-4; Patent Rolls, 2 Jac I p 12 m 15). The obsolete rank of Serjeant-at-Law was formerly more senior, though it was overtaken formally in the 1670s, and professionally in the course of the late eighteenth century by the newer rank. The Attorney-General and Solicitor-General, had similarly succeeded the King's Serjeants as leaders of the Bar in Tudor times, though not technically senior until 1623 (except for the two senior King's Serjeants) and 1813 respectively (JH Baker, "The English Legal Profession 1450-1550" in Wilfred Prest (ed), Lawyers in Early Modern Europe and America (1981), 20). But the Queen's Counsel only emerged into eminence and integrity in the early 1830s, prior to when they were relatively few in number. It became the standard means of recognising that a barrister was a senior member of the profession, and the numbers multiplied accordingly (Daniel Duman, The English and Colonial Bars in the Nineteenth Century (1983) 35.) It became of greater professional importance to become a QC, and the serjeants gradually declined. The QCs inherited not merely the prestige of the serjeants, but enjoyed priority before the courts. Queen's Counsel and serjeants were prohibited, at least from the mid-nineteenth century, from doing chamber work. They were briefed together with a junior barrister, and they had to have chambers in London (Duman 98-99). Till 1920 in England and Wales they had to have a licence to appear in criminal cases for the defence. On appointment, QCs renounced the preparation of written pleadings and other chamber practices. Queen's Counsel were traditionally selected from barristers, rather than from lawyers in general. This was because they were counsel appointed to conduct court work on behalf of the Crown. Although the limitations on private employment were gradually relaxed, they continued to be selected from barristers, who had the sole right of audience to the higher courts. However, in 1994 solicitors of England and Wales were entitled to be admitted to the upper courts. Some 275 were so practising in 1995. In 1995 these solicitors alone became entitled to apply for appointment as Queen's Counsel. The first such was appointed March 1997 (On 27 March 1997, of the 68 new QCs announced, two were solicitors. These were Arthur Marriott (53), partner of the London office of the American law firm of Wilmer Cutler and Pickering, and Dr Lawrence Collins (55), a partner of the City law firm of Herbert Smith who was subsequently appointed as a High Court Judge. The first women to be appointed as King's Counsel were Helen Normanton and Rose Heilbron in 1949. The appointment of further Queen's Counsel was suspended in 2003 and it was widely expected that the system would be abolished, although existing QCs were not affected by the suspension. However, a vigorous campaign was mounted in defence of the system, including those who supported it as an independent indication of excellence valued by outsiders who did not have much else to go on, and especially foreign commercial litigants, and those who contended in a letter to The Times in London that it was a means whereby the most able barristers from ethnic minorities could overcome prejudice. The Government's focus then switched from abolition to reform and, in particular, reform of the much-criticised "secret soundings" of Judges and other establishment legal figures upon which the old system was based, which was said to be inappropriate and unfair given the size of the modern profession, a possible source of improper Government patronage (since the final recommendations were made by the Lord Chancellor, who is a member of the Government) and discriminatory against part-time workers (especially women) and ethnic minorities. In November 2004, it was announced that appointments to the title of Queen's Counsel in England would be resumed but that future appointees would not be chosen by the government but by a nine-member panel, chaired by a lay person, which will include two barristers, two solicitors, one retired judge and three non-lawyers.[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/11/25/nlaw25.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/11/25/ixhome.html]. Application forms for appointment under the new system were released in July 2005 and the next round of appointments is due to be made in early 2006, after which further appointments will be made annually, as before.

History: Scotland

In Scotland, where the independent Bar is organised as the Faculty of Advocates and its members known not as barristers but as advocates, a separate roll of Queen's Counsel was created only in 1897, with the first appointed 1898. Before that year, the only QCs appointed in Scotland were the Lord Advocate and the Dean of the Faculty of Advocates. There are now about one hundred QCs in practice in Scotland, about one-fifth of the practising Bar. They are in practice appointed on the recommendation of the Lord President of the Court of Session. In the 1990s, it became possible for solicitors with rights of audience in the Court of Session or High Court of Justiciary to apply for appointment, and two or three have done so.

History: Hong Kong

In Hong Kong, Queen's Counsel was referred to as 御用大律師 in Hong Kong Cantonese. The rank has been replaced by Senior Counsel (SC) (資深大律師) since the handover of Hong Kong to China in 1997. The SC who had achieved the rank of QC before the handover might keep the use of QC in addition to SC in their title.

Today

Queen's Counsel are retained in several Commonwealth Realms where Queen Elizabeth II is head of State. Elsewhere the style is now Senior Counsel or State Counsel. In Commonwealth countries that have become republics, the office of Queen's Counsel has generally been retained, though with a new style becoming Senior Counsel in South Africa, Belize, Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana, Senior Advocate in India and Bangladesh, and President's Counsel in Sri Lanka. In Australia, the governments of New South Wales and Victoria have replaced the title with Senior Counsel and Queensland with State Counsel. Similar changes are under consideration in New Zealand and elsewhere in Australia. The practice of appointed Queen's Counsel has also fallen into disuse in much of Canada where the two largest provinces, Ontario and Quebec, ceased making appointments in 1985 and 1976 respectively and the federal government ceased the practice in 1993. No substitute distinctions have been implemented in these jurisdictions as it is felt that the practice is a form of political patronage and is best discontinued entirely.

External links

- [http://www.nsbs.ns.ca/qc/qc_historical.htm Queen's Counsel - Historical Context] a paper written in 2001 for the Nova Scotia Barrister's Society reviewing the history of the QC and current practices throughout Canada and the Commonwealth.
- [http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardianpolitics/story/0,3605,1189337,00.html Guardian 2004-04-10: QC system replaced by new scheme after 400 years]
- [http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardianpolitics/story/0,3605,1225397,00.html Guardian 2004-05-28: U-turn lets QC title live on for now]
- [http://www.qcapplications.org.uk Website of the new English QC appointments procedure] Category:Law Category:Common law Category:Lawyers

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.

Bachelor of Laws

The degree of Bachelor of Laws is the principal academic degree in law in most common law countries other than the United States, where it has been replaced by the Juris Doctor degree. It is abbreviated LL.B. (or sometimes Ll.B.): "LL" is an abbreviation of the genitive plural legum (of laws), thus "LL.B." stands for Legum Baccalaureus in Latin. In the United States it is sometimes called "Bachelor of Legal Letters" to account for the double "L". Historically, law students used to study both ecclesiastical law and common law. Today, this is much less common. However, a few institutions, such as Cardiff University's Department of Canon (Ecclesiastical) Law, continue to offer alternatives to the common law.

Qualifying law degrees

The term "qualifying law degree" refers to a degree from a university or college that is accredited by the relevant bar or law society and in which a passing grade has been achieved in designated core modules of the degree. The specific modules required by the bar association may vary and different naming conventions can be used. A typical qualifying law degree consists of six modules drawn from the following subject areas:
- Public law (constitutional/administrative)
- European Union law
- Law of evidence
- Criminal law
- Law of obligations (contract, restitution, and tort)
- Property law (real property)
- Trusts and equity The following lists of United Kingdom universities are generally recognised in the Common Law countries for the purpose of professional admission.
- University of Aberdeen
- University of Birmingham
- University of Bristol
- University of Cambridge
- University of Dundee
- University of Durham
- University of Edinburgh
- University of Essex
- University of Exeter
- University of Glasgow
- University of Leeds
- University of Leicester
- University of Liverpool
- University of London (King's College, LSE, Queen Mary, SOAS, University College, and External Programme)
- University of Manchester
- University of Nottingham
- University of Oxford
- University of Southampton
- University of Sheffield
- University of Wales
- University of Warwick
- University of Westminster

Becoming a lawyer

Upon completion of the degree, graduates are generally qualified to apply for membership of the bar or law society. The membership eligibility bestowed may be subject to completion of professional exams. In Canada a one year period of articling (apprenticeship to an established lawyer or judge generally involving clerical duties) must be completed before admission to the bar. A student may have to gain a further qualification at postgraduate level, for example the Legal Practice Course or Bar Vocational Course in England and Wales, or the PCLL in Hong Kong.

International situation

Alternative titles and formats

In the United States the LL.B. became a three year graduate degree taken after completion of a four-year undergraduate degree. The LL.B. has now been widely replaced in the United States by the Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree although little has changed in its form and structure. In most of the Commonwealth, the LL.B. remains the qualifying degree for the practice of law, though some universities award the degree of Bachelor of Civil Law (B.C.L.). At Oxford and Cambridge, the principal law degree is a B.A., in Jurisprudence and Law respectively; the B.C.L. and LL.B. (recently renamed LL.M.) are postgraduate degrees. Some universities in the United Kingdom and New Zealand offer variations of this degree, such as the LL.B.(Europe), which generally take four years to complete and include a wider range of topics as well as some degree of specialisation.

Eligibility to foreign jurisdictions

Foreign law graduates seeking admission to the bar in the United States may find their LL.B law degree fulfils core admission requirements and allows them to take the bar exam. For example, New York permits holders of Oxford and Cambridge B.A. degrees and University of London LL.B. degrees (not the external degree) to take the bar, and both New York and Massachusetts permit Canadian LL.B. holders to take the bar. (The University of Toronto J.D. is a renamed LL.B. and treated no differently by American states.) The [http://www.abanet.org/legaled/miscellaneous/faqs.html#accreditation procedures] vary between states and interested applicants should seek specific advice.

Alternatives

There are also one-year conversion courses available for non-law graduates, available as an alternative to the full-length LL.B. degree course. One such example of a conversion course in England and Wales is the GDL (Graduate Diploma in Law).

Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada

The Royal Society of Canada, (French: La Société royale du Canada) The Canadian Academy of the Sciences and Humanities, is the senior national body of distinguished Canadian scientists and scholars. Its primary objective is to promote learning and research in the natural and social sciences and in the humanities.

History

The Society was founded in 1882 by the Marquis of Lorne, who was then Governor General of Canada. Succeeding governors general have served as patrons of the Society. The founding members included Sir Sanford Fleming, the originator of the world system of Standard Time, and Sir William Osler, one of the great physicians of the century. The original Society was subsequently incorporated by an act of Parliament and granted its Royal Charter in 1883.

Organization and purpose

The Royal Society of London and the Institut de France were the models for the Society. The Society today consists of approximately 1,800 Fellows: men and women from across Canada who are selected by their peers on account of their outstanding contributions to the arts and sciences. The President of the Society serves on the Governor General's advisory council on appointments to the Order of Canada. The Society is composed of three Academies:
- The Académie des lettres et des sciences humaines (Academy I)
- The Academy of Humanities and Social Sciences (Academy II)
- The Academy of Science (Academy III). The Society is dedicated to making available to the public its members' broad and varied knowledge and to evaluate and advise on social, cultural, economic and scientific issues for the benefit of Canada. The members are available to assess significant issues of value to Canadians and provide independent expert advice, notably to government, on matters of public policy through its program of Expert Panel reports. Its purpose also includes fostering the highest levels of learning and research in all areas of scholarship and recognizing outstanding achievements in research and innovation by electing new Fellows and by awarding medals and prizes. The Society actively promotes international collaboration with other national academies. Discussion and consideration of important topics are carried out by the organization of annual symposia.

Awards

The Society awards twenty different awards on an annual or biennial basis. Some of these include:
- Willet G. Miller Medal, for outstanding research in any branch of earth sciences
- Bancroft Award, for publication, instruction, and research in the earth sciences
- Flavelle Medal, for an outstanding contribution to biological science
- Henry Marshall Tory Medal, for outstanding research in a branch of astronomy, chemistry, mathematics, physics, or an allied science
- Lorne Pierce Medal, for an achievement in critical or imaginative literature
- Pierre Chauveau Medal, for a distinguished contribution to knowledge in the humanities
- Sir John William Dawson Medal, for important and sustained contributions in at least two different domains
- Thomas W. Eadie Medal, for contributions in engineering and applied science

Fellowship

Election to Fellowship in the Society is the highest academic accolade available to scientists and scholars in Canada. After their induction in the Society, Fellows may use the postnomial FRSC for Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. Francophone Fellows use MSRC for Membre de la Société royale du Canada. The postnomial is usually not translated but is kept in the language of the Fellow.
- William Robinson Clark FRSC and President, 1899-1900.
- Jerome Ch'en

External links

- [http://www.rsc.ca/ Royal Society of Canada] Category:History of Canada

September 18

September 18 is the 261st day of the year (262nd in leap years). There are 104 days remaining.

Events

- 96 - Nerva is proclaimed Roman Emperor after Domitian is stabbed to death.
- 323 - Constantine the Great decisively defeats Licinius in the Battle of Chrysopolis, establishing Constantine's sole control over the Roman Empire.
- 1454 - In the Battle of Chojnice, Polish army is defeated by Teutonic army during the Thirteen Years' War.
- 1739 - The Treaty of Belgrade is signed, ceding Belgrade to the Ottoman Empire.
- 1755 - Fort Ticonderoga, New York is opened
- 1759 - The British capture Quebec City.
- 1769 - The first American-built piano is reported by the Boston Gazette
- 1793 - The first cornerstone of the Capitol building is layed
- 1810 - First Government Junta in Chile. Though supposed to rule only in the absence of the king, it was in fact the first step towards independence from Spain, and it is commemorated as such.
- 1830 - A horse beats the 1st US made locomotive near Baltimore
- 1850 - The U.S. Congress passes the Fugitive Slave Act.
- 1851 - The New-York Daily Times, which will become The New York Times, begins publishing.
- 1872 - King Oscar II accedes to the throne of Sweden-Norway.
- 1873 - The Panic of 1873 begins.
- 1895 - Daniel David Palmer makes the first chiropractic adjustment.
- 1895 - Booker T Washington delivers "Atlanta Compromise" address
- 1906 - A typhoon with tsunami kills an estimated 10,000 people in Hong Kong.
- 1914 - The Battle of Aisne ends.
- 1927 - Columbia Broadcasting System goes on the air.
- 1930 - Enterprise (US) beats Shamrock V (England) in 15th America's Cup
- 1931 - Mukden Incident, a.k.a "9.18 Incident". After that, Japan occupied Manchuria.
- 1932 - Actress Peg Entwistle commits suicide by jumping from the H in the Hollywood sign, forever turning the sign into a symbol for the paradox of the American film industry.
- 1942 - Canadian Broadcasting Corporation authorized.
- 1943 - The Jews of Minsk are massacred at Sobibór.
- 1945 - 1000 whites walk out of Gary, Indiana schools to protest integration
- 1947 - The United States Department of Defense begins operation (formerly known as National Military Establishment).
- 1947 - The United States Air Force is created separate from the United States Army.
- 1961 - U.N. Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold dies in a plane crash while attempting to negotiate peace in the war-torn Katanga region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
- 1962 - Rwanda, Burundi and Jamaica admitted to the United Nations.
- 1962 - The Full Gospel Fellowship of Churches and Ministers International was founded in Dallas
- 1970 - Black Sabbath release their second album Paranoid.
- 1974 - Hurricane Fifi strikes Honduras with 110 mph winds, 5,000 die.
- 1975 - Patty Hearst is arrested after a year on the FBI Most Wanted List.
- 1976 - Mao Tse Tung's funeral takes place in Beijing.
- 1976 - Wild Cherry single "Play That Funky Music" reaches Number 1 on the charts.
- 1982 - Christian militia begin massacre of 600 Palestinians in Lebanon.
- 1984 - Joe Kittinger completes 1st solo balloon crossing of Atlantic.
- 1985 - Steve Jobs resigns from Apple Computer.
- 1987 - Darrell Evans of the Detroit Tigers is 1st 40 year old to hit 30 HRs.
- 1989 - Hurricane Hugo hits Puerto Rico, killing six.
- 1990 - Liechtenstein becomes a member of the United Nations.
- 1990 - Atlanta is chosen to host the 1996 Summer Olympics.
- 1992 - The existence of the National Reconnaissance Office, operating since 1960, is declassified.
- 1992 - Nine formerly pro-Albanian marxist-leninist parties hold a conference in Strassburg, Germany.
- 1997 - U.S. media magnate Ted Turner donates USD $1 billion to the United Nations.
- 1997 - Voters in Wales vote yes (50.3%) on a referendum on Welsh autonomy.
- 1998 - ICANN is formed.
- 1999 - Sammy Sosa became the first player in major league baseball history to hit 60 homers in two seasons.
- 2003 - Hurricane Isabel makes landfall in the U.S.
- 2003 - The UK's Local Government Act 2003, repealing Section 28, receives Royal Assent.
- 2005 - Swedish Church elections take place.

Births

- 53 - Trajan, Roman Emperor (d. 117)
- 1505 - Maria of Austria, queen of Louis II of Hungary and Bohemia (d. 1558)
- 1587 - Francesca Caccini, Italian composer (d. circa 1640)
- 1643 - Gilbert Burnet, Scottish Bishop of Salisbury (d. 1715)
- 1684 - Johann Gottfried Walther, German composer (d. 1748)
- 1709 - Samuel Johnson, English writer and lexicographer (d. 1784)
- 1718 - Nikita Ivanovich Panin, Russian statesman (d. 1783)
- 1733 - George Read, American lawyer and signer of the Declaration of Independence (d. 1798)
- 1752 - Adrien-Marie Legendre, French mathematician (d. 1833)
- 1765 - Pope Gregory XVI (d. 1846)
- 1779 - Joseph Story, U.S. Supreme Court Justice (d. 1845)
- 1786 - Justinus Kerner, German poet (d. 1862)
- 1819 - Leon Foucault, French physicist (d. 1868)
- 1857 - John Hessin Clarke, U.S. Supreme Court Justice (d. 1945)
- 1870 - Clark Wissler, American anthropologist (d. 1947)
- 1876 - James Scullin, ninth Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1953)
- 1883 - Lord Berners, composer (1st Childhood)
- 1987 - Jolene Swoboda, Student
- 1889 - Doris Blackburn, Australian politician (d. 1970)
- 1895 - John Diefenbaker, thirteenth Prime Minister of Canada (d. 1979)
- 1901 - Harold Clurman, American producer and director (d. 1980)
- 1905 - Eddie 'Rochester' Anderson, American actor (d. 1977)
- 1905 - Agnes de Mille, American dancer and choreographer (d. 1993)
- 1905 - Greta Garbo, Swedish actress (d. 1990)
- 1907 - Leon Askin, Austrian actor (d. 2005)
- 1907 - Edwin McMillan, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1991)
- 1916 - Rossano Brazzi, Italian singer and actor (d. 1994)
- 1916 - John Jacob Rhodes, Jr., American politician and lawyer (d. 2003)
- 1917 - June Foray, American voice actress
- 1918 - John Berger, English politician
- 1920 - Jack Warden, American actor
- 1922 - Ray Steadman-Allen, English composer
- 1923 - Peter Smithson, English architect (d. 2003)
- 1925 - Harvey Haddix, baseball player
- 1926 - Bud Greenspan, American film producer and director
- 1928 - Phyllis Kirk, American actress
- 1932 - Nikolai Rukavishnikov, cosmonaut (d. 2002)
- 1933 - Robert Blake, American actor
- 1933 - Jimmie Rodgers, American singer and composer
- 1939 - Fred Willard, American comedian
- 1940 - Frankie Avalon, American musician
- 1944 - Michael Franks, American musician
- 1949 - Mo Mowlam, British politician (d. 2005)
- 1949 - Peter Shilton, English footballer
- 1950 - Shabana Azmi, Indian actress
- 1950 - Darryl Sittler, Canadian hockey player
- 1950 - Anna Deavere Smith, American actress and playwright
- 1951 - Benjamin Carson, American neurosurgeon
- 1952 - Rick Pitino, American basketball coach
- 1952 - Dee Dee Ramone, American bassist (The Ramones) (d. 2002)
- 1954 - Murtaza Bhutto, Pakistani politician (d. 1996)
- 1958 - John Aldridge, English footballer
- 1959 - Ryne Sandberg, baseball player
- 1961 - James Gandolfini, American actor
- 1963 - Rob Brettle, English historian
- 1964 - Holly Robinson, American actress
- 1968 - Toni Kukoc, Croatian basketball player
- 1970 - Darren Gough, English cricketer
- 1971 - Lance Armstrong, American cyclist
- 1971 - Jada Pinkett Smith, American model and actress
- 1973 - Mark Shuttleworth, South African entrepreneur
- 1974 - Sol Campbell, English footballer
- 1974 - Ticha Penicheiro, Portuguese basketball player
- 1975 - Anthony McPartlin, English television presenter
- 1977 - Li Tie, Chinese footballer
- 1979 - Alison Lohman, American actress

Deaths

- 31 - Sejanus, Roman head of Praetorian Guard (executed) (b. 20 BC)
- 96 - Domitian, Roman Emperor (b. 51)
- 887 - Pietro I Candiano, Doge of Venice (killed in battle)
- 1180 - King Louis VII of France (b. 1120)
- 1598 - Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Japanese warlord (b. 1536)
- 1630 - Melchior Klesl, Austrian cardinal and statesman (b. 1552)
- 1663 - St Joseph of Cupertino, Italian saint (b. 1603)
- 1675 - Charles III, Duke of Lorraine (b. 1604)
- 1721 - Matthew Prior, English poet and diplomat (b. 1664)
- 1722 - André Dacier, French classical scholar (b. 1651)
- 1783 - Leonhard Euler, Swiss mathematician (b. 1707)
- 1783 - Benjamin Kennicott, English churchman and Hebrew scholar (b. 1718)
- 1792 - August Gottlieb Spangenberg, German religious leader (b. 1704)
- 1827 - Robert Pollok, Scottish poet (b. 1789)
- 1860 - Joseph Locke, English railway builder and civil engineer (b. 1805)
- 1896 - Hippolyte Fizeau, French physicist (b. 1819)
- 1905 - George MacDonald, Scottish writer and minister (b. 1824)
- 1924 - Francis Herbert Bradley, British philosopher (b. 1846)
- 1939 - Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz, Polish writer, painter, and photographer (b. 1885)
- 1949 - Frank Morgan, American actor (b. 1890)
- 1959 - Benjamin Péret, French surrealist author
- 1961 - Dag Hammarskjöld, Swedish United Nations Secretary-General, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1905)
- 1964 - Clive Bell, English art critic (b. 1881)
- 1964 - Sean O'Casey, Irish writer (b. 1880)
- 1967 - John Cockcroft, British physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1897)
- 1970 - Jimi Hendrix, American musician (b. 1942)
- 1980 - Katherine Anne Porter, American novelist (b. 1890)
- 1994 - Vitas Gerulaitis, American tennis player (b. 1954)
- 2001 - Ernie Coombs, Canadian entertainer (b. 1927)
- 2002 - Bob Hayes, American athlete (b. 1942)
- 2002 - Mauro Ramos, Brazilian football player (b. 1930)
- 2003 - Emil Fackenheim, German Holocaust survivor and philosopher (b. 1916)
- 2004 - Norman Cantor, Canadian historian (b. 1929)
- 2005 - Michael Park, British Rally co-driver (b. 1966)

Holidays and observances

- In ancient Greece, the fifth day of the Eleusinian Mysteries.
- RC Saints - Feast day of St Joseph of Cupertino and Methodius of Olympus Also see September 18 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
- Chile - Independence Day (first junta 1810)
- In the French Revolutionary Calendar, the "Feast of Genius"
- Mid-Autumn Festival in the Chinese calendar (2005)
- In the Unification Church, Foundation Day
- In the Luthern Church, the commemoration of Dag Hammarskj'ld, peacemaker
- In the USA, Constitution Week

External links

- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/18 BBC: On This Day] ---- September 17 · September 19 · August 18 · October 18 · more historical anniversaries ko:9월 18일 ms:18 September ja:9月18日 simple:September 18 th:18 กันยายน

1895

1895 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar).

Events

January

- January 5 - Dreyfus Affair: French officer Alfred Dreyfus is stripped of his rank and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil's Island.

February

- February 11 - The lowest ever UK temperature of -27.2°C (measured as -17°F) was recorded at Braemar in Aberdeenshire. This record was equalled in 1982.
- February 14 - First showing of Oscar Wilde's last play The Importance of Being Earnest (St. James' Theatre in London).

March

- March 1 - William L. Wilson is appointed United States Postmaster General
- March 3 - In Munich, bicyclists have to pass a test and display license plates

April

- April 6 - Oscar Wilde is arrested after losing a libel case against the Marquess of Queensberry.
- April 14 - a major earthquake severely damages Ljubljana, Slovenia.
- April 17 - The Treaty of Shimonoseki (also known as Treaty of Maguan) was signed between China and Japan. This marks the end of the first Sino-Japanese War, and the defeated Qing Empire is forced to renounce its claims on Korea and to concede the southern portion of the Fengtien province, Taiwan and the Pescadores Islands to Japan.

May

- May 25 - Playwright, poet and novelist Oscar Wilde is convicted of "sodomy and gross indecency" and sentenced to serve two years in a London prison.

June

- June 11 - Britain annexes Togoland
- June 28 - Union of Nicaragua, Honduras and El Salvador begins (ends in 1898).