On this date, Sept. 26, in history: In 1751, some 1,000 immigrants from Wurtemberg, Germany, arrived in Halifax, N.S.
In 1774, American pioneer environmentalist Jonathan Chapman, better known as Johnny Appleseed, was born. Chapman, whose theology taught an empathy with the natural world, distributed apple seeds and religious tracts from the Alleghenies to the Ohio Valley in the U.S.
In 1819, Sir William Edward Parry of Britain’s Royal Navy anchored his ships off Melville Island, N.W.T, becoming the first explorer to winter in the Arctic by choice.
He’d been put in charge of two ships in an expedition aimed at finding the Northwest Passage. In 1904, Earl Grey was officially appointed governor general of Canada. He had been a member of the British House of Commons and then administrator of Rhodesia.
Born in St. James’ Palace in London, Grey was an ardent imperialist, and in speeches in Canada he tried to promote imperial pride. Grey served as governor general from 1904-11.
In 1909, he donated the Grey Cup for the Canadian football championship. In 1907, New Zealand was constituted a Dominion. In 1909, Prince Ito of Japan was assassinated by a Korean revolutionary.
In 1934, the Queen Mary, the first British liner to exceed 305 metres in length, was launched in Glasgow, Scotland. The 85,535-tonne vessel, built at Clydebank for the Cunard White Star Line, carried more than two million people in over 1,001 Atlantic crossings. In 1967, the huge liner docked at Long Beach, Cali.
