 |
The year that just ended saw Alberta wrenched over changes to its energy royalty regime -- considered the ultimate test for Premier Ed Stelmach's one-year-old reign. Calgary lived through another year dominated by torrid, though slower, growth. Overseas, Canada endured a bloody year in a worsening Afghan conflict, complicated by upheaval in neighbouring Pakistan. Violence in much of Iraq dropped in 2007's second half, but lack of political reconciliation and Turkish attacks on the country's North tempered any rejoicing. The Canadian dollar soared past its U.S. counterpart, while the price of oil gushed toward $100 a barrel. And the housing and financial markets were rocked by a credit and subprime mortgage meltdown that matched the torrid pace of global warming. Calgary Sun reporter Bill Kaufmann looks back at another year added to the history books.
JANUARY:
1: The year begins with U.S. military deaths in Iraq just topping the 3,000 mark; more then 23,000 troops have been wounded and hundreds of American contractors or mercenaries also killed. Estimates of Iraqi dead range as high as 650,000.
1: An airliner goes down over Indonesia, killing all 102 aboard.
1: A smoking ban in most Calgary public businesses takes effect, as does a cat licensing bylaw. Considerable defiance among city bars greets the smoking ban.
4: Democrats officially take their seats in Congress, marking the first time in 12 years the party has held majorities there.
5: Citing pressure from new Liberal Leader Stephane Dion to end his role as an adviser to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Toronto Grit MP Wajid Khan crosses the aisle to the Tories.
6-7: Canada's first initially surviving sextuplets are born in Vancouver.
7: In the midst of Somalia's civil war, U.S. aircraft begin striking at what they say are al-Qaida operatives in the Horn of Africa country.
9: Calgary's corporate and social agency community officially bands together, vowing to banish homelessness in the city in 10 years.
10: Confirming a move unpopular among Americans and their generals, U.S. President George W. Bush makes official his intention to pour 21,500 more troops into Iraq in a bid to stabilize the anarchic country.
16: Premier Ed Stelmach vows to return $1.4 billion in education taxes to municipalities facing a worsening infrastructure crunch.
30: Federal environment commissioner Johanne Gelinas is fired by auditor general Sheila Fraser for allegedly going beyond her mandate by advocating for stronger action on global warming.
FEBRUARY:
1: Imperial Oil and Exxon annnounce record profits, with the latter energy giant reporting the largest margin in U.S. corporate history -- $39.5 billion -- for 2006.
2: A UN panel of climate scientists from 113 countries issues a report warning of the dire impacts of global warming, while linking the phenomenon almost certainly to human activity.
2: A German prosecutor discloses that arrest warrants have been issued for 13 CIA operatives accused of kidnapping terror suspects off European streets -- some of them allegedly innocent.
2: Tornadoes ravage Florida, killing about 20 people.
5: It's revealed the Calgary Health Region is sending mothers expecting premature births out of the country, another symptom of a stressed medical system.
5: The CHR confirms the budget for its new south hospital has grown from $560 million to at least $900 million, a 40% hike.
6: Kicked out of the Tory caucus last year for being too outspoken, Ontario MP Garth Turner crosses to the Liberals.
7: After seven years at the helm, Calgary police chief Jack Beaton says he'll give up his post at the end of 2007.
8: Playboy pin-up and accused gold-digger Anna Nicole Smith dies from an accidental drug overdose at the age of 39.
9: A U.S. Defence Department report states the Pentagon manipulated intelligence for the White House to justify the invasion of Iraq.
10: Prime Minister Stephen Harper announces a $1.5-billion environmental fund, to be distributed to provinces and used partly to fight global warming.
13: A Calgary judge rules against bar owners fighting a public smoking ban, rejecting their arguments exemptions in the bylaw discriminate against them.
13: Six-party talks result in North Korea agreeing to forego its nuclear energy and weapons programs in exchange for aid, but skeptics question the Stalinist regime's commitment.
14: Opposition parties ram through a bill holding the governing Tories to honour Canada's Kyoto obligations, but the Conservatives refuse to enact it, insisting it would devastate the economy.
14: DaimlerChrysler announces it's axing 13,000 jobs, 2,000 of them in Canada, in a bid to rein in red ink.
15: EnCana Corp. announces the largest corporate profit in Canadian history -- $6.65 billion Cdn.
15: Ernst Zundel, who was deported from Canada in 2005, is handed a five-year prison sentence in Germany for Holocaust denial.
16: Some Republicans join Democrats in the House of Representatives to denounce in a non-binding motion President Bush's troop escalation in Iraq. Days later, GOP senators block debate on the issue.
18: A political firestorm erupts with the Washington Post's expose of substandard care for Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans at Walter Reed military hospital.
23: Canada's Supreme Court unanimously rules security certificates allowing the indefinite detention of foreign terror suspects without charge or evidence disclosure is unconstitutional, but falls short of ordering an end to the practice.
24: A tentative deal is reached with 2,800 CN Rail workers, ending a two-week strike.
27: World stock markets take a massive hit due to doubts about the Chinese and U.S. economies.
27: Parliament votes to quash renewal of provisions of the Anti-Terrorism Act that suspend many legal rights for foreign terror suspects.
MARCH:
1: U.S. intelligence officials admit earlier accusations North Korea was enriching uranium for nuclear weapons were overstated, raising suspicions Washington's confrontational stance needlessly led to the Stalinist state developing plutonium bombs.
1: Tornadoes and storms rip across three southern states, killing more than 20 people.
2: Calgarian Melissa Hawach tells how she tracked down daughters Cedar and Hannah -- who'd been abducted by their father in 2006 -- and spirited them out of Lebanon.
6: Former vice presidential aide Lewis (Scooter) Libby is found guilty of four of five counts of lying, perjury and obstructing justice in the White House's leaking of the identity of a CIA agent tracking weapons of mass destruction.
8: As part of its climate change strategy, Ottawa announces $156 million to study C02 sequestration in Alberta, while the province vows to fine the largest industrial emitters if they fail to meet 2007 intensity targets.
14: The Pentagon releases documents revealing Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's confession for the 9/11 attacks and numerous other terrorist acts.
16: Pet food manufacturer Menu Foods announces a $40-million recall after toxins are found in its product, prompting fear among animal owners, as well as lawsuits.
19: Anti-war protests continue around the world, marking the fourth anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.
19: Tory Ottawa brings down its second budget with $24.4 billion in new spending, including a tax credit for parents, along with incentives for fuel-efficient vehicles and a grandfathered end to oilsands subsidies.
20: At least 152 people are killed in a bombing -- the Iraq war's deadliest up to that time -- in the northwestern town of Tal Afar, which had been held up by the U.S. as a counter-insurgency success story. The town's mostly Shiite police then massacre about 70 Sunnis in retaliation.
21: The province takes control of St. Joseph's general hospital in Vegreville after it disclosed contaminated equipment was used and the facility was plagued by a superbug.
23: Tensions in the Persian Gulf rise when Iranian forces seize 15 British servicemen who had been tracking water-borne smugglers and Iranian military activity. They're released after nearly two weeks in captivity.
23: Calgary Transit drivers begin a work-to-rule campaign that inconveniences riders and suspends some school charter routes.
24: The UN Security Council unanimously endorses tougher sanctions on Iran in response to that country's uranium enrichment.
26: After nearly five years of negotiations, loyalist and Republican politicians announce a new power-sharing agreement in Northern Ireland.
26: Quebec voters elect a minority Liberal government, relegating the Parti Quebecois to third place behind the surging Action Democratique.
28: A majority of farmers vote to end the Canadian Wheat Board's monopoly on barley marketing.
29: It's revealed Ottawa will probe allegations of mishandling of RCMP pension and insurance funds and a coverup among the force's senior ranks.
APRIL:
1: The temporary homeless shelter at Calgary's former 16 Ave. Brick store closes its doors, creating another crisis as frigid weather descends.
4: U.S. radio host Don Imus unleashes a furor when he refers to the Rutgers University women's basketball team as "nappy-headed hos."
5: Canada's Supreme Court turns down a bid by tobacco firms to be excluded from the B.C. government's liability suits.
6: The year's second report from the UN panel on climate change warns of dire impact on humans and animals from global warming, though many scientists involved in the document claim it was watered down by governments.
8: Canada suffers its biggest single loss in Afghanistan when six soldiers in an armoured vehicle are killed by a roadside bomb west of Kandahar.
11: Controversial Ontario Liberal MP Belinda Stronach announces she won't run for re-election.
12: In a chilling breach of Baghdad's Green Zone security, a bomber blows himself up in the cafeteria of Iraq's parliament.
12: Liberal Leader Stephane Dion unveils a deal with Green Party head Elizabeth May, vowing not to run candidates in each other's ridings.
16: In the worst shooting rampage in U.S. history, gunman Cho Seung-Hui murders 32 people and wounds 17 at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Va., before killing himself.
17: By a narrow margin, city council approves an $8 per month curbside recycling program to be launched Jan. 1, 2009.
17: In a bid to end a week-long strike by 2,800 CN Rail workers, Parliament passes back-to-work legislation.
18: Prime Minister Stephen Harper appoints Calgary-area Tory Bert Brown to the Senate to fill a vacancy to be left by Grit Senator Dan Hays. Brown is the first elected person to go to the upper chamber since Stan Waters 17 years before.
18: Despite the two-month-old U.S. military surge, car bombs in Baghdad and attacks throughout the country make for one of the bloodiest days during the four-year Iraq campaign, with at least 313 killed.
18: For the first time, the U.S. Supreme Court upholds a ban on an abortion procedure, in this case, midterm abortions -- giving states more leeway to regulate the activity.
22: For the second year in a row, the Calgary Flames bow out in the first round of the playoffs, losing to the Detroit Red Wings four games to two.
23: The Kremlin announces the death at age 76 of former Russian president Boris Yeltsin.
23: Former U.S. vice-president Al Gore finds a Calgary audience receptive to his global warming presentation.
24: Ottawa pledges to ban incandescent light bulbs by 2012 in an effort to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
24: David Aftergood is found guilty of attempting to rig the 2004 Ward 10 municipal vote. He's later sentenced to 14 days in jail and a $2,000 fine.
24: A newspaper report reveals Canadian officials knew war prisoners handed over by their troops to Afghan authorities were routinely tortured and executed extrajudicially.
26: Ottawa unveils its climate change plan that would re-duce major industrial emissions intensity 18% by 2010 and 26% by 2015.
27: The U.S. Senate joins the House in passing a law that would see U.S. troops begin a withdrawal from Iraq in October 2007, but President George W. Bush later vetoes it.
MAY:
1: Mayor Dave Bronconnier ups the stakes in his feud with the province, saying the west and southeast LRT legs had been cancelled due to insufficient government funding.
3: Former Canadian career diplomat James Bartleman testifies at the Air India inquiry that he passed on information to the RCMP that one of the carrier's planes would be attacked, just days before the 1985 bombing.
3: Hockey Canada officials emotionally denounce, in front of a Commons committee, the political furor over the captaincy of Team Canada's Shane Doan for an alleged anti-French Canadian slur made two years ago.
3: An agreement on prisoner transfer is reached between Ottawa and Kabul after allegations militant suspects captured by Canadian troops were turning them over to abusive Afghan authorities.
3: Two city cops are suspended after a video shows an apparently unresisting suspect being roughed up.
5: All 114 aboard a Kenyan Airway plane are killed when it crashes in Cameroon.
5: The most powerful tornado to strike the U.S. in eight years destroys Greensburg, Kan., killing 12 people.
6: French rightist Nicolas Sarkozy wins France's presidential election, sparking clashes between police and protesters.
8: Highlighting Alberta's boom-driven ballooning housing costs, two dozen irate renters storm Housing Minister Ray Danyluk's Edmonton office, protesting the absence of rent controls.
8: A majority of Iraqi legislators vote in support of a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from their country.
10: After a decade in power, and wounded by the deeply-unpopular war in Iraq, British Prime Minister Tony Blair announces he'll step down June 27.
13: NATO reveals a U.S. attack killed Taliban military commander Mullah Dadullah in southern Afghanistan.
15: U.S. right-wing evangelical icon Rev. Jerry Falwell dies of cardiac arrest at age 73.
17: World Bank president and George W. Bush confidant Paul Wolfowitz announces he's resigning his post, following a flap over his arranging a promotion and hefty pay raise for his girlfriend.
18: Gasoline prices in Calgary hit a record high, breaking the $1.20-a-litre barrier.
24: Congressional Democrats cave in to President George W. Bush, agreeing to another $100 billion to fund the Iraq war without a timeline for troop withdrawal.
30: Both sides in a Calgary Transit labour dispute reach a tentative contract agreement, averting a strike scheduled to hit two days later.
31: The province reveals it'll implement a province-wide smoking ban in 2008.
JUNE
4: The future of the military tribunal system at the U.S. detention centre at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, is thrown in doubt after charges against Canadian Omar Khadr are dropped on a technicality.
5: Former U.S. vice-presidential aide Lewis (Scooter) Libby is given a 30-month sentence and $250,000 fine for obstructing justice in the outing of CIA covert agent Valerie Plame.
5: A savage electrical storm and record rainfall wreaks havoc on Calgary.
5: Iraqi lawmakers pass a bill reserving them the right to demand an end to foreign military occupation.
5: Nova Scotia Tory MP Bill Casey is turfed from caucus after breaking ranks on a budget he says betrays the Atlantic Accord on energy revenues.
7: G8 leaders meeting in Germany agree on measures to combat greenhouse gas emissions that lack targets; the issue is overshadowed by a dispute between Russia and the U.S. over Pentagon anti-missile batteries in Eastern Europe.
8: The Bush administration replaces Gen. Peter Pace as chairman of the joint chiefs of staff.
10: Two Quebec men drown when their rafts tumble over the notorious Bow River weir.
12: The Alberta Tories lose former premier Ralph Klein's former Calgary Elbow riding but hold onto the Drumheller-Stettler seat in byelections.
14: The Calgary Flames announce the hiring of hard-nosed Mike Keenan as their new head coach.
15: A special investigator slams former RCMP commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli for keeping the lid on the force's pension scandal.
17: In the deadliest Afghan bombing in nearly six years, at least 35 people, mostly police instructors, are killed in a suicide attack in Kabul.
18: Canada's no-fly list aimed at deterring terrorist hijackings comes into effect.
18: An effort, spearheaded by Canadian authorities, snares 700 members of an international child pornography ring.
19: Nine firefighters are killed when a burning warehouse in Charleston, S.C., collapses.
21: U.S. vice-president Dick Cheney refuses to hand over documents on how he's handled classified information to a national archives, arguing he's not part of the White House executive branch.
22: Prime Minister Stephen Harper says Canada's mission in Afghanistan won't go beyond 2009 without a political consensus to support it.
25: Calgary-trained pro wrestler Chris Benoit is found dead in his Georgia home after he killed his wife and seven-year-old son.
26: Ontario Grit MP Joe Comuzzi crosses the floor to the Tories.
28: Canada's Supreme Court upholds the right of governments to limit tobacco advertising.
28: The U.S. Congress kills an immigration reform bill targetting illegal aliens championed by President George W. Bush.
29: A national day of protest by Canada's Natives produces some road and rail blockades, but ends generally peacefully.
29: Calgary paramedics begin a work-to-rule campaign to push for a new contract.
30: It's revealed telecommunications giant BCE will be purchased by an investment wing of the Ontario Teachers' Pension Fund in a deal worth $52 billion.
30: Terror attacks hit Britain when a burning SUV is slammed into Glasgow airport, a day after two car bombs are defused in central London.
JULY
2: U.S. President George W. Bush commutes the 30-month sentence of vice-presidential aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, who was convicted of obstructing justice in the White House's outing of a covert CIA operative.
4: Six Canadian soldiers in an armoured vehicle are killed by a roadside bomb near Kandahar.
6: A huge fire destroys a Lakeview apartment building, leaving more than 100 people homeless and causing $10- million in damage.
7: Two billion people take in Live Earth concerts held on seven continents to raise awareness of global warming.
8: Two Barrhead men -- Dennis Cheeseman and Shawn Hennesey -- are charged with first-degree murder for allegedly aiding James Roszko in killing four Mounties at Mayerthorpe in March 2005.
9: A 13-year-old Medicine Hat girl is convicted of first-degree murder in the killing of her parents and eight-year-old brother in April 2006. She's Canada's youngest multiple murderer.
10: Pope Benedict angers some Protestants by re-asserting doctrine that Roman Catholicism is both the only true church and path to salvation.
10: Pakistani commandos storm the Red Mosque in Islamabad after a week-long siege where pro-Taliban militants had holed up with hostages.
11: In a bizarre Stampede week rampage, one woman is stabbed to death and four other pedestrians knifed in different parts of the city in the span of an hour. It's suspected the same culprits are responsible for all the assaults.
11: An American intelligence report states the Al-Qaida terrorist network is at its strongest point since the summer of 2001.
13: Following a four-month trial, media baron Conrad Black is convicted of four counts of mail fraud and obstruction of justice.
14: Three horses are killed and one cowboy hurt in a spectacular Calgary Stampede chuckwagon crash.
14: The Catholic church announces the largest single payout to victims of its sex scandals -- nearly $650 million in its L.A. diocese.
16: Ottawa and the Cree of northern Quebec reach a $1.4- billion settlement over questions of hydroelectric development and greater Native autonomy.
17: An incoming jetliner skids into the a fuel depot at Sao Paulo's Congonhas airport, killing nearly 200 people in a huge fireball. It's Brazil's deadliest air disaster.
22: Gunplay once again sparks outrage in Toronto when 11-year-old Ephraim Brown is killed by a stray bullet during a gangland shooting.
22: A massive fire in southwest Edmonton wipes out much of a city block, sparking calls for tightened building codes.
22: Thousands are displaced by the worst flooding in England in at least 60 years.
23: Serial pedophile Peter Whitmore dodges a dangerous offender designation by accepting a life sentence with no chance of parole for six years.
23: Calgary city council dumps the idea of putting pro-soldier decals on its vehicle fleet, but endorses fundraising efforts for military families.
24: The province steps in to head off a walk-out by Calgary paramedics after their union issues a strike notice.
25: A report by the Health Quality Council of Alberta states the East Central Health district waged a turf war with its hospitals, allowing an infectious outbreak to fester and raising concerns about the wider Alberta situation.
27: The U.S. announces it's selling $20 billion worth of weapons to Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states and $30 billion in arms to Israel.
30: Legendary Swedish film director Ingmar Bergman dies at age 89.
31: Former Bre-X chief geologist John Felderhof is acquitted by an Ontario judge of insider trading, a decade after investors lost $3 billion in the gold mining hoax.
31: A federal court judge reinstates the Canadian Wheat Board's monopoly over barley marketing, ruling Ottawa overstepped its authority in ending it.
AUGUST:
1: A parched July of almost record heat leads to the closure of campgrounds throughout southwestern Alberta.
1: Britain formally ends its 38-year military presence in Northern Ireland.
1: The Interstate 35W bridge over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis collapses, killing 13 people and injuring 100.
2: In a bid to lay claim to the region's mineral riches that infuriates Ottawa, Russian explorers in two submersibles plant their national flag under the ice cap at the North Pole.
3: The Democrat-controlled Congress agrees to hand expanded eavesdropping powers to President George W. Bush, alarming critics and civil liberties defenders.
4: Britain discontinues meat and dairy exports after foot-and-mouth disease is discovered on a farm.
5: Fears over the city's crime rate erupt after eight people die in violent incidents in Calgary over a span of nine days.
6: Questions arise over lax regulations when six miners are killed in a cave-in at a Utah coal mine.
7: San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds breaks Hank Aaron's 33-year-old homerun record by swatting number 756.
10: Stock markets continue to tumble over fears of a credit and real estate meltdown in the U.S.
11: White House political guru Karl Rove announces he's stepping down.
16: American Jose Padilla, held for 31/2 years without legal rights as an enemy combatant, is convicted of aiding terrorists.
19: Hurrican Dean slams into Jamaica and kills 14 people in the Caribbean.
21: Calgary commuters face another gridlock challenge, with the closure of a downtown block on 6 Ave. S.E. to aid in the construction of Encana's The Bow project.
22: Newfoundland and Labrador inks a deal with the energy industry, giving it a stake in the Hebron offshore drilling field.
24: Quebec provincial police admit three of their members -- one carrying a rock -- had infiltrated demonstrators at the Three Amigos summit at Montebello, Que.
27: The death toll in heat wave-fuelled wildfires in Greece reaches 63.
27: Embattled U.S. attorney general Alberto Gonzales resigns over charges he's corrupted and politicized his department.
28: A licence application is filed to build twin nuclear reactors near Peace River, with the goal of opening one of them in 2017.
28: The Ontario Court of Appeal acquits Steven Truscott for the 1959 slaying of Lynn Harper.
30: Taliban guerrillas release the last of 19 South Korean hostages in return for Seoul's pullout from Afghanistan at year's end.
SEPTEMBER
1: Family values Republican Senator Larry Craig resigns after a storm erupts over his guilty plea to soliciting sex with a male undercover police officer in a Minnesota airport washroom. He later voices his intention to stay on.
2: British troops begin vacating their last positions inside Basra.
4: After a meeting with Premier Ed Stelmach, the mayors of Calgary and Edmonton say a long-sought 10-year funding agreement for infrastructure is in the bag.
5: Hurricane Felix kills hundreds in Nicaragua.
6: Iconic opera tenor Luciano Pavarotti dies of pancreatic cancer at the age of 71.
6: Israeli warplanes mysteriously attack Syria, with speculation nuclear facilities were targeted.
10: In a long-awaited appearance, greeted with considerable skepticism, U.S. Gen. David Petraeus insists 3,000 American troops can be pulled from Iraq in mid-2008 amid an improving security situation.
10: Former Calgary deputy police chief Rick Hanson is named to succeed outgoing Chief Jack Beaton.
12: For the first time, the price of a barrel of crude oil breaks the US$80-mark.
13: After a 30-year reign, Toronton's CN Tower is supplanted as the world's tallest free-standing structure by Dubai's Burj Dubai office tower.
14: The province unveils a long-awaited, 10-year, $10 billion municipal infrastructure package that ends a bitter feud between Calgary and the government.
16: An airliner crash on the Thai island of Phuket kills 88 people.
16: Mercenaries with U.S. firm Blackwater massacre 17 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad, causing an uproar highlighting the unaccountability of private armies in the country.
18: A royalty review report recommends Alberta increase its take from the oil and gas industry by $2 billion a year, unleashing a series of divestment threats from energy companies.
18: O.J. Simpson is charged with kidnapping in an armed robbery at a Las Vegas casino-hotel that netted sports memorabilia.
20: For the first time in 31 years, the loonie reaches parity with the U.S. dollar.
20: Protestors march in Jena, La., angered over the jailing of six black youths for beating a white classmate. The demonstrators allege the harsh treatment of the blacks is fuelled by racism.
26: The province announces it's dropping the cap on Alberta wind energy generation, prompting expectations the renewable power will flourish.
27: Myanmar security forces in Yangon fatally fire on demonstrators who'd been demanding an end to government oppression.
30: The AEUB announces it's calling off hearings and pulling the plug on a contentious Edmonton to Calgary transmission line.
OCTOBER
1: An auditor general's report states provincial officials concealed their knowledge the government was forgoing energy royalties worth billions of dollars since 2000.
1: The national medical director of the Canadian Red Cross and several colleagues are acquitted of criminal charges in the tainted-blood scandal.
4: North and South Korea ink an agreement to move toward ending their state of war, with Pyongyang also committing to scaling back its nuclear program.
6: RCMP Const. Chris Worden is shot to death in Hay River, N.W.T., sparking a massive six-day manhunt for suspect Emrah Bulatci, who's finally captured in Edmonton.
10: Ontario voters sweep Premier Dalton McGuinty and his Liberal Party back into power.
12: Global warming crusader and former U.S. vice-president Al Gore is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, along with the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
14: Controversy erupts when Polish national Robert Dziekanski dies after being tasered by Mounties at Vancouver airport. A private videotape of the incident sparks international outrage.
15: Mayor Dave Bronconnier wins easily in Calgary's civic election, but four new aldermen are voted in, with three incumbents getting the boot.
16: The federal throne speech vows tax cuts, a crime crackdown and increased vigilance in Canada's North, but fails to trigger an election after opposition Liberals decide not to challenge it.
18: A horrifying collision between a school bus and a broken-down dump truck on Crowchild Tr. S.W. kills nine-year-old Kathelynn Ocenna, critically injures another student and sends nine other passengers to hospital.
18: After an eight-year exile, former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto returns, and her convoy is attacked by bombs that kill nearly 140 people in Karachi.
24: Wildfires in southern California send more than a million people fleeing, torching more than 2,800 buildings and ultimately killing seven people.
25: Premier Ed Stelmach unveils a new royalty regime, set to annually collect $1.4 billion more from the Alberta energy industry.
27: Animal rights advocates are furious when Hazina, a hippo being transported from Denver to the Calgary Zoo, dies after her 29-hour truck trip.
30: The federal government announces $60-billion in tax relief for Canadians over five years, along with a 1% cut to the 6% GST.
NOVEMBER
1: Beleaguered auto-maker Chrysler announces it's axing 10,000 jobs, 1,000 of them in Canada.
1: Ottawa says it will no longer challenge the execution of Canadians convicted in countries subject to "the rule of law," such as the U.S.
2: Sri Lankan fighter-bombers kill the Tamil Tigers' second-most senior leader in an air strike.
3: Pakistani President Purvez Musharraf suspends the consititution and imposes martial law, calling it a response to surging Islamic militants.
5: Rookie Mountie Doug Scott, 20, is gunned down in the Baffin Island hamlet of Kimmirut, the second RCMP officer in a month to be murdered while on duty and without backup.
5: In the bloodiest insurgent bomb attack since the Taliban were toppled in Afghanistan, nearly 80 people, including six government MPs, are killed north of Kabul.
5: Screen Writers Guild of America members walk out, in a dispute over alternative media fees, leaving numerous TV shows high and dry.
6: City council approves spending $671 million on LRT expansion and recreational centres.
6: Five month-old Taylor Marie-Olsen, her mom Christa-Marie, 20, and a senior die when their Greyhound bus rolls after hitting a patch of ice near Grande Prairie.
7: Teen gunman Pekka-Eric Auvinen shoots to death eight students and staff at a high school in Tuusula, Finland, before killing himself.
7: Saskatchewan voters turf the 16-year-old NDP government, handing the Saskatchewan Party under Brad Wall a solid majority.
7: Pro-U.S. Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili suspends civil liberties in response to street protests calling for his ouster.
8: Convicted of the 2006 murder of her three family members when she was only 13, a Medicine Hat teen is sentenced to four years in a psychiatric hospital and 41/2 years of supervised community service.
9: In possibly the biggest drug settlement ever, Merck & Co. pays $5 billion to those suffering the side-effects of its anti-arthritis treatment Vioxx.
9: In a sudden reversal, Prime Minister Stephen Harper orders a review of former PM Brian Mulroney's relationship with German businessman Karlheinz Schreiber amid allegations of $300,000 kickbacks to the ex-politico.
10: Novelist Norman Mailer, author of The Naked and the Dead and often considered the last great man of letters, dies at age 84.
14: The province gives final approval to an Alberta-wide ban on smoking in public and work places to take effect Jan. 1, 2008.
15: The province announces a $2.1-billion deal to pay down Alberta teachers' pension liability, setting the stage for five years of labour peace.
15: After reports of his impending dismissal circulated for weeks in the Sun, the Calgary Stampeders announce the firing of head coach Tom Higgins. Former Stamp QB John Hufnagel is named the new coach and GM two weeks later.
15: A cyclone strikes southern Bangladesh, killing at least 3,500 people and uprooting hundreds of thousands.
18: In Ukraine's deadliest mine accident, an underground explosion kills more than 100 workers.
20: An excerpt from former White House spokesman Scott McClellan's upcoming book states President Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney were involved in covering up the high-level outing of a CIA agent.
20: City council approves a controversial West LRT line that bypasses Mount Royal College.
21: It's revealed two CDs containing confidential information on 25-million Britons have gone missing.
23: Australia's staunchly pro-Bush Prime Minister John Howard is decisively defeated in the national election.
25: Riots reminiscent of those that swept France in 2005 erupt in Paris and other cities after two youths are killed in a crash with a police car.
27: Mideast peace talks at Annapolis, Md., yield an agreement by Israeli and Palestinian delegates to achieve a deal by the end of 2008.
30: An Atlasjet passenger plane crashes in central Turkey, killing all 56 people on board.
DECEMBER
3: A U.S. National Intelligence Estimate contradicts the long-time White House line by concluding Iran stopped actively working on nuclear weapons in 2003.
5: Despite fears Bill 46 will hinder public appeals against proposed power lines, the legislation is passed after an all-night legislature session.
5: Gunman Robert Hawkins, 19, murders eight people in an Omaha, Neb., shopping mall before killing himself.
7: In the worst Calgary traffic carnage in memory, five people -- including three children -- are killed when a concrete truck plows into their car on Macleod Tr.
7: Democrats in the U.S. call for a probe into the CIA's destruction of videotapes showing the interrogations of terror suspects.
9: Former B.C. pig farmer Robert Picton is convicted on six counts of second-degree murder. Two days later, he's given the maximum -- a mandatory 25-year life sentence.
10: Former media baron Conrad Black is sentenced to 61/2 years in prison for fraud and obstruction of justice.
10: Blues-metal hyperstars Led Zeppelin play a critically-acclaimed reunion concert in London, nourishing hopes the band will subsequently tour.
11: Twin car bombs in Algiers, targeting the UN and Algeria's supreme court, kill about 70 people and spark fears of a return to major instability in the North African nation.
16: Britain ends its control of Iraq's Basra province, turning it over to security forces either controlled by or vulnerable to various militias.
16: Turkish planes bomb Kurdish targets deep inside northern Iraq. Land assaults and more aerial bombings follow.
16: Under orders from Parliament, a nuclear reactor at Chalk River, Ont., goes back on line to relieve a dire shortage of medical isotopes, despite fears about the facility's safety.
18: The UN states rapidly-dwindling world food supplies are driving up prices at an alarming rate -- blaming global warming, diversion of feed to cattle and ethanol production and higher transportation costs.
23: Canadian jazz great Oscar Peterson, dubbed by Duke Ellington as the "Maharaja of the keyboard" dies at age 82.
27: Opposition leader and former Pakistani PM Benazir Bhutto, 54, is assassinated in a suicide attack while leaving an election rally in Rawalpindi, throwing the country into further turmoil.
29: The Tom Brady-led New England Patriots set an NFL record for a perfect 16-0 season, the first time a team had gone undefeated for an entire season since 1972.
30: Gunner Jonathan Dion, 27, with the 5th Regiment d'Artillerie legere du Canada, becomes the 74th Canadian soldier killed, and four others are injured, when their vehicle hits a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan.