Timeline Feb 9 to 11

Feb 9
1760  Captain John Byron 1723-1786, grandfather of poet Lord Byron, begins tearing down the fortifications of Louisbourg on orders from British PM William Pitt.
1870  Fire destroyed a courthouse erected in 1842.
1883  Ontario's First free public library opens at Guelph, Ontario.
1894  William Avery "Billy" Bishop, World War I flying ace, was born in Owen sound.
1937  Patent # 364047 was issued to the Lightning Fastener Company of St. Catharines and its president Gideon Sundback, for the zipper.
1943  World War II battle of Guadalcanal in the southwest Pacific ended with an American victory over Japanese forces.
1964  The Beatles made their first live American TV appearance, on "The Ed Sullivan Show."

Feb 10
1763  France ceded Canada to England under the Treaty of Paris, which ended the French and Indian War.
1802  Alexander Mackenzie 1764-1820 knighted for achievements in the North West, and for being First to cross the North American continent by land.
1840  Britain's Queen Victoria married Prince Albert of Saxe Coburg-Gotha.
1841  Upper and Lower Canada were officially united as the Province of Canada.
1846  Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints - the Mormons - began an exodus west from Illinois.

Feb 11
1800  William Henry Fox Talbot, English chemist/pioneer photographer, was born.
1847  Thomas Alva Edison, inventor with more than 1,000 patents, was born in Milan, Ohio.
1869  Patrick Whelan, convicted of the murder of Thomas D`Arcy McGee, was executed on the gallows outside the courthouse in Ottawa.
1897  Fire destroys the West Block on Parliament Hill.
1922  Frederick Grant Banting 1891-1941 announces the discovery of insulin, used to treat diabetes, at the University of Toronto.
1940  John Buchan (Lord Tweedsmuir), the first novelist and historian to become governor general of Canada, died in Montreal.