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Alexander Cameron Rutherford (1857–1941) was the first premier of Alberta. Born in Ormond, Canada West, he became a lawyer in Ottawa before moving to the North-West Territories in 1895. He won a seat in the North-West Legislative Assembly, and in 1905 he was asked to form the new province's first government. As premier, with a majority in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta, he created the apparatus of government and supported the controversial selection of Edmonton as capital. Faced with labour unrest in the coal mining industry, the government established a commission to examine the problem. A project to develop new railways led to the Alberta and Great Waterways Railway scandal; Rutherford eventually resigned but kept his legislative seat. He was defeated in the 1913 election by Herbert Crawford, a Conservative, but was made King's Counsel afterwards. After leaving politics, he continued his law practice and became chancellor of the University of Alberta until his death by a heart attack. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Comet Kohoutek

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... that Northwest High School required transgender staff members of the student newspaper to use deadnames in bylines?
... that Drummie Zeb was one of the last two original members of Aswad still playing with the reggae group by 2006?
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... that former Lincoln University president Armstead Otey Grubb was robbed and murdered outside his home on campus in 1968?
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Jean-Luc Godard in 1968

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French-Swiss filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard (pictured) dies at the age of 91.
In television, Ted Lasso wins best comedy and Succession wins best drama at the Primetime Emmy Awards.

On this day

September 21: International Day of Peace

The Great Fire of New York

1170 – Norman invasion of Ireland: English and Irish forces conquered Dublin, forcing Ascall mac Ragnaill, the last Norse–Gaelic king of Dublin, into exile.
1776 – American Revolutionary War: The Great Fire of New York (depicted) broke out during the British occupation of New York City, destroying up to 1,000 buildings.
1934 – The Muroto typhoon, the strongest in Japanese history at the time, made landfall on the mainland, killing more than 3,000 and leaving around 200,000 homeless.
1937 – J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy children's novel The Hobbit, which later served as a prelude to The Lord of the Rings, was first published.
1968 – The Soviet Union's Zond 5 landed in the Indian Ocean, becoming the first spacecraft to safely return to Earth after travelling around the Moon.

Andrew II of Hungary (d. 1235)
H. G. Wells (b. 1866)
Kareena Kapoor (b. 1980)

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Today's featured picture

Pantala flavescens, also known as the globe skimmer, globe wanderer or wandering glider, is a wide-ranging dragonfly of the family Libellulidae. It is considered to be the most widespread dragonfly with a good population on every continent except Antarctica, although it is rare in Europe. Globe skimmers make an annual multigenerational journey of some 18,000 km (about 11,200 miles); to complete the migration, individual globe skimmers fly more than 6,000 km (3,730 miles)—one of the farthest known migrations of all insect species.

Photograph credit: Basile Morin

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