On This Day: October 14

The Montreal Metro opened to the public. The second subway system in Canada, after Toronto's in 1954, it was the first in North America to run on rubber tires instead of metal wheels. It opened just in time for the world to arrive for Expo 67 the following spring.

Queen Elizabeth II opened Canada's Parliament in person for the first time, reading the Speech from the Throne in the Senate chamber in Ottawa. It was the first time a reigning monarch had opened the Canadian Parliament, and the ceremony was broadcast live on television.

With 1:09 left in the third period, Wayne Gretzky beat Vancouver goalie Glen Hanlon on the power play to give the Edmonton Oilers a 4–4 tie with the Canucks. It was the first of 894 NHL goals. Exactly eight years later, on October 14, 1987, he scored his 545th goal to pass Maurice Richard.

In southern England, the invading army of William, Duke of Normandy, defeated King Harold II at the Battle of Hastings. Harold was killed, and William, now known as William the Conqueror, was crowned king of England on Christmas Day. The Norman Conquest reshaped the English language, law and aristocracy.

English humorist A. A. Milne published Winnie-the-Pooh, the adventures of a honey-loving bear and his friends in the Hundred Acre Wood. The bear has a Canadian connection: he was named after Winnipeg, a black bear brought to England by a Canadian soldier during the First World War and later kept at the London Zoo.

Baptist minister and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. was named winner of the Nobel Peace Prize for his nonviolent struggle against racial discrimination in the United States. At 35, he was the youngest person to receive the prize at the time.

The Chicago Cubs beat the Detroit Tigers to win their second straight World Series. Nobody could have guessed what came next: the Cubs did not win another championship for 108 years, until 2016, the longest title drought in North American professional sports.

After a slow trip through the streets of Los Angeles, the retired space shuttle Endeavour reached its final home at the California Science Center. Crowds lined the route as the orbiter, which had flown 25 missions, inched past homes, shops and trees.