[canadianman29]

In The News: January to March 1980
January 20
The Pittsburgh Steelers defeat the Los Angeles Rams 31-19 to become the first team in NFL history to win 4 Super Bowls. Down 19-17 after the third quarter, the Steelers scored 2 touchdowns and blanked the Rams in the final quarter to win. Steelers QB Terry Bradshaw was named Super Bowl MVP completely 14 of 21 passes for 309 yards and 2 touchdowns.
January 21
Three workers at the Soviet Embassy in
Ottawa are expelled from the country after being accused of spying.
January 27
The Canadian Caper occurs. The Canadian Caper is the unofficial name of a covert rescue by the government of Canada of six American Diplomats who evaded capture during the attack on the US Embassy in Tehran, Iran, November 4, 1979. The operation itself was initiated, at great personal risk, by Canadian Ambassador to Iran Ken Taylor, and Canandian Immigration Officer John Sheardown, who provided sanctuary for the diplomats in their own private residences. Taylor then contacted Secretary of State for External Affairs Flora McDonald, and Prime Minister Joe Clark for assisstance and they agreed to support the endeavor. The decision was made to smuggle the Americans out of the country on an international flight using Canadian passports.
To achieve this Canada's Parliament convened it's first secret session since World War II to pass special legislation allowing Canadian Passports to be issued to American diplomats in Canadian sanctuary. The granted passports, feigning Canadian citizenship and a set of forged Iranian visas prepared by the US Central Intelligence Agency would be used to attempt an escape from Iran. The CIA provided the cover story that the ambassadors were part of a film crew scouting locations for a new movie.
As the weeks passed while this was all being done tensions rose as suspicious telephone calls were made, and fears were that the world of the concealment had leaked out. Taylor scratched out the escape plan for the Americans himself with a felt tipped marker.
On January 27th, 1980 the American Diplomats, now posing as Canadians with valid Canadian passports boarded a flight for Zurich, Switzerland
at Tehran's Mehrabad airport. They arrived in the friendly nation safely. The Canadian Embassy was then closed and Ambassador Ken Taylor and his remaining staff returned to Cananda. American gratitude for the Canadian rescue effort was displayed widely by numerous American television personalities and ordinary people as well.
Jean Pelletier, Washington correspondent to the Montreal La Presse newspaper, uncovered the story before the Canadian Caper had finished, but, despite considerable news value to the paper, and the writer, refused to allow the paper to print the story before he was sure the Americans were out of danger.
Ambassador Ken Taylor and Immigration Officer, John Sheardown and their wives would later be awarded the Order of Canada, Canada's highest award issued to civilians. Ambassador Taylor would also later be awarded the Congressional Gold Medal by the United States Congress for assisstance to the United States of America.

February 14
The Winter Olympics begin, held in
Lake Placid, New York, United States of America. Canada would win only two medals, no golds. Gaetan Boucher would win the silver in the men's 1000 metre speed skating, and Steve Podborski would win the bronze in men's downhill Alpine Skiing. Canadian's wouldn't have much to cheer about, however, the possibly the most remembered accomplishment of the games would belong to the Americans...
February 18
The Liberals are elected to a majority government, led once again by Pierre Trudeau. Though he had retired following the Liberal's defeat in the 1979 election, no Liberal leadership convention had been held before the Clark government fell, and Trudeau quickly rescinded his resignation and lead the party to victory. The Social Credit Party, which recieved six seats in the last Parliament, would not win a single seat, and would never win another seat. The Liberals would take 147 seats, the Conservatives, under Joe Clark would take 103, and the New Democratic Party, once again under Ed Broadbent, would take 32. The Progressive Conservatives lost despite winning at least one seat in every province and territory, this was mainly because the Liberals won all but one seat in the Liberal stronghold of Quebec, and captured the majority of seats in Ontario, Canada's two most populous provinces. Progressive Conservative Ontario premier Bill Davis's critism of Joe Clark gas tax was brought up by the Liberals and that sapped PC support in Ontario. The Liberals were shut out west of Manitoba highlighting a sharp geographic divide in the country.
February 22
The "Miracle On Ice" occurs. Herb Brooks ices a team of US college amateurs, against a highly favoured Russian squad, featuring more than a few grizzled veterans. Tied 3-3 with 10 minutes left in the contest, US Captain Mike Eruzione was left undefended in the high slot, and fired a shot past Russian netminder Vladimir Myshkin, who was screened by his own defenseman. US netminder Jim Craig would go on to stop a barrage of Russian shots, and as the final seconds of the game counted down Al Michaels, who was calling the game along with former Montreal Canadiens(and Cornell University) goaltender Ken Dryden, made his famous call, "Eleven seconds, you've got ten seconds, the countdown going on right now! Morrow, up to Silk...five seconds left in the game...Do you believe in miracles? YES!!!!" The US would go on to beat Finland 4-2 in the final medal round game, to clinch a most improbably gold medal.
February 29
Jeanne Sauve is appointed the first woman Speaker of the House Of Commons. The Speaker's job is to supervise Parliament and make sure everything runs smoothly. She is also the liason between the House of Commons and the Crown(Monarchy of Britain).

March 3
Pierre Trudeau is officially sworn in as Prime Minister for the second time, replacing Joe Clark.
March 27
Mount St. Helens volcano in southwestern Washington State becomes active after being dormant since 1857.