On this date in 1962 at Toronto’s infamous Don Jail, two convicted murderers were tied together and jointly hanged. One of them, Arthur Lucas, had his  head nearly torn off due to a mistake by the hangman, forever scarring the witnesses gathered under the gallows, under law, to watch the execution.The man strapped to Lucas (yes, the two men were tied together) was named Ronald Turpin, who had murdered a Toronto police officer named Frederick Nash.Not long after these executions, the Liberal government of Lester B. Pearson instituted a moratorium on using the death penalty. A decade later, in 1976, members of the House of Commons voted to end the death penalty.Another decade later, in 1987, the House confirmed this decision.In both cases the votes were preceded by passionate speeches opposed to capital punishment by Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau in 1976 and by Prime Minister Brian Mulroney in 1987.In preparing my entries on the calendar for Art’s History, I leave my own politics and views at the door. But on this one, I’ll make an exception. I am forever proud to live in a Canada that has done away with the death penalty. And I am thankful that past prime ministers Pierre Trudeau and Brian Mulroney demonstrated true leadership in opposing the death penalty.  From Confederation until 1962, just over 700 people were hanged in Canada. Arthur Milnes is an accomplished public historian and award-winning journalist.  He was research assistant on The Rt. Hon. Brian Mulroney’s best-selling Memoirs and also served as a speechwriter to then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper and as a Fellow of the Queen’s Centre for the Study of Democracy under the leadership of Tom Axworthy.  A resident of Kingston, Ontario, Milnes serves as the in-house historian at the 175 year-old Frontenac Club Hotel.