Ray Lewis, Canadian runner (b. 1910)
Raymond Gray Lewis, CM (October 8, 1910 – November 15, 2003) was a Canadian track and field athlete, and the first Canadian-born black Olympic medalist.
The descendant of African-American slaves, he was born and died in Hamilton, Ontario. Lewis was nicknamed Rapid Ray for his speed on the track. He excelled in the 100, 200, 400 and 800 metre distances in high school and captured seventeen national high school championships (including a record four in one day) while a student at Hamilton's Central Collegiate.
Lewis briefly attended Milwaukee's Marquette University on a scholarship, but returned to Canada after only a semester. He found a position on the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) as a porter during the Great Depression, a job he would hold for 22 years. Lewis continued training – often running alongside the CPR train tracks during stopovers on the Canadian Prairies – and won a bronze medal as part of the 4x400 metre relay team at the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California. In the 400 metre event he was eliminated in the quarter-finals.
Two years later he won a silver medal in the mile relay (4×440 yards) at the British Empire Games (later the Commonwealth Games). In the 440 yards competition he was eliminated in the semi-finals. Narrowly missing the cut for Canada's 1936 Olympic team, he ran for two more years before retiring after a bout of pain from shin splints (shin splints had caused Lewis problems in the latter portion of his running career). He received greater recognition later in his life, including the Order of Canada in 2001. In 2002, Canadian author John Cooper wrote his biography, Rapid Ray: The Story of Ray Lewis. The children's book chronicled his youth in Hamilton, as well as his training for the Olympics. A Hamilton school named in his honour, Ray Lewis Elementary, opened in 2005 and was occasionally visited by his widow Vivienne.
2003Nov, 15
Ray Lewis (track and field athlete)
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2003 invasion of Iraq
Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Robin Cook, resigns from the British Cabinet in disagreement with government plans for the 2003 invasion of Iraq. - 7Apr
Saddam Hussein
U.S. troops capture Baghdad; Saddam Hussein's regime falls two days later. - 27Aug
North Korea and weapons of mass destruction
The first six-party talks, involving South and North Korea, the United States, China, Japan and Russia, convene to find a peaceful resolution to the security concerns of the North Korean nuclear weapons program. - 12Sep
Pan Am Flight 103
The United Nations lifts sanctions against Libya after that country agreed to accept responsibility and recompense the families of victims in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103. - 12Nov
2003 invasion of Iraq
Iraq War: In Nasiriyah, Iraq, at least 23 people, among them the first Italian casualties of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, are killed in a suicide bomb attack on an Italian police base.