October 16th -- Today in Canadian History

For some strange reason I’m interested in Canadian history. Well, I’m interested in history but partial to Canadian.

So, let’s see what happened today in our past:

• 1666 — Military governor of New France, Marquis de Tracy leads an army of almost 2000 to attack the Mohawk nation. Finds the settlements deserted and destroys them.
• 1679 — Sovereign Council of Quebec rules that liquor may not be taken to Indian villages
• 1690 — Sir William Phips arrives at Quebec from Massachusetts and demands the surrender. Count Frontenac refuses, declaring is only response will be from the mouths of his cannons. The Governor of Montreal arrives with 800 soldiers and coureur de bois. Phips decides he will make a land and naval assault on the 18th
• 1710 — The English capture Port Royal, Nova Scotia from the French and rename it to Annapolis Royal in honour of their Queen Anne
• 1731 — French Engineers build Fort St.-Frederic at the southern end of Lake Champlain
• 1785 — Forest fires cause black rain due to the soot mixing with the precipitation
• 1813 — John Jacob Astor and his Pacific Fur Company partners sells Fort Astoria to the North West Company under duress due to the War of 1812. It will be returned to him in 1818
• 1820 — Cape Breton Island rejoins Nova Scotia. It had separated from Nova Scotia as a separate colony for Loyalist Refugees in 1784
• 1841 — The Presbyterian Church of Canada charters Queens College in Kingston to train young men for the ministry. It’s named in honour of Queen Victoria. It will gradually loosen it’s ties with the church and become Queens University in 1912
• 1869 — Louis Riel elected Secretary of the New Comte National des Metis formed to discuss their rights with Ottawa sowing the seeds for the Red River Resistance.
• 1873 — Lieutenant-Colonel George French is appointed first Commissioner of the North West Mounted Police in Ottawa. They will later become the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
• 1905 — Opening of a two room school house in Coleman, Aberta
• 1911 — Winnipeg, Manitoba receives first electric power
• 1914 — WW1 30,000+ troops of the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) arrive at Salisbury Plain for training. Their 32 ship convoy escorted by 10 British warships was the largest armed convoy to cross the Atlantic at that point.
• 1939 — WW2 Government orders the First Canadian Divison to Britain
• 1940 — The Pope names eight Jesuit Martyrs as the first North American Saints
• 1944 — RCMP ship St. Roch arrives in Vancouver from Halifax via the northern Lancaster Sound route of the Northwest Passage becoming the first ship to sail the passage in both directions.
• 1946 — Gordie Howe from Saskatchewan plays his first NHL game. He was playing for the Detroit Red Wings scoring against the Toronto Maple Leafs
• 1951 — The Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) ferry between the city and Toronto islands starts operation with the christening of the Thomas Renne
• 1970 — FLQ Crisis — After Quebec Labour Minister Pierre Laporte is found murdered the War Measures Act (WMA) empowers the Federal Government to order troops to protect public figures and police to round up 497 for questioning, arresting 250 and search 170. The WMA allowed Cabinet to override civil rights and authority. It was the only use of the 1914 act during peacetime.
• 1978 — in fifteen federal by-elections the governing Liberals lose five seats reducing their government to a minority and leading to a federal election in May 1979
• 1981 — Canada Post becomes a crown corporation
• 1985 — National Bank and Mercantile Bank merge to form the National Bank of Canada
• 1987 — a 3 hour old baby from Surrey, BC receives a heart at Loma Linda University Medical Centre in California becoming the world’s youngest heart transplant. The donor heart was from an Ontario-born baby girl.
• 1989 — Roberta Jamieson is appointed Ontario’s new Ombudsman. The 37 year old Mohawk woman becomes the first First Nations Canadian to hold the post
• 1992 — Toronto Rocker Neil Young joins George Harrison, Eric Clapton and others in a salute to Bob Dylan at Madison Square Gardens. Young was born and raised in Omemee, Ontario and is the son of the late Toronto Star sports writer Scott Young
• 1993 — Roger Warren charges with first-degree murder in the deaths of nine miners at Giant Mine, Yellowknife following a bomb blast in September 1992. He will be convicted of nine counts of 2nd degree murder and is sentenced to life without eligibility for parole for 20 years.
• 2003 — Stephen Harper of the Canadian Alliance and Peter MacKay of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada agree to merge the two parties into the Conservative Party of Canada paving the way for Harper to become PM in 2004 election
• 2009 — Former NHL star Theo Fleury’s autobiography reveals sexual abuse he suffered at hands of junior hockey coach Graham James and his subsequent substance abuse
• 2010 — Canada’s Walk of Fame in Toronto Inductees — Olympian Clara Hughes, singers Nelly Furtado & David Clayton Thomas, actor Eric McCormack, actress Sarah Pollack, author Farley Mowat and magician Doug Henning

Until Next Time — Just Steem on

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