Timeline Canada
to 2000
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Canadian coins: http://www.islandnet.com/~kpolsson/timeline.htm
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Canada Today in History: http://www1.sympatico.ca/cgi-bin/on_this_day
Globe and Mail: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/
Canada is about the same size as the US.
(SSFC, 10/9/05, Par p.27)
The native Assembly of First Nations was composed of 633 hereditary and
elected chiefs of Canadian tribes. The Nisga'a in BC are one of the
seven coastal First Nations people.
(G&M, 7/31/97, p.A18)(SFEC, 9/26/99, p.T5)
4.28Bil BC In 2008 scientists
reported that a pinkish tract of bedrock on the eastern shore of
Canada's Hudson Bay contains the oldest known rocks on Earth, formed
4.28 billion years ago, not long after the planet was formed.
(Reuters, 9/25/08)
4Bil BC Northwest Canada was formed.
(NG, March 1990, p. 126)
2Bil BC Fossils found in rock from Ontario, Canada,
consist of bacteria and blue-green algae.
(E&IH, 1973, p.111)
c2Bil BC A Mount Everest-sized object crashed near
Sudbury, Canada about this time and left a crater covering 1,800 sq. km.
(PacDis, Winter ’97, p.35)
1.85Bil BC In Ontario, Canada, near the town of
Sudbury, a meteor that was at least 10 miles across struck down. The
remaining crater is 60 by 45 miles and was found to contain a profusion
of "buckyballs" (peculiar hollow molecules of carbon) with samples of
ancient star stuff packed inside.
(SFC, 4/12/96, p.A-7)
600Mil BC Layers of lava and ash from volcanic
activity of this time were later evident at Green Gardens,
Newfoundland, Canada.
(SSFC, 8/17/03, p.C7)
515Mil BC The Burgess Shale, a rock formation amid
the glaciated mountains from British Columbia to Utah, created by mud
slides that swept shallow water Cambrian creatures over a marine cliff
and buried them almost instantly. Specimens include: Pikaia (a
chordate, ancestor of fish, reptiles, and mammals), Odontogriphus,
Amiskwia, Ottoia (a Priapulid worm), Wiwaxia (a Polychaete worm or
mollusk), Burgessochaeta (an annelid worm), Opabinia, Sanctacaris
(arthropod, forerunner of spiders and scorpions), Canadaspis
(arthropod, early crustacean), Aysheaia (possible arthropod), Eldonia,
Hyolith, Brachiopods, Dinomischus, Anomalocaris, Sponges and
Trilobites. In 1989 Stephen Jay Gould authored "Wonderful Life: The
Burgess Shale and the Nature of History." In 1998 Simon Conway Morris
authored "The Crucible of Creation: The Burgess Shale and the Rise of
Animals."
(NG, V184, No. 4, Oct. 1993, p.124)(NH, 12/98,
p.48)(SFC, 11/5/07, p.A3)
500Mil BC A 30-mile size crater, a mile underneath
the bed of Lake Huron, just north of Port Huron, Michigan, marks the
impact of a meteor. It was discovered in 1990 by scientists from the
Geological Survey of Canada.
(LS MAG, Spring 1995, p.31)
500Mil BC-480Mil BC Scientists in 2002 reported that
sandstone from this period found north of lake Ontario, contained
tracks of foot-long critters with at least 8 pairs of walking legs.
They may have been euthycarcinoids, whose segmented bodies included
outer shells and long legs.
(SFC, 6/4/02, p.A2)
415Mil BC The lighthouse at Peggy's Cove in Halifax,
Canada, stands on granite boulders of this age.
(SFEC, 11/28/99, p.T8)
383Mil BC In 2004 paleontologists found fossils of a
primitive fish, named Tiktaalik roseae, on Ellesmere Island in Canada’s
Nunavut territory that dated to about this time. The fossils showed
evidence of ribs, neck, rudimentary ear bones and primitive limbs.
(SFC, 4/6/06, p.A1)(Econ, 4/8/06, p.79)
375Mil BC In 2006 scientists reported the discovery
of a predator fossil fish dating to this time in on Canada’s Ellesmere
Island in the High Arctic. It was later named Tiktaalik roseae and
further analysis found it to have developed a mobile neck, an important
development for living on land. The fish displayed bones at the ends of
its fins suggestive of developing fingers and toes.
(SFC, 10/16/08, p.A10)(SFC, 5/12/09, p.A8)
359Mil BC-345Mil BC In 2005 it was reported that
tracks of 4-legged terrestrial animals dated to this period were found
at Nova Scotia’s Bay of Fundy.
(NH, 2/05, p.p.16)
320Mil BC Reversing Falls in the Bay of Fundy, New
Brunswick, Canada, dates to this time and is where at high tide surging
salt water reverses the fresh water of the St. John River up 48 feet at
high tide.
(SFEC, 5/25/97, p.T7)
190Mil BC A 4th mass extinction occurred at the end
of the Triassic. Lake Manicouagan in Quebec, a 60-mile crater, was
formed by a cosmic impact that may be related to the extinction.
Cotylosaurs, a possible missing link between mammals and reptiles, were
lost.
(SFEC, 8/22/99, Par p.12)
125Mil BC In 2004 Canadian geologists reported the
discovery of dinosaur tracks and a fossilized turtle shell, estimated
to be about 125 million years old, north of Terrace, British Columbia.
(Reuters, 9/21/04)
80Mil BC Upper Cretaceous Oldman and Edmonton
formation in Alberta, Canada, has fossils of Struthiomimus. It was
typical of the "ostrich dinosaurs," the last of the coelurosaurs. Their
forelegs had three-fingered grasping hands. The body was long,
horizontal, and balanced by a long rigid tail.
(TE-JB, p.58)
78Mil BC A dinosaur species of this time, later found
in Canada and named Albertaceratops nesmoi, was a plant-eater
with yard-long horns over its eyebrows, suggesting an evolutionary
middle step between older dinosaurs with even larger horns and the
small-horned creatures that followed.
(AP, 3/4/07)
70Mil BC In 2008 a Canadian researcher reported what
is believed to be North America's smallest dinosaur, a
70-million-year-old chicken-sized beast that was also unusual for its
diet of insects. Its bones were excavated near Red Deer, in fossil-rich
Alberta, in 2002 among about 20 Albertosaurus remains, and went
unnoticed.
(AP, 9/24/08)
10900BC Wildfires about this time broke out across
the US and Canada after an object, roughly a kilometer across, grazed
the Earth and broke up in the atmosphere depositing its oomph as heat.
A mass extinction about this time occurred in parts of North America
and coincided with the growing population of Indian hunters.
Archeologists later identified a layer of charcoal and glass-like beads
of carbon as evidence of the event. Fires melted substantial portions
of the Laurentide glacier in Canada sending waves of water down the
Mississippi that caused changes in the Atlantic Ocean currents. This
started a 1,300-year ice age known as the Younger Dryas.
(SFC, 1/8/99, p.A2)(Econ, 5/26/07, p.94)(SFC,
1/2/09, p.A2)
10700 BC Melting glaciers caused a deluge of some
2,000 cubic miles of fresh water from a prehistoric lake in
southwestern Ontario. This impacted the Atlantic thermohaline
circulation and sent temperatures over the North Atlantic plummeting.
Temperatures in Greenland dropped by 18 degrees Fahrenheit.
(WSJ, 7/17/03, p.A1)(WSJ, 5/14/04, p.B1)
6200BC The glacial lake Agassiz-Ojibway, body of
water so vast that it covered parts of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, North
Dakota, Ontario and Minnesota, massively drained, sending a flow of
water into the Hudson Strait and the Labrador Sea. The sudden flood of
fresh water diluted the saltiness of the Gulf Stream weakening its flow.
(Econ, 9/9/06, Survey p.6)(AFP, 2/24/08)
c1001 Norse sagas claim that Leif
Ericson and a band of 35 men sailed for western lands based on an
account by the Viking Bjarni Herjulfsson, who had sighted land after
being blown off course. They found a land they called Vinland and built
houses but returned to Greenland before the winter.
(HT, 5/97, p.31)
1005 Leaf Ericson’s brother,
Thorvald, had arrived in Vinland but was killed by native Indians and
his Viking companions returned to Greenland. A 3-year settlement was
begun a few years later when Thorfin Karlsefni established a base with
around 100 men and women at the L’Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland.
(HT, 5/97, p.33)(ON, 12/07, p.5)
1007 Thorfinn Karlsefni and
Gudrid Thorbjarnardottir embarked with a 3-ship expedition to the new
World. Snorri Thorfinnson, son of Gudrid Thorbjarnardottir and Thorfinn
Karlsefni, was born in Vinland (probably Newfoundland), the 1st
European born in the New World. The family later returned east and
settled in Iceland.
(SFC, 9/16/02, p.A2)(ON, 12/07, p.5)
1013 The last Viking attempt to
settle Vinland was made.
(SFEM, 11/15/98, p.25)
1497 Jun 24, Italian explorer John
Cabot (1450-1498?), (aka Giovanni Caboto), on a voyage for England,
landed in North America on what is now Newfoundland or the northern
Cape Breton Island in Canada. He claimed the new land for King Henry
VII. He documented the abundance of fish off the Grand Banks from Cape
Cod to Labrador.
(NH, 5/96, p.59)(WUD, 1994, p.206)(AP, 6/24/97)(HN,
6/24/98)
1517 Jun 11, Sir Thomas Pert
reached Hudson Bay.
(SC, 6/11/02)
1528 England established its first
colony in the New World at St. Johns, Newfoundland.
(SFEC, 4/25/99, Z1 p.8)
1534 May 10, Jacques Cartier
reached Newfoundland. He noted the presence of the Micmac Indians who
fished in the summer around the Magdalen Islands north of Nova Scotia.
(CFA, '96, p.46)(SFEC, 5/11/97, p.T15)
1534 Jun 9, Jacques Cartier became
the first man to sail into the mouth of the St. Lawrence River.
(http://tinyurl.com/ddztr)
1534 Jun 29, Jacques Cartier
discovered Canada’s Prince Edward Islands.
(MC, 6/29/02)
1534 Jul 24, Jacques Cartier (43)
on his 1st trip to the new world, landed in Canada and claimed it for
France. Jacques Cartier while probing for a northern route to Asia
visited Labrador and said: "Fit only for wild beasts... This must be
the land God gave to Cain." [see May 10]
(NG, V184, No. 4, 10/1993, p. 4)(MC, 7/24/02)
1534 Sep, During his voyage back
to France Cartier learned from the 2 Native sons, Dom Agaya and
Taignoagny, who he'd kidnapped from Iroquoian Chief Donnacona, that
their father's village of Stadacona (present-day Quebec) was called a
'kanata'. Cartier wrote the name 'Kanata' on his charts and maps,
perhaps to mark the land belonging to Chief Donnacona's tribe. This is
the first recorded use of the name 'Canada', and the name by which the
country would become known.
(http://tinyurl.com/ddztr)
1535 Sep, The site of the city of
Quebec was first visited by Jacques Cartier during his 2nd voyage to
the New World. It was an Indian village called Stadacona. Quebec is the
oldest continuously inhabited settlement in what is now Canada.
(HNQ, 10/3/99)(Canada, 1960, p.20)
1535 Oct 2, Jacques Cartier first
saw the site of what is now Montreal and proclaimed "What a royal
mountain," hence the name of the city. [see 1536] Having landed in
Quebec a month ago, Jacques Cartier reached a town, which he names
Montreal.
(SFEC, 3/2/97, p.T7)(HN, 10/2/98)
1536 May, Jacques Cartier sailed
for France from Canada and carried with him the kidnapped local chief
Donnacona, who later died in France. Donnacona, prior to his death,
described a mythical kingdom with great riches called Saguenay.
(Canada, 1960, p.21)
1541 Aug 23, Jacques Cartier
landed near Quebec on his third voyage to North America.
(HN, 8/23/98)
1557 Sep 1, Jacques Cartier,
French explorer, died in St. Malo, France.
(www.plpsd.mb.ca/amhs/history/cartier.html)
1576 Jul 28, Martin Frobisher,
English navigator, discovered Frobisher Bay in Canada. He explored the
Arctic region of Canada and twice brought tons of gold back to England
that was found to be iron pyrite. Michael Lok, textile exporter, led
the financing for the 1st expedition which was made to find a route to
China. Lok was later sued for losses from 3 expeditions.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.22)(SFEM, 11/15/98, p.26)(ON, 12/03,
p.7)
1592 Juan de Fuca, a Greek sailing
for Spain, sailed into a strait that later became the border between
Canada’s Vancouver Island, BC, and the Olympic Peninsula of Washington
state. The waterway was later named the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
(NG, 7/04, p.66)
1604 Samuel de Champlain sailed
into the river estuary at what later became the seaport of St. John in
New Brunswick.
(SFEC, 7/30/00, p.T5)
1605 Jun, Pierre Dugua moved the
French settlement at St. Croix, Maine, to Nova Scotia at a site named
Port Royal.
(SSFC, 6/27/04, p.A2)
1607 Sep 28, Samuel de Champlain
and his colonists returned to France from Port Royal Nova Scotia.
(HN, 9/28/98)
1608 Jul 3, The city of Quebec was
founded as a trading post by Samuel de Champlain. The French adventurer
Etienne Brule accompanied Champlain to North America and was reportedly
eaten by the Huron Indians.
(AP,
7/3/97)(www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1608champlain.html)
1609 Sep 12, English
explorer Henry Hudson sailed into the river that now bears his name.
Henry Hudson sailed for the Dutch East India Company in search of the
Northwest Passage, a water route linking the Atlantic and Pacific
Oceans, when he sailed up the present-day Hudson River.
(AP, 9/12/97)(HNQ, 7/23/00)
1610 Aug 3, Henry Hudson of
England discovered a great bay on the east coast of Canada and named it
for himself.
(HN, 8/3/98)(HNQ, 7/23/00)
1611 Jun 22, English explorer
Henry Hudson, his son and several other people were set adrift in
present-day Hudson Bay by mutineers. The starving crew of the
Discovery, which had spent the winter trapped by ice in Hudson
Bay, mutinied against Hudson, who was never seen again.
(AP, 6/22/97)(SFEM, 11/15/98, p.26)(MC, 6/23/02)
1612 The French explorer Etienne
Brule is believed to be the first European to see the Great Lakes.
Brule, believed to have been born in 1592, journeyed to North America
with Samuel de Champlain in 1608 and helped found Quebec. Brule
explored Lake Huron in 1612 and is believed to have also explored Lakes
Ontario, Erie and Superior after 1615. Brule is the first European to
live among the Indians and was probably the first European to set foot
in what is now Pennsylvania. Brule was eventually killed by the Hurons,
for reasons never known, in 1632.
(HNQ, 6/29/98)
1615 Jul 28, French explorer
Samuel de Champlain discovered Lake Huron on his seventh voyage to the
New World.
(HN, 7/28/98)
1616 Jan 20, The French explorer
Samuel de Champlain arrived to winter in a Huron Indian village after
being wounded in a battle with Iroquois in New France.
(HN, 1/20/99)
c1620 A settlement was established
at Cupers Cove (now Cupids) in Newfoundland.
(SFEM, 11/15/98, p.23)
1621 Sep 21, King James of England
gave Canada to Sir Alexander Sterling.
(MC, 9/21/01)
1627 Jul 23, Sir George Calvert
arrived in Newfoundland to develop his land grant.
(HN, 7/23/98)
1635 Dec 25, Samuel de Champlain
(b.1575), French navigator and founder of Quebec City, died in Quebec.
In 2008 David Hackett Fischer authored “Champlain’s Dream.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_de_Champlain)
1642 May 17, Paul de Chomedy de
Maisonneuve landed on the Island of Montreal and gave the name
Ville-Marie to the town he constructed at the foot of Mont Royal.
(http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/16059b.htm)
1642 May 18, The Canadian city of
Montreal was founded by French colonists.
(AP, 5/18/08)
1656 Oct 25, A party of Oneida
Indians killed 3 Frenchmen near Montreal. In response Gov. Gen. Louis
d’Ailleboust arrested a hunting party of 12 Mohawks and Onondagas and
ordered the arrest of all Iroquois in the French colonies.
(AH, 4/01, p.34)
1663 Quebec became the capital of
New France.
(HNQ, 10/3/99)
1668 The British trading ship
Nonsuch 1st sailed into Hudson Bay.
(SSFC, 12/22/02, p.C6)
1669 Jul 6, LaSalle left Montreal
to explore Ohio River.
(MC, 7/6/02)
1670 May 2, The Company of
Adventurers of England Trading into Hudson Bay (the Hudson Bay Co.) was
chartered by England's King Charles II to exploit the resources of the
Hudson Bay area. By 2006 it had mutated into Canada’s largest non-food
retailer.
(AP, 5/2/97)(HN, 5/2/98)(AH, 4/01, p.36)(Econ,
2/4/06, p.36)
1672 May 17, Frontenac became
governor of New France (Canada).
(MC, 5/17/02)
1685 In Canada there was a
shortage of currency and playing cards were assigned monetary values
for use as money.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R42)
1688 The Notre-Dame-des-Victoires,
the oldest stone church in North America, was built in Quebec City,
Canada.
(SSFC, 7/30/06, p.G8)
1689 Aug 4-1689 Aug 5, War between
England and France led them to use their native American allies as
proxies. In retaliation for the French attack on the Seneca in 1687,
one thousand, five hundred Iroquois, with English support, attacked
Lachine down river from the mission of the Mountain of Ville-Marie
(Montreal), killing some 400. They put everything to fire and
axe. Some suggest that this is a gross exaggeration and that only
24-25 were killed and likely 90 were captured by the Iroquois, but
never returned.
(www.telusplanet.net/public/dgarneau/french23.htm)
1689 Aug 25, The Iroquois took
Montreal.
(MC, 8/25/02)
1690 May 11, In the first major
engagement of King William’s War, British troops from Massachusetts
seized Port Royal in Acadia (Nova Scotia and New Brunswick) from the
French.
(HN, 5/11/99)
1690 Oct 7, The English attacked
Quebec under Louis de Buade.
(MC, 10/7/01)
1690 Oct 23, American colonial
forces from Boston led by Sir William Phips, failed in their attempt to
seize Quebec. Phips lost 4 ships on the return trip due to stormy
weather.
(Arch, 1/05,
p.50)(http://www.biographi.ca/EN/ShowBio.asp?BioId=34586)
1708 Aug 29, French Canadian and
Indian forces attacked the village of Haverhill, Mass., killing 16
settlers.
(AP, 8/29/08)
1708 Dec 21, French forces seized
control of the eastern shore of Newfoundland after winning a victory at
St. John’s.
(HN, 12/21/98)
1710 Oct 13, English troops
occupied Acadia, Nova Scotia.
(MC, 10/13/01)
1710 Oct 16, British troops
occupied Port Royal, Nova Scotia.
(MC, 10/16/01)
1711 Aug 23, A British attempt to
invade Canada by sea failed.
(HN, 8/23/98)
1713 Apr 11, The Peace of Utrecht
was signed, France ceded Maritime provinces to Britain. The French
colony of Acadia, now Nova Scotia, was ceded to Great Britain. The
Acadians had come from western France to fish and farm. Those who would
not swear allegiance to the crown were deported. Many of these
deportees went to the bayou country of Louisiana.
(WUD, 1994, p.7)(WSJ, 9/4/96, p.A12)(HN, 4/11/98)
1734 A slave named Angelique set
fire to the city of Montreal and was hanged. She became the title
character in a 1999 play by Lorena Gale.
(WSJ, 6/22/99, p.A24)
1737 Rev. Andrew Le Mercier, a
Huguenot living in Boston, set the first horses out to graze on Sable
Island, 100 miles east of Nova Scotia. A few decades later Thomas
Hancock of Boston plundered some 60 horses from Acadian settlers
expelled from Nova Scotia by British overlords, and settled them on
Sable Island. Hardy descendants of the horses still thrived in 1998.
(SFC, 7/23/98, p.C3)
1745 Jun 16, English fleet
occupied Cape Breton on St. Lawrence River.
(MC, 6/16/02)
1745 Jun 17, American New
Englanders captured Louisburg, Cape Breton, from the French. The ragtag
army captured France's most imposing North American stronghold on Cape
Breton Island in Nova Scotia.
(HN, 5/17/98)(WSJ, 10/5/99, p.A24)(MC, 6/17/02)
1749 The city of Halifax, Nova
Scotia, was founded.
(SFEC, 6/13/99, p.T3)
1755 Jun 16, British captured Fort
Beausejour and expelled the Acadians. The Accadians of Nova Scotia were
uprooted by an English governor and forced to leave. Some 10,000 people
moved to destinations like Maine and Louisiana. Some moved to
Iles-de-la-Madeleine off Quebec. The Longfellow story "Evangeline" is
based on this displacement.
(SFEC, 8/22/99, p.T8,9)(SSFC, 6/2/02, p.C7)(MC,
6/16/02)
1755 Oct 24, A British expedition
against the French held Fort Niagara in Canada ended in failure.
(HN, 10/24/98)
1756 May 17, After a year and a
half of undeclared war Britain declared war on France, beginning the
French and Indian War. England hoped to conquer Canada. The final
defeat of the French came in 1763 with the British victory at the
Battle of Quebec on the Plains of Abraham.
(HN, 5/17/98)(HNPD,
9/13/98)(http://tinyurl.com/afbze)
1758 Jul 26, British battle fleet
under Gen. James Wolfe captured France's Fortress of Louisbourg on Ile
Royale (Capre Breton Island, Nova Scotia) after a 7-week siege, thus
gaining control of the entrance to the Saint Lawrence River.
(HN, 7/26/98)(MC, 7/26/02)
1759 Jul 25, British forces
defeated a French army at Fort Niagara in Canada. During their 7 Years'
War.
(HN, 7/25/98)(SC, 7/25/02)
1759 Sep 13, During the final
French and Indian War, the Battle of Quebec [Canada] was fought.
British Gen. James Wolfe’s army defeated Commander Louis Joseph de
Montcalm’s French forces on the Plains of Abraham overlooking Quebec
City. An English fleet of 20 ships led by General James Wolfe landed
3,600 English troops near Quebec in the early hours of the day. The
fleet was sent up the St. Lawrence River to take the region from the
French. "Measured by the numbers engaged," wrote historian Francis
Parkman, the Battle of Quebec "was but a heavy skirmish; measured by
results, it was one of the great battles of the world." On this rainy
morning the armies of England and France clashed outside the walls of
Quebec City and altered the balance of power of an entire continent.
The battle on the Plains of Abraham lasted less than half an hour. As
French forces withered and an English victory became apparent, Wolfe
was shot in the chest, his third wound of the battle. He said to a
distraught soldier just before he died, "Do not weep, my dear. In a few
minutes I shall be happy." By the time the rain had washed away the
blood, Quebec had surrendered to the British. Four years later, the
Treaty of Paris gave England sole dominion over most of the land that
Quebec City had governed, from Cape Breton Island in the Gulf of St.
Lawrence to the Mississippi River.
(CFA, '96, p.54)(SFC, 7/7/96, BR p.7)(AP,
9/13/97)(HNQ, 9/8/98)(HNPD, 9/19/98)
1759 Sep 14, Louis Joseph de
Montcalm-Grozon, Marquis de Montcalm (b.1712) and chief of French
forces, died at age 47 on the Plains of Abraham in Canada.
(www.britannica.com)
1759 Sep 18, Quebec surrendered to
the British and the Battle of Quebec ended. The French surrendered to
the British after their defeat on the Plains of Abraham.
(AP, 9/18/97)(HN, 9/18/98)
1759 Sep 18, British commander
James Wolfe died at the Battle of Quebec.
(MC, 9/18/01)
1760 Apr 28, French forces
besieging Quebec defeated the British in the second battle on the
Plains of Abraham.
(HN, 4/28/98)
1760 Sep 8, The French surrendered
the city of Montreal to British Gen. Jeffrey Amherst. [see Sep 18, 1759]
(HN, 9/8/98)(MC, 9/8/01)
1760 A treaty was made with the
Mi'kmaq Indians. It was later interpreted to support fishing for profit
rights in their traditional 4 Atlantic provinces.
(WSJ, 12/6/99, p.A27)
1763 Feb 10, Britain, Spain and
France signed the Treaty of Paris ending the French-Indian War. France
ceded Canada to England and gave up all her territories in the New
World except New Orleans and a few scattered islands.
(HN, 2/10/97)(AP, 2/10/97)(AP, 2/10/08)
1763 Oct 7, George III of Great
Britain issued a royal proclamation reserving for the crown the right
to acquire land from western tribes. This closed lands in North America
north and west of Alleghenies to white settlement and ended the
acquisition efforts of colonial land syndicates. The Royal Proclamation
of 1763 guaranteed Indian rights to land and self-government.
(www.bloorstreet.com/200block/rp1763.htm)(SSFC,
8/29/04, p.M5)(Econ, 9/16/06, p.46)
1763 Dec 28, John Molson, founder
of the Montreal Molson brewery, was born.
(MC, 12/28/01)
1766 Jul 24, At Fort Ontario,
Canada, Ottawa chief Pontiac and William Johnson signed a peace
agreement.
(HN, 7/24/98)
1773 Jul 20, Scottish settlers
arrived at Pictou, Nova Scotia (Canada).
(MC, 7/20/02)
1775 Sep 25, British troops
captured Ethan Allen, the hero of Ticonderoga, when he and a handful of
Americans led an attack on Montreal, Canada.
(AP, 9/25/97)(HN, 9/25/98)
1775 Nov 12, US Gen. Montgomery
began his siege of St. John’s and brought about the surrender of 600
British troops.
(ON, 3/00, p.6)
1775 Nov 13, American forces under
Gen. Richard Montgomery captured Montreal. This was part of a
two-pronged attack on Canada, with the goal of capturing Quebec
entrusted to Benedict Arnold, who was leading a 1,100 man force through
a hurricane ravaged Maine wilderness. In 2006 Thomas A. Desjardin
authored “Through A Howling Wilderness,” an account of Arnold’s march
to Quebec.
(AP, 11/13/97)(WSJ, 5/12/06, p.W5)
1775 Dec 31, The British repulsed
an attack by Continental Army generals Richard Montgomery and Benedict
Arnold at Quebec during a raging snowstorm; Montgomery was killed.
(AP, 12/31/97)(SFEC, 1/10/99, p.T5)
1776 Mar 17, British forces
evacuated Boston to Nova Scotia during the Revolutionary War. In some
of the bloodiest fighting of the Revolutionary War, American and French
troops failed to take Savannah.
(HN, 3/17/98)
1776 Sep 2-1776 Sep 9, The
Hurricane of Independence killed 4,170 people from North Carolina to
Nova Scotia.
(WSJ, 9/13/01, p.B11)
1776 Oct 13, Benedict Arnold was
defeated at Lake Champlain by the British, who then retreated to Canada
for the winter. Arnold’s efforts bought the colonists 9 months to
consolidate their hold in northern New York. In 2006 James L. Nelson
authored “Benedict Arnold’s Navy.”
(HN, 10/13/98)(WSJ, 5/12/06, p.W5)
1778 Mar 15, Nootka Sound,
Vancouver Island, was discovered by Captain Cook.
(HN, 3/15/98)(MC, 3/15/02)
1780 May 19, A mysterious darkness
enveloped much of New England and part of Canada in the early
afternoon; the cause has never been determined.
(HFA, '96, p.30)(DTnet, 5/19/97)
1780 Oct 31, The HMS Ontario was
lost with barely a trace and as many as 130 people aboard during a gale
on Lake Ontario. In 2008 explorers found the 22-gun British warship.
Canadian author Arthur Britton Smith chronicled the history of the HMS
Ontario in a 1997 book, "The Legend of the Lake."
(AP, 6/14/08)
1783 May 9, Alexander Ross,
pioneer, fur trader, was born in Canada.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1783 The so-called Aroostook War
stemmed from a boundary dispute that had loomed since 1783 between
Maine and New Brunswick and was not settled by the Peace of Ghent.
After Maine became a state in 1820, it disregarded British claims in
making land grants to settlers along the Aroostook River.
(HNQ, 9/30/99)
1783 Loyalist Tory homes in Maine
were taken apart and moved to New Brunswick, Canada, and reassembled.
Boatloads of newcomers from New York and New England moved. Some of the
new arrivals froze to death in makeshift shelters that winter.
(SFEC, 5/25/97, p.T6,7)
1783 John H. Molson (19) acquired
a share in a log cabin brewery on the banks of the St. Lawrence River
and began the Molson beer empire.
(WSJ, 6/29/04, p.A11)
1783 Some 3,000 Blacks, who had
obtained British certificates of freedom for their loyalty in the
American Revolution, arrived in Nova Scotia and spent some miserable
years there. In 1785 a delegation sailed to Britain where they were
offered passage to Africa in return for establishing a British colony
in Sierra Leone.
(MT, summer 2003, p.8)
1784 The British gave their Indian
allies from New York a large parcel of land southwest of Toronto after
they fled to Canada following the American war of independence. In 2006
the Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy claimed that part of this land had
been sold without their proper consent for a new housing development in
Caledonia.
(Econ, 9/16/06, p.46)
1785 The port city of St. John in
New Brunswick was incorporated.
(SFEC, 7/30/00, p.T5)
1785 Loyalist graduates of Harvard
and King’s College founded the Univ. of New Brunswick.
(SFEC, 5/25/97, p.T7)
1787 Nov 21, Samuel Cunard
(d.1865), founder of the 1st regular Atlantic steamship line, was born
in Canada.
(MC, 11/21/01)(WSJ, 7/1/03, p.D8)
1788 Jun 11, The 1st British ship
to be built on Pacific coast was begun at Nootka Sound, BC.
(SC, 6/11/02)
1789-1793 Alexander Mackenzie, Scottish-born fur
trader, became the 1st European to cross the North American continent.
(SFC, 1/31/04, p.D12)
1792 May 11, The Columbia River
was discovered by Captain Robert Gray.
(HN, 5/11/98)
1792 Niagara-on-the-Lake became
the 1st capital of the Upper Canada (later Ontario). The Parliament met
for 5 sessions before moving to York (Toronto).
(WSJ, 7/25/02, p.D10)
1792 The British St. George’s Bay
Company transported a 2nd group of settlers to Freetown. This included
1,196 Blacks from Nova Scotia, 500 Jamaicans and dozens of rebellious
slaves from other colonies.
(MT, summer 2003, p.8)
1793 Alexander Mackenzie,
Scottish-born fur trader, reached the Pacific coast completing his
crossing of North America. He began the trip in 1789. He raised
Britain's claims to the pacific Northwest.
(SFEC, 5/25/97, Z1 p.7)(SFC, 1/31/04, p.D12)
1795 In Nova Scotia, Canada, local
youths on Oak Island stumbled on an unusual depression that appeared to
lead to a shaft. For years treasure hunters dug down into what became
known as the “Money Pit.”
(WSJ, 8/31/05, p.B1)
1796-1865 Thomas Chandler Haliburton, Canadian jurist
and humorist: "When a man is wrong and won't admit it, he always gets
angry."
(AP, 6/14/99)
1808 Jul 2, Simon Fraser completed
his trip down Fraser River, BC. He landed at Musqueam.
(SC, 7/2/02)
1812 Jul 12, United States forces
led by General William Hull entered Canada during the War of 1812
against Britain. However, Hull retreated shortly thereafter to Detroit.
Madison had called for 50,000 volunteers to invade Canada but only
5,000 signed up.
(AP, 7/12/99)(ON, 9/02, p.2)
1812 Oct 13, At the Battle of
Queenston Heights, a Canadian and British army defeated the Americans
who had tried to invade Canada. This was the 1st major land battle in
the War of 1812.
(HN, 10/13/98)(HNQ, 1/31/02)
1813 Apr 27, Americans forces
under Gen. Zebulon M. Pike (34) captured York (present day Toronto),
the seat of government in Ontario; Pike was killed.
(HN, 4/27/99)(MC, 4/27/02)
1813 May 27, Americans captured
Fort George, Canada.
(HN, 5/27/98)
1813 Jun 6, The U.S. invasion of
Canada was halted at Stoney Creek, Ontario.
(HN, 6/6/98)
1813 Oct 5, The Battle of
Moraviantown was decisive in the War of 1812. Known as the Battle of
the Thames in the United States, the US victory over British and Indian
forces near Ontario at the village of Moraviantown on the Thames River
is know in Canada as the Battle of Moraviantown. Some 600 British
regulars and 1,000 Indian allies under English General and Shawnee
leader Tecumseh were greatly outnumbered and quickly defeated by US
forces under the command of Maj. Gen. William Henry Harrison. Tecumseh
(45) was killed in this battle.
(HN, 10/5/98)(PC, 1992 ed, p.378)
1813 Oct 26, Canadian militia
defeated American forces at the Battle of Chateauguay.
(www3.sympatico.ca/dis.general/chatgy.htm)
1813 American militiamen burned
down the Ontario town of Niagara-on-the Lake.
(WSJ, 8/29/97, p.A9)
1814 Jul 5, US troops under Gen.
Jacob Brown and Gen. Winfield Scott defeated a superior British force
under Maj. Gen. Phineas Riall near the Niagara River at Chippewa,
Canada. British casualties exceeded 500 compared to some 300 Americans.
(AH, 10/07, p.53)
1814 Jul 25, British and American
forces fought each other to a stand off at Lundy's Lane (Niagara
Falls), Canada, in some of the fiercest fighting in the War of 1812.
(HN, 7/25/98)
1815 Jan 11, Sir John A.
Macdonald, the first prime minister of Canada, was born in Glasgow,
Scotland.
(AP, 1/11/98)
1817 Oct 13, William Kirby,
Canadian writer, was born.
(HN, 10/13/00)
1818 Apr 16, U.S. Senate ratified
the Rush-Bagot amendment to form an unarmed U.S.-Canada border.
(HN, 4/16/98)
1818 Oct 20, The United States and
Britain established the 49th Parallel as the boundary between Canada
and the United States.
(HN, 10/20/98)
1820 Aug 12, Oliver Mowat, a
founder of the Canadian Confederation, was born.
(SC, 8/12/02)
1821 Jul 2, Charles Tupper, 6th
Canadian PM (1896), was born.
(SC, 7/2/02)
1824 Jun 8, A washing machine was
patented by Noah Cushing of Quebec.
(MC, 6/8/02)
1824 Newfoundland became a British
colony. It became a province of Canada in 1949.
(SFEC, 6/25/00, BR p.6)
1825 Feb 22, Russia and Britain
established the Alaska/Canada boundary.
(HN, 2/22/98)
1825 The Miramichi fires burned
some 3 million acres in Maine and New Brunswick, Canada.
(SFC, 10/30/03, p.A15)
1827 Aug 10, There were race riots
in Cincinnati and some 1,000 blacks left for Canada.
(MC, 8/10/02)
1827 The Univ. of Toronto, Canada,
was founded.
(Econ, 1/22/05, p.20)
1827 The Chippewa community of
Aamjiwnaang First Nation was founded in Ontario just across from Port
Huron, Mich. Much of the original reserve was sold via questionable
land deals in the 1960s. In 1993 the percentage of boys born in the
community began dropping and by 2005 girls outnumbered boys by 3:1.
Local petrochemical manufacturing was suspected as the cause.
(SSFC, 12/18/05, p.A30)
1827 The U.S. and Great Britain
submitted the Maine and New Brunswick boundary dispute to arbitration
by the King of the Netherlands in 1827, whose compromise was accepted
by the British but rejected by the U.S.
(HNQ, 9/30/99)
1831 Mar 31, Quebec and Montreal
were incorporated.
(HN, 3/31/98)
1831 Jun 1, Captain John Ross,
English explorer, identified the magnetic north pole on the west coast
of the Boothia Peninsula.
(www.collectionscanada.ca/explorers/h24-1810-e.html)
1833 Aug 8, Lt. George Back and
his team reached Fort Resolution on Great Slave Lake on their
expedition to find Arctic explorer Capt. John Ross.
(ON, 5/04, p.10)
1833 Aug 17, The first steam ship
to cross the Atlantic entirely on its own power, the Canadian ship
Royal William, began her journey from Nova Scotia to The Isle of Wight.
(HN, 8/17/98)
1833 Aug 23, The British
Parliament ordered the abolition of slavery in its colonies by Aug 1,
1834. This would free some 700,000 slaves. The Imperial Emancipation
Act allowed blacks to enjoy greater equality under the law in Canada as
opposed to the US.
(PC, 1992, p.412)(AH, 10/02, p.54)
1833 Oct, Capt. John Ross
(1877-1856), Arctic explorer, returned to England.
(www.collectionscanada.ca/explorers/h24-1810-e.html)
1833 John James Audubon visited
Canada’s Grand Manan Island off the southeast coast of New Brunswick to
see herring gulls nesting in trees.
(NH, 9/96, p.58)
1834 Mar 6, The city of York in
Upper Canada was incorporated as Toronto.
(AP, 3/6/98)
1837 Mar 24, Canada gave blacks
the right to vote.
(MC, 3/24/02)
1837 Dec 29, Canadian militiamen,
claiming self-defense, destroyed the Caroline, a US steamboat docked at
Buffalo, N.Y. It was being used to ferry supplies to anti-British
rebels in Canada.
(AP, 12/29/97)(Econ, 11/22/03, p.25)
1838 Mar 3, Rebellion at Pelee
Island, Ontario, Canada.
(SC, 3/3/02)
1838 Canadian lumberjacks entered
the disputed Maine and New Brunswick territory in 1838 and began
lumbering operations. The arrest by Canadians of a Maine-appointed
agent sent into the area to force out the Canadians marked the
beginning of the undeclared conflict called the Aroostook War, which
saw the Nova Scotia legislature make war appropriations and the U.S.
Congress authorize a force of 50,000 men and $10 million. General
Winfield Scott brokered a truce between Maine and New Brunswick which
averted a real war.
(HNQ, 9/30/99)
1839 Feb 12, Aroostook War took
place over a boundary dispute between Maine and New Brunswick. [see
1838]
(MC, 2/12/02)
1839 Nov 16, Louis-Honore
Frechette, Canadian poet, was born.
(HN, 11/16/00)
1841 Feb 10, Upper Canada and
Lower Canada were proclaimed united under an Act of Union passed by the
British Parliament.
(AP, 2/10/07)
1841 Jun 14, The first Canadian
parliament opened in Kingston.
(AP, 6/14/97)
1842 Aug 9, The United States and
Canada signed the Webster-Ashburton Treaty, resolving a border dispute
between Maine and Canada's New Brunswick.
(AP, 8/9/97)(HN, 8/9/98)(HNQ,
9/30/99)
1843 Thomas Haliburton of Windsor,
Nova Scotia, published a novel that described local boys playing
hurley, an early form of hockey, behind Kings Edgehill School.
(WSJ, 1/23/02, p.A1)
1843 The Univ. of Michigan
enrolled its 1st international student. A Canadian joined the body of
43 students.
(LSA, Fall/03, p.38)
1843 In Canada James McDermott was
convicted and hanged for the murder Dr. Thomas Kinnear and his lover,
Nancy Montgomery. Kinnear’s servant, 16-year-old Grace Marks, was
sentenced to life imprisonment for aiding and abetting her fellow
servant, James McDermott, in the murder. In 1996 Margaret Atwood wrote
a novel: "Alias Grace" based on the incident.
(SFEC, 11/3/96, BR p.1)(WSJ, 11/15/96, p.A14)
1844-1885 Louis Riel, Metis leader, was born in
Manitoba.
(SFC, 1/22/98, p.B2)
1845 May 28, A fire in Quebec
Canada destroyed 1,500 houses.
(MC, 5/28/02)
1846 Jun 15, The United States and
Britain signed a treaty settling a boundary dispute between Canada and
the United States in the Pacific Northwest at the 49th parallel. Great
Britain and the U.S. agreed on a joint occupation of Oregon Territory.
President Polk agreed to a compromise border along the 49th parallel.
The debate over the northwestern border of the United States. The
campaign slogan "54-40 or fight" referred to the debate over the
northwestern border of the United States. The slogan "54-40 or fight"
refers to the north latitude degree and minute where many Americans
wanted to place the border between the U.S. and then Great Britain in
the Pacific Northwest.
(AP, 6/15/97)(HN, 6/15/98)(SFC, 1/25/99, p.A3)(HNQ,
3/28/00)
1846 Jun 15, Washington diplomats
established a straight line border between the US and Canada in the
northwest and thus established Point Roberts, Wa. as the westernmost
corner of the US. The enclave is 4.9 sq. miles.
(SFC, 5/20/96, p.A-6)
1846-1854 John Rae (b.1813), Scottish-born explorer,
helped map the western shore of Hudson’s Bay and the Arctic over this
period. He discovered the last link of the Northwest Passage. In 2002
Ken McGoogan authored "Fatal Passage," an account of Rae’s explorations.
(WSJ, 4/19/02, p.W10)
1846-1859 Ownership of the San Juan Islands was not
settled in the 1846 Oregon Treaty. The Pig War of 1859 forced an
arbitration under Kaiser Wilhelm I of Germany. Six Royal Marines and 16
US soldiers died during the 13-year occupation from drownings, disease
and suicides.
(SFEC, 6/18/00, p.T8)
1847 Jun 11, A written record was
found in 1859, indicating that Sir John Franklin died on this day, and
that Erebus and Terror were abandoned in April 1848. The crews' deaths
have been attributed to either scurvy or lead poisoning originating
from the solder on food tins. Both ships and the remains of most of the
129 crewmen have never been found. After commissioning three
unsuccessful search expeditions, the British Admiralty posted a reward
for anyone who could ascertain the fate of the crewmen of the HMS
Erebus and Terror, who had sailed from England in May 1845 to navigate
through the Arctic and find the elusive Northwest passage. Success was
anticipated with Franklin commanding well-equipped crews and ships, but
by 1847, the British Admiralty had received no reports of Franklin.
Subsequent expeditions found evidence of the Franklin Expedition. Three
graves dug into the permafrost were discovered in 1850 on Devon Island,
their headstones dated 1846. [see May 1845 and 1850]
(HNQ, 6/11/98)(HN, 6/11/99)(ON, 11/03, p.12)
1848 Mar 29, Niagara Falls stopped
flowing for 30 hours due to an ice jam in the Niagara River.
(HN, 3/29/98)(MC, 3/29/02)
1849 Jul 12, William Osler
(d.1919), physician, author (circulatory system), was born in Canada.
"The philosophies of one age have become the absurdities of the next,
and the foolishness of yesterday has become the wisdom of tomorrow."
(AP, 10/15/98)(MC, 7/12/02)
1850 May, An American expedition,
organized by shipping magnate Henry Grinnell, departed to the Canadian
Arctic to search for Sir John Franklin and his 1845 Expedition. In late
August it joined with British rescue ships. They soon found 3 graves
dug into the permafrost of Beechey Island with headstones dated 1846. A
written record was found in 1859, indicating that Franklin died on June
11, 1847, and that Erebus and Terror were abandoned in April 1848. The
crews’ deaths have been attributed to either scurvy or lead poisoning
originating from the solder on food tins. Both ships and the remains of
most of the 129 crewmen have never been found.
(HNQ, 6/11/98)(ON, 6/09, p.3)
1853 Nov 24, William Masterson
(Bat Masterson), journalist, gambler, frontier lawman, was born in
Henryville, Quebec. He died at his desk as a NYC sports reporter. [see
Nov 24, 1856]
(SFC, 8/2/97, p.E3)(MC, 11/24/01)
1854 Sep 27, The first great
disaster involving an ocean liner in the Atlantic occurred when the
steamship Arctic sank off the coast of Newfoundland with 300 people
aboard. It had collided in heavy fog with the French ship Vesta.
(AP, 9/27/97)(Arch, 7/02, p.7)(Arch, 9/02, p.6)
1855 Dec 14, Ice hockey was played
by 2 military teams in Canada. [see 1875]
(CFA, ‘96, p.60)(WSJ, 1/11/99,
p.R34)(http://library.thinkquest.org/10480/hockey.html)
1856 Nov 24, Bat Masterson was
born in Quebec, Canada. [see Nov 24, 1853]
(MesWP)
1857 Dec 31, Britain's Queen
Victoria decided to make Ottawa the capital of Canada.
(AP, 12/31/97)
1857 In Montreal, Canada, the
Anglican Christ Church Cathedral was constructed. In the 1980s it was
elevated on pylons to allow for an expansion of the underground city.
(SSFC, 10/9/05, p.D5)
1857 In British Columbia nine
American slaves arrived at Vesuvius Bay on Salt Spring Island to make a
fresh start in a new land. They were later joined by settlers from
Hawaii.
(SFEC, 7/26/98, p.T5)
1858 Aug 5, Cyrus W. Field
completed the first transatlantic cable. It linked Newfoundland to
Ireland. The cable burned out after several weeks of use.
(www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/cable/peopleevents/e_inquiry.html)(AP, 8/5/08)
1858 Aug 16, A telegraphed message
from Britain’s Queen Victoria to President Buchanan was transmitted
over the recently laid trans-Atlantic cable. The cable linked Ireland
and Canada and failed after a few weeks.
(AP,
8/16/97)(www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/cable/peopleevents/e_inquiry.html)
1858 Gold was reported found on
the sand banks of the Fraser River in BC. The first Chinese arrived in
British Columbia seeking gold along the Fraser River.
(enRoute, 2/96, p.21)(SFEC, 9/26/99, p.T4)
1858 Britain made British Columbia
a crown colony.
(SFEC, 9/26/99, p.T4)
1859 The Pig War on San Juan
Island forced an arbitration under Kaiser Wilhelm I of Germany, who
awarded the San Juan islands to the US. Six Royal Marines and 16 US
soldiers died during the 13-year occupation from drownings, disease and
suicides.
(SFEC, 6/18/00, p.T8)
1861 Nov 6, Dr. James Naismith (d.
Nov 28, 1939), Canadian physical education instructor, was born. He
invented the game of basketball in 1891.
(DTnet, 11/28/97)(HN, 11/6/99)
1861 Dec 20, Transports were
loaded with 8,000 troops in England. They were setting sail for Canada
so that troops would be available if the "Trent Affair" was not settled
without war.
(HN, 12/20/98)
1862 Apr 19, Simon Fraser,
Canadian explorer, died.
(MC, 4/19/02)
1863 Aug 12, 1st cargo of lumber
left Burrard Inlet in the Vancouver, BC area.
(SC, 8/12/02)
1864 Sep 1, The Charlottetown
Conference, convened in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, was the
first of a series of meetings that ultimately led to the formation of
the Dominion of Canada.
(HNQ, 8/22/99)
1864 Oct 19, The northernmost
action of the American Civil War took place in the Vermont town of St.
Albans. A band of Confederates led by Kentuckian Bennett Young raided
the town near the Canadian border with the intent of robbing three
banks and burning the town. While they managed to leave town and hide
out in Canada with more than $200,000, their attempts to burn down the
town failed. Most of the raiders were captured and imprisoned in Canada
and later released after a court ruled the robberies in St. Albans were
acts of war.
(HNQ, 12/9/98)
1866 Jun 7, Irish Fenians raided
Pigeon Hill, Quebec.
(SC, 6/7/02)
1866 Oct 15, A great fire in
Quebec destroyed 2,500 houses.
(MC, 10/15/01)
1866 Colonel John O’Neill of the
Fenian Brotherhood--formerly of the U.S. cavalry--led a force of
Irish-Americans against this British-ruled Canada. A year after
America’s Civil War ended, scores of Irish Americans who had once
fought for the Union or the Confederacy joined forces against a new
enemy.
(HNQ, 4/17/01)
1867 Mar 29, The British
Parliament passed the North America Act (later known as the
Constitution Act) to create the Dominion of Canada.
(HN, 3/29/98)(AP, 3/29/07)
1867 Jul 1, Canada became a
self-governing dominion of Great Britain as the British North America
Act took effect. The Dominion of Canada included New Brunswick, Nova
Scotia, Ontario and Quebec. A dispute with Manitoba on territory in
northwest Ontario was settled in 1889 on behalf of Ontario. John
Alexander Macdonald became the 1st prime minister.
(AP,
7/1/97)(www.canadiana.org/citm/themes/constitution/constitution13_e.html)
1867 Lacrosse was declared the
national game of Canada.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R34)
1868 Apr 7, Thomas D’Arcy McGee,
Irish patriot and author, was shot and killed in Ottawa, Canada.
Patrick J. Whelan, a Fenian sympathizer, was accused, tried, convicted,
and hanged for the crime. In 2008 David A. Wilson authored Thomas
D’Arcy McGee: Passion, Reason and Politics 1825-1857.”
(WSJ, 5/15/08,
p.A15)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_D'Arcy_McGee)
1869 Apr 9, The Hudson Bay Company
ceded its territory to Canada.
(MC, 4/9/02)
1869 Nov 1, Louis Riel seized Fort
Garry, Winnipeg, during the Red River Rebellion. Louis Riel, Metis
leader, helped stage an uprising against the influx of white settlers
in Manitoba that resulted in a provisional government that he led.
Manitoba was admitted as Canada’s 5th province and the Metis were
allocated 1.4 million acres of land, but Riel fled charged with failing
to stop the execution of Thomas Scott, an English Protestant captured
during the fighting.
(SFC, 1/22/98, p.B2)(HN, 11/1/98)(Reuters, 11/22/02)
1869-1934 Marie Dressler, Canadian actress: "Never
one thing and seldom one person can make for a success. It takes a
number of them merging into one perfect whole."
(AP, 4/19/99)
1869-1944 Stephen Leacock, Canadian
humorist-educator: "If youth only had a chance or old age any brains."
(AP, 4/28/98)
1870 Feb 12, An official
proclamation set April 15 as last day of grace for US silver coins to
circulate in Canada.
(MC, 2/12/02)
1870 May 25, Irish Fenians raided
Eccles Hill, Quebec.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1870 May 12, An act creating the
Canadian province of Manitoba was given royal assent, to take effect in
July.
(AP, 5/12/08)
1870 Jul 15, Manitoba entered
confederation as the fifth Canadian province.
(AP, 7/15/07)
1870 Sep 27, Henry T.P. Comstock
(50), Canadian silver prospector, died.
(MC, 9/27/01)
1870-1996 In Canada an estimated 150,000 indigenous
children were wrenched from their homes over this period and sent to
Christian boarding schools, where many were sexually and physically
abused. In 2008 PM Stephen Harper delivered an unqualified public
apology.
(Econ, 6/14/08, p.50)
1871 Jul 20, British Columbia
joined Confederation as a Canadian province. Canada’s government
promised BC a railroad link to the eastern provinces as it joined the
nation.
(AP, 7/20/97)(ON, 11/07, p.9)
1871 Emily Carr (d.1945), Canadian
artist and author, was born in Victoria. "You come into the world alone
and you go out of the world alone yet it seems to me you are more alone
while living than even going and coming."
(AP, 7/11/98)(SSFC, 9/23/01, p.T2)
1873 Mar 9, Royal Canadian Mounted
Police founded. [see May 23]
(MC, 3/9/02)
1873 Apr 1, The British White Star
steamship Atlantic, enroute to NYC from Liverpool with 811 passengers
under Capt. James Agnew Williams (33), sank off Nova Scotia killing 565
people, mostly women and children. A court of inquiry suspended
Williams for 2 years.
(ON, 4/03, p.7)
1873 May 23, Canada's North West
Mounted Police force was established. The North West Mounted Police was
formed by the Canadian government to protect new settlers in the
territory between Manitoba and British Columbia. [see Mar 9]
(AP, 5/23/97)(HNQ, 5/5/98)
1873 Jul 1, Prince Edward Island
became the 7th Canadian province.
(MC, 7/1/02)
1873 Louis Riel of Manitoba was
elected to the federal Parliament in Ottawa but lawmakers were
resentful of his 1869 uprising and moved to deny him his seat. This led
to a nervous breakdown and he spent three years in a mental institution
in Quebec.
(SFC, 1/22/98, p.B2)
1874-1950 William Lyon Mackenzie King, Canadian
statesman: "Government, in the last analysis, is organized opinion.
Where there is little or no public opinion, there is likely to be bad
government, which sooner or later becomes autocratic government."
(AP, 5/13/97)
1875 Mar 3, The 1st recorded
hockey game took place in Montreal. [see 1855]
(SC, 3/3/02)
1875 Aug 26, John Buchan (d.1940),
Lord Tweedsmuir, was born in Perth, Scotland. He became a writer and
governor general of Canada (1935), and was famous for his spy story
"The Thirty-Nine Steps" (1915). "There may be Peace without Joy, and
Joy without Peace, but the two combined make Happiness."
(HN, 8/26/99)(WSJ, 12/9/06, p.P12)(AP, 1/7/98)
1875 Dec 17, Violent bread riots
took place in Montreal.
(MC, 12/17/01)
1875 Calgary was founded by Troop
F of the royal Northwest Mounted Police. They built a log fort at the
junction of the Bow and Elbow Rivers to control illegal whiskey traders
operating from outposts with names like Fort Whoop-Up.
(SFEC, 6/25/00, p.T11)
1876 A city market was built In
St. John, New Brunswick. It was still active in 2000 and called the Old
City Market.
(SFEC, 7/30/00, p.T5)
1876 In Canada the Indian Act was
enacted by the Parliament under the provisions of Section 91(24) of the
Constitution Act, 1867, which provides Canada's federal government
exclusive authority to legislate in relation to "Indians and Lands
Reserved for Indians." The statute concerns registered Indians (that
is, First Nations peoples of Canada), their bands, and the system of
Indian reserves.
(Econ, 3/28/09,
p.46)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Act)
1877 May 7, Indian chief Sitting
Bull entered Canada with a trail of Indians after the Battle of Little
Big Horn.
(HN, 5/7/99)
1877 Oct 17, Brigadier General
Alfred Terry met with Sitting Bull in Canada to discuss the Indians'
return to the United States.
(HN, 10/17/99)
1879 May 25, W. Maxwell Aitken,
Lord Beaverbrook, Canada-English banker, was born.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1880 Britain assigned all North
American Arctic islands to Canada, right up to Ellesmere Island. From
this vast swath of territory were created three provinces (Manitoba,
Saskatchewan, Alberta) and two territories (Yukon and Nunavut), and two
extensions each to Quebec, Ontario, and Manitoba.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Confederation)
1881 Apr 11, River ferry "Princess
Victoria" sank in Thames River, Ontario, and 180 died. [see May 24]
(MC, 4/11/02)
1881 May 24, Some 200 people died
when the Canadian ferry Princess Victoria sank near London, Ontario.
[see Apr 11]
(AP, 5/24/97)
1881 William Cornelius Van Horne
(1843-1915), Illinois-born railroad manager, joined the Canadian
Pacific Railway (CPR) as general manager with the task of managing the
construction of the trans Canada railway.
(ON, 11/07,
p.9)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Cornelius_Van_Horne)
1883 Nov 18, The United States and
Canada adopted a system of Standard Time zones. The railroad companies
got together and established standard railroad time to increase safety
and surmount complex scheduling on local times. This put an end to
“God’s time.”
(HFA, '96, p.18)(NG, March 1990, p.115)(AP,
11/18/97)(WSJ, 3/31/05, p.D8)
1883 The first Brownie book was
published. Palmer Cox (1840-1924), Canadian illustrator and writer,
created the stories and drawings, which first appeared in 1879. 12 more
books followed and in 1891 Cox registered the illustrations under the
new copyright law.
(SFC, 12/26/07,
p.G3)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmer_Cox)
1884 Jul 25, Davidson Black,
doctor of anatomy (identified Peking Man), was born in Canada.
(SC, 7/25/02)
1884 In Canada the Quebec City
Armory was built. It was famous for having the largest suspended wood
ceiling in Canada. In 2008 it was destroyed by fire.
(SFC, 4/5/08, p.A2)
1884 Metis leaders in Saskatchewan
found Louis Riel in Montana and convinced him to set up another
provisional government.
(Reuters, 11/22/02)
1885 Mar 26, Louis Riel's forces
defeated Canadian forces at Duck Lake, Saskatchewan.
(SS, 3/26/02)(ON, 11/07, p.12)
1885 Apr 24, Metis rebels won a
major victory over Canadian troops at Fish Creek, Saskatchewan. The
troops had been shipped to the region by way of the new Canadian
Pacific Railway.
(Reuters, 11/22/02)(ON, 11/07,
p.12)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North-West_Rebellion)
1885 May 9, In the Battle of
Batoche, Saskatchewan, Metis rebels ran out of ammunition and resorted
to firing pebbles from their guns, until they were forced to retreat.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North-West_Rebellion)
1885 May 15, Metis rebels
surrendered to Canadian forces.
(ON, 11/07, p.12)
1885 Jul 2, Canada's North-West
Insurrection ended with the surrender of Big Bear.
(SC, 7/2/02)
1885 Nov 7, The Canadian Pacific
Railway completed its transcontinental rail line with the last spike
driven at the Rocky Mountain town of Craigellachie.
(SFEM, 10/10/99, p.46)(ON, 11/07, p.12)
1885 Nov 16, Canadian rebel Louis
Riel was executed for high treason after he led another uprising that
was crushed by a powerful militia.
(AP, 11/1697)(SFC, 1/22/98, p.B2)
1885 Canada began forcing tens of
thousands of Chinese, who helped build the nation's railroad, to pay a
"head tax" if they wished to remain in the country and then taxed them
again to bring in their families. It started at $50 and by 1903 grew to
$500. Collections ended in 1923, when immigration from China was
banned. Canada only began admitting Chinese again in 1947. On June 22,
2006, Canada apologized.
(AP, 6/23/06)
1885 In BC St. Paul’s Church was
built at Fulford. It was the first church on Salt Spring Island.
(SFEC, 7/26/98, p.T5)
1886 Jul 4, The 1st scheduled
Canadian transcontinental passenger train (CPR) reached Pt. Moody, BC.
It had left Montreal on June 28.
(ON, 11/07, p.12)
1886 The Passenger Vessel Services
Act (PSA) of this year required that cruise ships stopping in at US
ports be built and registered in the US, be owned by US citizens and
manned by American seamen—or that they stop at a foreign port before
returning passengers to their departure point. It was designed to
protect US ferry boats operating on the Great Lakes from Canadian
competition.
(SFEC, 5/11/97, p.C10)(SFEC, 5/25/97, p.B1)
1887 May 23, The 1st
transcontinental train arrived in Vancouver, BC.
(MC, 5/23/02)
1887 A mining blast in Nanaimo
killed 148 miners.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.$27)
1888 The Banff Springs Hotel
opened in what later became Canada's first national park.
(SFEM, 10/10/99, p.46)
1889 In Canada a dispute with
Manitoba on territory in northwest Ontario was settled on behalf of
Ontario.
(www.canadiana.org/citm/themes/constitution/constitution13_e.html)
1889 In New Brunswick, Canada, the
Algonquin Hotel was built at the seaside resort of St. Andrews.
(SFEC, 7/30/00, p.T5)
1889 A telegraph line connected
Victoria to India by way of an undersea cable from Bamfield.
(SSFC, 3/3/02, p.C8)
1889 Canada’s Bank of Nova Scotia
opened a branch in Jamaica.
(Econ, 3/29/08, p.50)
1891 Dec 1, The Canadian, Dr.
James B. Naismith, sports figure, inventor, teacher, invented the game
of basketball at the YMCA in Springfield, Mass. A janitor provided
peach baskets instead of the requested boxes.
(Hem, Dec. 94, p.126)(DTnet, 11/28/97)(MC, 12/1/01)
1892-1979 Mary Pickford, silent film actress, was
born as Gladys Marie Smith in Toronto. Her life is documented in the
1997 book: "Pickford: The Woman Who Made Hollywood" by Eileen Whitfield.
(SFC,11/26/97, Z1 p.E6)
1893 Jul 1, Canada enacted a riot
act as part of its criminal code.
(SSFC, 7/26/09, p.A4)(http://tinyurl.com/lfqouh)
1893 Dec 5, 1st electric car was
built in Toronto. It could go 15 miles between charges.
(MC, 12/5/01)
1893 Lord Stanley, the 6th
governor general of Canada, established the Stanley Cup. It was
presented to the champion hockey league team. The Stanley Cup, the
trophy of professional ice hockey‘s championship, is named for
Frederick Arthur, Lord Stanley of Preston, governor general of Canada.
The trophy was first played for in 1893-94 and was won by the Montreal
Amateur Athletic Association team. Since 1917, it has gone to the
winner of the National Hockey League playoffs.
(WSJ, 9/6/96, p.A1)(HNQ, 7/28/00)
1894 The Metropolitan United
Church was built in British Columbia. In 2000 it was taken over by the
Victoria Conservatory of Music.
(WSJ, 8/30/06, p.D8)
1895 Sep 18, John G. Diefenbaker,
conservative prime minister (13th) of Canada from 1957 to 1963, was
born in Neustadt, Ontario.
(HN, 9/18/98)(MC, 9/18/01)
1895 A Parisian artist and 5
assistants completed a 15,400-sq.-foot circular painting of Jerusalem
at the moment of Christ’s crucifixion after 4 years of work. It went on
display at the St. Anne Museum in St. Anne de Beaupre, Quebec.
(SSFC, 1/21/01, p.T10)
1895-1957 J. Bartlet Brebner, Canadian historian:
"Americans are benevolently ignorant about Canada, while Canadians are
malevolently well-informed about the United States."
(AP, 7/1/99)
1896 Aug, 16, A white man from
California named George Carmack, a fellow not employed at anything in
particular, was hiking around northwest Canada’s Yukon River area with
his two Indian brothers-in-law "Skookum Jim" Mason and "Tagish
Charley." The three found gold on Rabbit Creek, a stream that feeds the
Yukon River near Dawson, Alaska.
(CFA, '96, p.88)(HN,
8/19/01)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klondike_Gold_Rush)
1898 Jun 13, The Yukon Territory
of Canada was organized.
(AP, 6/13/97)
1900 Jan 2, E. Verlinger began
manufacturing 7" single-sided records in Montreal.
(MC, 1/2/02)
1901 Jan 23, A great fire ravaged
Montreal, resulting in $2.5 million in property lost.
(HN, 1/23/99)
1901 Oct 22, Charles Huggins, US
physician, was born in Canada.
(MC, 10/22/01)
1901 Dec 11, Marconi sent his 1st
transatlantic radio signal from Cornwall, England to Newfoundland,
Canada. The first transmission failed, but another the next day
succeeded.
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/science/nature/1701461.stm)
1901 Dec 12, Italian scientist and
engineer Guglielmo Marconi received the first long-distance radio
transmission in St. John's, Newfoundland. Electrical engineer John
Ambrose Fleming transmitted the Morse code signal for "s" from across
the Atlantic Ocean in England and Marconi heard it--three short
clicks--through a radio speaker. Marconi had begun experimenting with
radiotelegraphy around 1895, and he realized that messages could be
transmitted over much greater distances by using grounded antennae on
the radio transmitter and receiver. A few years after the successful
transmission with Fleming, Marconi opened the first commercial wireless
telegraph service.
(HNPD, 12/12/98)
1902 Jun 19, Guy Lombardo
(d.11/5/1977) Canadian bandleader was born in London, Ontario. He
played the sweetest music this side of heaven with his Royal Canadians
and sold over 100 million records.
(DTnet, 6/19/97)
1902-1979 Donald Creighton, Canadian historian:
"History is the record of an encounter between character and
circumstances."
(AP, 12/15/00)
1903 May 24, Arthur Vineberg,
Canadian heart surgeon, was born.
(HN, 5/24/01)
1903 Oct 20, A joint commission
ruled in favor of the United States in a boundary dispute between the
District of Alaska and Canada.
(AP, 10/20/97)
1904 Apr 19, Much of Toronto was
destroyed by fire.
(MC, 4/19/02)
1904 Canada's North West Mounted
Police force was renamed the Royal North West Mounted Police by King
Edward VII. With the incorporation of the federal organization called
the Dominion Police in 1920, the name Royal Canadian Mounted Police was
adopted.
(AP, 5/23/97)(HNQ, 5/5/98)
1904 In Victoria, British
Columbia, Jennie Butchart began a garden of peas and roses. The garden
grew to 55 acres of flower beds and became world famous.
(SSFC, 5/30/04, p.D7)
1905 Sep 1, Alberta and
Saskatchewan became the 8th and 9th Canadian provinces.
(Econ, 9/10/05, p.37)(AP, 9/1/06)
1905 Auto plants were opened in
Canada.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)
1906 The steamer Valencia from SF
ran aground at bluffs on the west side of Vancouver Island. Many of the
passengers and crew made it to shore, but none of the 126 survived due
to exposure.
(SSFC, 3/3/02, p.C8)
1906 Dec 6, Lt. Thomas E.
Selfridge flew a powered, man-carrying kite that carried him 168 feet
in the air for seven minutes at Baddeck, Nova Scotia.
(HN, 12/6/98)
1906 Dec 24, Canadian physicist
Reginald A. Fessenden became the first person to broadcast a music
program over radio, from Brant Rock, Mass.
(AP, 12/24/97)
1907 Apr 16, Joseph-Armand
Bombardier, inventor of the snowmobile, was born in Valcourt, Quebec,
Canada.
(www.museebombardier.com/en/content/jab/biographie1907_1925.htm)
1907 Sep 15, Fay Wray (d.2004),
film actress, was born in Alberta, Canada. She became best known for
her 1933 performance in “King Kong.”
(SFC, 8/10/04, p.B7)
1907 Oct 17, Guglielmo Marconi
began offering limited commercial wireless telegraph service between
Nova Scotia and Ireland.
(AP, 10/17/07)
1907 The Royal Alexandria Theater
was built in Toronto, Canada.
(SFEC, 12/7/96, p.C21)
1907 Canada’s government created a
Marine Lifesaving Trail between Bamfield and Port Renfrew on Vancouver
Island to aid future shipwreck victims. The trail later became part of
the West Coast Trail.
(SSFC, 3/3/02, p.C8)
1907 A great cantilever bridge
collapsed in Quebec killing 75 workers.
(MT, Summer/04, p.7)
1908 Oct 15, John Kenneth
Galbraith, economist, writer and diplomat, was born in Canada. His work
included "A History of Economics" and "Affluent Society" (1958). He won
the Hillman Award in 1958. In 2005 Richard Parker authored the
biography “John Kenneth Galbraith: His Life, His Politics, His
Economics.”
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R50)(HN, 10/15/00)(WSJ, 2/22/05,
p.D10)
1908 Dec 6, First flight of the
Silverdart with Canadian JAD McCurdy at the controls.
(HN, 12/6/98)
1908 Assiniboine Park was built in
Winnipeg, Canada.
(SSFC, 12/22/02, p.C6)
1909 Jan 9, The Silver Dart made
the 1st manned flight in Canada. It was funded by the Aerial Experiment
Association, founded by Alexander and Mabel Bell.
(ON, 1/03, p.5)
1909 Aug 25, Ruby Keeler, dancer
(Dames, 42nd Street), was born in Halifax, NS.
(MC, 8/25/02)
1909 Canada and the US signed a
Boundary Waters Treaty that set up an Int’l. Joint Commission to deal
with water disputes. Water was allowed to exit Lake Superior through
locks, power plants and gates on the St. Marys River, but in amounts
strictly regulated under the 1909 pact with Canada.
(Econ, 7/16/05, p.34)(AP, 8/3/07)
1911 Feb 22, Canadian Parliament
voted to preserve the union with the British Empire.
(HN, 2/22/98)
1911 Jul 1, A proclamation removed
"Dei Gratia" from Canada's coins.
(MC, 7/1/02)
1911 Jul 18, Hume Cronyn, actor
(World According to Garp, Cocoon), was born in London, Ontario.
(MC, 7/18/02)
1911 Jul 21, Marshall McLuhan
(d.1980), Canadian English professor and communication theorist, author
of "The Medium is the Message," was born. He wrote the book:
"Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man." "Only the vanquished
remember history."
(V.D.-H.K.p.357)(HN, 7/21/98)(AP, 4/11/00)
1912 May 26, Jay Silverheels
(d.1980) was born as Harold J. Smith on the Six Nations Indian
Reservation, Brantford, Ontario, Canada. He was the son of a Mohawk
Indian chief and became an actor who portrayed Tonto on "The Lone
Ranger."
(www.imdb.com)
1912 Aug 21, Mr. Carter-Cotton was
chosen as 1st chancellor of Univ. of British Columbia.
(SC, 8/21/02)
1912 The 1st Calgary Stampede
began as a rodeo organized by American Guy Weadick, a trick roper.
(SFEC, 6/25/00, p.T11)
1912 Dofasco was founded in Canada
as the Dominion Steel Casting Co. to make railway parts. In 2006 it
accepted a bid by Arcelor, a European steel giant.
(Econ, 2/4/06, p.36)
1913 Apr 25, Russ Conway Brandon,
actor (Richard Diamond Private Eye), was born in Manitoba.
(SS, 4/25/02)
1913 The Bain Morgan bath house in
Montreal was constructed for C$300,000.
(Hem., 12/96, p.64)
1914 May 9, Clarence Eugene Snow
(d.1999), later known as singer Hank Snow (I Went to Your Wedding), was
born in Brooklyn, Nova Scotia. His songs included the 1950 hit "I'm
Moving On."
(SFC, 12/21/99, p.A27)(MC, 5/9/02)
1914 May 29, The Canadian ship
Empress of Ireland sank while enroute to Quebec City to Liverpool after
colliding with the Norwegian coal freighter Storstad. 1,012 (1,024) of
the 1,500 passengers and crew were killed. The site of the tragedy was
proclaimed a protected historic and archeological site by Quebec in
1999.
(SFC, 4/23/99, p.D3)(SC, 5/29/02)
1914 The Grand Trunk Railway
established Prince Rupert in British Columbia.
(SFEC, 9/26/99, p.T5)
1915 Feb 12, Lorne Greene, actor
(Bonanza, Battlestar Galactica), was born in Ottawa, Canada.
(MC, 2/12/02)
1915 Jul 10, Saul Bellow, Pulitzer
Prize-winning American author and writer of Jewish moral and social
alarm, was born in Montreal. "A man is only as good as what he loves."
In 2000 James Atlas authored "Bellow: A biography."
(AP, 9/30/98)(HN, 7/10/98)(SFEC, 10/15/00, BR p.1)
1915 Sep 11, Sir William Cornelius
Van Horne, former president of the CPR, died in Montreal. His mansion
was on Minister’s Island in New Brunswick, Canada. The American-born
Van Horne had managed the construction of Canada’s transcontinental
railway (1881-1886). Van Horne was buried in Joliet, Ill.
(SFEC, 5/25/97,
p.T7)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Cornelius_Van_Horne)
1915 Sep 19, Elizabeth Stern,
Canadian pathologist, was born. She first published a case report
linking a specific virus to a specific cancer.
(HN, 9/19/00)
1916 Feb 3, Canada's original
parliament buildings, in Ottawa, burned down.
(AP, 2/3/97)
1916 May 1, Glenn Ford, actor, was
born in Quebec, Canada. He starred in the film "The Blackboard Jungle."
(HN, 5/1/99)(MC, 5/1/02)
1917 Mar 27, The Seattle
Metropolitans became the first U.S. team to win the Stanley Cup as they
defeated the Montreal Canadiens.
(AP, 3/27/97)
1917 Apr 9, Battle of Arras began
as Canadian troops launched a massive assault on Vimy Ridge.
(HN, 4/9/99)
1917 May 21, Raymond Burr, actor,
was born in BC, Canada. He played Perry Mason on television.
(HN, 5/21/99)(MC, 5/21/02)
1917 Mar 27, The Seattle
Metropolitans became the first US team to win the Stanley Cup as they
defeated the Montreal Canadiens.
(AP, 3/27/97)
1917 Dec 6, In Nova Scotia some
2000 people were killed and thousands wounded following an explosion in
Halifax harbor. The Imo, a Norwegian freighter ship, had collided with
the French munitions ship Mont Blanc and a fire soon caused a massive
explosion. A local court found Captain Le Medec of the Mont Blanc and
other defendants guilty of the collision. Canada’s Supreme Court ruled
that the captains of both ships were equally to blame. A Privy Council
in London ruled that Le Medec had done nothing illegal.
(EWH, 4th ed, p.1054)(ON, 7/05, p.7)(AP, 12/6/07)
1918 Jan 28, Lieutenant Colonel
John McCrae (b.1872), Canadian MD and author of the poem Flanders Field
(1915), died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McCrae)
1918 May 15, Joseph Wiseman, actor
(Dr No, Viva Zapata, Les Miserables), was born in Montreal.
(MC, 5/15/02)
1918 Oct 25, The Canadian
steamship Princess Sophia foundered off the coast of Alaska; some
350 people perished.
(AP, 10/25/08)
1918 Vancouver workers staged a
general strike after a union organizer was killed under mysterious
circumstances by a posse seeking draft dodgers outside the mining town
of Cumberland.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R27)
1918 William Faulkner (1897-1962),
American novelist, enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force as a cadet
pilot. Before he finished his basic training, World War I ended and he
returned to his home in Oxford, Mississippi. Faulkner, born in New
Albany, Mississippi, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1949
and the Pulitzer Prize in 1955. Faulkner died July 6, 1962.
(HNQ, 10/29/01)
1919 May 5, George London,
bass-baritone (The Flying Dutchman, Wotan, Scarpia. Rigoletto), was
born in Montreal, Canada.
(MC, 5/5/02)
1919 Jun 14, Pilot John William
Alcock (1892-1919) and navigator Arthur Witten Brown (1886-1948) took
off from St. John’s, Newfoundland, for Clifden, Ireland, on the first
nonstop transatlantic flight. The flight lasted 16 hours and 28 minutes
and carried the first transatlantic airmail. They won a 10 thousand
pound prize, first offered by the Daily Mail in 1913.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Whitten_Brown)(ON, 4/09, p.1)
1919 Oct 18, Pierre Elliott
Trudeau, (L) 15th Canadian PM (1968-79, 1980-84), was born.
(MC, 10/18/01)
1919-1990 Laurence J. Peter, Canadian-born educator
and author of "The Peter Principle" Thought for Today: "A pessimist is
a man who looks both ways when he's crossing a one-way street."
(AP, 8/11/97)
1920 Feb 1, The Royal North West
Mounted Police was formed as the Royal Northwest Mounted Police merged
with Dominion Police and incorporated as the federal organization
called the Dominion Police. The name Royal Canadian Mounted Police was
adopted.
(AP, 2/1/97)(AP, 5/23/97)(HNQ, 5/5/98)(MC, 2/1/02)
1920 Feb 7, Oscar Brand, folk
vocalist (Draw Me a Laugh), was born in Winnipeg, Canada.
(MC, 2/7/02)
1920 Rural Canadian physician Dr.
Frederick G. Banting first conceived the idea of extracting insulin
from the pancreas. It took him and 3 others 8 months to develop the
process.
(HNPD, 1/23/99)(SFC, 7/1/00, p.B5)
1920 Solomon Frank Samuels (S.F.
Samuels) founded the Reliable Toy Co. in Toronto.
(SFC, 2/7/07, p.G7)
1921 May 12, Farley Mowat,
Canadian nature writer (Never Cry Wolf), was born.
(HN, 5/12/01)
1921 May 17, Toronto's Dr. Banting
(1891-1941) and graduate student Charles Best (1899-1978) began
research at the Univ. of Toronto that led to their discovery of
insulin. [see Jul 27] In 1982 Michael Bliss authored “The Discovery of
Insulin.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Banting)(WSJ, 10/4/08, p.W8)
1921 Jul 27, Canadians Sir
Frederick Banting and Charles Best isolated insulin at the University
of Toronto.
(HN, 7/27/01)
1921 Aug 10, Franklin D. Roosevelt
(39) was stricken with polio at his summer home on the Canadian island
of Campobello, New Brunswick. Mrs. Roosevelt acted as her partially
paralyzed husband’s eyes and ears by traveling, observing and reporting
her observations to him. As First Lady, an author and newspaper
columnist and, later, a delegate to the United Nations, Eleanor
Roosevelt labored tirelessly for the poor and disadvantaged. In the
words of historian John Kenneth Galbraith, she showed "more than any
other person of her time, that an American could truly be a world
citizen."
(HNPD, 10//99)(SSFC, 8/1/04, p.D11)
1921 Oct 13, The Daily Colonist in
Victoria BC mentioned the term "cold turkey" in reference to quitting
an addiction. This was the first know use of the term in print.
(SFEC, 1/25/98, Z1 p.8)
1921 The lions in the Royal Arms
of Canada were designed by a committee of Parliament and proclaimed by
King George V.
(G&M, 7/31/97, p.A6)
1921-1926 W.L. Mackenzie King, Liberal Party, served
as the 10th Prime Minister of Canada.
(CFA, ‘96, p.81)
1922 Jan 11, Insulin, then called
isletin, was 1st used to treat diabetes on Leonard Thompson (14) of
Canada. [see Jan 23]
(www.insulinfreetimes.org/00_spring/giants.htm)
1922 Jan 23, The first successful
test on a human patient with diabetes occurred when a 2nd dose of
insulin was administered to dangerously ill Leonard Thompson (14).
Following the birth of an idea and nine months of experimentation, and
through the combined efforts of four men at the University of Toronto,
Canada, insulin for the treatment of diabetes was first discovered and
later purified for human use. Rural Canadian physician Dr. F.G. Banting
first conceived the idea of extracting insulin from the pancreas in
1920. He and his assistant C.H. Best prepared pancreatic extracts to
prolong the lives of diabetic dogs with advice and laboratory aid from
Professor J.J.R. Macleod. The crude insulin extract was purified for
human testing by Dr. J.B. Collip. Insulin, now made from cattle
pancreases, lifted the death sentence for diabetes sufferers around the
world.
(HNPD,
1/23/99)(www.insulinfreetimes.org/00_spring/giants.htm)
1922 Aug 2, Alexander Graham Bell
(b.1847), Scottish-US physicist (telephone), died in Nova Scotia. He
and Gardiner Hubbard, his father-in-law, were the founders of the
National Geographic Society.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Graham_Bell)(ON, 1/03, p.5)
1922 Sep 1, Yvonne De Carlo,
actress (10 Commandments, Munsters) was born in Vancouver, BC.
(SC, 9/1/02)
1922 Nov 11, Canada’s Vernon
McKenzie urged fighting U.S. propaganda with taxes on U.S. magazines.
(HN, 11/11/98)
1922 Mennonites from Canada and
Pennsylvania fled persecution and settled near Chihuahua, Mexico.
(SFEC, 6/1/97, p.T3)(SFEC, 11/5/00, p.T4)
1923 Apr 25, Melissa Hayden,
ballerina (1961 Silver Bowl), was born in Toronto, Canada.
(SS, 4/25/02)
1923 Jul, Officially sanctioned
chuckwagon racing started at the Calgary Stampede.
(SFEC, 6/25/00, p.T11)
1923 The Canadian Government
Motion Picture Bureau was formed.
(WSJ, 1/13/00, p.A20)
1924 Jul 24, Palmer Cox (b.1840),
Canadian artist and writer, died. He wrote and illustrated children’s
stories about brownies, little elves from Scottish folklore. 2 dozen of
his stories were collected and published in 1887 as “The Brownies:
Their Book.” His characters inspired the name for a Kodak camera and
for young girl scouts.
(SFC, 10/19/05,
p.G2)(http://freemasonry.bcy.ca/biography/cox_p/cox_p.html)
1925-1933 Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, was used by Al
Capone-led mobsters to store liquor for smuggling to the US on the Soo
Line. Underground tunnels, built for steam heating the city, were
converted mob quarters. In 2000 "The Tunnels of Moose Jaw" opened as a
tourist attraction.
(WSJ, 8/19/02, p.B1)
1926 Jun 3, Colleen Dewhurst,
actress (Maggie-Blue & Grey), was born in Montreal, Canada.
(MC, 6/3/02)
1926 Oct 29, Jonathan Stewart
Vickers, tenor, was born in Prince Albert, Canada.
(MC, 10/29/01)
1926 Johnny Miles (d.2003 at 97)
of Canada won the Boston Marathon.
(BS, 6/26/03, 7A)
1926 A government crises put the
governor general into a position to fire the prime minister.
(SFC, 10/25/99, p.A11)
1927 Jan 9, Fire in Laurier Palace
cinema in Montreal killed 78 children.
(MC, 1/9/02)
1927 Feb 18, The U.S. and Canada
established diplomatic relations independently of Great Britain.
(HN, 2/18/98)
1927 Aug 7, The Peace Bridge
between the United States and Canada was dedicated during ceremonies
attended by the Prince of Wales, Canadian PM William Lyon Mackenzie
King and US Vice President Charles Dawes.
(AP, 8/7/07)
1927 Nov 12, Canada was admitted
to the League of Nations.
(HN, 11/12/98)
1927 Thomas Barnett, a natural
history enthusiast, founded the Niagara Falls Museum in an old brewery.
Its Egyptian collection was sold in 1999 to Georgia’s Emory Univ.
(AM, 9/01, p.23)
1927 William Wrigley, gum magnate,
staged a swimming race between Catalina Island and the California
coast, which measured over 20 miles. George Young (17) of Canada won.
(WSJ, 4/18/08, p.W4)
1928 Mar 31, Gordie Howe, NHL
right wing (Detroit Redwings), was born in Floral, Sask., Canada.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1928 May 4, Maynard Ferguson, jazz
trumpeter (Roulette), was born in Verdun, Quebec.
(MC, 5/4/02)
1928 Jun 3, Commander Amelia
Earhart departed with pilot Bill Stultz from Boston Harbor to Halifax,
Nova Scotia, and then to Trepassey, Newfoundland. From there on June 17
they embarked on a trans-Atlantic flight from Newfoundland to the
British Isles.
(AP, 6/17/97)(HNQ, 3/8/02)(ON, 12/07, p.8)
1928 Jun 17, Amelia Earhart
embarked on a trans-Atlantic flight from Newfoundland to Ireland as a
passenger. They landed the next day in Wales
(AP, 6/17/97)(ON, 12/07, p.9)
1928 Aug 7, Amazing Randi (James
Randi), skeptic magician (Nova), was born in Toronto, Ontario.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1928 Dec 20, 1st international
dogsled mail left Minot, Maine, for Montreal.
(MC, 12/20/01)
1928-1972 The Alberta Sterilization Act caused over
2,000 Albertans to be sterilized in order to prevent the mentally
handicapped from passing on potentially defective genes. In 1998 the
government agreed to compensate nearly 500 people who were sterilized
without their consent.
(SFC, 6/6/98, p.A11)
1929 Jan 2, The United States and
Canada reached agreement on joint action to preserve Niagara Falls.
(AP, 1/2/98)
1929 Mar 22, A US Coast Guard
vessel sank a Canadian schooner suspected of carrying liquor.
(MC, 3/22/02)
1929 Jun 7, John Turner, (L) 17th
Canadian PM (1984), was born in Richmond, England.
(SC, 6/7/02)
1929 Dec 13, Christopher Plummer,
actor (Sound of Music, Doll's House), was born in Toronto.
(MC, 12/13/01)
1929 Dec 31, Guy Lombardo and his
Royal Canadians played "Auld Lang Syne" as a New Year’s Eve song for
the first time. Scottish poet Robert Burns is credited with writing the
song, although a similar poem by Robert Ayton (1570-1638), not to
mention even older folk songs, use the same phrase, and may well have
inspired Burns. The literal translation means "old long since" which
less literally meant "days gone by."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auld_Lang_Syne)(WSJ,
12/29/06, p.W10)
1929 The pilot of a Fokker C.IV
crashed in Vancouver, Canada, during an attempt to fly nonstop from
Seattle to Tokyo. The 1923 plane became a tourist attraction, then
burned and ended up in Maine, where it was restored for the Owls Head
Transportation Museum.
(SFC, 9/13/07, p.E3)
1930 Jul 25, Maureen Forrester,
contralto (Resurrection Symphony), was born in Montreal, Canada.
(SC, 7/25/02)
1930 Jul 29, The US Coast Guard
towed the Canadian rum-runner Ray Roberts into SF with a cargo of 1,050
cases of whiskey.
(SFC, 7/29/05, p.F7)
1930s-1950s Maurice Duplessis served as the
autocratic premier of Quebec.
(SFC, 3/5/99, p.D2)
1931 Jan 27, Mordecai Richler
(d.2001), Montreal author, (Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz), was born.
(MC, 1/27/02)
1931 Jun 7, Lang Jeffries, actor
(Skip-Rescue 8), was born in Ontario, Canada.
(SC, 6/7/02)
1931 Jul 2, Robert Ito, actor
(Sam-Quincy ME), was born in Vancouver, BC.
(SC, 7/2/02)
1931 Jul 10, Alice Munro, Canadian
writer (Open Secrets, Friend of my Youth), was born.
(HN, 7/10/01)
1931 Nov 12, Maple Leaf Gardens
opened in Toronto, Ontario, Canada as the new home of the Maple Leafs
of the National Hockey League.
(MC, 11/12/01)
1931 Saskatchewan was the 3rd most
populous province in Canada, but then the depression and drought
ushered in 8 decades of decline.
(Econ, 6/7/08, p.51)
1932 May 20, Amelia Earhart took
off from Newfoundland to become the first woman to fly solo across the
Atlantic. Because of weather and equipment problems, Earhart set down
in Northern Ireland after 13 ½ hours instead of her intended
destination, France.
(HFA, '96, p.30)(HN, 5/20/01)(AP, 5/20/07)(ON,
12/07, p.9)
1932 Jul 18, The United States and
Canada signed a treaty to develop the St. Lawrence Seaway.
(AP, 7/18/97)
1933 Dec 21, Newfoundland reverted
to being a crown colony.
(MC, 12/21/01)
1933 Wilf Carter (aka Montana
Slim, 1905-1996), Canadian singer, had his songs "Swiss Moonlight
Lullaby" and "The Capture of Albert Johnson" released by RCA Victor.
(SFC, 12/11/96, p.A24)
1934 Jan 11, John Chretien was
born.
(WP, 6/29/96, p.A20)
1934 May 28, The Dionne
quintuplets -- Annette, Cecile, Emilie, Marie and Yvonne -- were born
to Elzire Dionne at the family farm in Ontario, Canada. The were
children removed from their parents by the Ontario government and put
on public display, before paying customers, at a theme-like-park called
Quintland. In 1998 3 surviving sisters accepted a $2.8 million
settlement from the Ontario government.
(AP, 5/28/97)
1935 Mar 16, John J.R. Macleod
(58), Scottish-Canadian physiologist (Nobel 1923), died.
(MC, 3/16/02)
1935 Apr 2, Sharon Acker, actress
(Della Street-Perry Mason 1973), was born in Toronto, Canada.
(MC, 4/2/02)
1935 John Buchan (1875-1940),
Scottish novelist and Unionist politician, became Governor General of
Canada and was created Baron Tweedsmuir. Canadian PM William Lyon
Mackenzie King had wanted him to go to Canada as a commoner, but King
George V insisted on being represented by a peer.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Buchan)
1935 Canada’s wheat growers set up
a state-run, but voluntary body, to market their crops collectively and
get better prices. In 1943 the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) became
compulsory.
(Econ, 7/30/05, p.59)
1936 Jan 14, American explorer
Lincoln Ellsworth and Canadian pilot Herbert Hollick-Kenyon were
rescued by the research ship Discovery II. The pair had made the first
flight across Antarctica, 2,300 miles from the Weddell Sea to the Ross
Sea, landed when their plane's engine faltered, and waited in the
previously constructed shelter at Little America for a month to be
picked up. After his earlier attempts to cross Antarctica failed,
Ellsworth set out with Hollick-Kenyon in the monoplane Polar Star and
succeeded. Part of the area that Ellsworth and Hollick-Kenyon flew over
in 1935 has been named the Ellsworth Highlands.
(HNPD, 1/14/99)
1937 Jun 29, Joseph-Armand
Bombardier received notification that the Canadian government had
granted his patent request for his snowmobile (une autoneige).
(ON, 4/03, p.6)
1937 Americans Robert H. Bates and
Bradford Washburn reached the summit of Mount Lucania in Canada’s Yukon
Territory. At this time Lucania was the highest unscaled peak in North
America. They were forced by weather to hike some 100 miles for their
return. Bates had joined Washburn in 1935 to map the Yukon Territory
for the National Geographic Society.
(WSJ, 9/29/07, p.A6)
1938 Aug 18, President Roosevelt
dedicated the Thousand Islands Bridge connecting the United States and
Canada.
(AP, 8/18/97)
1938 Nov 17, Gordon Lightfoot,
folksinger (Sundown), was born in Ontario, Canada.
(MC, 11/17/01)
1938 William Lyon Mackenzie King
served as prime minister and suffered from arthritis.
(G&M, 7/30/97, p.A24)
1938 Prime Minister Mackenzie
invited Scottish documentarian John Grierson to assess the Canadian
film business.
(WSJ, 1/13/00, p.A20)
1939 Mar 7, Guy Lombardo and Royal
Canadians made the 1st recording of "Auld Lang Syne."
(MC, 3/7/02)
1939 May 17, Britain's King George
VI and Queen Elizabeth arrived in Quebec on the first visit to Canada
by reigning British sovereigns.
(AP, 5/17/99)
1938 May 26, Teresa Stratas,
[Anastasia Stratakis], soprano (Salome), was born in Toronto.
(MC, 5/26/02)
1938 Aug 18, President Roosevelt
and Canadian PM William Lyon Mackenzie King dedicated the Thousand
Islands Bridge connecting the United States and Canada.
(AP, 8/18/07)
1939 Jun 4, During what became
known as the "Voyage of the Damned," the SS St. Louis, carrying 907
Jewish refugees from Germany, was turned away from the Florida coast.
Also denied permission to dock in Canada and Cuba, the ship eventually
returned to Europe. The passengers were divided among England, France,
Belgium and Holland and a number of the refugees later died in Nazi
concentration camps. By 2003 efforts to track their fates identified
935 out of the 937 passengers. Some 260 ended in Nazi killing centers.
(AP, 6/4/99)(SFC, 10/4/99, p.D3)(SSFC, 12/7/03, Par
p.5)(Econ, 6/24/06, p.44)
1939 Sep 10, Canada declared war
on Nazi Germany.
(AP, 9/10/97)
1939 Dec 23, The first Canadian
troops arrived in Britain.
(HN, 12/23/98)
1939 The National Film Board (NFB)
was formed as a successor to the Canadian Government Motion Picture
Bureau.
(WSJ, 1/13/00, p.A20)
1940 May 14, Emma Goldman,
anarchist revolutionary, author (Living My Life), died in Toronto and
was buried in Chicago. In 1974 Carol Bolt wrote a play on the formative
years of Emma titled: "Red Emma: Queen of the Anarchists." In 1995 Ms.
Bolt wrote a libretto based on the play for an opera with music by Gary
Kulesha. In 1961 Richard Drinnon authored "Rebel In Paradise: A
Biography of Emma Goldman." In 1971 Alex Shulman authored "To the
Barricades: The Anarchist Life of Emma Goldman."
(WSJ, 12/11/95, p.A-1)(ON, 4/00, p.5)(MC, 5/14/02)
1940 Jun 10, Italy declared war on
France and Britain; Canada declared war on Italy.
(AP, 6/10/97)
1940 Jun 11, Princess Juliana of
the Netherlands arrived in Canada as an exile.
(AP, 6/11/03)
1940 Aug 17, President Roosevelt
and Canadian Prime Minister William Mackenzie King met in Ogdensburg,
N.Y., where they agreed to set up a joint defense commission.
(AP, 8/17/97)
1940-1959 During this period in Quebec thousands of
poor or illegitimate children were falsely labeled as mentally
deficient and sent to church-run psychiatric institutions under the
government of Maurice Duplessis. More federal funds were thus secured
for their assistance. In 2001 some 1000 surviving victims accepted a
government offer of $16,650 each in compensation for mistreatment.
(SFC, 7/2/01, p.B1)
1941 Jan 3, Canada & US
acquired air bases in Newfoundland with a 99 year lease.
(MC, 1/3/02)
1941 Dec 25, Free French occupied
the French Islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon off the Canadian coast.
(HN, 12/25/98)
1941 Dec 25, Japan announced the
surrender of the British-Canadian garrison at Hong Kong. Major John
Crawford (d.1997) and some 1,975 Canadian soldiers were captured and
incarcerated at the Sham Shui Po prison camp at Kowloon for 44 months.
(G&M, 7/30/97, p.A24)(HN, 12/25/02)(AP, 12/25/07)
1941 Jul 30, Paul Anka, singer and
song-writer, was born in Ottawa. He later composed the song "My Way."
(G&M, 7/30/97, p.A24)
1941 The NFB won its first Oscar
for the film "Churchill's Island."
(WSJ, 1/13/00, p.A20)
1942 Mar 3, Canada's Avro
Lancaster military plane made its 1st combat flight.
(SC, 3/3/02)
1942 Jul 1, Genevieve Bujold,
actress (King of Hearts, Choose Me, Coma), was born in Montreal.
(MC, 7/1/02)
1942 Jul 5, Ian Fleming graduated
from a training school for spies in Canada.
(MC, 7/5/02)
1942 Aug 19, About 5,000 Canadian
and 2,000 British soldiers launched a disastrous raid against the
Germans at Dieppe, France. Over 3,600 men perished in this
battle. The information gathered from this landing was considered
valuable for planning the successful Allied landings in Northern
Africa, Sicily, and Normandy, France. Brit. Col. Pat Porteous
(d.2000) received a Victoria Cross for his valor in the attack which
was aimed at gaining experience for the later D-Day invasion.
(AP, 8/19/97)(HN, 8/19/98)(SFC, 10/16/00, p.A22)(MC,
8/19/02)
1942 Nov 2, An amphibious aircraft
foundered in rough weather, in the waters surrounding what is now the
Mingan Archipelago National Park Reserve in the eastern Gulf of Saint
Lawrence. The plane was based at Presqu'Ile, Maine, in the US, and
serviced an airfield in the village of Longue-Pointe-de-Mingan, Quebec.
Four of the crew escaped the flooding plane and were rescued by local
fishermen rowing out from shore in open boats in rough seas. Five
others perished, trapped inside. In 1941 and 1942, the US had
constructed a series of airfields in Eastern Canada to ferry aircraft
to Allied air forces in Northern Europe, as part of the so-called
"Crimson Route." Wreckage of the downed plane was found in 2009.
(AFP, 8/7/09)
1942 Nov 21, The Alaska-Canadian
Highway across Canada was formally opened.
(HFA, '96, p.42)(AP, 11/21/97)
1942-1945 Some 22,000 Japanese-Canadians were
interred during WW II. Their property was confiscated and sold to pay
for the camps. At the end of the war they were not allowed to return to
their former communities. The 1981 novel "Obasan" by Joy Kogawa was
about their experiences.
(SFC, 2/8/99, p.E1,3)
1943 Mar 19, Airship Canadian Star
was torpedoed and sank.
(MC, 3/19/02)
1943 Nov 7, Joni Mitchell, singer,
songwriter, was born as Roberta J. Anderson in Alberta,
Canada.
(HN, 11/7/00)(MC, 11/7/01)
1944 Jun 6, The code name for the
beach used by the Canadians for the D-day invasion of Normandy was Juno.
(HNQ, 8/13/98)
1944 Jun 6, By the end of D-Day
156,000 Allied soldiers had come ashore on the Normandy beaches with
losses of 2,500 men. By the end of the day, the Allies had established
a tenuous beachhead that would lead to an offensive that pinned Adolf
Hitler's Third Reich between two pincers--the Western Allies and the
already advancing Soviets--accelerating the end of World War II. A
million Allied troops, under the overall command of General Dwight D.
Eisenhower, moved onto five Normandy beachheads in three weeks.
Operations “Neptune” and “Overlord” put forces on the beaches and
supplies aimed at the liberation of Europe and the conquest of Germany.
Operation Overlord landed 400,000 Allied American, British, and
Canadian troops on the beaches of Normandy, France. In addition, US and
British airborne forces landed behind the German lines and US Army
Rangers scaled the cliffs at Pointe de Hoc. More than 6,000 trucks of
the Red Ball Express kept gasoline and other vital supplies rolling in
as American troops and tanks pushed the Germans back toward their
homeland.
(SDUT, 6/6/97, p.B9)(HN, 6/6/98)(HNPD, 6/6/99)(ON,
2/08, p.12)
1944 Aug 4, A Halifax JP-276A took
off on its final flight from the Italian city of Brindisi around 8
p.m., to drop weapons, ammunition and medical supplies for resistance
fighters involved in the Warsaw Uprising against the Nazis. The plane
was shot down by Poland's Nazis occupiers and crashed near the town of
Dabrowa Tarnowska, in southern Poland. Remnants were recovered in 2006
and the remains of the crew, 5 Canadians and 2 Britons, were formally
buried in 2007.
(AP, 10/4/07)
1944 Sep 11, President Roosevelt
and British PM Winston Churchill met in Canada at the second Quebec
Conference.
(AP, 9/11/97)
1944 Sep 12, The second Quebec
Conference opened with President Roosevelt and British Prime Minister
Winston Churchill in attendance.
(AP, 9/12/06)
1944 Sep 27, Aimee Semple
McPherson (b.1890), Canadian and US evangelist and faith healer, died
at age 53.
(www.answers.com/topic/aimee-semple-mcpherson)
1945 Apr 1, Canadian troop freed
Doetinchem, Enschede, Borculo & Eibergen.
(MC, 4/1/02)
1945 Apr 12, Canadian troops
liberated the Nazi concentration camp at Westerbork, Neth.
(MC, 4/12/02)
1945 Apr 15, British and Canadian
troops liberated the Nazi concentration camp at Bergen-Belsen. It is a
village in west Germany about 30 miles north of Hanover. About 40,000
people were liberated from the camp, although about 13,000 later died
of illness. Overall, about 70,000 people died in Belsen.
(AHD, p.122)(AP, 4/17/05)
1945 Oct 23, Jackie Robinson
signed a Montreal Royal contract.
(MC, 10/23/01)
1945 Nov 12, Neil Percival Young,
musician, singer and song writer, was born in Toronto. His rock groups
later included "Buffalo Springfield," "Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young"
and "Crazy Horse." In 2002 Jimmy McDonough authored: "Shakey: Neil
Young’s Biography."
(SSFC, 5/12/02, p.M1)
1945 Russian code clerk Igor
Gouzenko defected to Canada and Elizabeth Bentley changed her role from
Soviet courier to FBI informant. They helped the West gain an
understanding of Soviet spy rings in North America.
(WSJ, 9/22/99, p.A22)
1946 Feb 15, Royal Canadian
mounted police arrested 22 as Soviet spies.
(HN, 2/15/98)
1946 Apr 18, Jackie Robinson
debuted as 2nd baseman for the Montreal Royals.
(MC, 4/18/02)
1946 Oct 20, Anne Murray, country
singer (Snowbird), was born in Springhill, Nova Scotia.
(MC, 10/20/01)
1946 A dissenting Mormon sect from
Utah set up a community practicing polygamy in Bountiful, BC, Canada.
In 2009 2 leaders of the Bountiful commune appeared in court to answer
criminal charges.
(Econ, 1/24/09, p.44)y
1946 Ben Weider (d.2008 at 85) and
his brother Joe, Canadian body builders, co-founded the International
Brotherhood of Body Builders (IFBB). In 1968 they brought Austrian body
builder Arnold Schwarzenegger to California.
(SSFC, 10/19/08, p.B6)
1946 Lincoln Toys began operating
in Walkerville, Ont., and continued to 1958.
(SFC, 10/1/08, p.G6)
1947 Jan 1, Canada’s Citizenship
Act of this year became effective. It said that citizens living outside
Canada on their 24th birthday would automatically loose their
citizenship unless they filled out a form saying they wished to keep
it. The law was amended in 1977 and raised the age factor to 28.
(Econ, 22/3/07,
p.39)(www.theshipslist.com/Forms/citizenship.htm)
1947 William Ormond Mitchell
(d.1998 at 83) published his first novel "Who Has Seen the Wind." It
was about a boy on the prairies who comes to grips with birth, death,
justice and faith.
(SFC, 2/28/98, p.A19)
1948 Jun 3, Newfoundland and
Labrador voted by a slim margin to relinquish status as a British
colony and to become the 10th province of Canada.
(Econ, 10/13/07,
p.42)(www.heritage.nf.ca/law/referendums.html)
1948 Nov 15, William Lyon
Mackenzie King retired as prime minister of Canada after 21 years; he
was succeeded by Louis St. Laurent.
(AP, 11/15/98)
1949 Mar 31, Newfoundland, later
called Newfoundland and Labrador, entered confederation as Canada's
10th province. In 1999 Wayne Johnston authored “The Colony of
Unrequited Dreams,” a novel about postconfederation Newfoundland and
its 1st premier, Joe Smallwood. In 2000 Johnston authored “Baltimore’s
Mansion,” a personal memoir of Newfoundland.
(SFEC, 6/25/00, BR p.6)(AP, 3/31/08)
1949 Sep 17, More than 130 people
died when fire gutted the Canadian passenger steamer Noronic at a pier
in Toronto.
(AP, 9/17/99)
1949 Nov 28, Victor Ostrovsky,
Canadian-Israeli, Mossad agent (By Way of Deception), was born.
(MC, 11/28/01)
1950 Jun 2, Joanna Gleason,
actress (Morgan-Hello Larry), was born in Toronto, Canada.
(SC, 6/2/02)
1950 Sep 26, Because of forest
fire in British Columbia a blue moon appeared in England.
(MC, 9/26/01)
1950 Oct 31, John Candy, comedian
(SCTV, Uncle Buck), was born in Ontario, Canada.
(MC, 10/31/01)
1950 Ed McCurdy (d.2000 at 81),
singer and songwriter, released his first folk album: "Ed McCurdy Sings
Songs of the Canadian Maritimes."
(SFC, 4/3/00, p.B2)
1950 Canada stopped discharging
refinery waste from its Ottawa mint into the Ottawa River.
(WSJ, 9/25/96, p.C19)
1950 There was a major flood on
the Red River that forced 25% of the residents of Winnipeg, Manitoba,
from their homes.
(SFC, 4/30/97, p.A11)
1950 Martha Matilda Harper
(b.1857), Canadian-born hair-care businesswoman, died. She was probably
the 1st person to perfect the franchise system of business organization.
(WSJ, 4/23/02, p.D7)(WSJ, 4/22/03, D7)
1952 Sep 6, Canadian television
broadcasting began in Montreal.
(AP, 9/6/97)
1952 Oct 31, The Stratford
Shakespearean Festival of Canada was incorporated as a legal entity. It
was organized by Tom Patterson. The 1st performance opened Jul 13, 1953.
(WSJ, 7/18/02, p.D10)
1952 Nov 19, Scandinavian Airlines
opened a commercial route from Canada to Europe.
(HN, 11/19/98)
1952 The Canadian Government
formed the Crown corporation Atomic Energy of Canada Limited, or AECL,
from precursor organizations dating back to the early 1940s.
(www.science.uwaterloo.ca/~cchieh/cact/nuctek/canhistory.html)(Econ,
6/20/09, p.38)
1953 Mar 3, Canadian Comet crashed
at Karachi, 11 killed.
(SC, 3/3/02)
1953 Jul 13, The 1st Shakespeare
Festival in Stratford, Ontario, organized by Tom Patterson, opened with
Alec Guiness in Richard III.
(WSJ, 7/18/02, p.D10)
1953 Aug, Canadian officials took
34 Inuit from Port Harrison (later known as Inukjuak) in Hudson Bay and
put them on a boat north. One month and 1,390 miles later, the group
was split in two and deposited on two remote islands, Resolute Bay and
Grise Fiord. The Inuit later said the government used them to assert
Canadian sovereignty in the Arctic at a time when Ottawa was worried
about excessive US influence in the region.
(Reuters, 4/20/06)
1954 Mar 30, Canada's first subway
line opened in Toronto.
(CFA, '96, p.42) (HN, 3/30/98)
1954 Aug 4, A uranium rush began
in Saskatchewan, Canada.
(MC, 8/4/02)
1954 Oct 15, Hurricane Hazel
struck US and Canada and 348 people died. 81 people were killed in
Ontario where damages were estimated at $24 million.
(AP, 10/16/04)
1954 Quebec celebrated its first
Winter Carnival.
(SFEC, 1/10/99, p.T5)
1954 Jean Drapeau (d.1999 at 83)
took office as mayor of Montreal. He spent 29 of the next 32 years as
mayor.
(SFC, 8/17/99, p.C2)
1955 Jan 7, The opening of the
Canadian Parliament in Ottawa was televised for the first time.
(AP, 1/7/05)
1955 Glenn Gould, Canadian
pianist, recorded the "Goldberg Variations" by Bach. The recording was
released in 1956. He abandoned the concert hall in 1964.
(SFEC, 5/25/97, p.C15)(WSJ, 10/7/99, p.A28)
1956 Sep 24, The first
transatlantic telephone cable system from Newfoundland to Scotland
began operation.
(HN, 9/24/98)(MC, 9/24/01)
1956 Route 199 knitted together
the 7 main Iles-de-la-Madeleine off Quebec.
(SSFC, 6/2/02, p.C6)
1956 Canadian Les Dawes (d.2002)
produced his first La Dawri car, a fiberglass body on a Ford chassis.
He moved to Southern California where his La Dawri Coachcraft produced
some 800 car kits before it folded in the late 1960s.
(SSFC, 9/30/07, p.B1)
1957 Jun 10, John Diefenbaker,
Progressive Conservative Party, was elected PM of Canada. He served
until 1963.
(CFA, '96, p.81)(HN, 9/18/98)(MC, 6/10/02)
1957 Aug 1, The United States and
Canada reached agreement to create the North American Air Defense
Command (NORAD).
(AP, 8/1/97)
1957 Oct 14, Lester Bowles Pearson
(1897-1972, former president of the UN General Assembly (1952-1953) and
later Canadian PM (1963-1968) won the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in
defusing the Suez crisis.
(www.un.org/depts/dhl/deplib/un_milestones.htm)(http://tinyurl.com/ojxcz)
1957 Nov 3, Canada fired up the
National Research Universal (NRU) nuclear reactor near Ottawa. The 200
MWt reactor began producing medical and industrial radioisotopes,
including molybdenum-99, a critical isotope used for medical diagnoses.
(Econ, 6/20/09,
p.38)(www.aecl.ca/Science/RR/History.htm)
1957 A group of scientists and
supporters from around the world gathered in Pugwash, Nova Scotia, to
call attention to the risks of nuclear war. In 1995 scientists in
London had issued a manifesto declaring that researchers must take
responsibility for their creations, such as the atomic bomb. The
manifesto served as the philosophical origin for the Pugwash Conference.
(WSJ, 10/16/95, p. A-15)(SFC, 9/2/05, p.B5)
1958 Mar 25, Canada’s era of
supersonic flight began when pilot Jan Zurakowski took off from Malton
Airport near Toronto in an Avro CF-105 Arrow for a 35-minute maiden
flight. Less than a month later, Zurakowski flew the Arrow at Mach 1.5
at an altitude of 50,000 feet. In spite of the aircraft’s early
promise, the Canadian government scrapped the project before the Arrow
could be put into production.
(HN, 3/21/99)
1958 May 12, The United States and
Canada signed an agreement to create the North American Air Defense
Command (later the North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD
for short).
(AP, 5/12/08)
1958 May 19, The United States and
Canada formally established the North American Air Defense Command
(NORAD).
(AP, 5/19/97)(Econ, 3/5/05, p.38)
1959 Jun 26, President Eisenhower
joined Britain's Queen Elizabeth II in ceremonies officially opening
the St. Lawrence Seaway.
(CFA, '96, p.48)(AP, 6/26/97)
1958 Jul 8, President Eisenhower
began a visit to Canada, where he conferred with Prime Minister John
Diefenbaker and addressed the Canadian Parliament.
(AP, 7/8/08)
1959 Steven Truscott (14) was
convicted for the rape and strangling death of 12-year-old school
friend Lynne Harper, becoming Canada's youngest death-row inmate. His
sentence was commuted to life in prison, and he was quietly released
after 10 years behind bars. Truscott always insisted he was innocent
and sought complete exoneration in 2007. On Aug 28, 2007 he was
acquitted by the Ontario Court of Appeal.
(Reuters, 1/31/07)(Reuters, 8/28/07)
1959 Canadian Joseph-Armand
Bombardier introduced the Ski-Doo snowmobile.
(ON, 4/03, p.6)
1960 Oct 19, Canada and the United
States agreed to undertake a joint Columbia River project to provide
hydroelectric power and flood control.
(HN, 10/19/98)
1960s Manitoba’s Premier Duff
Roblin urged the building of a floodway around Winnipeg to reduce water
levels during major flooding.
(SFC, 4/30/97, p.A11)
1960-1970 Louis J. Robichaud (1926-2005) served as
the Liberal premier of New Brunswick, Canada.
(CP, 1/11/05)
1961 Jan 26, Wayne Gretzky, NHL
great scorer (Oiler, King, Rangers), was born in Brantford, Ont.
(MC, 1/26/02)
1961 Aug 26, The official
International Hockey Hall of Fame opened in Toronto.
(AP, 8/26/97)
1961 Isadore Sharp opened the 1st
Four Seasons Hotel in Toronto, Canada. In 2006 he joined with partners
in a $3.7 billion buyout offer to take the company private. In 2007
Sharp unloaded all but a 5% stake when the company went private. By
2009 the chain had 83 hotels in 35 countries. In 2009 he and Alan
Philips authored “Four Seasons: The Story of a Business Philosophy.”
(SFC, 11/7/06, p.C3)(WSJ, 4/28/09, p.A11)
1962 In Ontario, Canada, the town
of Niagara-on-the-Lake began its Shaw festival, producing plays written
during George Bernard Shaw’s lifetime, i.e. 1856-1950.
(WSJ, 8/29/97, p.A9)
1964 Feb 18, Joseph-Armand
Bombardier (b.1907), inventor of the snowmobile, died in Sherbrooke,
Quebec, Canada.
(ON, 4/03, p.6)
1964 May 5, Separatists rioted in
Quebec.
(MC, 5/5/02)
1964 Dec 15, Canada's House of
Commons approved dropping the "Red Ensign" flag in favor of a new
design.
(AP, 12/15/97)
1964 Jane Rule (1931-2007),
American-born Canadian writer, authored her novel, “Desert of the
Heart.” It later became recognized as a landmark work of lesbian
fiction.
(SFC, 12/10/07, p.C5)
1964 Glenn Gould, Canadian concert
pianist, abandoned public performances and devoted himself to
recording, writing and making documentaries.
(WSJ, 10/7/99, p.A28)
1965 Feb 15, Canada replaced the
Union Jack flag with the Maple Leaf in ceremonies in Ottawa.
(CFA, '96, p.40)(HN, 2/15/98)(AP, 2/15/98)(440
Int’l., 2/15/99)
1965 Mar 1, Gas explosion killed
28 in apartment complex at La Salle, Quebec, Canada.
(SC, 3/1/02)
1965 Apr 1, Henry D.G. Crerar
(b.1888), Canadian general and the country's "leading field commander"
in World War II, died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Crerar)
1965 Nov 9, A major power failure
hit the East Coast of the US. New York City experienced a major
blackout just after 5:30 PM. In the great Northeast blackout several US
states and parts of Canada were hit by a series of power failures
lasting up to 13 1/2 hours. Nine Northeastern states and parts of
Canada went dark in the worst power failure in history, when a switch
at a station near Niagara Falls failed.
(HFA, '96,p.42)(SFE,10/1/95, Z1, p.10)(AP,
11/9/97)(HN, 11/9/98)
1966 Mar 4, Canadian Pacific
airliner exploded on landing in Tokyo and 64 died.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1966-1967 The US military tested Agent Orange, Agent
Purple and several other powerful defoliants on a small section of the
base in Gagetown, New Brunswick, Canada, over seven days in 1966 and
1967.
(AP, 9/13/07)
1967 Apr 27, Expo '67 was
officially opened in Montreal by Canadian Prime Minister Lester B.
Pearson. The urban theme park, La Ronde, was built on the Ile
Sainte-Helene for the exposition and continues on to today. The Expo
featured the big-screen, multi-projector film Polar Life. This led to
the formation of Multiscreen Corporation and eventually IMAX.
(Hem., 7/95, p.129)(Hem., 3/97, p.81)(AP, 4/27/97)
1967 Jul 24, French President
Charles de Gaulle stirred controversy during a visit to Montreal,
Canada, when he declared, ''Vive le Quebec libre!'' (Long live free
Quebec!).
(AP, 7/24/07)
1967 Oct 29, Expo 67 in Montreal
closed after six months.
(AP, 10/29/07)
1967 Charles Plunket Bourchier
Taylor (1935-1997), Beijing correspondent for the Globe & Mail,
published "Reporter in Red China."
(G&M, 7/31/97, p.A20)
1967 The play "Fortune and Men’s
Eyes" by John Herbert (d.2001 at 75), Canadian playwright, was produced
off Broadway. It provided a glimpse of sexual struggles behind prison
doors.
(SFC, 6/29/01, p.D5)
1967 The government of Canada took
over the coal mines of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. In the 1970s the
government lured some 1,800 new workers to the mines to secure a cheap
source of energy for Nova Scotia. In 1999 the government attempted to
end the costly public venture but faced strikes by miners who claimed
inadequate severance packages.
(WSJ, 1/12/00, p.A18)
1967 Canada revised its
immigration policy.
(SFC, 11/29/96, p.A29)
1967 Toronto's first Caribbean
festival began as a contribution from its West Indian community to
Canada's 100th anniversary of Confederation and coinciding with Expo
'67 celebrations in Montreal.
(Reuters, 8/3/02)
1967 Alberta, Canada, began to
develop its oil sands. Fort McMurray, population 4,000, grew to 65,000
residents by 2007, including some 200 families from Venezuela.
(WSJ, 6/26/07, p.A12)
1967 McDonald's opened its first
restaurant outside the US in Canada.
(WSJ, 5/13/99, p.B13)
1968 Apr 20, Pierre Elliott
Trudeau was sworn in as Canada’s 15th Prime Minister. He succeeded
Lester B. Pierson and continued in office to 1979.
(CFA, '96, p.81)(AP,
4/20/97)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Trudeau)
1968 Jun 25, The Canadian federal
election was held to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of
the 28th Parliament of Canada. The Liberal Party won a majority
government under its new leader, PM Pierre Trudeau.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_federal_election,_1968)
1968 Jun 24, The St. Jean Baptiste
parade in Montreal, an annual celebration of Quebec nationalism,
erupted in violence.
(WSJ, 10/3/00, p.A26)
1968 Jun 25, The Canadian federal
election was held to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of
the 28th Parliament of Canada. The Liberal Party won a majority
government under its new leader, PM Pierre Trudeau.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_federal_election,_1968)
1968 Jun, In Quebec, Canada, the
summertime Festival d’Ete de Quebec was begun.
(www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=U1ARTU0001201)
1968 Dec 26, A Palestinian
terrorist attack in Athens on an Israeli civilian airliner killed one
person. Mahmoud Mohammad (25) and Maher Suleiman (19) were later
captured by Greek officials, In 1970, a Greek court convicted Mahmoud
Mohammad for his role in the attack. In 1987 Mahmoud Mohammed Issa
Mohammed entered Canada, where he was ordered to be deported in 1988.
In 2007 he was still in Canada after some 30 appeals and reviews.
(http://tinyurl.com/35olct)(Econ, 9/15/07,
p.48)(www.skyjack.co.il/chronology.htm)
1968 Pierre Trudeau, PM of Canada,
published an admiring book about Mao Tse-Tung’s China.
(WSJ, 10/3/00, p.A26)
1969 Apr 14, The first major
league baseball game in Canada was played in Montreal. The expansion
Montreal Expos hosted their first game north of the border, marking the
first time a regular season major league game is played outside of the
US. The Expos won their debut at Jarry Park, edging the St. Louis
Cardinals, 8-7.
(HN,
4/14/98)(www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/1969_Expos)
1969 May 11, Canada’s CBC public
broadcaster announced it will no longer accept advertising from tobacco
companies.
(http://archives.cbc.ca/health/public_health/topics/1945-12678/)
1969 May 14, Abortion and
contraception was legalized in Canada.
(MC, 5/14/02)
1969 May 31, John Lennon and Yoko
Ono recorded "Give Peace a Chance" during their “Bed-In” at the Queen
Elizabeth’s Hotel in Montreal.
(http://digitaldreamdoor.nutsie.com/pages/lyrics2/givepeace.html)
1969 Jul 7, Canada's House of
Commons gave final approval to a measure making the French language
equal to English throughout the national government.
(AP, 7/7/97)
1969 Sep 13, John Lennon and his
wife, Yoko Ono, presented the Plastic Ono Band in concert for the first
time at the Toronto Peace Festival (Lennon's first in four years). The
1st hit by the new group, "Give Peace a Chance," made it to number 14
on the charts.
(www.musicdirect.com/product/83704)
1969 Neil Young (b.1945, Canadian
singer and songwriter, produced his solo album with the title track
"Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere."
(WSJ, 4/28/99,
p.A16)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Young)
1969 Ben Metcalfe (d.2003 at 83)
coordinated the initial campaigns of the Winnipeg-based Don't
Make a Wave Committee (later Greenpeace) against planned nuclear tests
in the Aleutian Islands.
(SSFC, 10/19/03, p.A31)
1969 In Saskatoon, Canada,
David Milgaard (16) was convicted for the murder and rape of Gail
Miller. He was in prison for 23 years until DNA tests proved that the
crime was done by Larry Fisher, a multiple rapist. His story was later
told by Peter Edwards and Joyce Milgaard, David's mother in the book "A
Mother's Story."
(SFC, 6/2/99, p.A10)
1970 May 12, Premier Robert
Bourassa (1933-1996) began serving his first term as the Liberal
Premier of the province of Quebec. This term ended in 1976. He then
served a 2nd term from 1985-1994.
(SFC, 10/3/96,
p.C6)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Bourassa)
1970 Jun 1, The Canadian dollar
was allowed to float.
(http://tinyurl.com/5n8ufg)
1970 Oct 5, British trade
commissioner James Richard Cross was kidnapped in Canada by militant
Quebec separatists; he was released the following December.
(AP, 10/5/00)
1970 Oct 10, In the October Crisis
Quebec Provincial Labor Minister Pierre Laporte and the British trade
commissioner James Cross were kidnapped by the left-wing, nationalist
Front de Liberation du Quebec, Quebec Liberation Front (FLQ), a
militant separatist group. Laporte's body was found about a week later.
Mr. Cross was released but Mr. LaPorte was found dead strangled in the
trunk of a car. The Canadian government refused to pay a ransom. Prime
Minister Pierre Trudeau responded by suspending civil liberties in
Quebec and invoking the War Measures Act, and sending over 1,000 troops
to the French-Canadian province.
(SFC, 10/3/96, p.C6)(SFC, 11/22/96, p.A20)(AP,
10/10/97)
1970 Oct 12, In Quebec, Canada,
the "October Crises" continued. PM Pierre Trudeau imposed martial law
in Quebec and sent troops into Montreal because of bombings and
killings by the Quebec Liberation Front.
(SFC, 10/3/96, p.C6)(SFC, 11/22/96,
p.A20)(SFC,12/27/97, p.A12)
1970 Oct 13, Canada established
diplomatic relations with China.
(http://geo.international.gc.ca/asia/china/political_economic/diplomatic_relations-en.asp)
1970 Oct 17, Pierre Laporte
(b.1921), the Quebec minister of labor, was found strangled to death 7
days after his kidnapping by the Quebec Liberation Front (FLQ).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Laporte)
1970 Oct 28, In Canada Gerald
Regan (b.1928) became premier of Nova Scotia and continued to 1978. In
1995 charges were filed that he sexually assaulted 2 girls (14) in 1956
and another young woman (18) in 1969. He was tried in 1998 at age 70.
He was acquitted by a jury as 19 other women came forward with charges
of sexual assault.
(SFC, 12/17/98, p.C9)(SFEC, 12/20/98,
p.A35)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Regan)
1970 The Don't Make a Wave
Committee of Winnipeg, Canada, was renamed Greenpeace and Ben Metcalfe
became the 1st chairman.
(SSFC, 10/19/03, p.A31)
1970 West Kildonan, a suburb of
Winnipeg, Canada, was incorporated into Winnipeg. Mayor Daniel Abraham
Yanofsky (d.2000 at 74), a chess grandmaster, transferred to the City
Council and served to 1986.
(SFC, 3/11/00, p.A17)
1970 Canada’s government set aside
the Pacific Rim National Park Reserve to protect the coastal
environment.
(SFEC, 10/8/00, p.T9)
1971 Mar 4, Canadian Prime
Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau (52) married Margaret Sinclair (22) in
North Vancouver, B.C. They later divorced.
(AP, 3/4/99)(SFC, 9/29/00, p.D7)
1971 May 18, The last victim of
Wayne Boden (1948-2006), Canadian serial killer and rapist, was found.
He earned the nickname "the Vampire Rapist" because he had the penchant
of biting the breasts of his victims.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayne_Boden)
1971 Sep 15, A group of activists
set sail on the Phyllis Cormack for Alaska from Vancouver, Canada, to
stop a US nuclear weapons test in the Aleutian Islands. Panels reading
Green and Peace dangled from the bridge. Bob Hunter (d.2005), one of
the activists, became the 1st president of Greenpeace (1973-1977).
(GQ, summer ‘96, p.18)(SFC, 4/30/97, p.A9)(Econ,
5/14/05, p.89)
1971 Oct 8, Canada’s PM Pierre
Trudeau declared Canada to be bilingual and multicultural.
(Econ, 11/18/06,
p.39)(www.cic.gc.ca/english/resources/publications/legacy/chap-6b.asp)
1971 Marie Paule Giguere (50), a
Catholic nun in Quebec, founded the Army of Mary as a prayer group,
saying she was receiving visions from God. In 2007 the Vatican declared
her teachings were heretical and in Arkansas six nuns were
excommunicated after refusing to give up membership in the sect.
(SFC, 9/27/07, p.A20)
1971-1988 Peter Bronfman (1929-1996) and his brother
Edward Bronfman co-owned the Montreal Canadiens hockey team. Their
uncle, Samuel, was the founder of the liquor company, Seagram Co. Ltd.
The brothers acquired holdings in Brascan Ltd., a property mgmt.
company, Noranda Inc., a natural resource company, and John Labatt
Ltd., one of Canada’s 2 biggest brewers.
(SFC, 12/3/96, p.D2)
1972 Apr 15, Canada’s PM Pierre
Trudeau and President Richard Nixon met in Ottawa to sign the Great
Lakes Water Quality Agreement. The agreement followed measurements that
showed that high concentrations of phosphorus and nitrogen led to the
lakes being choked to death from vegetation and algae. Methods for
quantifying eutrophication had been developed by Swiss scientist
Richard Vollenweider (1922-2007).
(http://tinyurl.com/ygrc3p)(WSJ, 2/3/07, p.A8)
1972 Aug 10, An Earth-grazing
meteoroid grazed the atmosphere above Canada. It entered the Earth's
atmosphere in daylight over Utah.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Daylight_1972_Fireball)
1972 Nov 27, Pierre Trudeau formed
his Canadian government.
(MC, 11/27/01)
1972 Trudeau’s government
increased the value and duration of unemployment benefits and decreased
the period required to qualify.
(WSJ, 2/7/97, p.A17)
1972 Mel Lastman, founder of the
Bad Boy discount appliance chain, was elected mayor of North York, a
municipality just north of Toronto. He went on to win 11 straight
elections.
(SFC,12/897, p.A15,17)
1972 Stephen Reid, a member of the
Stopwatch Gang trio, was sentenced to prison. He escaped 2 times but
was recaptured and was released in 1987. In 1986 he authored
"Jackrabbit Parole" while in prison. The gang was estimated to have
stolen some $15 million in 140 North American robberies. In 1999 he was
again caught following a robbery in Victoria and was convicted of
attempted murder and other charges.
(SFC, 6/25/99, p.A10)(SFC, 12/2/99, p.D16)
1972 Daniel Abraham Yanofsky
(d.2000 at 74), a chess grandmaster and Winnipeg City Councilman, was
awarded the Order of Canada.
(SFC, 3/11/00, p.A17)
1974 May 8, In Canada the
government of Pierre Trudeau fell on a sub-amendment to the budget
(thus a question of confidence).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minority_governments_in_Canada)
1974 Jun 29, Russian ballet dancer
Mikhail Baryshnikov defected in Toronto, Canada.
(http://archives.cbc.ca/arts_entertainment/dance/clips/13363/&ref=rss)
1974 Jul 8, Trudeau's Liberal
Party won Canadian parliamentary election.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_federal_election,_1974)
1975 Jan 2, Ken Brugger, searching
on behalf of Canadian entomologist Dr. Fred A. Urquhart, found that
vast numbers of monarch butterflies, wintered at Cerro Pelon, an
inactive volcano a hundred miles west of Mexico City. Urquhart had been
tagging butterflies and searching for their winter quarters since 1954.
In 1986 the Mexican government established some protection over 5 sites
where monarchs were known to overwinter.
(ON, 4/07, p.12)
1975 May 6, In hockey the
Philadelphia Flyers won the semifinal series over Boston 4 games to 1.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1975-76_Philadelphia_Flyers_season)
1975 May 16, The Montreal
Canadiens won the Stanley Cup hockey finals in 4 games over the
Philadelphia Flyers.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1975-76_Philadelphia_Flyers_season)
1976 Jun 26, The CN Tower in
Toronto, at this time the world’s tallest free-standing structure (553
meters), opened to the public.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CN_Tower)
1976 Jul 14, Canada abolished the
death penalty.
(SFC,10/18/97,
p.A13)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_punishment_in_Canada)
1976 Jul 17, The XX1 Olympiad,
opened in Montreal. Closing ceremonies for the summer Olympics were
held August 1. 26 African nations boycotted the games after the IOC
failed to bann New Zealand after its rugby team toured South Africa.
Taiwan withdrew after it was denied the right to compete as the
Republic of China. In 1998 it was revealed that 143 members of
the East German team had taken performance-enhancing drugs.
(WSJ, 7/15/96, p.B1)(WSJ, 10/21/98, p.A1)(WSJ,
4/12/08, p.R2)
1976 Jul 25, Edwin Moses (b.1955),
American track star, won an Olympic Gold Medal In Montreal in the
400-meter hurdles.
(http://espn.go.com/sportscentury/features/00016369.html)
1976 Jul 31, "Sugar" Ray Charles
Leonard (b.1956), American boxer, won an Olympic gold medal in Montreal.
(http://dcboxing.blogspot.com/2008/03/1976-olympic-final-sugar-ray-leonard-vs.html)
1976 Nov 15, Rene Levesque's
"Parti Quebecois" won elections in Quebec. The pro-independence Parti
Quebecois first came to power.
(SFC, 10/3/98,
p.A21)(www.cbc.ca/news/background/parti_quebecois/)
1976 Lotfi Mansouri was appointed
the general director of the Canadian Opera Company in Toronto.
(SFC, 2/2/99, p.A11)
1976 The Summit of leading
industrial nations was held in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The addition of
Canada let it be called the Group of Seven or G-7.
(SFC, 6/20/97, p.A16)
1977 Jan 28, A heavy blizzard
began in Eastern Canada and the US. It claimed as many as 100 lives.
This was the only blizzard declared a natural and national disaster by
the American and Canadian governments. In 1978 Erno Rossi authored
“White Death: Blizzard of ’77.”
(www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-gRb_MuUgg)(www.whitedeath.com/)
1977 Feb 11, A 20.2-kg lobster was
caught off Nova Scotia. This was the heaviest known crustacean to date.
(www.canadiangold.ns.ca/funfacts.asp)
1977 Timothy Findley (d.2002),
Canadian writer, authored his novel "The Wars," which contrasted social
struggles in Toronto with trench horrors in WW I.
(SFC, 6/22/02, p.A18)
1977 The Canada Human Rights Act
was passed and required that men and women be paid the same amount for
doing the same work.
(SFC, 7/30/98, p.A12)
1977 Canada extended its
territorial waters out to 200 miles to stop fishing by boats of foreign
nations.
(NH, 5/96, p.61)
1977 English was banned in Quebec.
(SFEC,12/28/97, Z1 p.2)
1977 Ernst Zundel (b.1939), German
neo-Nazi, founded a small press publishing house in Canada called
Samisdat Publishers, which issued such pamphlets as “The Hitler We
Loved and Why” and “Did Six Million Really Die?,” both prominent
documents of the Holocaust denial movement. He wrote under the name of
Christof Friedrich. In 2005 he was deported to Germany, where he was
charged for inciting racial hatred. In 2007 he was sentenced to 5 years
in prison.
(SFC, 12/9/00,
p.A11)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_Z%C3%BCndel)
1978 Jan 24, Cosmos 954, a
4-month-old nuclear-powered Soviet satellite plunged through Earth's
atmosphere and disintegrated, scattering radioactive debris over parts
of northern Canada.
(SSFC, 3/18/01, p.A1)(AP, 1/24/08)
1978 Feb 9, Canada announced it
was expelling 13 Soviet diplomats who it said had tried to recruit a
Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer.
(HN, 2/9/97)(www.cnn.com/almanac/9802/09/)
1978 Canada implemented security
certificates to detain and expel, without disclosing evidence,
non-citizens suspected of terrorism. On October 22, 2007, the
Conservative government introduced a bill to amend the security
certificate process by introducing a "special advocate", lawyers who
would be able to view the evidence against the accused.
(Econ, 10/24/09,
p.42)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Security_certificate)
1979 May 22, Canadians went to the
polls in parliamentary elections that put the Progressive Conservatives
under Joseph Clark in power, ending the 11-year tenure of PM Pierre
Elliott Trudeau.
(AP,
5/22/97)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_federal_election,_1979)
1979 Jun 4, Joe Clark of the
Progressive Conservatives became the 16th prime minister of Canada.
(AP, 6/4/07)
1979 Aug 26, Alvin Karpis
(1907-1979), Canadian-born US gangster, died. His autobiography, “The
Alvin Karpis Story,” was completed in 1971.
(WSJ, 7/15/04,
p.D8)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alvin_Karpis)
1979 John Crosbie (d.1994), a
Canadian writer, founded the Save the Puns Foundation.
(WSJ, 1/22/98, p.A17)
1980 Feb 18, Pierre Elliott
Trudeau's Liberal Party won Canada's elections. Trudeau again served as
the 15th Prime Minister of Canada.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_federal_election,_1980)(CFA,
'96, p.81)
1980 May 12, Maxie Anderson (45)
and his son Kris (23) completed the 1st balloon crossing of the
American continent as they landed their helium-filled balloon on
Canada’s Gaspe Peninsula. Their journey began May 8 in Marin Ct., Ca.
(SFC, 5/6/05, p.F2)
1980 May 20, In Canada a
referendum of 59.5% of Quebec voters rejected separatism.
(http://torontosun.com/Anniversary/25th/2006/07/24/1700461.html)
1980 Jul 1, "O Canada" was
proclaimed the national anthem of Canada.
(CFA, '96, p.48)(AP, 7/1/97)
1980 Oct 28, Canada’s federal
government under Pierre Trudeau introduced a national energy program,
which forced Alberta to sell its oil to Canadians at below market
prices. The policy was dismantled in 1984.
(Econ, 12/3/05, Survey
p.6)(http://tinyurl.com/32q2bt)
1980 Dec 31, Marshall McLuhan
(b.1911), Canadian professor, cultural philosopher and writer, died at
age 69. He was the author "Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man."
In 1996 a CD-ROM titled "Understanding McLuhan" was released.
(SFEC, 9/8/96, BR p.8)(V.D.-H.K.p.357)(AP, 12/31/05)
1980 Canola Oil was registered as
the name for a vegetable oil of low saturated fat. It was originally
called low erucic acid rapeseed oil and was developed by the Univ. of
Manitoba plant breeder Baldur Stefansson after WW II. Oleic acid later
replaced erucic acid which was found to cause cancer in lab studies.
(BS, 5/3/98, p.6F)
1980 Peter Munk, Hungary-born
entrepreneur, along with David Gilmour and several Arab investors
founded Barrick Petroleum Corp., a Canada-based mining operation. In
1983 the company went public as Barrick Resources Corp., which grew to
become Barrick Gold. By 2008 the company was worth $38 billion with
mines on 5 continents.
(www.referenceforbusiness.com/history2/71/Barrick-Gold-Corporation.html)(Econ,
4/19/08, p.80)
1980-1989 Conrad Black and David Radler launched a
small newspaper acquisition spree generated by their 1st small paper,
the Sherbrooke Record in Quebec. In 2003 Black and Radler became
embroiled in suits stemming from their operations in Hollinger Int'l.
(WSJ, 1/30/04, p.A1)
1981 Jun 28, Terry Fox (22), born
in Winnipeg and raised in Port Coquitlam, died of cancer. Fox, who
planned to run a marathon a day until he ran across Canada, was forced
to stop his journey on Sept. 1, 1980, because the cancer that took his
leg had spread to his lungs. He ran 5,373 kilometers over 143 days. His
goal was to raise $1 for cancer research for every Canadian, which
would have been about $24 million in 1980.
(AP, 9/19/05)
1981 Sep 23, Chief Dan George
(b.1899), actor, died at 82 in British Columbia, Canada. His films
included “Harry & Tonto” (1974) and “Little Big Man” (1970). He was
born Geswanouth Slahoot on a First Nations Reserve in North Vancouver.
His English name was Dan Slaholt. His last name was changed to George
when he entered a residential school at the age of 5.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chief_Dan_George)
1981 Israel promised Canada that
the Mossad spy agency would not use Canadian passports.
(WSJ, 10/3/97, p.A1)
1982 Jan 9, A 5.9 earthquake hit
New England & Canada; the 1st since 1855.
(http://tinyurl.com/32vvon)
1982 Feb 15, The Ocean Ranger
oil-drilling platform sank off the coast of Newfoundland during a
fierce storm and 84 men were killed.
(AP, 2/15/98)(WSJ, 10/3/01, p.A20)
1982 Apr 17, Canada adopted a new
Constitution to replace the 1867 British North America Act. It
enshrined special rights for indigenous peoples. Pierre Trudeau added a
Charter of Rights and Freedoms to Canada’s constitution. Quebec did not
sign the 1982 Constitution.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_of_Canada)(WSJ, 10/3/00,
p.A26)
1982 Jul 24, Anna Paquin, Oscar
winning actress (Piano), was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Paquin)
1982 Aug 4, Ronald Smith of Canada
killed two Americans in Montana during a drunken road trip. In March
1893 Smith was convicted and sentenced to death.
(Econ, 5/24/08,
p.55)(http://bulk.resource.org/courts.gov/c/F2/914/914.F2d.1153.88-4115.html)
1982 Oct 4, Glenn H. Gould
(b.1932), eccentric Canadian pianist, died in Toronto of a cerebral
hemorrhage. In 1997 Peter F. Ostwald wrote a biography titled: "Glenn
Gould."
(WSJ, 8/5/97,
p.A16)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glenn_Gould)
1982 The Canadian NFB documentary
film "If You Love This Planet" was an anti-nuclear film that won the
best documentary Oscar.
(WSJ, 1/13/00, p.A20)
1982 Choi Jung-hwa, a South Korean
taekwondo master, hired two agents to shoot South Korean President Chun
Doo-hwan during a visit to Canada. The plot, however, was detected and
Choi went into hiding in Eastern Europe and North Korea. In 1991, he
surrendered to Canadian authorities and was sentenced to six years in
prison, but was released after one year for good behavior. In 2008 he
returned to South Korea.
(AP, 9/9/08)
1983 Mar 7, In France Claude
Vivier (b.1948), a French-Canadian composer, was found stabbed to
death. A 19-year-old man was convicted of the murder. Vivier left
behind 48 completed scores and part of a 49th. His 1976 "Siddartha" was
a 30 minute orchestral piece written on commission from the CBC
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Vivier).
(SFEC, 1/4/98, DB. p.31)
1983 Jun 2, A toilet caught fire
on Air Canada's DC-9 and 23 died at Cincinnati.
(www.ntsb.gov/Speeches/former/hall/jh980602.htm)
1983 Trivial Pursuit was big as
was MTV (Music Television). Linda F. Pezzano (d.1999 at 54), marketing
consultant, invented the "viral marketing concept" to publicize the
Canadian board game.
(TMC, 1994, p.1983)(SFC, 10/30/99, p.C2)
1983 A couple of Canadian
vineyards began producing ice wine, a 1794 German invention (eiswein),
using frost-bitten grapes to produce a desert wine.
(Econ, 5/22/04, p.32)(http://wine.about.com)
1983 In Regina, Canada, JoAnn
Wilson (43) was found in the garage of her home, beaten, hacked and
shot in the head. Her former husband, Colin Thatcher, former cabinet
minister in Saskatchewan's government, was sentenced to life in prison
for her murder. In 2006 he was granted full parole.
(Reuters, 12/1/06)
1984 Feb 29, Canadian Prime
Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau announced he was stepping down after
more than 15 years in power.
(AP, 2/29/00)
1984 Apr 13, Pete Rose, playing
for the Montreal Expos, became the 1st NL baseball player to get 4,000
hits in a career, joining Ty Cobb to become only the second player to
enter the 4000 hit club.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4000_hit_club)
1984 Jun 30, John Turner, Liberal
Party, was sworn in as Canada's 17th prime minister, succeeding Pierre
Elliott Trudeau.
(CFA, '96, p.81)(AP, 6/30/04)
1984 Jul-1985 May, Seven men,
three women and two children were tortured killed in Calaveras County,
Ca., at the home of Leonard Lake as part of "Project Miranda," inspired
by the John Fowles novel, "The Collector." Lake killed himself with
cyanide during a police interview. Charles Ng was arrested in Canada in
1985 for stealing and extradited to the US after 6 years for his role
in the murders.
(SFC,10/18/97, p.A13)(SFC, 10/25/98, p.A5)
1984 Sep 4, Canada's Progressive
Conservatives, led by Brian Mulroney, won a landslide victory in
general elections over the Liberal Party of Prime Minister John N.
Turner.
(AP, 9/4/04)
1984 Sep 17, Progressive
Conservative leader Brian Mulroney took office as Canada's 18th prime
minister.
(AP, 9/17/99)
1984 The film "Next of Kin" was
directed by Canadian Atom Egoyan. It was about a lazy 23-year-old
living with his parents.
(SFC,12/26/97, p.C1)
1984 In Canada responsibility for
security intelligence was taken away from the Mounties when a separate
intelligence agency was created.
(Econ, 9/23/06, p.42)
1984 Guy Laliberte created The
Cirque de Soleil, a Canadian animal-free circus. Revenues in 2004
reached $550 million.
(SFC, 9/14/96, p.B4)(Econ, 2/5/05, p.61)
1984 Mike Lazaridis, while a
student at the Univ. of Waterloo in Ontario, co-founded Research In
Motion (RIM) with Douglas Fregin. In 1997 Lazaridis came up with the
idea for a small thumb-using keyboard and RIM went on to produce the
hand-held Blackberry e-mail device.
(Econ, 3/19/05, p.68)(Econ, 9/23/06, TQ p.36)
1984 Canada established a tidal
research station in its eastern Bay of Fundy.
(Econ, 4/28/07, p.71)
1985 Mar 17, President Reagan
agreed to a joint study with Canada on acid rain.
(HN, 3/17/98)
1985 May 31, Some 41 tornadoes
swept through parts of Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York and Ontario,
Canada, during an eight-hour period killing 88 people with over 1,000
injured.
(AP, 5/31/05)
1985 Jun 23, All 329 people aboard
an Air India Boeing 747 were killed when Flight 182 from Montreal to
London crashed into the Atlantic Ocean near Ireland, apparently because
of a bomb. An hour earlier, a bomb in baggage intended for another Air
India flight exploded in a Tokyo airport, killing two baggage handlers.
In 2000 Canadian police arrested 2 men of Sikh origin for the bombing.
In 2001 Canadian prosecutors filed murder charges against Inderjit
Singh Reyat. In 2003 Reyat was sentenced to 5 years for his role in
making the bomb. In 2005 a Canadian judge acquitted 2 men who had been
accused of conspiring in the case. Talwinder Parmar (1944-1992) was
later assumed to have been the mastermind behind the attacks.
(AP, 6/23/97)(SFC, 10/28/00, p.A13)(SFC, 6/6/01,
p.C3)(AP, 2/11/03)(AP, 3/17/05)(Econ, 6/16/07, p.47)
1985 Sep 1, A US-French expedition
located the wreckage of Titanic, sunk in 1915, about 560 miles off
Newfoundland, Canada.
(www.titanic-titanic.com/discovery_of_titanic.shtml)
1985 Sep 25, The Tyrell Museum of
Paleontology was opened to the public. It is located 140 km. northeast
of Calgary at Drumheller, Alberta, Canada.
(CFA, '96, p.63)
1985 Dec 12, 248 American soldiers
and eight crew members were killed when an Arrow Air charter crashed
after takeoff from Gander, Newfoundland.
(AP, 12/12/97)
1985 UNESCO declared Old Quebec a
World Heritage Site. It was the first city in North America to attain
the status.
(SFEC, 1/10/99, p.T4)
1985 The Mali town of Sanankoroba
established a sister-town relationship with Sainte-Elizabeth, Quebec.
(SFC, 2/27/98, p.D2)
1985 Wilf Carter was inducted into
the Canadian music hall of fame.
(SFC, 12/11/96, p.A24)
1985 Canadian Auto Workers broke
away from the US-based United Auto Workers to form their own union.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R27)
1985 Brenda O’Connor (20), her
husband Lonnie Bond and their baby son disappeared. A video made by
Leonard Lake and Charles Ng later showed her bound to a chair at his
hideaway near Wilseyville in Calaveras Ct., Ca. Charles Ng was arrested
in Canada for killing a dozen people in a hideaway in the Sierra Nevada
foothills in 1984-1985. He fought extradition for 6 years but was
finally returned to California by a Canadian Supreme Court order.
(SFC, 10/28/98, p.A1)(SFC, 8/31/96, p.A23)
1985-1994 Premier Robert Bourassa led the province of
Quebec for his 2nd term.
(SFC, 10/3/96, p.C6)
1986 Nov 22, Elzire Dionne, who
gave birth to quintuplets in 1934, died at a hospital in North Bay,
Ontario, Canada, at age 77.
(AP, 11/22/06)
1986 In Canada there was a World
Exposition in Vancouver.
(SFC, 8/26/97, p.A1)
1986 The Quebec Iron and Titanium
(QIT) subsidiary of Rio Tinto, an int’l. mining concern, began pursuing
rights in Madagascar to extract high-grade ilmenite, a form of titanium
dioxide used to whiten toothpaste, paint and cleansing powders. A
15,000 acre site at Fort Dauphin was expected to yield 750,000 tons a
year over 60 years for an investment of $400 million. The Malagasy
government would receive about $40 million per year plus $10 million in
taxes and fees. A decision was expected in 2005.
(SFC, 1/15/98, p.A10)(WSJ, 11/17/04, p.A1)
1987 Jun 30, Canada introduced a
one dollar coin that was soon nicknamed the Loonie.
(WSJ, 11/6/97,
p.A22)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loonie)
1987 Sep 16, In Canada an
international convention met in Montreal and negotiators from 23 of the
world’s major industrial nations signed a treaty to slow down global
chlorofluorocarbon (CFCs) production in order to restore atmospheric
ozone. The Montreal Protocol, a treaty designed to save the Earth's
ozone layer by calling on nations to reduce emissions of harmful
chemicals by the year 2000, was amended in 1990 and 1992. By 1997 156
nations had signed the Montreal Protocol.
(NOHY, W3/90, p.47)(SFC, 5/31/96, A1,17)(SFEC,
6/15/97, BR p.4)(AP, 9/16/97)
1987 Sep 20, Pope John Paul II
concluded an 11-day visit to North America as he celebrated Mass for
thousands of Indians at Fort Simpson in Canada's Northwest Territories.
(AP, 9/20/97)
1987 Oct 3, Negotiators for the
United States and Canada reached agreement in Washington D.C., on a
framework to eliminate all tariffs between the world's two largest
trading partners.
(AP, 10/3/97)
1987 Nov 1, Rene Levesque
(b.1922), Quebec premier (1976-85), died at age 65.
(www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=4258)
1987 The film "Family Viewing" was
directed by Canadian Atom Egoyan. It was a dark comedy about a man who
fancies S&M and phone sex.
(SFC,12/26/97, p.C18)
1987 The Meech Lake Accord was an
attempt to modify the Constitution and give Quebec some special
recognition. Quebec did not ratify it and it did not take effect.
(SFC, 1/29/99, p.A12)
1988 Jan 2, President Reagan and
Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney signed an agreement to lift
trade restrictions between their countries.
(AP, 1/2/98)
1988 Jan 28, The Supreme Court of
Canada struck down the nation's restrictive abortion law.
(AP, 1/28/98)
1988 Feb 13, The 15th winter
Olympics opened in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
(AP, 2/13/98)
1988 Feb 14, Hours after learning
that his sister had died of leukemia, American David Jansen lost his
bid for a gold medal at the Winter Olympics in Calgary, Canada, when he
fell during the 500-meter speed-skating event.
(AP, 2/14/98)
1988 Feb 26, The Soviet Union's
hockey team clinched the gold medal at the Winter Olympics in Calgary,
Canada.
(AP, 2/26/98)
1988 Feb 27, Katarina Witt of East
Germany won the gold medal in women's figure skating at the Winter
Olympics in Calgary, Canada, with Elizabeth Manley of Canada placing
second and Debi Thomas of the United States, third. Debi Thomas became
the first African American to win a medal at the Winter Olympics.
(AP, 2/27/98)(HN, 2/27/99)
1988 Feb 28, The 15th Olympic
Winter Games held its closing ceremony in Calgary, Canada.
(AP, 2/28/98)
1988 May 26, The National Hockey
League's Edmonton Oilers completed a four-game sweep of the Boston
Bruins to capture their fourth Stanley Cup in five seasons.
(AP, 5/26/98)
1988 Jun 17, Leaders of the
world's seven biggest industrial democracies began arriving in Toronto
for their annual economic summit, with the host, Canadian Prime
Minister Brian Mulroney, forecasting progress on dismantling farm
subsidies and alleviating Third World debt.
(AP, 6/17/98)
1988 Jun 19, Leaders of the
world's seven wealthiest industrial democracies opened a three-day
economic summit in Toronto.
(AP, 6/19/98)
1988 Jun 21, Leaders of the
world's seven richest nations concluded their three-day summit in
Toronto.
(AP, 6/21/98)
1988 Jul 21, Canada’s
Multiculturalism Act of 1988 replaced a previous policy of assimilation
with one of acceptance of diversity.
(Econ, 11/18/06,
p.39)(www.pch.gc.ca/progs/multi/policy/act_e.cfm)
1988 Aug 9, Hockey star Wayne
Gretzky of the Edmonton Oilers was traded to the Los Angeles Kings.
(AP, 8/9/98)
1988 Sep 22, The government of
Canada apologized for the World War II internment of Japanese-Canadians
and promised compensation.
(AP, 9/22/98)
1988 Sep 24, Canadian sprinter Ben
Johnson won the men's 100-meter dash in 9.79 seconds at the Seoul
Summer Olympics. He was disqualified three days later for using
anabolic steroids.
(AP, 9/24/98)(Econ, 8/2/08, SR p.15)
1988 Sep 27, Canadian sprinter Ben
Johnson left for home in disgrace 3 days after placing first in the
men's 100-meter dash at the Seoul Summer Olympics. He was stripped of
his gold medal by officials who said he had used anabolic steroids.
(AP, 9/27/98)
1988 Nov 21, Canada's Progressive
Conservative Party, led by Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, won the
country's general election.
(AP, 11/21/98)
1988 Nov 25, An earthquake
centered in eastern Canada and measuring 5.7 on the Richter scale was
felt widely across Canada and in the northeastern United States.
(HN, 11/25/98)
1988 European Airbus jets were
sold to Canada. In 1996 there were allegations of kickbacks in the deal
and in 1996 Swiss Bank records were sought in a corruption probe. Prime
Minister Mulroney filed suit in 1996 for being named in the scandal.
(WSJ, 6/20/96, p.A14)
1988 In Canada Claude Comair, a
Lebanese-born, computer animation specialist, founded the DigiPen
Institute of Technology in Vancouver. It taught students fundamentals
of video game development and in 1996 moved to Seattle.
(WSJ, 10/13/98, p.A1)
1989 Mar 13, In Canada a
transformer failure on one of the main power transmission lines in the
HydroQuebec system precipitated a catastrophic collapse of the entire
power grid. The string of events that produced the collapse took only
90 seconds from start to finish. There was no time for any meaningful
intervention. The transformer failure was a direct consequence of
ground induced currents from a space weather disturbance high in the
atmosphere. 6 million people lost electrical power for 9 or more hours.
(www.windows.ucar.edu/spaceweather/blackout.html)
1989 Mar 1, Charlie Francis, the
coach of Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson (b.1961), testified that Johnson
began using steroids in 1981.
(SC,
3/1/02)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Johnson_(athlete))
1989 Apr 1, In Canada the Oka
conflict began when some 200 Mohawks from the Kanesatake reserve
marched though the town of Oka protesting plans to expand the village's
nine-hole golf course to 18 holes, saying expansion encroaches on their
burial ground. A 78-day standoff began on July 11, 1990 and ended Sep
26, 1990. The Oka Crisis cost the Quebec government an estimated $180
million not including the cost of the army.
(http://archives.cbc.ca/IDC-1-71-99-500/conflict_war/oka/clip1)
1989 May 25, The Calgary Flames
won their first Stanley Cup by defeating the Montreal Canadiens in game
six of their championship series.
(AP, 5/25/99)
1989 Jul 1, The 1987 Montreal
Protocol, an international treaty dealing with ozone-destroying
pollutants, went into effect. The treaty sought to cut in half
production of chemicals posing the greatest risk to ozone.
(HNQ, 8/11/99)(NYT, 10/8/04, p.A16)
1989 Oct 15, The NHL's Wayne
Gretzky of the Los Angeles Kings surpassed Gordie Howe's scoring record
of 1,850 points, in a game against the Edmonton Oilers.
(AP, 10/15/99)
1989 Dec 6, In Canada 14 women
were shot to death at the University of Montreal's school of
engineering by Marc Lepine, who then took his own life.
(AP, 12/6/97)
1989 Dec 25, In Canada a 6.3
earthquake, the Ungava event, struck northern Quebec and was later
attributed to retreating ice sheets from 10,000 years earlier.
(WSJ, 6/9/06, p.A11)
1989 The film "Speaking Parts" was
directed by Canadian Atom Egoyan. It was about a hotel laundry worker
obsessed with watching videos of a bit actor.
(SFC,12/26/97, p.C18)
1989 Canada ceased issuing C$1
notes. Canada had replaced the C$1 note with a coin in 1987 and the C$2
note with a coin in 1996.
(WSJ, 11/6/97,
p.A22)(www.dallasfed.org/research/swe/1997/swe9704.html)
1989 A human rights tribunal ruled
that equal rights must be provided for women. This opened Canadian
military jobs for women except for submarine duty.
(SFC, 3/26/98, p.B2)
1990 Feb 13, At a conference in
Ottawa, the United States and its European allies forged agreement with
the Soviet Union and East Germany on a two-stage formula to reunite
Germany.
(AP, 2/13/00)
1990 The Canadian Parliament began
tracking attendance.
(SFC, 3/25/98, p.C14)
1990 The first exchange traded
fund (ETF), an open ended mutual fund, was created by the Toronto Stock
Exchange.
(Econ, 4/21/07, p.83)(http://tinyurl.com/38dajn)
1991 Jul 9, The American League
defeated the National League, 4-to-2, in the All-Star Game in Toronto.
(AP, 7/8/01)
1991 Aug 22, The Supreme Court of
Canada struck down the so-called rape shield law, which said the
previous sexual conduct of a rape victim could not be used in court.
(AP, 8/22/01)
1991 Sep 8, A 55 ton concrete beam
fell in Montreal's Olympic Stadium.
(http://experts.about.com/e/s/st/Stade_Olympique.htm)
1991 Nov 8, The European Community
and Canada imposed economic sanctions on Yugoslavia in an attempt to
stop the Balkan civil war.
(AP, 11/8/01)
1991 The film "The Adjustor" was
directed by Canadian Atom Egoyan. It was about an insurance adjuster
who gets involved in his clients’ lives.
(SFC,12/26/97, p.C18)
1991 In Canada the province of
Ontario passed the Arbitration Act, which allowed family law disputes
to be settled by arbitration. The Act permitted religiously based as
well as secular arbitration tribunals in the province.
(Econ, 2/16/08,
p.66)(www.religioustolerance.org/shariaon.htm)
1991 A 7-member Royal commission
on Aboriginal Peoples was created after a lengthy armed standoff
between Mohawk Indians and security forces in Quebec.
(SFC, 11/22/96, p.A20)
1991 In Alberta a gas leak forced
Wiebo Ludwig to evacuate his 320-acre Trickle Creek "community." Ludwig
blamed the Alberta oil and gas industry for the death of 60 of his
livestock and a succession of human health problems. The gas wells
produced sour gas, a gas laced with the neurotoxin hydrogen sulfide.
(SFC, 2/16/99, p.C2)(SFC, 4/20/00, p.C3)
1991 Stewart Blusson, Canadian
geologist, discovered a trove of diamonds south of the Arctic Circle in
the Northwest Territories.
(WSJ, 7/5/01, p.B1)(WSJ, 10/4/06, p.B2)
1992 Jan 22-1992 Jan 30, Roberta
Bondar was the first Canadian woman in space. She rode the shuttle
Discovery and performed life and material-science experiments.
(USAT, 7/26/99, p.14A)
1992 Aug 11, In Washington,
D.C., negotiators for the United States, Canada and Mexico continued to
work out final details of the proposed North American Free Trade
Agreement.
(AP, 8/11/97)
1992 Aug 12, The North American
Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was announced in Washington, D.C. after 14
months of negotiations between the United States, Mexico and Canada. It
created the world's wealthiest trading bloc.
(AP, 8/12/97)(HN, 8/12/02)
1992 Sep, In Edmonton, Canada,
Corinne Gustavson (6) was kidnapped, sexually assaulted and killed. In
2005 Clifford Sleigh was found guilty of her first-degree murder,
aggravated sexual assault and kidnapping and sentenced to prison with
no parole for 25 years.
(AP, 5/27/05)
1992 Oct 7, Trade representatives
of the United States, Canada and Mexico initialed the North American
Free Trade Agreement during a ceremony in San Antonio, Texas.
(AP, 10/7/97)
1992 Oct 17, The Atlanta Braves
defeated the Toronto Blue Jays in game one of the World Series, 3-to-1.
(AP, 10/17/97)
1992 Oct 18, The visiting Toronto
Blue Jays defeated the Atlanta Braves in game two of the World Series,
5-to-4, evening the series at one game apiece. The pre-game ceremony
was marred by a U.S. Marine Corps color guard that mistakenly presented
the Canadian flag upside-down.
(AP, 10/18/97)
1992 Oct 20, The host Toronto Blue
Jays defeated the Atlanta Braves, 3-2 in game three of the World
Series, taking a two-games-to-one lead. This was the first World Series
game to be played outside the U.S. During the pre-game ceremony, a
Marine color guard presented the Canadian flag correctly, two days
after another guard held the banner upside-down before game two.
(AP, 10/20/97)
1992 Oct 21, The Toronto Blue Jays
won game four of the World Series, defeating the Atlanta Braves 2-1.
(AP, 10/21/97)
1992 Oct 24, The Toronto Blue Jays
became the first non-U.S. team to win the World Series as they defeated
the Atlanta Braves, 4-3, in game six.
(AP, 10/24/97)
1992 Oct 26, Voters in Canada
rejected a constitutional reform package known as the Charlottetown
Accord.
(AP, 10/26/97)
1992 Dec 5, Ralph Klein, a
Progressive Conservative, was elected premier of Alberta. He began to
lead Canada in deregulation and privatization. Klein retired at the end
of 2006.
(Econ, 7/17/04, p.37)(Econ, 12/2/06, p.44)
1992 Dec 17, President Bush,
Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and Mexican President Carlos
Salinas de Gortari signed the North American Free Trade Agreement in
separate ceremonies.
(AP, 12/17/97)
1992 The "English Patient" by
Michael Ondaatje, born in Sri Lanka, became the first Canadian novel to
win the Booker Prize.
(SFEC, 11/17/96, p.C15)
1992 The legislature of British
Columbia voted 51-1 to declare the province a nuclear-weapons-free zone.
(SFC, 7/22/99, p.C2)
1992 Captain Sandra Perron, the
country’s first female infantry officer, was beaten by other officers,
tied to a tree and left barefoot in the snow for 2 hours during a
training exercise.
(SFC, 1/1/97, p.C1)
1992 Voters in the Northwest
Territories agreed to the formation of an Inuit governed territory
called Nunavut, which means "our land" in the Inuktitut language. The
change would take effect Apr 1, 1999.
(SFC, 3/28/98, p.A10)
1992 A US Senate report linked the
Sun Yee On triad to criminal organizations in Canada, the Dominican
Republic, and 7 US cities including SF. The report stated that the
syndicate was in outright control of the entertainment industry in Hong
Kong.
(SFC, 2/18/98, p.A7)
1993 Feb 24, Canadian Prime
Minister Brian Mulroney announced he was stepping down.
(AP, 2/24/98)
1993 Mar 11, Dino Bravo (b.1948),
wrestler (WWF), was shot to death in Laval, Quebec, Canada. Bravo, born
as Adolfo Bresciano, was known as the “World’s Strongest Man.”
(www.garywill.com/wrestling/canada/bravo.htm)
1993 Mar 16, Canadian soldiers in
Somalia beat to death a local teenager, Shidane Arone, during their
participation in the UN humanitarian efforts. An inquiry led to the
disbanding of Canada's elite Canadian Airborne Regiment, greatly
damaged the morale of the Canadian Forces, and damaged both the
domestic and international reputation of Canadian soldiers.
(www.canadianencyclopedia.ca/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=M1SEC673906)(www.dnd.ca/somalia/vol0/vol0e.txt)
1993 Jun 23, Canada's Senate
ratified the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
(AP, 6/23/02)
1993 Apr 3, President Clinton and
Russian President Boris Yeltsin opened a weekend summit in Vancouver,
B.C., beginning talks after a luncheon with Canadian Prime Minister
Brian Mulroney.
(AP, 4/3/98)
1993 May 27, The Canadian House of
Commons approved the North American Free Trade Agreement.
(AP, 5/27/98)
1993 Jun 13, Canada's Progressive
Conservative Party chose Defense Minister Kim Campbell to succeed Brian
Mulroney as prime minister; she was the first woman to hold the post.
(AP, 6/13/98)
1993 Jun 25, Kim Campbell was
sworn in as Canada's 19th prime minister, the first woman to hold the
post.
(CFA, '96, p.81)(AP, 6/25/98)
1993 Aug 13, Negotiators for the
US, Canada and Mexico announced they had resolved side issues
concerning the proposed North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
(AP, 8/12/98)
1993 Oct 12, The Toronto Blue Jays
won their second straight American League pennant, defeating the
Chicago White Sox in six games.
(HN, 10/12/98)
1993 Oct 16, The Toronto Blue Jays
defeated the Philadelphia Phillies, 8-5, in game one of the World
Series.
(AP, 10/16/98)
1993 Oct 17, The Philadelphia
Phillies defeated the Toronto Blue Jays, 6-4, evening the World Series
at one game each.
(AP, 10/17/98)
1993 Oct 19, The Toronto Blue Jays
took a 2-1 lead in the World Series by defeating the Philadelphia
Phillies 10-3.
(AP, 10/19/98)
1993 Oct 20, Toronto took a 3-1
lead in the World Series as the Blue Jays defeated the Philadelphia
Phillies, 15-14.
(AP, 10/20/98)
1993 Oct 21, The Philadelphia
Phillies beat the Toronto Blue Jays 2-0 in game five of the World
Series; Toronto still led the Series 3-2.
(AP, 10/21/98)
1993 Oct 25, Canada's Liberal
Party ended nine years of rule by the Progressive Conservatives in
national elections; Liberal leader Jean Chretien became the 20th Prime
Minister, succeeding Kim Campbell.
(CFA, '96, p.81)(AP, 10/25/98)
1993 Oct, Robert Latimer (44), a
farmer, killed his disabled 12-year-old daughter, who suffered from
cerebral palsy, using exhaust fumes from his pickup truck. He was
convicted in 1997 but sentenced to one year in jail and one year
probation. In 2001 the Supreme Court upheld his murder conviction.
(SFC, 12/2/97, p.A12)(SFC, 1/19/01, p.A17)
1993 The film "Calendar" was
directed by Canadian Atom Egoyan. It was shot in Armenia with funds won
from the Moscow Prize for "The Adjustor." It was a memory piece of
himself as a photographer.
(SFC,12/26/97, p.C18)
1993 Canada’s former PM Mulroney
began accepting cash from Karlheinz Schreiber, a lobbyist for Airbus
and Thyssen. This was only made public in 2003. Public hearings in the
matter began in 2009. Schreiber said he handed over C$300,000
($256,000) in cash to Mulroney in separate hotel meetings so that
Mulroney could help promote establishment of a factory to build light
armored vehicles.
(Econ, 4/4/09, p.44)(Reuters, 5/12/09)
1993 In Canada Karla Homolka
pleaded guilty in the sex slayings of two southern Ontario teenagers
Leslie Mahaffy and Kristen French. She was sentenced to 12 years in
prison and was set for release in 2005. Her husband Paul Bernardo,
eventually convicted of raping 13 Ontario women or girls, committed
many of the assaults during the first three years of his relationship
with Homolka.
(AP, 6/3/05)
1993-1994 Members of the Canadian 12th Armored
Regiment were assigned to protect the Bakovici mental hospital in
Bosnia. Later 57 members were accused of various abuses that included
sex, drinking, and patient abuse.
(SFC, 1/18/96, p.A8)
1993-2002 Paul Martin served as Canada’s finance
minister.
(Econ, 1/1/05, p.39)
1994 Jun 14, The New York Rangers
won hockey's Stanley Cup for the first time in 54 years, defeating the
Vancouver Canucks.
(AP, 6/14/99)
1994 Sep 12, The Parti Quebecois
won a parliamentary election.
(MC, 9/12/01)
1994 Oct 5, 48 members of a secret
religious doomsday cult were found dead in apparent murder-suicides
carried out simultaneously in two Swiss villages; five other bodies
were found in a sect apartment in Montreal, Canada.
(AP, 10/5/99)
1994 Nov 8, In Vancouver a sniper
shot and wounded a doctor of an abortion clinic at his home.
(SFC, 1/29/98, p.A10)
1994 The film "Exotica" was
directed by Canadian Atom Egoyan. It won Canada’s Genie Award for best
film. It was about 5 characters whose lives intersected at a strip club.
(SFC,12/26/97, p.C18)
1994 An Ontario judge ruled that
lap dancing was not indecent under standards previously set by the
Supreme Court. The ruling was overturned in 1997.
(SFC, 6/28/97, p.E3)
1994 Wal-Mart acquired 122 Woolco
stores in Canada.
(Econ, 2/26/05, p.37)
1995 Jun 15, The Summit of 7
leading industrialist nations, G-7, met in Halifax, Canada, for talks
on a unified front against terrorism. President Clinton met with
Japanese PM Tomiichi Murayama on the opening day of a Group of Seven
summit in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
(AP, 6/15/00)(SFC, 6/20/97, p.A16)
1995 Sep 6, An Ontario Provincial
Police sniper fatally wounded protester Dudley George (1957-1995) as
police moved in to try to end the occupation of Ipperwash Provincial
Park, on the shores of Lake Huron, by demonstrators who were demanding
the return of the park and adjacent lands to native ownership. The
Chippewas of Kettle and Stony Point First Nation claimed the park lands
as an aboriginal burial ground. In 2007 Ontario said it will return 109
acres to native ownership.
(Reuters, 12/21/07)
1995 Oct 30, The people of Quebec
rejected an independence referendum by a very narrow margin, 50.6% to
49.4%. It was the 2nd defeat in 15 years. The margin was 50,000 votes
out of 5 million cast.
(WSJ, 11/1/95, p.A-1)(SFC, 11/9/96, p.A12)(WSJ,
10/3/00, p.A26)
1995 Oct 31, Stung by defeat in
the secession referendum, Quebec Premier Jacques Parizeau said he would
resign as head of the bitterly divided province at year’s end.
(AP, 10/31/00)
1995 Nov 10, In Ancaster, Ont., a
sniper shot and wounded a doctor of an abortion clinic at his home.
(SFC, 1/29/98, p.A10)
1995 Dec 2, Robertson Davies,
Canadian writer, died. His book "The Merry Heart: Reflections on
Reading, Writing and the World of Books" was published posthumously in
1997. His 11 novels included "Fifth Business," "What's Bred in the
Bone," "The Lyre of Orpheus" and “The Cunning Man.” Just before his
death he finished a libretto for the opera "The Golden Ass" based on
the Metamorphoses by Apuleius.
(SFEC, 7/6/97, BR p.1)(WSJ, 5/14/99, p.W8)(WSJ,
2/25/06, p.P6)
1995 The Canadian government
recorded a federal deficit of CA$37.5 billion.
(Fin. Post, 11/2/95, p.2)
1995 Canada enacted a tough
federal Firearms Act. It was upheld in 2000 and required all gun owners
to registers all firearms with police by 2003. In 2009 plans were afoot
to repeal the long-gun (rifles and shotguns) registry, dismantling some
8 million firearms records.
(WSJ, 6/16/00, p.A1)(SSFC, 11/8/09, p.A10)
1995 Ontario's government unveiled
the biggest budget cuts ever made by a Canadian province, $4.4 bil.
over three years. The cuts will eliminate 3,500 public sector jobs and
cut $1 bil. from hospital funding.
(WSJ, 11/30/95, p.A-1)
1995 British Columbia enacted a
Forest Practices Code to ensure higher environmental standards and
enforcement. A 1997 report indicated that that standards were not being
followed or enforced.
(SFC, 6/23/97, p.A8)
1995 Native protestors at
Gustafsen Lake took up arms against the RCMP. They claimed that the
land was sacred and never ceded to the crown. In 1997 13 people were
sentenced to prison terms up to 4 1/2 years for the protests.
(G&M, 7/31/97, p.A1)
1996 Jan, Lucien Bouchard took
over as Quebec’s premier and promised to mend fences.
(WSJ, 8/22/96, p.A8)
1996 Feb 15, In the Toronto Globe
and Star there was a report by Peter Whelan that "pesticides sprayed on
fields in Argentina were killing tens of thousands of wintering
Swainson’s hawks that nest on the Canadian prairies and the adjacent US
Great Plains."
(NH, 10/96, p.51)
1996 Apr 13, The annual Canadian
seal hunt in Newfoundland went out of control and some 16,500 seals
were slaughtered instead of the 8,000 quota.
(SFC, 4/13/96, p.A-15)
1996 May 12, The Canadian province
of Ontario announced a 15% tax cut last week under Premier Mike Harris,
who was elected last June on promises to cut the budget deficit and
taxes. His cuts have led to tuition increases, expected hospital
closures or consolidations, and the marked elimination of 10,000
government jobs.
(SFC, 5/12/96, p.A-10)
1996 May, Forms for the national
census went out. It is held every five years and this year’s form
included questions on housework, child and elder care for the first
time.
(WSJ, 8/9/96, p.A5c)
1996 Jun, Canada’s unemployment
rate jumped to 10%.
(WSJ, 7/8/96, p.A4)
1996 Jul 10, A coalition of
Canadian groups threatened to boycott Florida unless the US relents on
the Helms-Burton law that imposes sanctions on foreign companies that
trade with companies expropriated by from the US by Cuba.
(WSJ, 7/11/96, p.A9)
1996 Jul 23, In Toronto, a police
officer was charged with criminal negligence in the shooting of a
protester who became the first Canadian Indian in modern times killed
in a land dispute with the government.
(AP, 7/23/97)
1996 Jul 23, Canadian researchers
found a hormone, GLP-2, that stimulates growth of the lining of the
small intestine.
(WSJ, 7/23/96, p.B6)
1996 Sep 14, Team Canada lost the
hockey finals of an 8-nation tournament for the World Cup to a US team.
(SFE, 9/17/96, p.A12)
1996 Oct 22, The Godfrey-Milliken
bill was introduced in response to the US Helms-Burton bill. It said
that 3 million Canadian descendants of 80,000 uprooted loyalists from
the time of the American Revolution have a right to compensation for
their confiscated property.
(SFC, 10/23/96, p.A8)
1996 Oct 25, Protestors opposed to
spending cuts in Toronto shut down the mass transit system. Ontario
Premier Mike Harris planned to cut the provincial budget by 20% in
order to wipe out the deficit by the turn of the century.
(SFC, 10/26/96, p.A8)
1996 Nov 29, A Canadian-led int’l.
force won approval to provide humanitarian aid. The force would be
based in Uganda.
(SFC, 11/30/96, p.A12)
1996 Nov, Canada revised rules on
overseas sales of ecologically sensitive technology to enable the sale
of two 700-megawat Candu 6, nuclear reactors to China. The $3
billion project will be built in Qinshan and financed by a $1.1 billion
loan from Ottawa.
(SFC, 12/31/96, p.A11)
1996 Nov, The Canadian firm
Hurricane Hydrocarbons Ltd. (later known as PetroKazakhstan Inc. of
Calgary) won the bidding in the Kazakhstan’s first oilfield
privatization. For $120 million it acquired a field producing 50,000
barrels a day with reserves of 340 million barrels. The deal was
accompanied by an array of social obligations. It later faced problems
with the Kazakh government over fuel pricing and environmental rules.
(WSJ, 11/18/97, p.A1)(WSJ, 6/1/05, p.A11)
1996 Canada’s PM Chretien set up a
program to promote federalism in Quebec after voters narrowly rejected
secession in a referendum.
(Econ, 11/5/05, p.42)
1996 Inco Corp. acquired the
nickel deposits at Voisey Bay in Labrador from Diamond Fields Resources
Inc. for $3.2 billion in cash and stock. At this time nickel was
trading at $3.70 per pound.
(WSJ, 10/15/98, p.B4)
1996 Canada introduced $2 coins
called "toonies."
(WSJ, 7/13/99, p.B1)
1996 Rebecca Middleton (17) of
Ontario, Canada, died after being raped, tortured and stabbed on a
beach in Bermuda. A suspect, Kirk Orlando Mundy, was allowed to strike
a plea bargain deal with police in which he admitted to being an
accessory after the fact and was sentenced to five years. The case
against the other suspect, Justis Raham Smith, collapsed after a judge
in Bermuda said there was insufficient evidence.
(Reuters, 4/1/06)
1997 Jan 22, Canada and Cuba
announced a 14-point agreement. They pledged cooperation on human
rights and sought to shield foreign investors targeted for punishment
by Washington.
(SFC, 1/23/96, p.A8)
1997 Mar 22, Five Solar Temple
cult members died in an apparent mass suicide in Quebec.
(WSJ, 3/24/97, p.A1)
1997 Apr, The US Illegal
Immigration Reform and Responsibility Act went into effect and began
creating border crossing problems for Canadian business travelers.
(WSJ, 6/4/98, p.A13)
1997 Apr, The Toronto Stock
Exchange closed in favor of automated trading.
(WSJ, 9/15/97, p.B1)
1997 May 30, Canada's 8-mile long
Confederation Bridge, connecting New Brunswick to Prince Edward Island,
was scheduled to be opened. It cost C$1 billion.
(WSJ, 2/14/97, p.A1)(Econ, 11/29/03, p.34)
1997 Jun 2, A federal election on
this date was called by Prime Minister Jean Chretien. He called for a
mandate to decide Canada’s priorities now that the federal deficit was
tamed. Voters returned Chretien and his centrist Liberal Party to power
with a slight parliamentary majority.
(SFC, 4/28/97, p.10)(SFC, 6/3/97, p.A8)
1997 Jun, The Supreme Court ruled
that lap dancing violates standards of decency.
(SFC, 6/28/97, p.E5)
1997 Jul 3, A commission
established to review the actions of peace-keeping troops in Somalia
between 1992-93 concluded that the troops were unprepared and
victimized by commanders who ignored problems that escalated to torture
and the killing of a Somali teenager.
(SFC, 7/3/97, p.C2)
1997 Jul 21, In Canada fishermen
released the Malaspina ferry, a blocked Alaska-bound ship at Prince
Rupert. They were protesting US fishing of sockeye salmon heading for
spawning in British Columbia.
(SFC, 7/22/97, p.A10)
1997 Aug 14, It was reported that
Ontario planned to close down 7 of 19 nuclear power plants for repairs.
Inadequate maintenance practices and management problems were charged
in an internal document and, Allan Kupcis, the CEO had resigned.
(SFC, 8/14/97, p.C3)
1997 Oct 13, In Quebec a bus with
48 senior citizens overturned near St. Joseph-de-la-Rive and 43 were
killed.
(SFC, 10/14/97, p.A12)
1997 Oct 27, Teachers in Ontario
walked out in protest against budget cuts.
(WSJ, 10/28/97, p.A1)
1997 Nov 10, Classes resumed in
Ontario following settlement of the teacher’s strike.
(SFEC,11/10/97, p.A13)
1997 Nov 11, In Winnipeg a sniper
shot and wounded a doctor of an abortion clinic at his home.
(SFC, 1/29/98, p.A10)
1997 Nov 19, 45,000 Canadian
postal workers went on strike after Canada Post ordered staffing levels
cut.
(WSJ, 11/20/97, p.A1)
1997 Nov 25, President Clinton and
Pacific Rim leaders meeting in Vancouver, British Columbia, approved a
rescue strategy for Asian economies shaken by plunging currencies, bank
failures and bankruptcies. The 2-day APEC summit in Vancouver closed
and leaders agreed to an IMF bailout plan. Forum leaders also agreed to
admit Russia, Vietnam and Peru into the organization as of 1998.
(SFC,11/26/97, p.C2)(HN, 11/25/98)
1997 Dec 3, In Canada as many as
120 countries began signing a ban on land mines in Ottawa. The US,
China, Russia, Iraq were among those countries refusing to sign the ban.
(SFC, 12/4/97, p.A1)
1997 Dec 4, Postal workers ended
their strike under threat of heavy fines with a 5.15% wage increase
over 3 years.
(SFC,12/5/97, p.B5)
1997 Ontario Premier forced the
municipal merger of Toronto, East York, Scarborough, York, Etobicoke
and North York.
(SFC,12/897, p.A15)
1997 ING Direct, an online banking
service under Dutch parent ING Groep NV, was launched in Canada. In
2000 it began operations in the US from Wilmington, Del. By the end of
2007 it had over 7 million customers and $62 billion in deposits. In
2008 Arkadi Kuhlman, ING’s US chief, and Bruce Philp, chairman of ING
Direct’s marketing partner, authored “The Orange Code: How ING direct
Succeeded by Being a Rebel with a Cause.”
(WSJ, 12/10/08, p.A17)
1998 Jan 2, In Canada Mayor Mel
Lastman began running the new municipality of greater Toronto.
(SFC,12/897, p.A18)
1998 Jan 4, Nirmal Singh Gill (65)
was found beaten and bleeding in the parking lot of a Sikh temple in
Surrey near Vancouver. He soon died. 5 young men linked to a white
supremacist group, White Power, were later jailed on charges of
murder.
(SFC, 4/23/98, p.A16)
1998 Jan 5, An ice storm knocked
out electricity in Quebec & Ontario.
(MC, 1/5/02)
1998 Jan 7, The government
apologized to the nation’s indigenous peoples for past acts of
oppression and pledged $245 million for counseling and treatment
programs. The aboriginal population is about 810,000 that includes
38,000 Inuits and 139,000 Metis, people of mixed Indian and white
ancestry.
(SFC, 1/8/98, p.A13)
1998 Jan 8-1998 Jan 9, The US
Northeast and Canada were hit with a severe ice storm and at least 16
people were reported killed. Three million people were left without
power and damage was estimated to reach $350 million.
(SFC, 1/9/98, p.A3)(SFC, 1/10/98, p.A8)
1998 Feb, Senator Andrew Thompson
was stripped of his salary for poor attendance. He resigned 6 weeks
later.
(SFC, 3/25/98, p.C14)
1998 Mar 6, It was reported that
Panama hired a Canadian Indian tribe, the Tsuu T’ina, to clean out
unexploded bombs and shells from an area of Empire Range, which US
military forces abandoned.
(SFC, 3/6/98, p.A12)
1998 Mar 13, Canada legalized the
growing of industrial hemp
(SFC, 3/14/98, p.A10)
1998 Apr 18, It was reported that
marijuana revenues from British Columbia were estimated to be $400
million to over $3 billion.
(SFC, 4/18/98, p.A8)
1998 Apr 26, Jean Chretien, Prime
Minister of Canada, visited Cuba and with Fidel Castro inaugurated a
new $40 million terminal at the Havana airport.
(SFC, 4/20/98, p.A10)(SFC, 4/27/98, p.A12)
1998 Apr 27, In Cuba Prime
Minister Chretien urged Fidel Castro to release four leading
dissidents. It was reported that about 350 political prisoners were
currently held.
(SFC, 4/28/98, p.A6)
1998 May 21, Canada ordered major
cuts in the catch of Coho salmon on the West Coast due to declining
stocks,. Fishing on the Skeena and Thompson River runs was banned and
US officials were urged to take similar action.
(WSJ, 5/22/98, p.A1)
1998 Jun 18, A commuter plane
crashed near Montreal with engineers of Canadian General Electric Co.
All 11 people aboard were killed.
(SFC, 6/19/98, p.B4)
1998 Jul 29, A human rights
tribunal ruled that Canadian public servants in female-dominated job
categories deserved compensation for unequal pay. Payment was to be
retroactive to March, 1985, and would range from $10k to 20k.
(SFC, 7/30/98, p.A12)
1998 Jul 31, The Canadian dollar
hit a historical low of 66.10 cents to $1US.
(SFC, 8/1/98, p.A10)
1998 Aug 18, Micmac Indians on the
Listuguj reservation ended a 3 week standoff over timber rights in
Quebec.
(SFC, 8/19/98, p.C16)
1998 Aug 20, In Canada the Supreme
Court ruled that Quebec can’t secede unilaterally, but that if the
province votes for secession, it must negotiate with the rest of
Canada.
(WSJ, 8/21/98, p.A12)
1998 Aug, In Alberta the RC
Mounted Police arrested evangelical pastor Wiebo Ludwig (56), his wife
and son and a friend for bombing an oil-well site. They were later
released for lack of evidence. Over the last 2 ½ years some 160
attacks were made on natural resource companies in the area.
(SFC, 11/3/98, p.C3)
1998 Sep 1, Pilots for Air Canada
went on a two-week strike for the first time in the association’s 61
year history.
(SFC, 9/2/98, p.A10)
1998 Sep 2, A Swissair MD-11
jetliner crashed off Nova Scotia with 229 people aboard and all were
feared dead. The New York to Geneva flight had 136 Americans on board.
(SFC, 9/3/98, p.A1)(SFC, 9/4/98, p.A17)(AP,
9/2/99)(WSJ, 11/13/01, p.A14)
1998 Sep 4, In Yarmouth Harbor,
New Brunswick, the new Incat 046 catamaran collided with a fishing
dragger and killed Captain Clifford Hood (33). The new ferry carried up
to 900 passengers and 240 cars from Bar Harbor, Maine, to Yarmouth
across the Bay of Fundy at 50 mph. Travel time was cut in half from 6.5
hours for the 105 mile run.
(SFEC, 10/5/98, p.A3,5)
1998 Sep 6, Divers working off
Nova Scotia found the flight data recorder from Swissair Flight 111,
which had crashed Sep 2, killing all 229 people on board. However, it
turned out the recorder had stopped working several minutes before the
crash.
(AP, 9/6/03)
1998 Sep 10, Air Canada and its
pilots reached an agreement to end a 9-day strike. [see Sep 14]
(SFC, 9/11/98, p.A3)
1998 Sep 11, Divers off Nova
Scotia recovered the cockpit voice recorder from Swissair Flight 111,
which had crashed Sept. 2, with 229 people aboard. The data recorder
was found Sep 6.
(AP, 9/11/03)
1998 Sep 14, Air Canada pilots
ended a 13-day strike with a 9% salary increase over 2 years.
(SFC, 9/15/98, p.A10)
1998 Oct 12, Canada planned to
begin discussion with Norway, Sweden, Iceland and Liechtenstein for the
first trans-Atlantic free-trade pact.
(WSJ, 10/12/98, p.A1)
1998 Oct 27, In Canada the
National Post began operations as a new national daily under the
control of media tycoon Conrad Black.
(WSJ, 10/26/98, p.A15)
1998 Oct, A bomb exploded at a gas
well near Beaverlodge, Alberta. It was initially blamed on Wiebo
Ludwig, a Calvinist organic farmer and preacher. It was later reported
that the bomb was planted by the RCMP to insinuate an informant into
Ludwig's band.
(SFC, 2/16/99, p.C2)
1998 Nov 26, The Supreme Court of
Canada ruled authorities at elementary and secondary schools have the
right to search a student without first obtaining a search warrant.
(AP, 11/26/02)
1998 Nov 30, Quebec's separatist
premier, Lucien Bouchard, was returned to power, but with only 43
percent of the vote, setting back the Parti Quebecois' goal of seeking
independence from Canada. The party won 42.7% of the vote vs. 43.7% for
the Liberals.
(AP, 11/30/99)(SFC, 12/1/98, p.A10)(WSJ, 12/2/98,
p.A1)
1998 Dec 1, A new gun control law
went into effect that required all 3 million gun owners to be licensed
and every one of an estimated 7 million rifles and handguns to be
registered.
(SFEC, 3/28/99, p.A22)
1998 The Canadian comedy film
"Hard Core Logo" starred Hugh Dillon and was directed by Bruce
McDonald. It was about the reunion of a Vancouver punk band and based
on the novel by Michael Turner.
(SFC, 12/4/98, p.C9)
1998 US federal prosecutors in NY
brought charges of fraud against Livent Inc., the Toronto-based
producer of “Phantom of the Opera.” US authorities deferred to their
Canadian counterparts as Canadian police charged founder Garth
Drabinsky and other executives with fraud. A trial was slated to begin
in 2007.
(WSJ, 10/27/05, p.C1)
1998 Quebec created a publicly
funded day care program.
(SFC, 6/9/00, p.A17)
1998 Ellesmere Island National
Park Reserve was created. It covered 37,775 sq. km. of the island, the
northernmost part of North America.
(SFEM, 6/11/00, p.24)
1999 Jan 1, In Canada an
avalanche, possibly triggered ceremonial gunfire, hit the Inuit village
of Kangiqsualujjuaq, Quebec, and 9 people were killed.
(SFC, 1/2/99, p.C12)(SFEC, 1/3/99, p.A17)
2000 Jan, In Alberta Wiebo Ludwig,
an environmental radical, was arrested on charges of bombing a gas well.
(SFC, 4/20/00, p.C3)
1999 April 1, In recognition of
Inuit land claims, 770,000 sq. mls. of the Canadian Northwest
Territories' Central Keewatin and Baffin Region became Nunavut
Territory. Nominations for naming the western half were solicited. The
territory would be governed by a 19-member legislature.
(CAM, Nov. Dec. '95, p.28)(WSJ, 10/9/97, p.B1)(SFC,
3/30/99, p.F3)(SFEC, 8/15/99, p.T5)
1999 Apr 19, One of the annual
Goldman Environmental Prizes went to: Bernard Martin, a Canadian
fisherman, for his work opposing large factory trawlers.
(SFC, 4/19/99, p.A2)
1999 Apr 19, In Canada a Toronto
transit strike forced 800,000 commuters to seek alternate
transportation.
(WSJ, 4/20/99, A1)
1999 Apr 28, In Canada a
14-year-old boy shot 2 17-year-olds and killed one at W.R. Myers High
School in Taber, Alberta. Jason Lang was killed and Shane Christmas was
seriously wounded.
(SFC, 4/29/99, p.A16)(SFC, 4/29/99, p.D4)
1999 May 20, In Canada the Supreme
Court struck down a heterosexual definition of "spouse" as
unconstitutional.
(SFC, 5/21/99, p.A12)
1999 Jun 3, Ontario's Conservative
Party, led by former golf pro Mike Harris, won the elections.
(SFC, 6/4/99, p.D2)
1999 Jun 3, The US and Canada
signed a 10-year accord to limit salmon fishing in the northwest based
on the abundance of particular species.
(WSJ, 6/4/99, p.A1)
1999 Jun 26, In Quebec 47,000
nurses launched a wildcat strike over wages and working conditions
following 14 months of negotiations.
(SFEC, 6/27/99, p.A21)
1999 Jun 30, In Canada the highest
court in BC upheld a ruling that Canada's law against the possession of
child pornography is unconstitutional.
(SFC, 7/1/99, p.a14)
1999 Jul 19, In Nanaimo public
hearings began on the expropriation of a 140-square-mile area of
Nanoose Bay by the federal government from the province. The area was
used by the US for torpedo testing.
(SFC, 7/22/99, p.C2)
1999 Aug 14, In Canada hunters
found the body of an ancient hunter preserved in a glacier in the
Tatshenshini-Alsek Provincial Wilderness, 1000 miles north of
Vancouver. The "Iceman" (aka Kwaday Dan Sinchi) was later reported to
be about 500 years old.
(SFC, 8/25/99, p.A1,9)(AM, 9/01, p.17)
1999 Aug, Alfred Reumayr of
British Columbia was arrested in a joint operation by the US Bureau of
Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Royal Canadian
Mounted Police. In 2008 he pleaded guilty to plotting to blow up the
Trans-Alaskan oil pipeline on New Year's Day 2000. He had planned to
buy energy securities at low prices before the attack, and hoped to
profit by selling them at a higher price amid market turmoil afterward.
(AP, 3/14/08)
1999 Sep 1, The 8th biennial
summit of Francophone nations was scheduled to held in Moncton, New
Brunswick.
(WSJ, 8/30/99, p.B1)
1999 Sep 3, In Canada at least 7
people were killed on a foggy patch of Highway 401 between Windsor and
London as over 60 vehicles piled up.
(SFC, 9/4/99, p.A12)
1999 Oct 10, Windsor, Nova Scotia,
Canada, held its first pumpkin regatta on Lake Pesaquid. Danny Dill,
son of Howard Dill, had proposed the pumpkin boating event to help the
town capitalize on its history as the birthplace of giant pumpkin
growing. In the 1970s Howard Dill had engineered mammoth pumpkins and
patented the seed as Dill’s Atlantic Giant.
(WSJ, 10/20/07, p.A1)(http://tinyurl.com/3y5me4)
1999 Sep 10, It was reported that
Canada has 339 species in serious danger of disappearing and no federal
legislation for protection of endangered animals.
(SFC, 9/10/99, p.D4)
1999 Oct 13, Robert A. Mundell
(66), a Canadian born professor at Columbia Univ., won the Nobel Prize
in Economics for his study of cross-border capital flows, flexible
foreign exchange rates, and supply side economics. A 1961 paper by
Mundell had pioneered the theory of an “optimal currency area,” which
later helped shape the euro zone.
(WSJ, 10/14/99, p.A2)(Econ, 6/13/09, SR p.10)
1999 Oct, Hong Kong born Adrienne
Clarkson (60) was named governor general. She was the first Asian to
serve as the queen's representative in Canada.
(SFC, 10/25/99, p.A11)
1999 Nov 8, In Canada employers in
BC locked out 2,000 waterfront workers and disrupted trade valued at
$60 million per day.
(WSJ, 11/9/99, p.A1)
1999 Dec 14, In Seattle Ahmed
Ressam (32), an Algerian, was arrested after crossing the border at
Port Angeles from Canada with a car trunk with over 150 pounds of
bomb-making materials that included 200 pounds of urea, timing devices
and a bottle of RDX, cyclotrimethylene trinitramine. Canadian
authorities later issued an arrest warrant for Abdelmajed Dahoumane for
possessing or making explosives. Dahoumane was arrested in Algeria In
Oct, 2000. In 2001 Ressam admitted that he planned to detonate a bomb
at the LA Int’l. Airport. Mokhtar Haouari provided fake ID and $3,000
to Ressam. Haouari was sentenced to 24 years in prison in 2002. In 2005
Ressam was sentenced to 22 years in prison.
(SFC, 12/18/99, p.A1)(SFC, 12/20/99, p.D3)(SFC,
12/25/99, p.A3)(SFC, 12/30/99, p.A5)(SFC, 12/7/00, p.C10)(SFC, 5/30/01,
p.A5)(SFC, 1/17/02, p.A12)(SFC, 7/28/05, p.A3)
1999 The Canadian comedy film
"Last Night" was directed by Don McKellar.
(WSJ, 11/5/99, p.W10)
1999 A 9-floor mausoleum
condominium in Vancouver, with 4 of the floor underground, was
scheduled to be completed by builder Alvin Mitchell. Theme floors for
various religious groups would be included along with a roof top pyre
with room for viewers.
(WSJ, 3/9/98, p.A1)
1999 The fungus Cryptococcus
gattii, normally found in Australia and other tropical zones, was
discovered on Vancouver Island, Canada. By 2007 at least 8 people had
died from infection and another 163 sickened.
(SSFC, 4/8/07, p.A11)
2000 Feb 7, Doug Henning,
Canadian-born magician, died in Los Angeles at age 52 from liver cancer.
(SFC, 2/9/00, p.C5)(AP, 2/7/01)
2000 Mar 15, Canada passed the
Clarity Act, which set out a procedure for the government to negotiate
with any province that votes for independence by a clear majority.
(www.cric.ca/en_html/guide/clarity/clarity_act.html)(Econ, 1/14/06,
p.18)
2000 Mar 25, The Reform Party
entered the Canadian Reform Conservative Alliance to oppose the
governing Liberal Party.
(SFC, 3/27/00, p.A13)
2000 Mar, Health Canada
quarantined the country’s sperm banks after a woman contracted
chlamydia from a donor sample.
(SSFC, 3/25/01, p.C4)
2000 Apr 19, Wiebo Ludwig, an
environmental radical, was convicted for bombing a gas well in 1998 and
sentenced to prison.
(SFC, 4/20/00, p.C3)
2000 Apr 29, It was reported that
the Molson Beer ad, "Joe’s Rant" featuring Jeff Douglas (28), had
become a national phenomenon for Canadian pride.
(SFC, 4/29/00, p.A13)
2000 May 26, In Canada an outbreak
of E. coli in Walkerton, Ontario, left 5 people dead and made over
1,000 very ill. The local water system had become contaminated.
(SFC, 5/27/00, p.A13)
2000 May 27, Maurice "Rocket"
Richard, hockey star, died at age 78. He led the Canadiens to 8 Stanley
Cups.
(WSJ, 5/30/00, p.A1)
2000 Jun 4, A 3-day meeting on
trade of the 34-nation OAS, Organization of American States, began in
Windsor, Canada. Police arrested 41 protesters.
(SFEC, 6/4/00, p.A20)(SFC, 6/5/00, p.A9)
2000 Jun 15, In Canada
demonstrators in Toronto protested cuts in social programs and clashed
with police.
(SFC, 6/16/00, p.A19)
2000 Jun 30, A bill that erased
virtually all legal distinctions between heterosexual marriages and
same-sex unions went into effect.
(SFC, 7/3/00, p.A12)
2000 Jun, British Columbia created
a publicly funded day care program.
(SFC, 6/9/00, p.A17)
2000 Jul 11, In Vancouver Dr.
Garson Romalis (63) was stabbed outside his abortion clinic by a
suspected anti-abortion extremist. In 1994 Romalis was shot at his home
by an anti-abortion sniper from Vermont.
(SFC, 7/15/00, p.A14)
2000 Jul 14, A tornado hit the
Green Acres campground near Red Deer, Alberta, and 9 people were
killed. A 10th camper died the next day.
(SFEC, 7/16/00, p.A2)(SFC, 7/17/00, p.A13)
2000 Jul, Stockwell Day, a
Conservative from Alberta, was elected leader of the Canadian
Conservative Alliance over founder Preston Manning.
(SFC, 7/22/00, p.A10)
2000 Aug 3, Canadian sailors
dropped from helicopters and took over the GTS Katie, a private
American freighter, that held 3 Canadian soldiers and $250 million in
military equipment that was being returned from Kosovo. The freighter
had refused to dock over a payment dispute.
(SFC, 8/4/00, p.A17)
2000 Sep 28, In Canada Pierre
Trudeau, 2-time former premier, died at age 80. He led Canada from
1968-1979 and from 1980-1984.
(SFC, 9/29/00, p.D7)
2000 Oct 3, Canadian Prime
Minister Pierre Trudeau (10/18/1919-09/28/2000) was buried in Montreal.
The spring of 1968 a wave of "Trudeaumania" swept Canada and Trudeau
became a star (and Prime Minster) until he lost eleven years later. He
won parliament election again in 1980-1984. Trudeau was noted for
legislation that shaped Canada's future including supporting many women
entering into political positions. On a personal note Trudeau was noted
for taking a swing at the press either physically or verbally. While
quite dapper with his trade mark rose in the lapel and his sexy style,
Trudeau had a comical side sliding down banisters, and doing pirouettes
behind the Queen's back at Buckingham Palace. Pierre Elliott Trudeau
was named top Canadian newsmaker of the 20th century.
(MC, 10/3/01)
2000 Oct 22, Canada’s Prime
Minister Jean Chretien called for new elections in an attempt to
increase his parliamentary majority.
(SFC, 10/23/00, p.A10)
2000 Oct 27, Canadian authorities
arrested the men they say masterminded the 1985 bombing of an Air India
jumbo jet near Ireland that claimed the lives of all 329 people aboard.
The men were acquitted at trial in March 2005.
(AP, 10/27/05)
2000 Oct, Ron and Loren Koval
disappeared and were soon accused of stealing over $50 million as
directors of a financial company and health center in Toronto.
(SFC, 11/4/00, p.A12)
2000 Nov 20, In Calgary Samer
Jaber (17), a student at Lester B. Pierson High School, was stabbed to
death over a $30 debt.
(SFC, 11/21/00, p.A14)
2000 Nov 23, Canadian authorities
apprehended Lai Changxing, a fugitive smuggler from Fujian province of
China.
(SFC, 12/27/00, p.C18)
2000 Nov 27, Prime Minister Jean
Chretien (66) led the Liberal Party to a 3rd consecutive majority
government in parliamentary elections with 41% of the popular vote and
increased their seats in parliament to 173 of 301. The 63% turnout was
a record low.
(SFC, 11/28/00, p.A16)(SFC, 11/29/00, p.A16)(WSJ,
11/29/00, p.A1)
2000 Nov 27, Toronto Mayor Melvin
Lastman was re-elected. In Dec. it was revealed that Lastman had
engaged in a 14-year affair with Grace Louie that ended in 1971. Louie
had just filed suit and alleged that Lastman fathered her 2 youngest
sons.
(SFC, 1/5/01, p.D6)
2000 Dec 9, Pres. Putin said he
would follow the recommendation of the pardons commission and free
Edmond Pope. It was later reported that Pope’s efforts to buy
technology ran parallel to Canadian efforts to buy advanced Shkval
torpedoes from a defense plan in Kyrgyzstan.
(SSFC, 12/10/00, p.A27)(SFC, 1/3/01, p.A10)
2000 Dec 18, In Canada Pres. Putin
of Russia met with Prime Minister Chretien and together supported
existing nuclear arms accords. Chretien did not join Putin’s opposition
to a US missile defense plan.
(SFC, 12/19/00, p.B4)
2000 In Canada Mike Lazaridis,
co-founder of Research In Motion (RIM), founded the Perimeter Institute
for Theoretical Physics just outside Ontario’s Waterloo Univ. His
initial support included a donation of C$100 million.
(Econ, 3/19/05, p.68)(Econ, 9/23/06, TQ p.36)
2000 Canadian researchers began
pancreatic islet transplants to patients with diabetes with 70-80%
success to eliminate insulin shots.
(WSJ, 4/10/02, p.A1)
Go to Canada
2001
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Subject = Canada