Today in Canadian History

**Canmoore** · 12 Nov 07,, 00:58

NOVEMBER 12th

1775 YANKEES CAPTURE MONTREAL

Montreal Quebec - American Revolutionary General Richard Montgomery 1736-1775 lands at Point St. Charles and marches into Montreal a day after Guy Carleton evacuates the town. All Canada except Trois-Rivieres and Quebec City is now under the occupation of the Army of the Continental Congress, and the French habitants are being urged to join the Revolution.

1838
Prescott Ontario -
Republican Colonel Nils von Schoultz leads 200 Canadian exiles and US sympathizers in an attack against Prescott; fights the four-day Battle of the Windmill against British regulars and the local Canadian militia. Von Schoultz, a Finn, runs his schooner Charlotte aground below Prescott, and takes up position in a 6-storey stone windmill and several stone houses nearby; Canadians send a small vessel, the Experiment, to cut Schoultz off from the US, while 700 militia start arriving from the surrounding counties and a force of 70 British marines comes downriver by steamer from Kingston; the militia drive the Hunters from the houses into the windmill the following day; on the 14th Col Henry Dundas arrives with 4 companies of the 83rd Regiment, 2 eighteen-pounders and a howitzer; the rebels surrender on the 16th.

Born today was one of the greatest songwriters of our time

Neil Young 1945-
singer and songwriter, was born on this day at Toronto in 1945, the son of Globe and Mail sports columnist Scott Young. Young started playing garage rock and roll in 1960, and by 1963 had cut his first record with the Squires, a Group from Winnipeg. In the mid 60s, he played with 4 To Go, and in 1965 cut 16 songs at Motown studios in Detroit with The Mynah Birds. In 1966 he helped found Buffalo Springfield - later CSNY (Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young - and toured southern California with them, selling out at the Whiskey A Go Go in LA.
He has played other benefits for Vietnam Veterans, Greenpeace, Get Tough on Toxins, Hungerthon, Walden Woods and the Nelson Mandela Benefit. In 1994 he received the Canadian Governor-General's Performing Arts Award, and the following year was inducted into the Rock'n'Roll Hall of Fame, thirty albums after he began.

1995 Cape Canaveral, Florida - Canadian Space Agency astronaut Chris Hadfield on board Atlantis shuttle flight STS-74 as it blasts off from Kennedy Space Center for a rendezvous with the Russian space station Mir; Hadfield the fourth Canadian to go into space; first Canadian to perform NASA Mission Specialist duties including operation of the Canadarm.

1992 Iqaluit NWT - 69% of 9,648 eligible Inuit vote Yes to land settlement and creation of Nunavut Territory; Inuit to get clear title to land, hunting and fishing rights

1984 Space - NASA shuttle astronauts use Canadarm to snare a wandering satellite; history's first space salvage.

1981 Cape Canaveral, Florida - NASA space shuttle Columbia STS-2 blasts off from the Kennedy Space Center, carrying Canada's $100 million robot arm, made by Spar Aerospace in Toronto; the Canadarm will perform flawlessly; Columbia the first spaceship to be relaunched.

1971 Regina Saskatchewan - Paul Joseph Cini hijacks Air Canada plain over the prairies, but soon subdued and arrested; brandishing 54 sticks of dynamite and a shotgun.

1953 Washington DC - US-Canada agreement establishes St. Lawrence River Joint Board of Engineers; to plan construction of St. Lawrence Seaway.

1940 Ottawa Ontario - Canadian government bans import of comic books.

1939 China - Canadian surgeon Dr. Norman Bethune dies of blood poisoning (septicemia) while operating a battlefield hospital in North China for Communist troops under Mao Tse Tung; becomes hero of the Revolution.

1931 Toronto Ontario - Conn Smythe opens the Maple Leaf Gardens arena; has to pay workers with shares because of the Depression; in the first game this day, the Leafs beat the Black Hawks 2-1.

1930 Sverdrup Islands NWT - Norway recognizes Canadian sovereignty over Sverdrup Islands; after payment and negotiation with Sverrup's widow.

1757 German Flats New York - Beletre attacks and burns German Flats, on the Mohawk River, with 300 Canadians and Indians; kills 50 English settlers.

1633 Quebec Quebec - Jesuit priest Paul LeJeune starts his mission to the Indians.

**Canmoore** · 14 Nov 07,, 04:16

NOVEMBER 14th

1849 TORONTO THE CAPITAL OF CANADA

Toronto Ontario - Toronto, Upper Canada becomes the new seat of the Union government; after a Tory mob had burned the Montreal Parliament buildings.

1606
Port Royal, Nova Scotia -
Marc Lescarbot c1570-1642 writes and produces North America's first European drama, Neptune's Theatre, staged in canoes outside the fort, complete with verses in French, Gascon and Micmac. The play is a 'jovial spectacle' where King Neptune arrives in a floating chariot drawn by six tritons, to the sound of trumpets and cannons, to greet Samuel de Champlain, as he returns to Port-Royal with Jean de Biencourt de Poutrincourt et de Saint-Just, the lieutenant-governor of Acadia

Born today was the grandfather of penicillin, I grew up in Angus, Ontario. Not just 15 minutes from the birthplace of this great scientist. Had I not have been a catholic I would have gone to Frederick Banting Public High school in Alliston Ontario, however I went to St.Peters Secondary in Barrie, Ontario instead.

1867
Frederick Banting 1891-1941
physician, physiologist, and Nobel laureate, was born on this day at Alliston, Ontario in 1891; died in a plane crash on route to England in 1941. After medical training at the University of Toronto, Banting entered the Canadian Army Medical Corps in 1915, becoming a Captain, then practiced medicine in London, Ontario, until 1921. In 1922, working at U of T in the laboratory of Scottish physiologist J. J. R. Macleod and aided by Canadian physiologist Charles Best, Banting discovered the pancreatic hormone insulin, used in treating diabetes. The following year he and Macleod won the Nobel Prize in Medicine. Objecting to the credit given Macleod, who had not participated in the discovery, Banting shared his half with Best. Macleod divided his share with Canadian chemist J. B. Collip, who helped Macleod purify insulin after its isolation. In 1923 the U of T set up the Banting-Best Department of Medical Research with Banting as its director. In 1934 he was knighted, and died in a plane crash on the way to England to take a wartime post.

1972 Lahr Germany - Canadian Armed Forces installs SAMSON (Strategic Automatic Message Switching Operation Network), for computer-controlled message handling to bases in Europe.

1964 Montreal Quebec - Gordie Howe of the Detroit Red Wings set a National Hockey League record as he scored his 627th career goal in a game against Montreal.

1953 Ottawa Ontario - US President Dwight D. Eisenhower addresses the Senate and House of Commons.

1879 Montreal Quebec - Formation of the sixth Cavalry Regiment, later the 15th Armored Regiment, Duke of Connaught's Hussars, in Montreal.

1838 Prescott Ontario - Col Henry Dundas arrives with four companies of the 83rd Regiment, two eighteen-pounders and a howitzer, to attack Republican Colonel Nils von Schoultz and his 200 Canadian exiles and US sympathizers holed up in a 6-storey stone windmill; the rebels surrender on the 16th.

1835 Saint John, New Brunswick - Opening of insane asylum at Saint John; Canada's first insane asylum.

1778 Philadelphia Pennsylvania - George Washington writes Henry Laurens, president of the Continental Congress, that his French ally, the Marquis de Lafayette, wants to undertake a campaign against the British in Canada, to regain New France.

**Canmoore** · 15 Nov 07,, 03:50

NOVEMBER 15th

1976
Quebec - Rene Levesque 1922-1987 leads Parti Quebecois to victory in Quebec election, defeating Liberals under Robert Bourassa; wins 69 of 110 seats in the National Assembly; four women are elected: TV star Lise Payette, Louise Sauvé Cuerrier, Jocelyne Ouellet and Denise Leblanc-Bantey; Bourassa loses his own riding (Mercier) to the PQ poet Gérald Godin.

1948
Quebec - Louis Stephen St. Laurent 1882-1973 succeeds William Lyon Mackenzie King as Canada's 12th PM; to June 21, 1957; King in power since Oct. 23, 1935, setting a British Commonwealth record for long service.

1996 New York City - Céline Dion's album 'Falling Into You' is certified Multi Platinum 6.00. (OOE come on.. how many copies did you buy?)

1989 Ottawa Ontario - Liberal Senator Hazen Argue charged by the RCMP with misuse of Senate funds; first Canadian Senator to face criminal charges; dies in 1991 before case goes to trial.

1968 Montreal Quebec - FLQ bomb explodes on Rue d'Iberville.

1963 Rana Pratrap Sagar, India - Canada to help India build CANDU-type nuclear power station.

1951 Hanover Germany - First units of 27th Canadian Brigade arrive in Germany for NATO service.

1944 Toronto Ontario - Toronto Maple Leafs and Detroit Red Wings score five goals in the span of one minute, 39 seconds in an NHL game. (WOW!!)

1877 Regina Saskatchewan - North-West Territorial Council passes ordinance 'For the Protection of the Buffalo' in a failed attempt to slow the wanton destruction of the herds; provides for closed season on cows from Nov. 15 to Aug. 14; as many as 60 million buffalo once roamed the North American plains; by the late 1880s they are almost extinct.

1855 Brockville Ontario - First Grand Trunk train reaches Brockville from Montreal.

1613 Paris France - Samuel de Champlain c1570-1635 founds la Compagnie du Canada.

1603 Paris France - Samuel de Champlain c1570-1635 publishes 'Des Sauvages': his account of New France.

**Canmoore** · 17 Nov 07,, 04:12

NOVEMBER 17h 2007

Norway House Manitoba - James Evans 1801-1846 invents a nine-character syllabic alphabet for the Cree and Inuit people, still in use today; he later prints birch-bark hymn books in Cree; Evans is General Superintendent of the Northwest Indian Missions.

Born today is one of Canada's best songwriters ever..and a personal favorite.

Gordon Lightfoot 1938-
folksinger, composer, was born on this day at Orillia, Ontario. Lightfoot first began singing in the church choir, and taught himself to play guitar in high school. On graduation, he headed off to Toronto to take up a folk singing career. He was a success in the Yorkville clubs in the mid-60s, and in 1969, and signed with Warner Bros./Reprise Records.
In 1986, after the release of the East Of Midnight album, Lightfoot took time off to reassess his music and his life. In 1989, he started writing again, and touring with a band consisting of Rick Haynes (Bass), Terry Clements (Lead Guitar), Barry Keane (Drums), and Michael Heffernan (Keyboards). He also produced his 18th album Waiting For You, which is "very simple, very acoustic" according to Lightfoot. "I think it harkens back to an earlier style... of bringing things full circle".
Lightfoot has won four Grammy nominations and 16 Juno awards, including the Juno Hall Of Fame Award. His list of hit songs includes Early Morning Rain, Canadian Railroad Trilogy, Cotton Jenny, Don Quixote, Sundown, Shadows, If You Could Read My Mind, Carefree Highway, The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald, Beautiful, Alberta Bound, Ribbon of Darkness.
This year Lightfoot was one of the winners of the Governor General's Performing Arts Awards.

1994 Ottawa Ontario - Defence Minister David Collenette announces public inquiry into the alleged DND coverup of brutality by Canadian peacekeepers in Somalia.

1831 Ontario - William Lyon Mackenzie 1795-1861 attends the opening of the second session of the 11th Parliament of Upper Canada; meets until Jan. 28, 1832; he will be expelled twice for criticism in his newspaper, 'The Colonial Advocate'.

1775 Charlottetown PEI - American privateers raid Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island.

1623 Quebec Quebec - Canada's first highway is built, connecting the Lower and Upper Towns of Quebec.

**Canmoore** · 18 Nov 07,, 05:11

NOVEMBER 18th

1936 BIRTH OF THE GLOBE & MAIL

Toronto Ontario - George McCullagh's Globe newspaper purchases The Mail & Empire and amalgamates the two papers to form The Globe and Mail; Thomson Newspapers will acquire the daily in 1980.

1883
Ottawa Ontario - Sanford Fleming's Standard Time scheme begins at midnight Atlantic Time in Nova Scotia and the eastern Seaboard of the US. Canada and the US agreed to divide the continent into four time zones, primarily to manage the nightmare of local times clasing with rail.way timetables. Other world nations will endorse the Canadian engineer's idea at a 1884 Washington conference.

1994 Quebec- government officially shelves Hydro Quebec's $13.3-billion Great Whale powerdam project after lobbying by Quebec Crees and a softening of the US power market.

1992 Casey Quebec - RCMP seize record 4,323 kilos of cocaine with a street value of $2.7 billion. The Canadian military, with the help of the US DEA, track the plane from South America, then chase it with jet fighters and military helicopters over New Brunswick, forcing it to land at a remote Quebec airstrip; on Nov. 20 they close a processing lab in Laval and arrest 4 Quebeckers, 3 Columbian nationals.

1963 Nova Scotia - Nova Scotia government closes last segregated school for blacks in the province.

1961 Regina Saskatchewan - Saskatchewan legislature passes law giving citizens of that province Canada's first prepaid medical care plan.

1959 Ottawa Ontario - Board of Broadcast Governors rules Canada's TV stations must have 45% Canadian content from April 1, 1961; 55% Canadian content after April 1, 1962

1931 Cape Hopes Advance Quebec - gales force winds reach 125 mph (200 kph), the highest wind speed ever recorded in Canada.

1929 Burin Newfoundland - Cape Breton earthquake sends huge 15.2 metre tidal wave to Newfoundland; kills 27 people on Burin Peninsula, does $2 million damage.

1916 France/Belgium - Canadian Fourth Division again attacks the Germans on the Somme; other three Canadian divisions transferred to Artois mid-October

1883 Ottawa Ontario - Sanford Fleming's Standard Time scheme adopted in Canada; other nations endorse idea at 1884 conference

1837 Toronto Ontario - William Lyon Mackenzie 1795-1861 decides on a coup d'etat for December 7; to create a republican government in Canada that would petition for union with the United States.

**Canmoore** · 19 Nov 07,, 03:54

NOVEMBER 19th

1869 CANADA SHOPS THE BAY

London England - The Hudson's Bay Company owners approve the deed of surrender of their Rupert's Land territory to Canada. The terms are £300,000 cash, land around HBC posts and 1/20th of the Prairie fertile belt (some 2.8 million hectares of farmland); to come into effect December 1.

1858
Langley BC - James Douglas arrives at HBC Fort Langley, 40 km up the Fraser River from the coast, on the SS Beaver. He reads a proclamation creating the Crown Colony of British Columbia, and is sworn in by Judge Matthew Begbie as first Governor. To take up the new post, he resigned as Hudson's Bay Company Governor of Vancouver Island. Britain conferred colonial status on BC to hold off US annexationists, and to bring the law to the gold miners swarming into the territory, formerly controlled by the HBC. In this picture, Douglas and Begbie are leaving Fort Langley after the ceremony, to return to Victoria. Douglas will bow to pressure and on Feb. 14, 1859, proclaims the site of the capital to be New Westminster.

Born today was
Marilyn Bell 1937-
marathon swimmer, was born on this day at Toronto in 1937. On Sept 8-9, 1954, 16 year old Bell became the first person to swim the 51.5 km stretch of Lake Ontario, from Youngstown, NY to Toronto; later the youngest person to swim the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the English Channel.

1983 Montreal Quebec - Bruce Hood officiates in his 1,000th National Hockey League game; first NHL referee to reach that mark.

1981 Ottawa Ontario - 3,000 Indians march on Parliament Hill, and more in other sites across Canada, to protest exclusion of aboriginal rights from constitution.

1967 Montreal Quebec - René Lévesque founds the Mouvement 'Souveraineté-Association'; will later be folded into the Parti québécois.

1963 Detroit Michigan - Gordie Howe scores record-breaking 545th goal against Charlie Hodge of the Montreal Canadiens, breaking Maurice Richard's mark. Olympia crowd give him 20 minute standing ovation

1949 Ottawa Ontario - Canadian dollar devalued by l0%.

1948 PEI - opening of the Prince Edward Island to mainland microwave; world's first microwave for commercial and voice transmission.

1867 London England - British government rejects request to allow British Columbia to join Confederation immediately.

1866 New Westminster, BC - Vancouver Island, which had been a separate colony, becomes part of British Columbia; due to financial crisis.

1794 Washington, DC - John Jay negotiates Jay Treaty 'to promote friendship and good neighbourhood' between the US and British North America; New York fur trader John Jacob Astor benefits when the export of furs to England is allowed, and the British agree to evacuate Ohio Valley forts.

**Canmoore** · 20 Nov 07,, 04:12

NOVEMBER 20th

1995 MULRONEY SUES RCMP, JUSTICE DEPARTMENT

Montreal Quebec - Brian Mulroney files $50-million lawsuit against the federal Department of Justice and the RCMP. Claims reputation hurt by letter sent by investigating police to Swiss banking authorities alleging a kickback in the sale of 34 Airbus jets to Air Canada in 1988.

1942
Dawson Creek BC - Opening of 2,450 km (1,523 mile) long Alcan Military Highway, or Alaska Highway; from Dawson Creek, BC to Fairbanks, Alaska; road built to supply Pacific North West and Alaska in case of Japanese invasion.

Born today was one of Canada's Prime Minesters

Wilfrid Laurier 1841-1919
born in St-Lin, Quebec, son of Carolus Laurier and Marie Martineau; Canada's 7th Prime Minister, 1896-1911; attends Le Collège de L'Assomption and McGill University; dies Feb. 17, 1919.

1979 Ottawa Ontario - Pierre Elliott Trudeau 1919- announces he will resign as Liberal leader after leadership convention in March selects his successor.

1969 Montreal Quebec - FLQ terrorists set off bomb in Montreal's Loyola College.

1942 Montreal Quebec - NHL abolishes regular season OT until World War II is over.

1871 Alberta - John and David McDougall arrive in the North West Territory to farm; Alberta's first farmers.

1871 Arthabaska Quebec - Wilfrid Laurier 1841-1919 first elected to Quebec Assembly; later MP for Quebec East and Canada's 7th Prime Minister.

1775 Trois-Rivières, Quebec - Trois-Rivières falls to Montgomery's American invaders the day after Guy Carleton reaches Quebec.

1613 Paris France - King Louis XIII 1601-1643 gives position of Lieutenant-General of New France to Henri de Bourbon, Prince de Condé; after sudden death of Soissons; Samuel de Champlain appointed to govern the Royal Colony.

**Canmoore** · 27 Nov 07,, 03:08

A special Grey Cup edition of Canadian History! In light of the 95th Grey Cup, my team the bombers lost...but ohwell. At least the crazy rider fans have a cup after a 13 year drought!!

NOVEMBER 27th

1977 SWEET CONNECTS FOR SIX IN GREY CUP

Montreal Quebec - Don Sweet kicks Cup record six field goals and scores Cup record 23 points as Marv Levy's CFL Montreal Alouettes beat the Edmonton Eskimos 41-6 in the 65th Grey Cup game.

1829
Port Robinson, Ontario - William Hamilton Merritt opens Welland Canal from Port Dalhousie to Port Robinson; engineered by Samuel Keefer; to Port Colborne in 1833; deepened in 1841; enlarged in 1850; replaced by the new Welland Canal, with a depth of nine metres, in 1932.

1994 Vancouver BC - David Richie's British Columbia Lions beat Baltimore Stallions 26-23 to win 82nd CFL Grey Cup game; first Grey Cup game with a US expansion team.

1988 Ottawa Ontario - Mike Riley's underdog Winnipeg Blue Bombers defeat British Columbia Lions 22-21 to win 76th Grey Cup game; first to feature two Western CFL teams.

1983 Vancouver BC - Bob O'Billovich's Toronto Argonauts beat British Columbia Lions 18-17 to win 71st CFL Grey Cup game. This is the first indoor Grey Cup game, under the BC Place dome, and the first Argo victory in 31 years.

1975 Ottawa Ontario - National Defence to buy fleet of new long-range patrol aircraft for almost $1 billion; plus modern tanks for European land forces.

1965 Toronto Ontario - Ralph Sazio's CFL Hamilton Tiger Cats beat Winnipeg Blue Bombers 22-16 in 53rd Grey Cup game.

1961 Detroit Michigan - Gordie Howe becomes the first hockey pro to play in 1,000 NHL games.

1960 Toronto Ontario - Gordie Howe scores his 1,000th point with an assist as the Detroit Red Wings beat the Toronto Maple Leafs.

1954 Toronto Ontario - Pop Ivy's CFL Edmonton Eskimos beat Montreal Alouettes 26-25 to win the 42nd Grey Cup match; game famous for Hunsinger fumble.

1948 Toronto Ontario - Calgary Stampeders beat Ottawa Roughriders 12-7 in 36th Grey Cup game. Hundreds of Calgary fans made the three-day train trip to Toronto, breaking into a spontaneous square-dance as they arrived, bringing a real chuckwagon and team of horses.

1943 Toronto Ontario - Hamilton Flying Wildcats beat Winnipeg Bombers 23-14 in 31st Grey Cup game.

1861 Montreal Quebec - First streetcars in Montreal make their debut.

1645 Quebec Quebec - First violin played in New France.

**Canmoore** · 28 Nov 07,, 04:08

NOVEMBER 28th

1812 BRITISH AND CANADIANS BEAT BACK AMERICANS

Fort Erie Ontario - British and Canadian militia drive back a second American attempt to cross Niagara River at Fort Erie; War of 1812.

1956
Ottawa Ontario - Canada grants $1 million and free passage to Canada to refugees from Hungarian Revolution against Communist rule.

1993 Calgary Alberta - Ron Lancaster's CFL Edmonton Eskimos beat Winnipeg Blue Bombers 33-23 to win 81st Grey Cup game.

1982 Toronto Ontario - Hugh Campbell's CFL Edmonton Eskimos beat Toronto Argonauts 32-16 to win 70th Grey Cup game.

1978 Quebec - Bill 101 declared Ultra Vires.

1976 Toronto Ontario - George Brancato's CFL Ottawa Roughriders beat Saskatchewan Rough Riders 23-20 to win 64th Grey Cup game.

1971 Vancouver BC - Jim Duncan's CFL Calgary Stampeders defeat Toronto Argonauts 14-11 to win 59th Grey Cup game.

1970 Montreal Quebec - FLQ terrorists Jacques Cossette, Jacques Lanctôt, Marc Charbonneau and Pierre Séguin allowed to leave for Cuba after they hand over British trade commissioner James Cross.

1970 Toronto Ontario - Sam Etcheverry's CFL Montreal Alouettes defeat Calgary Stampeders 23-10 to win 58th Grey Cup game.

1964 Toronto Ontario - Dave Skrien's CFL British Columbia Lions beat Hamilton Tiger Cats 34-24 to win 52nd Grey Cup game.

1959 Toronto Ontario - Bud Grant's CFL Winnipeg Blue Bombers beat Hamilton Tiger Cats 21-7 to win 47th Grey Cup game. GO BOMBERS GO!!!!

1953 Toronto Ontario - CFL Hamilton Tiger Cats beat Winnipeg Blue Bombers 12-6 to win 41st Grey Cup game.

1950 Columbo Sri Lanka - Canada to join other Commonwealth nations in Columbo Plan; to aid newly-independent India, Pakistan, Ceylon (Sri Lanka)

1944 Antwerp Netherlands - First Canadian convoy reaches newly opened port of Antwerp after the channel is cleared of mines, and after capture of the island of Walcheren at the mouth; Canadians first attacked the causeway on October 31.

1939 Lawrence, Kansas - Dr. James Naismith dies at age 78; born at Almonte, Ont. Nov. 6, 1861; invented basketball in 1891, while working at the YMCA International Training School at Springfield, Mass.

1925 Montreal Quebec - NHL goalie Georges Vézina collapses in a game; dies of tuberculosis 4 months later; tended goal for the Canadiens 1910-25 without missing a game; Canadiens donated the Vézina Trophy to the NHL in his honour. WOW! I did not know this!

1822 Ontario - Mississaugas cede 1,112,100 hectares in Hastings, Addington, Frontenac, Lanark, Carleton and Renfrew counties; 2,748,000 acres

Wow that includes my neck of the woods!

1838 Kingston Ontario - John Alexander Macdonald 1815-1891 acts as legal counsel to Nils von Schoultz and other republican rebel prisoners taken at Prescott after the Battle of the Windmill.

**Canmoore** · 30 Nov 07,, 04:27

NOVEMBER 30th

Born today was a great poet and soldier, his poem still haunts us every November the 11th..

1872
Dr. John McCrae 1872-1918
physician, poet, was born on this day at Guelph, Ontario in 1872; died of pneumonia in Boulogne, France, Jan. 28, 1918. McCrae won a scholarship to the University of Toronto; had to take a year off due to severe asthma, which recurred throughout his life; 1894 attended U of T medical school; 1898 MD and gold medal; resident at Toronto General Hospital; 1899 interned at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore with his brother Thomas, as associates of Dr. William Osler; 1899 led Guelph contingent, D Battery, Canadian Field Artillery, in the South African War; 1901 resumed studies in pathology at McGill; Governor's Fellow in pathology and resident assistant pathologist, with research work at McGill and autopsy duties at Montreal General Hospital; 1902 resident pathologist at Montreal General; 1904 associate in medicine at Royal Victoria Hospital; 1905 set up his own practice; 1909 a major contributor's to Osler's Modern Medicine, a 10-volume textbook; 1910 served as expedition physician when the Governor General, Lord Grey, journeyed by canoe from Norway House on Lake Winnipeg to Hudson Bay; 1912 co-authored a textbook on pathology; 1914 appointed brigade-surgeon to the First Brigade of the Canadian Forces Artillery with the rank of Major; April 1915 in the trenches at the Second Battle of Ypres, and treated the effects of poison gas; wrote the poem In Flanders Fields in memory of the death of one of his close friends; first published in England's Punch magazine December, 1915.

'In Flanders fields the poppies blow/ Between the crosses, row on row,/ That mark our place; and in the sky/ The larks, still bravely singing, fly/ Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago/ We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,/ Loved and were loved, and now we lie/ In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:/ To you from failing hands we throw/ The torch; be yours to hold it high./ If ye break faith with us who die/ We shall not sleep, though poppies grow/ In Flanders fields.'

1916 Chief of Medical Services at No. 3 (McGill) Canadian General Hospital at Dannes-Cammiers in France; February 1916 moved to ruins of the Jesuit College at Boulogne; 1917 troubled by severe asthma attacks and bronchitis; January 1918 moved to Number 14 British General Hospital for Officers, where he died of pneumonia and meningitis; 1919 In Flanders Fields and Other Poems published posthumously; because of the poem's popularity, the poppy was adopted as the Flower of Remembrance for the war dead of Britain, France, the US, Canada and other Commonwealth countries.

also born today, the author of Anne of Green Gables..

Lucy Maud Montgomery 1874-1942
writer, born on this day at Clifton, Prince Edward Island; died in Toronto April 24, 1942. Montgomery was raised in Cavendish, and educated at Prince of Wales College and Dalhousie University. She wrote the best seller Anne of Green Gables in 1908, and seven sequels, as well as the Emily trilogy. She also wrote The Island Hymn, an ode to PEI, approximately 500 short stories and almost 450 poems. In 1911, she married the Reverend Ewan Macdonald and moved near Uxbridge Ontario. At her death, she left over 5,000 pages of unpublished personal diaries, from 1889 to 1942, that are now being edited and published.

1983 Ottawa Ontario - Close of the 1st Session of the 32nd Parliament, 1st Session; longest session on record, at 1326 days; 591 sitting days of the House of Commons, 329 sitting days of the Senate; from April 14, 1980.

1972 Yellowknife NWT - David Kootook found dead with other plane crash victims; he starved to death rather than eat human flesh of dead passengers.

1933 Montreal Quebec - Arthur William Currie dies; soldier, educator, born at Strathroy, Ontario, Dec. 05, 1875. Currie was appointed commander of the 2nd Canadian Infantry Brigade on Sept. 29, 1914, commander of the 1st Canadian Division on Sept, 13, 1915 and commander of the Canadian Corps on June 09, 1917; led Canada's 100 days, beginning Aug 8 and lasting until 11 Nov 1918, the most successful of all Allied offensives during the war culminating in the victory at Vimy Ridge and the rout of the Germans eastward; served as Principal of McGill before his death.

1915 Ottawa Ontario - Canadian government publishes World War I casualties reported so far: 539 officers and 13,017 men killed in action.

1869 Fort Dufferin Manitoba - William McDougall slips in to Red River Colony at night and reads the proclamation that officially declares the Hudson's Bay Company territory's annexation to Canada.

1824 Welland Ontario - Samuel Keefer starts construction of the Welland Canal, joining Lake Erie and Lake Ontario; engineer and President of the Welland Canal Company

1696 St. John's, Newfoundland - Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville 1661-1706 takes St. John's with Bonaventure; troops loot and burn on the other side of the peninsula.

**Canmoore** · 03 Dec 07,, 16:48

DECEMBER 3rd

1960 CANADA GETS TWO MILLIONTH POST-WAR IMMIGRANT

Quebec Quebec - - Annette Toft arrives at Quebec City from Denmark; Canada's 2,000,000th immigrant since 1945.

1878
Winnipeg Manitoba - Canadian Pacific Railway connects Winnipeg with Emerson, Minnesota, and the outside world; Pembina branch connects with St. Paul and Pacific Railroad.

1995 Montreal Quebec - Goalie Patrick Roy fired by Montreal Canadiens GM Réjean Houle; traded 3 days later to the Colorado Avalanche for Jocelyn Thibault.

1985 Quebec Quebec - Old Quebec classified as a United Nations (UNESCO) World Heritage Site.

1979 Toronto Ontario - Chang Kuo-tao dies in a Toronto nursing home at age 82; last survivor of the 12 founding members of the Chinese Communist Party.

1978 Montreal Quebec - Former FLQ terrorists Jacques Cossette and Micheline Lanctôt return from exile in Cuba and France.

1975 Ottawa Ontario - Ottawa starts selective wage controls on 4,300,000 workers; price controls on 1,500 large companies; after Commons passes anti-inflation legislation.

1970 Montreal Quebec - James Cross taken to Cuban pavilion at Expo '67 site and released to Commissioner; FLQ terrorists Jacques Cossette, Jacques and Micheline Lanctôt, Marc Charbonneau, Pierre Séguin and two others given safe passage to Cuba; British Trade Commissioner in Montreal had been captured in October.

1960 Edmonton Alberta - Opening of Edmonton International Airport, Canada's largest airport.

1943 Cassino Italy - US-Canadian First Special Service Force takes Mount la Difensa on Cassino front.

1838 Windsor Ontario - 400 republicans and Canadian exiles cross from Detroit and attack Windsor.

1775 Pointe Aux Trembles, Quebec - Richard Montgomery 1736-1775 meets up with Benedict Arnold's force; the two American armies of the Continental Congress turn downstream to attack Quebec; arrive in sight of the walls later that day.

**Canmoore** · 06 Dec 07,, 04:03

DECEMBER 6th

The Halifax Explosion.

1917 Halifax Nova Scotia -
Downtown Halifax is blown to pieces as a French munitions freighter, the Mont Blanc, coming through the Narrows carrying 2,300 tons of picric acid, 200 tons of TNT, 35 tons of high octane gasoline, and 10 tons of gun cotton, collides with the Belgium steamship Imo, outbound to New York City, at 8:45 am. The Mont Blanc is propelled towards the shore by the collision, its picric acid ablaze, and the crew abandon ship, after failing to alert the harbour of the peril. Minutes later the blazing ship brushes by a pier, setting it ablaze. The Halifax Fire Department respond quickly, and are just positioning their engine up to the nearest hydrant when the Mont Blanc explodes at 9:05 am in a blinding white flash. The blast levels downtown Halifax, killing 2,000, injuring over 8,000, leaving 10,000 homeless, and doing $50 million damage. The shock wave shatters windows at Truro, 100 km away, and the sound can be heard in Charlottetown. A recent theory suggests that this, the greatest manmade explosion before the atomic bomb, may have been due to enemy sabotage.

Note: Every December for the past 34 years, Nova Scotia has donated a giant evergreen tree to the people of Boston as a thank you for their assistance in the aftermath of the explosion.

1921 CANADIAN WOMEN EXERCISE FIRST FEDERAL VOTE

Canada - Agnes McPhail 1890-1954 is elected to the House of Commons for the United Farmers of Ontario in the first election in which all Canadian women exercise their right to vote (wives of soldiers could vote during World War I); a country schoolteacher, she is Canada's first female MP. Mackenzie King 1874-1950 wins the election with 40.7% of popular vote; gets 116 seats to 50 for Arthur Meighen's Conservatives, 64 for Progressives, 5 others; Meighen loses own seat in Portage La Prairie; CCF member J. S. Woodsworth 1874-1942 is the first socialist elected to the House of Commons.

École Polytechnique massacre

1989 Montreal Quebec - Marc Lepine, age 25, armed with a Sturm Ruger Mini-14 semi-automatic rifle, knives and bandoliers of ammunitions, kills 14 women engineering students in a classroom at the École Polytechnique, Université de Montréal, wounds 13 others, shouting 'You're all a bunch of feminists'; then turns the gun on himself. The dead: Genevieve Bergeron, 21: Hélène Colgan, 23; Nathalie Croteau, 23; Barbara Daigneault, 22; Anne-Marie Edward, 21; Maud Haviernick, 29; Barbara Maria Klucznik, 31; Maryse Laganière, 25; Maryse Leclair, 23; Anne-Marie Lemay, 22; Sonia Pelletier, 28; Michèle Richard, 21; Annie St-Arneault, 23; Annie Turcotte, 21.

Born today is Canada's greatest WW2 air ace

George 'Buzz' Beurling 1921-1948
Canada's top World War II air ace with 31 1/2 kills, was born on the Miramachi on this day in 1921, and brought up in Verdun Quebec. A high school dropout, Beurling hung around airports until he learned to fly, failed to join the RCAF, but got into the RAF, where he shoots down 15 planes; June 09 1942, posted to Malta with 249 Squadron, RAF; shoots down 27 German planes in a two week period, earning him the DFC, DSO, DFM and Bar; Oct. 14, 1942 wounded and shot down over Malta; transferred to the RCAF as a flight lieutenant, with 403 and 412 Squadrons; Oct. 1944 rebels against service discipline and released from RCAF; 1948 joins Israeli Air Force; May 20, 1948 killed at age 26 when the Norseman plane he is piloting to Palestine for the Israeli underground army Haganah blows up during a landing at Urbe airport in Rome; buried in Rome's English cemetery between the graves of Keats and Shelley, but two years later the grateful state of Israel exhumes his body, lays him in state in Haifa, and buries him at the base of Mount Carmel, near the cave of Elijah the Prophet.

1995 Ottawa Ontario - New firearms legislation comes into force on the anniversary of the Montreal massacre; bans imports of automatic assault weapons; new rules and regulations for owning a firearm include a waiting period to buy guns, safe-storage rules, and full registration in stages.

1994 Quebec Quebec - Premier Jacques Parizeau tables draft bill declaring Quebec a sovereign country with Canadian economic association; sets terms for the referendum debate; PQ government also sets up regional commissions, invites Quebec people to contribute their ideas for a new Quebec society; 50,000 people will respond, but the Quebec Liberal Party boycotts the hearings.

1990 Tampa Florida - Bruce Firestone heads group awarded new National Hockey League franchise, Ottawa Senators, for 1992-93 season; an original NHL team, the Senators started operating in 1917; but moved to St. Louis as the Eagles in 1934.

1973 Ottawa Ontario - Ottawa to establish national oil company; part of national oil policy; origin of PetroCanada.

1967 Montreal Quebec - Opening of 4.8 km of walkways under Montreal; from Place Bonaventure to Place Ville Marie; the world's largest underground walkway.

1928 Ottawa Ontario - John Aird appointed by Mackenzie King to chair the Royal Commission on Radio Broadcasting, and to discuss the merits of public broadcasting; need to stop privately owned Canadian stations falling into American hands; also need to provide alternative to US programming flooding across the border; assisted by Charles Bowman, editor of the Ottawa Citizen; submits report Sept. 11, 1929; recommends creation of a national broadcasting company like Britain's BBC, to develop a service capable of 'fostering a national spirit and interpreting national citizenship'.

1908 Baddeck, Nova Scotia - Alexander Graham Bell's Aerial Experiment Association test original Silver Dart airplane, made of steel tube, bamboo, friction tape, wire, wood, and covered with rubberized silk balloon-cloth; designer J.A.D. McCurdy will make the first controlled powered flight in Canada Feb. 23, 1909 from the ice at Baddeck.

1900 Lévis Quebec - Quebec parliamentary reporter Alphonse Desjardins 1841-1912 opens the first credit union in North America; goals are to fight usury, improve the living conditions of workers, let French Canadians build savings and slow the exodus to US mill towns; the first branch is what is today les Caisses populaires Desjardins.

1838 Montreal Quebec - Montreal court martial begins for Lower Canada rebels accused of high treason; 9 are acquitted and 99 condemned to death; by May 01, 12 will be executed, 58 deported to Australia and 27 freed under a caution.

1837 Moore's Corner (Philipsburgh), Quebec - Militia Colonel Kemp and 300 Canadian volunteers ambush a group of 80 rebels at 8 pm coming across the US border with newly acquired weapons and 2 cannon; during the 20 minute skirmish, 4 Patriotes are captured, one killed; the rest retreat across the border when Colborne dispatches 600 British regulars and 3 cannon to St-Armand.

1837 Ontario - Rebel leader Dr. John Rolph flees Upper Canada for the US.

**Canmoore** · 14 Dec 07,, 04:11

DECEMBER 14th

1837
St-Eustache, Quebec - Sir John Colborne leads 1,200 British regulars, a regiment of 600 from the Quebec garrison commanded by Wetherall and Maitland, and 200 militia to the town of St-Eustache, in the County of Deux-Montagnes 31 km northwest of Montreal; most Patriotes have fled, but 400 rebels remain, led by Dr. Jean-Olivier Chénier and Amury Girod, holed up in the church, the presbytery, the convent and neighbouring houses; after noon Colborne gives the order to attack; nearly 100 rebels are killed, including Chénier, in five hours of withering British cannon and grapeshot fire; 18 taken prisoner and the village burned to the ground.

1990 Winnipeg Manitoba - Canadian Wheat Board has $1 billion loss; bigger than total of all losses since founding in 1935; selling wheat for $40-50 a tonne less than it pays farmers.

1968 Montreal Quebec - FLQ terrorists plant three bombs in Montreal; two disarmed, one explodes.

1950 Yokohama Japan - Lieutenant-Colonel J.R. Stone and the 2nd Battalion of the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry arrive in Yokohama en route to Korea; begin intensive training at Miryang, near Taegu after Communist China had intervened on the side of the North Koreans.

1943 Casa Berardi, Italy - Canadian Major Paul Triquet wins VC in capturing Casa Berardi, north of Moro.

1929 Ontario - Canada hands over control of and revenue from, land, water, oil and other provincial natural resources to Manitoba and Alberta; under the Natural Resources Transfer Agreement; unlike other Canadian provinces, the prairie provinces did not receive control over mineral resources or Crown lands when they became provinces; agreement made with Saskatchewan and British Columbia the following year; BC a Crown colony when it joined Confederation, with control over its resources, but transferred most to federal jurisdiction when it transferred provincial railway lands to Ottawa in the 1880s.

1916 Quebec Quebec - Quebec bans women from entering the legal profession.

1837 Brantford Ontario - Charles Duncombe and his rebel followers disperse as Alan MacNab's militia approaches from Hamilton.

1708 Placentia Newfoundland - Philippe Pasteur de Costebelle 1661-1717 Governor of Placentia, leads company of 170 men to attack St. John's; with Joseph de Mombeton de Saint-Ovide de Brouillan 1676-1755.

**Canmoore** · 19 Dec 07,, 03:03

DECEMBER 18th

1988 FRENCH ONLY OUTSIDE

Quebec Quebec - Robert Bourassa 1933-1996 passes Bill 178 requiring French only on outside signs; permits bilingual signs inside; exercises Quebec's constitutional right, Clause 33 of the Charter of Rights, the 'notwithstanding clause', to override the Dec. 15 decision of the Supreme Court, striking down sections of Quebec's Bill 101 requiring that commercial signs be in French only; a decision that called these sections an unreasonable violation of freedom of expression.

1941 Kowloon, Hong Kong - Japanese troops cross the Lye Mun Passage after dark, in assault boats, landing craft and small boats towed by ferry steamers, to attack Hong Kong island; two platoons of the Winnipeg Grenadiers deployed to seize the hills known as Jardine's Lookout and Mount Butler where they engaged in intense fighting; heavily outnumbered, they are cut to pieces and both platoon commanders killed; the following day Brigadier Lawson is killed when the Japanese surround his West Brigade headquarters. All British and Canadian forces in Hong Kong will surrender on Christmas Day; Canadians lose 290 dead in battle, with 493 wounded; a total of 557 were killed or later died in Japanese prison camps.

1950
Pusan Korea - 2nd Battalion, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, lands at Pusan; first Canadian troops in Korea

1992 Halifax, Nova Scotia - John Crosbie cuts groundfish quotas up to 70%; says there are 'too many plants, too many boats, too many people chasing fish'; National Sea Products to close North Sydney and Lunenburg plants.

1991 Quebec Quebec - Quebec completes major overhaul of Civil Code, governing all non-criminal law; after 35 years of reform.

1969 Montreal Quebec - FLQ activist Pierre Vallières sentenced to 30 months in prison.

1968 Toronto Ontario - Henry Moore British sculptor donates 400 to 600 of his works to Art Gallery of Ontario.

1968 Cornwall Ontario - St. Regis Mohawks block Seaway International Bridge to protest customs duties on their US purchases; claim exemption under Jay's Treaty of 1794.

1954 Montreal Quebec - Canadiens star Maurice Richard gets his 400th career NHL goal in his 690th game.

1946 Lethbridge Alberta - Four German prisoners of war hanged at the Lethbridge Provincial Jail for the murder of fellow prisoner Cpl. Karl Lehmann at the Medicine Hat POW camp in Sept. 1944.

1813 Lewiston New York - John Murray leads 500 British and Canadians in capture of old Fort Niagara from the Americans in the War of 1812; Fort Niagara; captures 300 prisoners; Phineas Riall leads party of Indians in 2 week raid on Manchester, Fort Schlosser, Black Rock and Buffalo.

**Canmoore** · 19 Dec 07,, 03:10

DECEMBER 19th

1917 FIRST TWO NHL GAMES PLAYED

Montreal Quebec/ Toronto Ontario - NHL starts inaugural season: original members of the league are the Montreal Canadiens, the Montreal Wanderers, Toronto Arenas, Ottawa Senators and Quebec Bulldogs. Quebec will not start playing with the league until 1919; Quebec's best player Joe Malone joins the Canadiens and on opening night scores five goals, including likely the first goal ever scored in the NHL, as Montreal beats Ottawa 9-4. Malone will go on to score 44 goals during the 24-game season. In the game in Toronto, Montreal Wanderers Dave Ritchie also scores what may have been the first NHL goal in a 10-9 victory over the Toronto Arenas; also first NHL game played on artificial ice; Harry Hyland of the Wanderers also scores five goals in this game; it will be the team's lone victory in the NHL: less than a month later, their arena burns down and they withdraw from the league. Sixteen of the players on that first day wind up in the Hockey Hall of Fame. The rules: each team can only dress a maximum of 12 players. There are no bluelines, no icing rules and no forward passing beyond the centre-ice red line. Minor penalties are three minutes long, and there is no limit on overtime.

1984
Edmonton Alberta - Wayne Gretzky scores his career 1,000th point on an assist in a 7-3 win over the Los Angeles Kings; at age 23 the youngest and the 18th NHLer; reaches the mark in just his 424th regular-season game, the fewest by any player in League history; Guy Lafleur held the old record, reaching the 1000 point mark in 720 games, 296 more than Gretzky. Gretzky will go on to break Gordie Howe's career record of 1,850 points in 1989.

1997 Los Angeles, California - Canadian director James Cameron's epic 'Titanic' opens in movie theatres; will become the highest grossing film ever made; with theme song by Céline Dion.

1984 Montreal Quebec - Scotty Bowman becomes NHL's all time winningest coach; today the most successful coach in any major league sport.

1969 Ottawa Ontario - Ottawa announces plans to cut Canadian Armed Forces reserves and close 41 armories.

1964 Halifax Nova Scotia - Royal Canadian Navy commissions HMCS Annapolis; 20th ship in destroyer escort program.

1949 Washington DC - Canada, Britain and the US agree to standardize military arms and fighting methods.

1941 Hong Kong - Company Sergeant Major John Osborn of the Winnipeg Grenadiers, leading a bayonet charge against the Japanese on Mount Butler; throws himself on a Japanese grenade to save his comrades' lives; posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross.]

1940 Atlantic - Royal Canadian Navy destroyer HMCS Saguenay torpedoed by a German U-boat.

1904 Dawson City Yukon - Dawson City hockey team starts walking towards Seattle to catch a train to Ottawa to play in the Stanley Cup on Jan 13 1905.

1846 Toronto Ontario - The mayors of Toronto and Hamilton exchange greetings to open Canada's first telegraph service; the line runs between Toronto and Hamilton over lines of Toronto, Hamilton, Niagara, & St. Catharines Telegraph Company, founded Oct. 22.

1837 St-Eustache Quebec - John Colborne frees 64 of the 120 Patriote prisoners taken at St-Eustache, then returns to Montreal.

1813 Montreal Quebec - James McGill dies, leaving £10,000 to found a university; merchant and former North West Company partner.

1813 Lewiston New York - Lt.-Col. John Murray leads 550 British and Canadians in surprise attack, capturing Fort Niagara from the Americans; Riall goes on to destroy Lewiston and Buffalo to retaliate for burning of Newark (Niagara) and Queenston.