Highlights of the day

  • 1883 Ontario Rugby Football Union (ORFU) founded; a forerunner of the CFL.
  • 1915 First World War: Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry the first Canadian troops sent to the front.

List of Facts for January 4

  • 1618 Samuel de Champlain receives the dowry of his wife Helene Boulle. France
  • 1648 Pierre Gadois becomes the First official colonist at Ville Marie. Montréal, Québec
  • 1717 Opening of the Seven Years War, as England declares war on Spain and Naples. London, England
  • 1751 400 persons now working at the Forges de St-Maurice. Trois-Rivières, Québec
  • 1796 Deputy Surveyor Augustus Jones starts cutting out Yonge St. north from York to Lake Simcoe with a company of Queen’s Rangers. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1800 John White c l761-1800 dies from wounds suffered in a duel fought on Jan 3; shot by John Small, Clerk of Executive Council; Attorney General of Upper Canada. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1817 Stagecoach service starts between York and Kingston; fare is 18 dollars. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1830 Opening of Upper Canada College at York. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1839 Republican rebels Christopher Buckley executed; Sylvester Lawton and Russell Phelps executed Feb. 11. Kingston, Ontario
  • 1839 William Lyon Mackenzie 1795-1861 arrested for violating US neutrality laws. Buffalo, New York
  • 1856 Free education now provided to all Ottawa children. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1879 Winnipeg Board of Trade is registered. Winnipeg, Manitoba
  • 1883 Ontario Rugby Football Union (ORFU) founded; a forerunner of the CFL. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1896 Politics - Seven ministers of Prime Minister Mackenzie Bowell’s cabinet resign in opposition to his leadership, after he tries to abolish the Manitoba Schools Act. Bowell tried to resign, but when it is rumoured the Governor General is considering calling on opposition leader Wilfrid Laurier to form a government, the Conservative Party group Bowell calls the “nest of traitors” agrees to back him until the end of the session on April 27. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1903 Great Northern buys Great Falls and Canada line from its subsidiary, Montana and Great Northern.
  • 1904 Explosion kills seven at Michel Mine at 1:25 pm. Michel, BC
  • 1904 Indian Residential School in Lebret burns down; built in 1884, the school was the First of its kind in Western Canada. Lebret, Saskatchewan
  • 1904 Ottawa Silver 7 beat Winnipeg Rowing Club 2 games to 1 for the Stanley Cup. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1905 Dominion Textile gets federal charter; has 8, 300 employees and 370, 000 looms. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1908 Edward ‘Ned’ Hanlan 1855-1908 dies; Toronto-born sculler Canada’s First world sporting champion; 1873 won Ontario championship; 1877 won Dominion cup; 1878, took American title; 1879 won World Rowing Championship, which he held for five years. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1915 First World War: Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry the first Canadian troops sent to the front lines. France
  • 1915 Recruiting for Alberta’s 49th Battalion begins. Alberta
  • 1919 Robert Laird Borden 1854-1937 opens London exhibit of 400 war paintings by British and Canadian artists. London, England
  • 1921 big fire downtown. Bellevue, Alberta
  • 1945 Second World War - German U-boats torpedo steamship “Polarland” near Halifax; Canadian merchant ship “Nipiwan Park” also sunk by submarine attack. Battle of the Atlantic
  • 1951 Louis Stephen St. Laurent 1882-1973 attends one-week meeting of Commonwealth Prime Ministers; discuss Commonwealth defence policy. London, England
  • 1965 La Presse newspaper resumes publishing after seven-month strike. Montreal, Quebec
  • 1970 Canada withdraws from international hockey tournament set for Montréal and Winnipeg to protest rules. Montréal, Québec
  • 1971 Ottawa withdraws troops from Montréal and other areas in Québec in wake of FLQ crisis. Montréal, Québec
  • 1975 Montreal Canadiens shut out Washington Capitals 10-0. Montreal, Quebec
  • 1983 Criminal Code changes replace rape with 3 categories of sexual assault; equal protection to men and women; women allowed to charge their husbands with sexual assault. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1984 Hockey - Oiler Wayne Gretzky scores eight points in a night for the second time in his NHL career as Edmonton defeats the Minnesota North Stars, 12-8. Gretsky had four goals and four assists; highest-scoring game in modern NHL history. Edmonton, Alberta
  • 1986 Hockey - Oiler Wayne Gretzky the First NHL player to score 100 or more points in seven consecutive seasons. Edmonton, Alberta
  • 1987 Hockey - Canada and the Soviet Union juniors engage in bench-clearing brawl during the final game of the 1987 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships; resulted in the ejection of both nations; the Soviets had already been eliminated from medal contention, but the disqualification cost Canada a certain medal – potentially the gold. Pešťany, Czechoslovakia (CBC Archives - “Punch-up in Piestany”)
  • 1990 Hockey - Canada defeats Czechoslovakia 2-1 to win World Junior Hockey title. Europe
  • 1990 Poet/politician Gerald Godin marries Pauline Julien. Montréal, Québec
  • 1993 Manufacturers Life opens 14 Manulife Bank branches; converted out of smaller trust companies; First banks owned by insurance and trust companies under new financial rules. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1995 Denis Lortie released on parole after serving 10 years in prison for 1984 shooting in the Québec National Assembly, where he killed three people. Québec, Québec
  • 1997 Canada wins the World Junior Hockey title in Switzerland. Switzerland
  • 1997 The Federal Government makes it much harder to obtain unemployment insurance.
  • 1998 Beginning of freezing rain in eastern Ontario and Québec; will turn into a major disaster. Ontario/Québec
  • 1998 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.
  • 2005 Hockey - Canadian junior men’s hockey team wins the IIHF World Junior Championship, defeating Russia 6–1; team went undefeated over the course of the tournament; Canada’s first gold medal at the junior tournament since 1997.
  • 2006 Energy - Suncor marks the sale of its billionth barrel of oil sands crude since operations began in 1967. Fort McMurray, Alberta
  • 2006 Literature - Poet Irving Layton dies at age 93. Montreal, Quebec
  • 2009 Hockey - British Columbia hosts the 2009 World U-17 Hockey Challenge; tournament held in several cities in the Lower Mainland. BC