Highlights of the day

  • 1910 Le club athletique Canadien hockey team play their first game.
  • 1998 Start of Ice Storm that hits Québec, Ontario and New Brunswick

List of Facts for January 5

  • 1616 Samuel de Champlain c1570-1635 sets off to visit Petun (Tobacco) Nation, south of Nottawasaga Bay, with Father Le Caron. Huronia, Ontario
  • 1680 Rene-Robert Cavelier de La Salle 1643-1687 starts building Fort Crevecoeur at Illinois Indian village of Pimitoui on Lake Peoria; later destroyed by mutineers because of fear of Native attack. Peoria, Illinois
  • 1838 Anthony Van Egmond dies of pneumonia in the Toronto jail while awaiting trial; the rebel commander was 60 years old.. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1838 US President Martin Van Buren issues Neutrality Proclamation forbidding US citizens from taking sides in Canadian rebellions; issues second proclamation Nov. 21. Washington, DC
  • 1839 Gallows erected at London jail for First hanging in the city, of Republican rebels captured in 1838. London, Ontario
  • 1850 Bytown incorporated as a town replacing the military authority; will become the city of Ottawa January 1, 1855. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1874 Winnipeg holds First civic election. Only 304 voters were registered, but 331 ballots are cast. Winnipeg, Manitoba
  • 1886 Editor of the Calgary Herald, Hugh Cayley, is jailed for contempt of court. Calgary, Alberta
  • 1887 Kootenay District divided into North and South Districts.
  • 1888 Disaster - Schooner “Warren I Crossly”, 107 tons, lost off Louisbourg Harbour. Nova Scotia
  • 1910 Hockey - Le club athletique Canadien hockey team play their First game, seven years before the founding of the NHL Their owner is J. Ambrose O’Brien and they are composed entirely of francophones until the 1911-12 season; today’s Montreal Canadiens. Montreal, Quebec
  • 1913 Inspector-General of Imperial Forces Ian Hamilton arrives in Québec to inspect Canadian troops. Québec, Québec
  • 1943 Supreme Court of Canada upholds War Measures Act, passed in 1914, which gives federal Cabinet emergency powers to govern by deCree when it perceives the existence of ‘war, invasion or insurrection, real or apprehended’; will be invoked in 1970 during FLQ crisis. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1948 Military - National Defence College opens in Kingston, Ontario. (Source)
  • 1953 Mitch Hepburn dies; born Aug. 12, 1896; politician, Premier of Ontario 1934-42. St. Thomas, Ontario
  • 1960 Charles F. Comfort appointed Director of National Gallery of Canada; succeeding Alan Jarvis. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1967 John A. Macdonald’s birthday, January 11, proclaimed as an official holiday, to be observed across country. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1967 US folk singer Jesse Winchester crosses Canadian border after being served draft papers for military service; applies to became a Canadian citizen.. Niagara Falls, Ontario
  • 1971 Paul Rose sentenced to two life terms for the kidnapping and non-capital murder of Pierre Laporte, Claude Simard gets life, Bernard Lortie gets 20 years. Montréal, Québec
  • 1973 Ottawa protests US air raids on Hanoi and Haiphong, North Vietnam. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1976 Halifax born journalist Robert MacNeil teams up with Jim Lehrer to co-host the First MacNeil-Lehrer Report on PBS. New York, New York
  • 1979 Opening of new dinosaur gallery at the Alberta Museum in Edmonton; houses three skeletons from Drumheller. Edmonton, Alberta
  • 1982 Elizabeth Bagshaw dies at age 100; one of Canada’s First female doctors, she graduated from the University of Toronto in 1905, and practiced medicine for over 60 years. Hamilton, Ontario
  • 1982 Ottawa bans hiring skilled foreign workers in several mining, manufacturing and construction sectors; to protect Canadian jobs. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1983 Roman Catholic Bishops of Canada release New Year’s message attacking government economic policy. Vancouver, BC
  • 1985 Lubicon Lake Indian Band receives 1.5 million dollars from the federal government to defray legal costs. Lubicon Lake, Alberta
  • 1986 Hockey - Oilers star Wayne Gretzky becomes the First NHL player to score 100 or more points in seven consecutive seasons. Edmonton, Alberta
  • 1987 Canadian author Margaret Laurence dies at age 60, losing a battle with cancer; best known for her novels The Stone Angel (1964), A Jest of God (1966), The Fire Dwellers (1969) and The Diviners (1974). Lakefield, Ontario
  • 1987 Herman Smith ‘Jackrabbit’ Johannsen dies at 102; ski pioneer born at Horten, Norway June 15, 1885; came to Montréal in 1919 as a heavy machinery salesman; 1932 settled in Piedmont, Québec, and started building ski trails throughout the Laurentians; 1979 patron of the Jackrabbit Ski League, a cross-country ski program for children started in his honour. Tonsberg, Norway
  • 1990 Donald Crump appointed 8th Commissioner of the Canadian Football League ICFL). Toronto, Ontario
  • 1990 Victor Young, President of Fishery Products International, says the company will have to close its three Grand Bank, Gaultois & Trepassy fish plants; Premier Clyde Wells intervenes, announcing $12 million subsidy until 1991, saving 1,300 jobs and 13 trawlers. St. John’s, Newfoundland
  • 1995 Parks Canada releases study showing how that human activity in Banff National Park was having adverse effects on the park’s ecosystem and wildlife. Banff, Alberta
  • 1995 Rogers Cablesystems President Colin Watson says ‘We now know we have made a mistake,’ as consumer revolt forces company to withdraw its negative option billing for seven new specialty cable-television channels; unless customers told Rogers they didn’t want the channels, they would be automatically billed for them. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1995 Rogers Cablesystems withdraws a proposed new negative option billing fee system for its service packages after major consumer protests. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1997 Livent’s Show Boat closes at the Gershwin Theater; revival produced in Toronto by Garth Drabinsky. New York, New York
  • 1997 Montreal solo sailor Gerry Roufs disappears at sea while circumnavigating the Globe. Pacific Ocean
  • 1998 Start of severe 4-day ice storm that devastates eastern Ontario and Québec; caused by a moisture laden front from the Gulf of Mexico stalling over Arctic air on the ground; will do an estimated $2 billion damage, kill 25 people and leave 3 million Canadians without electric power. Ontario/Québec
  • 2002 Military - Canada reports plans to send 900 troops to assist with peacekeeping in Afghanistan.
  • 2004 Canadian dollar value climbs above $0.78 US, for the first time since July 1993. January 5, 2004 - Hockey - Team USA defeats Canada 4-3 in the Final of the World Junior Ice Hockey Championships, at Helsinki, Finland.
  • 2007 Domed roof of BC Place Stadium in Vancouver collapses. Vancouver, BC
  • 2009 Crime - Pipeline bombing destroys a metering shed near the community of Tomslake, British Columbia; fourth explosion from 2008-09. BC January 5 - Justice - Thomas Cromwell sworn in as Supreme Court judge after PM Stephen Harper abandons plans for public selection hearings. Ottawa, Ontario