Highlights of the day

  • 1613 Samuel de Champlain publishes two volumes of his Voyages.

List of Facts for January 9

  • 1613 Samuel de Champlain publishes two volumes of his Voyages, with maps of Acadia and the St. Lawrence River. France
  • 1666 New France Governor Daniel de Remy de Courcelle 1626-1698 leads a 500-man military campaign against the Mohawks. Montreal, Quebec
  • 1669 Sulpicien Order acquires the seignory of Cavelier de La Salle. Montréal, Québec
  • 1805 Lower Canada parliament starts session that deals with prohibiting Sunday shopping and assessing a tax to pay for jails. Quebec, Quebec
  • 1838 Canadian militia capture US sloop ‘Anne’ used by republican rebels - the Hunters Lodges. Amherstburg, Ontario
  • 1862 Grenadier Guards land at Halifax to garrison the Citadel. Halifax, Nova Scotia
  • 1867 Banquet given to honour the returned delegates to the London Conference on Confederation. Montréal, Québec
  • 1867 British North America Act given First reading in the British House of Commons at Westminster. London, England
  • 1870 Charles Mair 1838-1927 escapes from Fort Garry with Thomas Scott and ten other Canadians. Winnipeg, Manitoba
  • 1882 Northern Pacific arrives in Spokane Falls. Building from the Columbia River eastward to completion in Montana Territory in September of 1883.
  • 1885 Opening of the International Bridge at Sault Ste. Marie. Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario
  • 1888 Opening of railway bridge across the St. Mary’s River to US. Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario
  • 1889 Niagara Suspension Bridge collapses during a winter storm. Queenston, Ontario
  • 1899 Manitobans suffer under a record low temperature of minus 52.8 Celsius (minus 63 Fahrenheit) . Manitoba
  • 1906 Canadian Consolidated Mines, Limited federally chartered as the Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company of Canada, Limited: W.D. Matthews, president.
  • 1908 University of Saskatchewan is inaugurated. Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
  • 1927 Blatchford Field, Edmonton’s First airfield, is opened. Edmonton, Alberta
  • 1927 Disaster - Small fire breaks out in the Laurier Palace movie theatre in Montréal; firemen arrive within 2 minutes and put out the blaze in 10 minutes, but the children panic to escape; 12 are crushed to death and 64 asphyxiated at the bases of stairways. Montréal, Québec
  • 1941 Maiden flight of Canadian built Avro Lancaster military bomber. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1944 John W. Dafoe dies; journalist, editor of the Winnipeg Free Press for over forty years. Winnipeg, Manitoba
  • 1948 Fire severely damages the Bonsecours Market building in old Montréal. Montréal, Québec
  • 1949 Tom Longboat 1888-1949 dies at age 61 on the Ohsweken Mohawk reserve. A member of the Onondaga Nation, Longboat won the 1907 Boston Marathon in record time, then pursued a pro running career. His 1909 show-down with British racer Alfie Shrubb at Madison Square Garden attracted a sell-out crowd of 12,000 and was covered extensively by the media. He then served with the Canadian Army in First World War and was wounded in action. Brantford, Ontario
  • 1950 Canada attends Commonwealth Conference on Foreign Affairs in Colombo, Ceylon; five-day meeting leads to the Columbo Plan. Colombo, Sri Lanka
  • 1954 Bert Olmstead, Montréal Canadiens, ties NHL record of 8 points in game. Montréal, Québec
  • 1957 Founding of the Canada Council/Conseil des Arts du Canada. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1959 Canada returns to Poland polish treasures taken during Second World War. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1960 Ramon Hnatyshyn marries Karen Nygaard Andreasen. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1961 CPR announces permanent closure of the Coquihalla Section of the Kettle Valley Division.
  • 1965 Just before 7 AM, Mount Outram slide buries the Crowsnest Highway in the Sunshine Valley, BC.
  • 1965 Mountain avalanche kills 4 drivers on highway near Hope. Hope, BC
  • 1967 Centennial Train leaves Victoria; travelling museum will stop in 83 communities across Canada; until December 4. Victoria, BC
  • 1971 Ottawa gives $2, 250, 000 in relief to both sides in Nigerian civil war. Biafra, Nigeria
  • 1975 600 employees of the Royal Canadian Mint go on strike. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1975 CPR closes station in Princeton, BC.
  • 1978 Severe winter storm strikes the east coast, causing destruction and coastal flooding from Virginia to Nova Scotia.
  • 1981 Roch LaSalle elected leader of the Union nationale party. Québec, Québec
  • 1981 Sault native Phil Esposito plays his final pro hockey game, helping the New York Rangers skate to a 3-3 tie with the Buffalo Sabres. Espo goes on to become General Manager and Coach of the Rangers. In 1969 and 1974, playing for the Boston Bruins, he won the Hart Memorial Trophy for Most Valuable Player in the NHL, and helped lead the Bruins to two Stanley Cup Championships in 1970 and 1972. New York, New York
  • 1982 Three moderate earthquakes measuring 5.5 to 4.9 on the Richter scale shake New Brunswick; no serious damage or injuries; last similar quake was in 1855. New Brunswick
  • 1982 A 5.9 earthquake hit New England & Canada; the 1st since 1855.
  • 1985 Flames set NHL record 264th regular season game without being shut out. Calgary, Alberta
  • 1988 Sylvana Tomaselli, from Toronto, marries the Earl of St. Andrews in a private ceremony; First Canadian to marry into the British Royal Family. Leith, Scotland
  • 1990 Judge acquits NDP MP Lorne Nystrom of shoplifting; Nystrom explained he put some contact lens cleaning discs in his pocket while distracted. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1990 NASA Shuttle flight STS-32 retrieves the Long Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF), left in orbit for nearly 6 years; contained some materials exposure experiments from the University of Toronto’s Institute for Aerospace Studies. Space
  • 1997 Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien starts Asian economic mission accompanied by premiers. Seoul, Korea
  • 1998 Over 100 teams of linemen arrive from Detroit and other parts of the US to help clean up after the ice storm; 1.3 million homes still without electricity in Québec and Eastern Ontario. Québec/Ontario
  • 2006 Opening of Canadian Figure Skating Championships; to January 15. Ottawa, Ontario