Highlights of the day

  • 1922 Banting and Best administer the first successful test on a human patient with diabetes, Leonard Thompson, age 14
  • 2016 Stephen Harper leads Conservatives to minority in 39th Canadian General Election, ending 13 years fo Liberal rule.

List of Facts for January 23

  • 1834 Fire destroys the old Château Saint-Louis, originally built by Samuel de Champlain, and home to the Governors of New France. Québec, Québec
  • 1836 Francis Bond Head arrives in Toronto to replace John Colborne as Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada; he appoints Reformers Robert Baldwin, John Rolph and John Dunn to the Executive Council in an effort to quell potential rebellion; Colborne moves to Montréal to take command of the military in the Canadas. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1863 Finance - Toronto Stock Exchange introduces First regular daily trading sessions. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1870 Red River Rebellion - John Schultz escapes from Fort Garry. Winnipeg, Manitoba
  • 1870 Aboriginal - U.S. army’s Second Cavalry massacres Heavy Runner’s Piikani (Piegan) clan in what is now Montana. Montana
  • 1883 Holiday - Montrealers celebrate winter with the city’s First ice palace carnival. Montréal, Québec
  • 1888 Energy - Natural gas discovered in Kingsville by well drillers. Kingsville, Ontario
  • 1895 Invention - Romaine Callender demonstrates his automatic telephone in New York; inventor from Brantford, Ontario. New York, New York
  • 1901 King Edward VII starts reign; to 1910; most public events in country cancelled on death of Queen Victoria. London, England
  • 1901 Fire ravages the city of Montreal, doing over $2.5 million in property damage. Montréal, Québec
  • 1902 Hockey - Winnipeg Victorias sweep Toronto Wellingtons in 2 games to win the Stanley Cup. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1910 Disaster - CPR derailment, at Spanish River near Sudbury kills 43. Sudbury, Ontario
  • 1915 Rail - William Mackenzie drives the last spike of the troubled Canadian Northern Railway at Basque, British Columbia. Basque, BC
  • 1918 Disaster - Mining - Coal gas explosion kills eighty-eight men in the Allan Shaft at Stellarton. Stellarton, Nova Scotia
  • 1922 Medicine - First successful test on a human patient with diabetes occurrs when a 2nd dose of insulin is 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; 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. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1935 Weather - Thermometer hits -60C, the lowest temperature ever recorded in Ontario. Iroquois Falls, Ontario
  • 1936 Holiday - Saskatchewan becomes the First province of Canada to officially recognize the Norse discovery of Canada, by making October 9 Lief Erikson Day. Regina, Saskatchewan
  • 1940 Energy - Eugene Coste dies; father of Canada’s natural gas industry; Calgary’s Coste House is named after him. Calgary, Alberta
  • 1941 Second World War - German prisoner of war Franz von Werra escapes from a train and makes it back to Germany, only to die in action a year later; the only German POW to make a successful escape in Canada. Prescott, Ontario
  • 1946 Disaster - RCAF Dakota slams into Mt. Ptolemy near Crowsnest Lake; seven dead. Crowsnest Lake, Alberta
  • 1949 Fire destroys the Regina transit barns, torching most of its 38 buses and streetcars. Regina, Saskatchewan
  • 1954 Hockey - NHL Toronto Maple Leafs take their undefeated streak to 18 games, the longest in their history. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1967 Investment - Walter Gordon heads ministerial committee to look at foreign ownership in the Canadian economy. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1972 Terrorism - Terrorists throw four firebombs at the Soviet consulate in Montréal, doing slight damage. Montréal, Québec
  • 1975 Taxation - Media - Ottawa announces it will end tax breaks to Canadian companies advertising in Canadian (split-run) editions of foreign magazines such as Time and Reader’s Digest. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1984 Gambling - Stuart Kelly and wife Lillian Kelly of Brantford collect $13, 890, 588.80 for winning ticket in Lotto 6-49; largest to date. Brantford, Ontario
  • 1992 Environment - Supreme Court of Canada rules that the federal government can conduct environmental reviews on any projects under its jurisdiction. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1995 Military - Somalia Affair - Defence Minister David Collenette disbands the Canadian Airborne Regiment, based at Petawawa, Ontario, effective March 5, 1975; troops will be distributed among other regiments; some of its soldiers were found to be involved in the death of a Somali boy during a UN mission, and videotaped revelations of illegal hazing rituals had also emerged. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1995 Justice - Ontario Court of Appeal acquits Guy-Paul Morin of 1984 sex-slaying of his nine-year-old neighbor, Christine Jessop of Queensville, Ontario; conviction overturned on basis of DNA evidence proving he could not have been the killer; Morin had spent 11 years in prison. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1995 Energy - Smelting - British Columbia blocks Alcan’s $1.3-billion (Canadian) Kemano, BC power dam development, citing the threat to its salmon fishery. Victoria, BC
  • 1998 Banking - Royal Bank of Canada and Bank of Montreal announce plans to merge; later scuttled by the federal government. Toronto, Ontario
  • 2005 Weather - Blizzard slows travel to a crawl across wide areas of the Northeast; snowstorm with wind gusting to 100 kph makes highways treacherous; hundreds of airline flights cancelled. Canada
  • 2006 39th Canadian General Election - Stephen Harper leads Conservative Party of Canada to minority victory, ending 13 years fo Liberal rule; wins 40.3% of the seats, or 124 out of 308, up from 99 seats in 2004, and 36.3% of votes: up from 29.6% in the 2004 election. Harper pledges to carry out his campaign promises to cut taxes, get tough on crime and repair strained ties with Washington. Harper the first Conservative Prime Minister in 13 years.
  • 2006 Farming - Alberta officials confirm that a cow had tested positive for mad cow disease. Alberta
  • 2009 Cinema - Dan Bigras releases film “3 saisons” in Quebec.