Highlights of the day

  • 1623 Louis Hebert, Canada’s First French Colonist, Granted First Seigneury in New France.
  • 1839 Lord Durham Hands in His Report.
  • 1924 Toronto Granites Win Hockey Gold at First Winter Olympic games in Chamonix, France.

List of Facts for February 4

  • 1623 Louis Hebert granted seigneury of Sault-au-Matelot by the Duc de Montmorency; first of 150 seigneuries founded during the French regime; beginning of feudal system to 1854. Québec, Québec
  • 1629 David & Lewis Kirke found Company of Adventurers to Canada with Sir William Alexander; to capture St. Lawrence and remove French. London, England
  • 1667 Alexandre de Prouville, Marquis de Tracy c1596-1670 hosts First ball held in New France, to celebrate his victories over the Mohawks. Québec, Québec
  • 1783 England declares formal cessation of hostilities with the United States, ending the American Revolutionary War. London, England
  • 1812 War of 1812 - Lt Gov Isaac Brock opens a new session of the Upper Canada Legislature at York. Read his Speech.
  • 1817 William Botsford appointed Speaker of the NB Legislative Assembly. Saint John, New Brunswick
  • 1839 John Lambton, Lord Durham 1792-1840 submits his ‘Report on the Affairs of British North America’ to British Colonial Office; ‘Radical Jack’ recommends the anglicization of French Canadians to make them a minority. London, England
  • 1839 John ‘Radical Jack’ Lambton, Lord Durham 1792-1840 hands his Report on the Affairs of British North America to British Prime Minister. The former Governor of the colony blames the power of the Family Compact and Chateau Clique for the 1837 rebellions, and recommends uniting the Canadas under one responsible government, with English the only official language, so as to assimilate the French Canadians. London, England
  • 1856 New round-trip speed record for the ice-boat service to Cape Traverse, Prince Edward Island; winter crossing completed in six hours. Cape Tormentine, New Brunswick
  • 1858 Gold is discovered along British Columbia’s Fraser River; leads to gold rush. Langley, BC
  • 1873 Winnipeg awarded city charter. Winnipeg, Manitoba
  • 1876 Manitoba abolishes its Legislative Council or upper house. Winnipeg, Manitoba
  • 1880 James Donnelly, his wife Johannah, niece Bridget and sons Thomas and John are slain by night riders in Biddulph Township, north of London; six men will be acquitted in the ‘Black Donnelly’ murder case, after two trials. Members of the ‘White Boys’ faction likely carried out the crime, carrying into Canada an old religious feud originating in County Tipperary, Ireland. Lucan, Ontario
  • 1884 Valantine Baker Pasha, James Baker’s brother, defeated by Osman Digna and his Fuzzie-Wuzzies in the Sudan.
  • 1885 North West Rebellion - Lt. Governor Edgar Dewdney receives word from Ottawa about the creation of a Métis land claims commission. Regina, Saskatchewan
  • 1891 Gustavus Blin Wright, C.T. Dupont, P.C. Dunlevy, C.G. Major and H.S. Mason provincially incorporate the Nelson and Fort Sheppard Railway Company for Daniel Chase Corbin.
  • 1896 Robert Terrill Rundle dies; Methodist missionary and circuit clergyman; First resident cleric in Alberta. Alberta
  • 1901 Québec City revives its Winter Carnival; now a permanent annual event Québec, Québec
  • 1903 Montréal AAAs beat Winnipeg Victorias 2 games to 1, with 1 tie to win the Stanley Cup. Montréal, Québec
  • 1904 Swift Current, later to become Saskatchewan’s seventh city, becomes an organized village. Swift Current, Saskatchewan
  • 1905 Hillcrest Coal & Coke incorporated.
  • 1915 Military - Lieutenant W. F. Sharpe becomes the first Canadian military airman killed; after a training accident. Camp Borden, Ontario
  • 1920 Eaton Choral Society gives its First concert; becomes became the Eaton Operatic Society in 1932, presenting operettas in the Eaton Auditorium at the company’s College Street store each spring until 1965; originally made up of employees of the T. Eaton Company. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1924 End of what is regarded as the First Winter Olympic games, a gathering of 16 national teams at the International Winter Sports Week; Toronto Granites hockey team brings home the Gold Medal for Canada in Ice Hockey, outscoring the opposition 110-3 against Switzerland, Czechoslovakia, Sweden, and Great Britain. Chamonix, France
  • 1932 Canadian team attends ceremonies, as New York Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt opens the 3rd Winter Olympiad in Lake Placid; with total 17 nations and 306 competitors; to Feb. 15; Olympic Games will return there in 1980. Lake Placid, New York
  • 1937 Glen Gray and his Casa Loma Orchestra record A Study in Brown, on Decca Records. New York, New York
  • 1945 First Canadian Corps ordered to rejoin First Canadian Army on western front. France
  • 1954 Woodworkers’ strike in Cranbrook, BC, ends.
  • 1958 Justice Kellock issues report of the Kellock Royal Commission; rules fireman unnecessary on CPR diesel railway engines. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1963 Military - Defence Minister Douglas Harkness resigns after Prime Minster John Diefenbaker refuses to accept US nuclear warheads for Bomarc missiles. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1965 Newfoundland government changes the name of Hamilton Falls in Labrador to Churchill Falls to honour British Prime Minister WInston Churchill. St. John’s, Newfoundland
  • 1965 Cinema - Nova Scotia Board of Film Censors bans the film “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”, deeming it inappropriate for the province’s theatres. Halifax, Nova Scotia - See
  • 1970 Liberian-registered tanker Arrow goes aground, splitting in two and spilling 15, 500 metric tons of bunker C crude oil; inquiry will blame improper navigation. Chedabucto Bay, Nova Scotia
  • 1973 Yvon Dupuis elected leader of the Ralliement Créditiste du Québec. Montréal, Québec
  • 1975 Ottawa, Alberta and Ontario agree to invest $600 million in Syncrude Canada, to develop the Athabasca tar sands. Fort McMurray, Alberta
  • 1976 Canadian team attends opening of the 12th Winter Olympic Games in Innsbruck; with total 37 nations and 1128 competitors; to Feb. 15. Innsbruck, Austria
  • 1976 Cinema - Nova Scotia Supreme Court rules that the province does not have right to censor motion pictures. Halifax, Nova Scotia
  • 1976 Cinema - The Supreme Court of Canada rules provinces cannot censor movies. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1977 Official Languages Commissioner Keith Spicer recommends use of French as the language of work for Québec employees of Air Canada and CN Rail. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1982 Canada joins 20 other nations in signing a UN declaration against ‘torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.’ United Nations, New York
  • 1987 Wayne Gretzky scores his 50th goal of the season against Minnesota North Stars.
  • 1992 Gulf Canada pulls out of the Hibernia oil project; Gulf’s 25% stake acquired by Ottawa, the remaining Hibernia partners and Murphy Oil. St. John’s, Newfoundland
  • 1992 Striking Royal Canadian Mint workers begin to return to work in Winnipeg. Winnipeg, Manitoba
  • 1997 Penguins’ Mario Lemieux the 7th NHL player to score 600 goals. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
  • 1999 Nine out of Canada’s 10 provinces, excluding Québec, sign a Social Accord; commits them to partner among themselves and with the federal government to implement social programs.
  • 2002 Energy - PanCanadian Energy and Alberta Energy merge to create Encana Corp., today one of Canada’s largest companies. That deal creates North America’s largest natural gas producer and brings together two of the premiere in situ (produced by drilling rather than digging) oil sands holdings; along with conventional oil holdings in the Gulf of Mexico, North Sea, South America and the Middle East. It also creates the largest market capitalization corporation ever headquartered west of Toronto, and one of the top three in the country. Dick Haskayne, a Canadian business icon who served on Alberta Energy’s board and then EnCana’s, recalled the event in his memoirs, entitled Northern Tigers: “While we didn’t call it a Northern Tiger then, we knew it was a flagship corporation … reflected in the headlines such as ‘world’s largest independent exploration and production company.’” Calgary, Alberta
  • 2009 2009 Four Continents Figure Skating Championships opens in Vancouver, BC.