Highlights of the day

  • 1879 Sandford Fleming First Proposes Standard Time at a Lecture in Toronto
  • 1944 Tommy Prince poses as an Italian farmer to fool Germans while fixing communication lines.

List of Facts for February 8

  • 1604 Pierre de Gua de Monts c1558-1628 forms de Monts Trading Company with Champlain and Gravé du Pont; Canada’s First chartered company; with capital from Rouen, St. Malo and La Rochelle merchants . Paris, France
  • 1631 Charles I grants Cape Breton Island to Robert Gordon of Lochinvar and son Robert . London, England
  • 1631 King Louis XIII 1601-1643 names Charles de La Tour Governor and Lieutenant-General of New France and Acadia; commission partly restored after peace treaty in 1632; La Tour builds Fort Ste-Marie at mouth of Saint John River, rich fur region. Paris, France
  • 1690 Louis de Buade et de Palluau, Comte de Frontenac 1622-1698 organizes attack by Mohawk natives and French troops against Schenectady; 60 people killed, 30 captured, and the village put to the torch. Schenectady, New York
  • 1839 American and Canadian loggers clash in Aroostook lumber war over undefined boundary with Maine; truce struck on March 25. Aroostook, New Brunswick
  • 1853 J. B. Turgeon, the Mayor of Bytown, petitions town Council to change name of Bytown to Ottawa. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1853 Oregon Territory split into Oregon and Washington Territories. Isaac Ingalls Stevens appointed governor of the latter, John P. Gaines remains as the elected governor of the former. Oregon
  • 1858 Railway opens to Truro and Windsor. Halifax, Nova Scotia
  • 1879 CBC Archives)
  • 1883 Parliament - George Airey Kirkpatrick sworn in as Speaker of the House of Commons; term ends July 12, 1887; Conservative
  • 1887 Honourable Hugh Nelson commissioned lieutenant-governor of British Columbia
  • 1895 Daniel Greene resigns as Liberal Prime Minister of Newfoundland; replaced by former PM William Whiteway. St. John’s, Newfoundland
  • 1905 James Whitney 1834-1914 takes office as Premier of Ontario, replacing George Ross; first Conservative government in Ontario since 1872. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1911 Kettle Valley Railway track-laying crews westbound from Midway, BC, arrive at Rock Creek, BC.
  • 1913 Last game of the NHA (National Hockey Association) played with a seven man team between the Toronto Blueshirts and the Montréal Canadiens. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1918 George Eulas Foster 1847-1931 chairs new War Trade Board. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1918 Lieutenant-Governor Roberta MacAdams becomes the First woman in the British Empire to introduce a piece of legislation. Edmonton, Alberta
  • 1934 Hart House Glee Club gives its First concert in Hart House at the University of Toronto; will perform in the Hart House Sunday evening concert series until 1970; disband in 1972. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1936 Hockey - Charlie Conacher notches the First successful Toronto Maple Leaf penalty shot, against the New York Rangers. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1943 Second World War - HMCS Regina sinks the Italian submarine Avorio in the Mediterranean. Mediterranean Sea
  • 1944 Second World War - Sgt Tommy Prince of the 1st Canadian Special Service Battalion successfully poses as an Italian farmer tending his crops while fixing Army communication lines as Germans troops look on. Italy
  • 1945 Second World War - Beginning of the Battle of the Rhineland as the First Canadian Army attacks German positions in the Reichswald; part of Operation Veritable to Feb. 21, a joint amphibious offensive by the 1st Canadian Army and with XXX British Corps under command into the Rhineland area of Holland and into Germany west of the Rhine. Germany
  • 1945 Royal Winnipeg Rifles take part in Operation Veritable, the invasion of Nazi Germany. Germany
  • 1948 Fifth Winter Olympic games close at St Moritz. The RCAF Flyers win the Ice Hockey Gold, Ottawa’s Barbara Ann Scott takes home the Gold Medal in Figure Skating, and Suzanne Morrow & Wallace Diestalmeyer win the Bronze in Pairs Figure Skating . St. Moritz, Switzerland
  • 1952 Queen Elizabeth the Second takes the Oath of Accession to the Throne, following the death two days earlier of her father, King George the Sixth. London, England
  • 1958 Lucile Wheeler of St-Jovite, Québec, wins downhill and giant slalom titles at the World Ski championships; started skiing at Mont Tremblant at age 2; 1956 won Canada’s First Olympic ski medal, a bronze in the downhill. Kitzbuhel, Austria
  • 1959 Hillcrest, Alberta. Hillcrest Miners’ Literary and Athletic Association’s hall burns.
  • 1959 The Cantata Singers make their debut in Christ Church Cathedral, singing Bach’s Mass in B-Minor; 40-voice mixed choir under Hugh McLean, founding conductor 1958-67. Vancouver, BC
  • 1960 Federal-provincial conference on the Centennial backs Montréal bid for 1967 World’s Fair. Montréal, Québec
  • 1967 Longest losing streak in Toronto Maple Leaf history (10 games). Toronto, Ontario
  • 1969 FLQ terrorists explode bomb on McGill St. in Montréal. Montréal, Québec
  • 1979 French Premier Raymond Barre visits Québec. Québec
  • 1980 Former NHL president Clarence Campbell found guilty of conspiring to give Senator Louis Giguère a benefit in connection with a contract for airport duty-free shops; the Sky Shop affair. Montréal, Québec
  • 1983 Wayne Gretzky of the Edmonton Oilers scores all-star record four goals, all in the third period, as the Campbell Conference beats the Wales 9-3 at Nassau Coliseum. Uniondale, New York
  • 1984 Canadian team attends ceremony of lighting the Olympic flame to open the 14th Olympic Winter Games in Kosevo Stadium, Sarajevo, Yugoslavia; with 1, 579 athletes representing 49 other countries. The Olympic facilities were virtually all destroyed during the civil war in Bosnia. Sarajevo, Bosnia
  • 1985 Frank Miller becomes premier of Ontario, replacing Bill Davis after the Ontario Progressive Conservative leadership election. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1986 Disaster - Nine-car VIA Rail passenger train collides head-on with a CN freight, killing 29, injuring 93. Hinton, Alberta
  • 1987 Trial of Québec’s Levesque sisters begins in Rome; charged with possession of heroin for the purpose of trafficking; acquitted Feb. 12 Rome, Italy
  • 1990 Daniel Lanois ends his 9-country European tour with a concert at London’s Royal Festival Hall; the singer and record producer plays from his First album, Acadie; in the audience are clients and friends composer Brian Eno, U2 guitarist Dave Evans and singer Peter Gabriel. London, England
  • 1990 Jean Chrétien announces he will run for the Leadership of the federal Liberal party; on resignation of John Turner Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1992 Albertville Olympics - Canadian team attends opening of the 16th Winter Olympic Games in Albertville; to February 23. Canada finishes ninth in the medal count. Albertville, France
  • 1994 Ottawa slashes tobacco taxes to reduce rampant cigarette smuggling; Québec, Ontario and the Maritime provinces follow; failure to control smuggling. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1995 Romeo LeBlanc sworn in as Canada’s 25th Governor General; former teacher, journalist, federal Cabinet Minister; First native Acadian to hold the position. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1996 US bookstore chain Borders says it will invest in a chain of bookstores in Canada; Ottawa’s Investment Review Division will block the plan in May under the cultural exemption of NAFTA. New York, New York
  • 1997 Jean-Luc Brassard wins gold medal in free-style skiing at the World Championships in Nagano. Nagano, Japan
  • 1998 NHL stops season until Feb. 24th to accommodate the Nagano Olympic games. North America
  • 1998 Olympics - Ross Reblagliati wins the Olympic gold medal at Nagano in the first-ever Snowboarding event held at a Winter Games. Nagano, Japan
  • 2000 BC government says province’s film and TV production industry earned over $1 billion in 1999, ranking British Columbia third in North America after Los Angeles and New York. Victoria, BC
  • 2001 Lorne Calvert becomes premier of Saskatchewan, replacing Roy Romanow
  • 2005 Edmonton police chief Fred Rayner is fired after news of a police sting targeting a journalist and the chair of the city’s police board comes to light. Edmonton, Alberta
  • 2005 Julian Fantino is appointed Ontario’s new commissioner of emergency management; former Toronto police chief.
  • 2010 Justice - CFB Trenton Base Commander Colonel Russell Williams charged with two counts of murder against two women and two counts of sexual assault of another two women. Belleville, Ontario