Highlights of the day

  • 1935 Thriller Writer John Buchan, Lord Tweedsmuir appointed Governor General

List of Facts for February 21

  • 1642 Charles Menou d’Aulnay 1604-1650 ordered to arrest Charles de La Tour for insubordination. Nova Scotia
  • 1731 Gilles Hocquart 1694-1783 appointed Intendant of New France; serves from August 20 to Sept. 2, 1748 Québec, Québec
  • 1812 War of 1812 - Governor Sir George Prevost opens the Lower Canada Assembly with the Speech from the Throne; warns that the European war against Napoleon could make its way across the Atlantic, and if the unfriendly attitude of the Government of the United States does not change, “I recommend an increased and unremitted care and vigilance in securing the colony from either open invasion, or insidious aggression.” Quebec, Quebec
  • 1824 Justice - Patrick Burgan, age 18, is hanged in Saint John, for stealing 25 cents. Saint John, New Brunswick
  • 1849 Pony Express carries First despatches from to Digby for relay to Saint John, New Brunswick telegraph. Halifax, Nova Scotia
  • 1881 Horace McDougall sells Winnipeg telephone system to Bell; First Winnipeg telephone directory has 42 subscribers. Winnipeg, Manitoba
  • 1889 Kootenay (British Columbia) Smelting and Trading Syndicate incorporated in London with £40,000 capital. Begins building Revelstoke plant. Completed, it worked a few weeks in 1891. The effort was abandoned in ‘92, and the remains were carried away by the Columbia in 1899.
  • 1891 Coal gas explosion in Springhill kills 129 miners. Springhill, Nova Scotia
  • 1899 R.W. Jameson shoots himself; Winnipeg’s Member of Parliament. Winnipeg, Manitoba
  • 1905 Alberta Act is introduced to the House of Commons. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1910 Vancouver, Victoria & Eastern Railway starts tunnel through Cascade Range west of Coalmont.
  • 1915 Nellie McClung presents a petition to the Alberta legislature demanding women’s suffrage. Edmonton, Alberta
  • 1918 James Alexander Lougheed 1854-1925 appointed Minister of Soldiers Civil Re-establishment; relocation, hospital care, pensions for returning soldiers and war workers Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1921 Québec the First province to establish government control of liquor; for a period of time Québec is the only jurisdiction in North America with no prohibition of alcohol. Québec, Québec
  • 1935 John Buchan 1875-1940 appointed Governor-General of Canada as Baron Tweedsmuir; Buchan was also a biographer and novelist, who wrote one of the First modern thrillers, The Thirty-Nine Steps. London, England
  • 1937 An Act respecting the teaching profession the First of its kind in Canada, which made membership in the Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation compulsary, is passed. [date? Regina, Saskatchewan
  • 1941 Canadian co-discoverer of insulin Frederick Banting 1891-1941 killed at age 49 in Newfoundland air crash en route to England on a wartime medical mission; Nobel Prize winner. Newfoundland
  • 1945 Canadian Army breaks through the Seigfried Line, reaches Goch. Goch, Germany
  • 1961 Ontario Royal Commission endorses water fluoridation to cut tooth decay. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1969 Réjane Laberge-Colas appointed to Québec Superior Court for the district of Montréal; Montréal lawyer the First woman named to the bench of a Superior Court in Canada. Montréal, Québec
  • 1972 Canada lets International Atomic Energy Agency verify Canada’s peaceful use of nuclear power. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1980 Prime Minister Joe Clark submits resignation to Governor General, three days after his Tory government was defeated by Pierre Trudeau’s Liberals. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1982 David Peterson elected leader of Ontario Liberal Party, succeeding Stuart Smith; a member of the Legislature from London, Ontario, Peterson will go on to defeat Frank Miller’s Conservatives and become Premier of the province. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1995 Chicago stockbroker Steve Fossett touches down at Leader, becoming the First person to fly solo across the Pacific Ocean in a balloon. Leader, Saskatchewan
  • 1995 Federal ombudsman releases report accusing officials of the Prison for Women in Kingston of using excessive force in quelling a disturbance in April 1994. Kingston, Ontario
  • 1995 Joint investigation started into February 19 cross-border police chase; police from New York State, the OPP and the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency meet to determine if proper procedure was followed. Niagara Falls
  • 2000 Lynda Haverstock sworn in as the 19th Lieutenant-Governor of Saskatchewan. Regina, Saskatchewan
  • 2002 Hockey - Canada’s women’s hockey team wins gold at the Salt Lake City Olympics, defeating the United States 3-2; superstitious reporters credit a “lucky loonie,” planted by Edmonton ice maker Trent Evans at centre ice, as the lucky charm that broke Canada’s 50 year losing streak. Salt Lake City, Utah
  • 2010 Olympics - Kristina Groves wins a silver medal in Women’s 1500 metre speed skating at the 2010 Winter Olympics. Vancouver, BC
  • 2010 Olympics - The Canadian Men’s hockey team are defeated by the Americans 5-3, forcing them into a more difficult path into the final rounds. Vancouver, BC