Highlights of the day

  • 1838 Robert Nelson launches raid from Vermont; proclaims himself President of the Provisional Republic of Lower Canada
  • 1952 Vincent Massey installed as first Canadian-born Governor General of Canada
  • 2010 Sydney’s Crosby’s overtime goal gives Canada to a 3-2 victory over the United States in the hockey Gold Medal Game at the Vancouver Olympics.

List of Facts for February 28

  • 1788 American Revolutionary War - Nova Scotia Governor John Parr approves a land grant for 184 Black Loyalist supporters of the British Crown at Birchtown, Shelburne County; over 3,000 black Loyalists had been evacuated from the rebellious colonies to the south. Halifax, Nova Scotia
  • 1825 Boundary - Britain and Russia sign a treaty settling the land border between Canada and Alaska, then a Russian possession. London, England
  • 1834 Louis-Joseph Papineau presents the March 1 and sent to London; Governor Lord Aylmer wrote that “eleven of them represented the truth; six contained truth mixed with falsehood; sixteen were wholly false; seventeen were doubtful; twelve were ridiculous; seven repetitions; fourteen consisted of abuse; four were both false and seditious; and the remaining five were indifferent.” the 92 Resolutions were ignored for almost three years. Québec, Québec
  • 1838 Lower Canada Rebellion - Robert Nelson raids Lower Canada from Vermont with Cyrille Côté and American sympathizers; proclaims himself President of the Provisional Republic of Lower Canada; stopped by militia and forced to retreat. Week’s House, Québec
  • 1855 Postal - Governor and Council of Assiniboia authorize the creation of a post office at Red River. Manitoba
  • 1860 Opening of third session of sixth Parliament of Canada; meets until May 19, 1860; defeats two George Brown measures declaring the Union of Canada a failure.
  • 1860 Education - Opening of Woodstock College. Woodstock, Ontario
  • 1862 Military - Founding of the 8th Battalion Volunteer Militia Rifles; origin of the Royal Rifles of Canada. Montreal, Quebec
  • 1876 Architecture - Opening of the gothic Parliamentary Library in Ottawa. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1877 Education - Founding of the University of Manitoba by provincial statute. Winnipeg, Manitoba
  • 1889 Business - Gilbert Ganong, of Ganong Bros. patents a process for imprinting the bottom of individual chocolates with a word mark; each hand-dipped treat bears the initials “GB”. St. Stephen, New Brunswick
  • 1900 Politics - Joseph Martin sworn in as Conservative Premier of British Columbia, replacing Charles Semlin. Victoria, BC
  • 1906 Third session of 14th Parliament meets until July 19, 1906; census made basis of Commons representation; income tax exemption per child. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1911 Rail - Kettle Valley Railway trackage pushed to the crossing of the Kettle River upstream from Rock Creek. BC
  • 1912 Farming - Saskatchewan Purchasing Company is established. Regina, Saskatchewan
  • 1915 First World War - Troops from Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry launch one of the war’s first trench raids;; 100 Patricias set out before dawn to capture and destroy a German sap trench; they suffer 20 casualties, but the German trench is destroyed; as the war progresses the Canadians will come to be regarded as the experts in trench raiding. France
  • 1923 Peter Veniot sworn in as Premier of New Brunswick, replacing Walter Foster. Fredericton, NB
  • 1924 Hockey - Ottawa Silver 7 beat Queen’s University Kingston to win the Stanley Cup. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1925 Hockey - Toronto Maple Leafs extend win streak to 9 games; longest in Leaf history to date. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1929 Music - Montréal-born Wilfrid Pelletier appointed regular conductor at the Metropolitan Opera in New York; will hold the position until 1950. New York, New York
  • 1931 Football - Canadian Rugby Union adopts the forward pass in football. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1932 Environment - International Joint Commission fines Consolidated Mining and Smelting $350,000 and awards it to downstream Washington farmers in compensation for pollution damages. Washington, DC
  • 1935 Rail - US Interstate Commerce Commission allows the Great Northern Railroad (GN) to discontinue service between Curlew and Molson, Washington State, which also service parts of southern BC; hardware removed by year’s end. Washington, DC
  • 1936 Labour - Charges against the five leaders of the On to Ottawa Trek are dropped. Regina, Saskatchewan
  • 1946 V.J. Creeden of Hedley Mascot Mines reads an obituary on Duncan Woods, late owner of the Mascot Fraction at Hedley, BC
  • 1952 Vincent Massey installed as First Canadian-born Governor General of Canada; serves 1952-59; former President of the Massey-Harris Company 1921-25; Canada’s First Ambassador to the United States 1926-30; Canadian High Commissioner in London 1935-46. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1956 Human Rights - Chatham restaurant fined $50 for refusing to serve two black students. Chatham, Ontario
  • 1959 Figure Skating - Canadians Barbara Wagner and Bob Paul win the Ice Pairs competition at the World Figure Skating Championships at Colorado Springs; their third championship in a row; they will repeat the feat in 1960. Colorado Springs, Colorado
  • 1960 Olympics - Closing of the VIII Winter Olympics at Squaw Valley; Canada takes home two gold medals: Anne Heggtveit for Slalom Skiing and Barbara Wagner and Bob Paul for Pairs Figure Skating, as well as a silver in Hockey (Kitchener-Waterloo Dutchmen) and a bronze in Men’s Figure Skating (Donald Jackson). Lake Tahoe, California
  • 1964 Aviation - Opening of Toronto International Airport terminal building. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1968 Politics - Lester Pearson survives non-confidence motion by 138 votes to 119. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1972 Symbols - Secretary of State Gérard Pelletier presents a bill in the House of Commons proposing the adoption of “O Canada” as the National Anthem of Canada. The recommendations of the 1967 study in Parliament are incorporated in the bill, which did not receive further study in Parliament and died on the order paper. The same legislation will be reintroduced by Mr. Pelletier’s successors at further sessions of Parliament; no action is taken. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1975 Politics - Parliament passes law giving the Northwest Territories a second NWT MP. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1975 State Visit - Pierre Trudeau starts 16-day European tour for closer ties with the European Economic Community. Europe
  • 1977 Rail - Parliament creates VIA Rail Canada Inc.; Crown corporation to operate passenger rail service. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1983 Production - Statistics Canada reports Canadian Gross National Product fell 4.8% in 1982; sharpest GNP decline since 1933 Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1984 Politics - Pierre Trudeau goes for a walk in an Ottawa blizzard and decides to resign; announces decision the following day; Canada’s 15th Prime Minister. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1985 Crime - Publisher and Holocaust denier Ernst Zundel convicted for publishing false news, fermenting racial intolerance and distributing hate literature, in a book that said the mass extermination of Jews in Germany in Second World War never occurred. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1986 Westar Mining Limited (formerly the British Columbia Coal Division of the British Columbia Resources Investment Corporation) closes the Balmer North mine. Michel, BC
  • 1987 Music - Hank Snow, Wilf Carter and Tommy Hunter the First artists inducted into the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame; posthumous artists also inducted are Joe Brown (leader of the Family Brown), Don Messer, Orval Prophet and music publisher William Harold Moon. Edmonton, Alberta
  • 1988 Olympics - Closing of the 15th Winter Olympic Games in Calgary. The host country fails to win gold, but Canadians win two silver medals, in Singles Figure Skating (February 20 - Brian Orser and February 27, 1988 - Elizabeth Manley), as well as bronze in Ice Dancing (February 23, 1988 - Tracy Wilson & Rob McCall), Womens Downhill (February 19, 1988 - Karen Percy) and Womens Super G (February 22, 1988 - Karen Percy again). Calgary, Alberta
  • 1990 Hockey - Game between Edmonton Oilers and Los Angeles Kings leaves its mark with 85 penalties.
  • 1994 Music - Québec pop diva Céline Dion makes her New York singing debut in a concert at Town Hall. New York, New York
  • 1995 Education - Judicial report on sexual abuse of boys at Kingsclear Training Centre released; critical of bureaucratic indifference that allowed abuse to continue for almost 30 years. Fredericton, New Brunswick
  • 1996 Music - Ottawa native Alanis Morissette wins four Grammy awards - best rock song and best female rock vocal for You Oughta Know, and album of the year and rock album of the year for Jagged Little Pill; at the 38th annual Grammy Awards; Canadians pick up a total of 11 Grammys, including two by Joni Mitchell for her album Turbulent Indigo. Los Angeles, California
  • 1996 Human Rights - Supreme Court of Canada restores former Alberta teacher Jim Keegstra’s conviction for promoting anti-Semitism. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1998 Olympics - Close of the 18th Winter Olympic Games at Nagano; Canada takes home six gold, five silver and four bronze medals to place fifth behind Germany (29), Norway (24), Russia (17) and Austria (16); a few Canadian Firsts: most medals (15), most gold (6), most double-medal winners (3), First snowboard gold in Olympic history, First curling gold in Olympic history, and Canada finished ahead of the United States for the First time since the Winter Olympics began in 1924. Nagano, Japan
  • 1998 Hockey - Vancouver Canucks Captain Mark Messier the 4th NHLer to get 1,600 points as his team comes up with a four-goal third period to beat the Ottawa Senators 6-4; joins an elite group with Wayne Gretzky, Gordie Howe and Marcel Dionne. Vancouver, BC
  • 2003 Energy - Fording, Inc. converted into Fording Canadian Coal Trust in association with Teck Cominco, Westshore Terminals Income Fund and Sherritt Coal Partnership II (a partnership of Sherritt International and the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan). Vancouver, BC
  • 2004 Police - RCMP Corporal Jim Galloway dies after being shot in the back after a six-hour standoff with a schizophrenic man outside his house; a 34-year service veteran and K-9 force dog handler. Spruce Grove, Alberta
  • 2004 Canadian businessman James Sabzali, living in Philadelphia since 1996, fined and sentenced to a year probation for violating the United States trade embargo against Cuba. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
  • 2009 Energy - Horizon oil sands project produces its first synthetic crude oil after four years of construction work; owner Canadian Natural Resources Ltd (CNRL). Fort McMurray, Alberta
  • 2010 Olympics - Sydney’s Crosby’s overtime goal leads Canada to a 3-2 victory over the United States in the Gold Medal Game in Ice hockey at the 2010 Winter Olympics. U.S. goalie Ryan Miller is named MVP of the tournament; Canada’s hockey gold medal is the country’s 14th gold, making it the most gold ever won by one country in the Winter Olympics. Vancouver, BC February 28 - Olympics - Closing ceremonies of the 2010 Winter Olympics are held in BC Place. Vancouver, BC