Highlights of the day

  • 1870 Louis Riel’s administration executes Thomas Scott at Fort Garry
  • 1982 Bertha Wilson appointed first woman justice of the Supreme Court of Canada

List of Facts for March 4

  • 1791 Constitutional Act introduced in the British House of Commons; to divide Québec into Upper and Lower Canada. London, England
  • 1814 War of 1812 - Americans defeat British at Battle of Longwoods; between London and Thamesville. Wardsville, Ontario
  • 1837 Bishop Alexander Macdonnell founds Regiopolis College, in the Hotel Dieu, Kingston. Kingston, Ontario
  • 1837 Fort Erie Canal Company incorporated. Fort Erie, Ontario
  • 1848 Sherwood-Daly Ministry resigns. Montréal, Québec
  • 1865 Samuel Leonard Tilley 1818-1896 defeated in New Brunswick elections; a vote against Confederation. New Brunswick
  • 1868 Founding of Young Men’s Christian Association in Toronto. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1868 Royal Canadian Yacht Club (RCYC) chartered in Toronto. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1870 Louis Riel’s administration executes Ontario Orangeman Thomas Scott at Fort Garry in what is then still Rupert’s Land. Winnipeg, Manitoba
  • 1871 Sandford Fleming appointed engineer in charge of the Canadian Pacific Railway survey. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1881 St. Thomas gets city charter. St. Thomas, Ontario
  • 1890 British Columbia provincial Standing Committee on Railways rejects D.C. Corbin’s proposal to build his proposed Kettle River Valley Railroad from Columbia to Coast.
  • 1895 J.H. Turner replaces Davie as conservative premier of British Columbia
  • 1897 BC: City of Rossland incorporated.
  • 1899 First rail shipment of St. Eugene ore leaves Aldridge near Moyie.
  • 1902 First issue of the High River Eye Opener (later the Calgary Eye Opener) is published. High River, Alberta
  • 1910 CPR crew of 63 men at Rogers Pass are shovelling a previous avalanche from Cheops Mountain off the track, when they are hit by another slide from Avalanche Mountain on the opposite side of the valley just before midnight. All but one of the railroad workers perished. Revelstoke, BC
  • 1910 Great Roger’s Pass avalanche kills 62 CP employees.
  • 1910 Pope Pius X establishes the Archdiocese of Regina. Regina, Saskatchewan
  • 1924 Much of commercial Yahk, BC, burns.
  • 1930 British Columbia Osoyoos Board of Trade organized.
  • 1933 Toronto Stock Exchange stays open as US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt closes all US banks and stock exchanges; puts embargo on gold exports; good for Canadian mining shares; $US down 35 cents. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1941 Second World War - All Japanese-Canadians are registered by the government
  • 1943 Second World War - HMCS St. Croix and HMCS Shediac attack and sink U-87 200 miles west of Portugal; this U-boat was attacked by shore based aircraft outside Halifax harbour a few months earlier. Eastern Atlantic
  • 1946 Communist MP Fred Rose and 13 others charged with spying for the Soviet Union; result of Gouzenko revelations. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1956 Giovanni Gronchi, President of Italy, addresses joint session of Senate and House of Commons. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1957 Guy Mollet Prime, Minister of France, addresses Parliament. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1961 John George Diefenbaker 1895-1979 starts three-day visit to Belfast, Northern Ireland, and Dublin, Ireland; First Canadian prime minister to officially visit Ireland. Ireland
  • 1964 United Nations Security Council adopts resolution to appoint a mediator and establish a UN peace-keeping force in Cyprus; Canada ready to send troops. New York, New York
  • 1966 Canadian Pacific DC-8 explodes on landing at Tokyo, killing 64 people, including 18 Canadians. Tokyo, Japan
  • 1966 Demonstrators protest Vietnam war on Parliament Hill. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1966 Munsinger Affair - Liberal Justice Minister Lucien Cardin breaks news of the Munsinger Affair scandal, involving former Diefenbaker Associate Minister of National Defence Pierre Sevigny and his relationship with Gerda Munsinger, known to the RCMP as a prostitute with East German contacts; Canada’s first major political sex scandal Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1966 Studebaker of Canada stops car production. Hamilton, Ontario
  • 1967 4,500 civic clerical workers accept two-year contract; end 34-day strike with City of Montréal. Montréal, Québec
  • 1968 Lester Pearson suspends diplomatic relations with the African country of Gabon. Gabon
  • 1969 RCMP to replace remaining dog teams with snowmobiles. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1971 Pierre Elliott Trudeau marries Margaret Sinclair in St. Stephen’s Roman Catholic Church; First Prime Minister to marry while in office; couple divorce in 1984. Vancouver, BC
  • 1975 Media - Politics - Television cameras are allowed to film in Parliament of Canada[; [First TV coverage of a Canadian parliamentary committee. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1977 The Rolling Stones, in Toronto to record their Love You Live album, make a rare nightclub appearance at the El Mocambo tavern, advertised only as a performance by the opening act, April Wine. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1981 Hockey - Guy Lafleur of the Montréal Canadiens scores his 1,000th NHL point against the Winnipeg Jets. Montréal, Québec
  • 1981 Ontario Labour Relations Board rules that Westroc Industries had right to lock out employees in July. Mississauga, Ontario
  • 1982 Bertha Wilson appointed First woman to sit on Supreme Court of Canada; Ontario Court of Appeal Justice; serves until Jan, 1991. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1982 Leslie Nielsen starts in new ABC comedy program, Police Squad, starring Regina born comedian. Los Angeles, California
  • 1982 Mike Bossy of the new York Islanders scores his 50th goal of the season against Toronto Maple Leafs.
  • 1986 Richard Manuel, of the rock group, the Band, found hanged in the bathroom of his motel room; 42-year-old keyboardist from Stratford, Ont. joined Ronnie Hawkins and The Hawks in the early’60s, and moved to the US in 1965 to become Bob Dylan’s backing band; 1968 released First LP, Music From the Big Pink; hits include The Weight, Up on Cripple Creek and Rag Mama Rag; buried in Avondale Cemetery, Stratford. Winter Park, Florida
  • 1987 Aboriginal - Department of Indian Affairs strikes tentative deal to grant the Lubicon Lake band a 66-square-kilometre piece of land. Lubicon Lake, Alberta
  • 1989 Politics - Ed Broadbent announces resignation as NDP leader after 14 years as an MP; leadership convention in December; Oshawa MP succeeded by Yukon MP Audrey McLaughlin. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1989 Hockey - Wayne Gretzky scores his 50th goal of the season against Philadelphia Flyers.
  • 1990 Music - David Bowie launches his Sound and Vision world tour in Québec, with hit songs from the past 20 years, including Space Oddity from 1969. Québec, Québec
  • 1993 Military - Canadian peacekeeping soldiers shoot 2 Somalis outside Canadian compound at Belet Huer; one dies. Belet Huer, Somali Republic
  • 1994 Toronto actor John Candy dies at 43 of a heart attack while filming Wagons East on location in Mexico; Candy was a Second City TV Network regular (Johnny LaRue/The Shmenge brothers’Yosh); his films include Radio Candy, 1941, Stripes, National Lampoon’s Vacation, The Three Amigos!, Summer Rental, Brewster’s Millions, The Great Outdoors, Splash, Planes Trains & Automobiles, Home Alone (with Catherine O’Hara), JFK, Uncle Buck, Camp Candy, Cool Runnings. Durango, Mexico
  • 1995 Canadian classical guitarist Liona Boyd plays an hour long concert for the jurors and deputy sheriffs in the O.J. Simpson murder trial, sequestered in a hotel. Los Angeles, California
  • 2001 Music - Bruce Cockburn inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame
  • 2002 Science - Federal government allows stem cell research using human embryos