Highlights of the day

  • 1617 Louis Hébert the First Colonist of New France Happy Birthday Toronto: March 6, 1834
  • 1617 Louis Hébert signs agreement to become the First colonist of New France; he is a farmer and apothecary, and will provide herbal medicines to the inhabitants. Quebec, Quebec
  • 1645 Founding of la Compagnie des Habitants; gets trade and colonization rights to New France; succeeds Company of New France; the colonists agree to maintain the colony of New France in the future, and release the Company from its obligation to settle the common expenses required for the maintenance and nomination of the members of the clergy, governors, second officers, captains, soldiers and the garrisons of the forts of said country, as well as from all other charges in general. Paris, France

List of Facts for March 6

  • 1811 Thomas Douglas, Lord Selkirk 1771-1820, a Hudson’s Bay Company stock holder, pays the Company 10 shillings for 74 million acres of land in Red River valley.
  • 1834 City of Toronto, formerly York, incorporated under its original name, from “Le passage de toronto,” a portage route to the Lac de Toronto - Lake Simcoe. The town’s population is now 10, 000; first municipal election to be held March 27; William Lyon Mackenzie will be elected the First mayor. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1834 Incorporation of London and Gore (later Great Western) Railway between Hamilton and London; First railway incorporated in Upper Canada. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1837 British Parliament passes Lord John Russell’s Ten Resolutions; the Governor of Lower Canada can now pay salaries of officials; without approval of the Assembly, who are refusing to vote funds. London, England
  • 1852 Group of Toronto brokers frame’a code of Rules and Regulations’for Toronto Stock Exchange. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1852 Newfoundland Electric Telegraph completed between St. John’s and Carbonear. Newfoundland
  • 1873 Alexander Mackenzie 1822-1892 appointed Leader of the Liberal Party and Leader of the Opposition, replacing George Brown. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1880 Governor General John Douglas Sutherland, Marquis of Lorne 1845-1914 helps found the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1884 Opening of free public library in Toronto; today’s Toronto Public Library. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1886 Residents in the Upper Columbia valley dispatch a letter to their Member of Parliament expressing concern over Baillie-Grohman’s Canal Flats diversion project.
  • 1889 Emile Zola’s novels seized and destroyed by customs officers after they are ruled obscene. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1901 Ottawa increases Pacific Cable subsidy to $2 million. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1906 Motion to allow women to vote in Edmonton civic elections is defeated after Mayor Gus May changed his vote. Edmonton, Alberta
  • 1907 William Pugsley becomes premier of New Brunswick, replacing Lemuel Tweedie.
  • 1918 John Oliver becomes premier of BC. British Columbia
  • 1909 Samuel Carter appointed First President of Co-operative Union of Canada, an insurance company founded at Gore Park in Hamilton; native of Guelph; origin of The Cooperators. Hamilton, Ontario
  • 1918 John Oliver replaces Brewster as Liberal premier of British Columbia Initiates irrigation/settlement project in South Okanagan.
  • 1919 Montreal Canadiens beat the Ottawa Senators in 3 games for the NHL Championship. Montreal, Quebec
  • 1925 12, 000 Nova Scotia coal miners go on strike until August 6. Truro, Nova Scotia
  • 1934 Last face-off for the old Ottawa Senators as they play their last game against the New York Rangers; will relocate to St. Louis, Missouri, in the 1934-35 season. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1938 Stuart Taylor Wood, C.M.G., appointed nineth Commissioner of the RCMP (to April 30, 1951).
  • 1940 Second World War - Founding of the wartime Agricultural Supplies Board. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1940 Second World War - HMC Ships Chaudiere, Gatineau, St. Catherine’s, Chilliwack, and Fennel, assisted by HMS Icarus and HMS Kenilworth Castle, attack and force German submarine U-744 to the surface after over thirty hours of constant hunting in the North Atlantic; the vessel is sunk.
  • 1948 Energy - Atlantic Leduc No. 3 near the Leduc discovery becomes so saturated and weak that the land craters in, swallowing the drilling rig and causing a fire that burns for 3 days until it could be put out; the well blows wild for almost seven months. Alberta
  • 1957 Constitution - Supreme Court of Canada nullifies Québec’s Padlock Law of 1937 on the grounds that the matter was under federal and not provincial jurisdiction. Brought in by Premier Maurice Duplessis, the Act Respecting Communistic Propaganda gave provincial police the power to close or padlock any building used to promote communism or bolshevism for one year (the owner could appeal the decision after a year); the Act also let Quebec’s Attorney General confiscate or destroy any printed material to this end, and jail anyone printing, publishing or distributing such material for one year, without appeal. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1959 Ernie Richardson rink of Regina captures its First of four MacDonald Brier curling championships. Saskatchewan
  • 1959 Raymond Burr wins for best actor in a series at the 11th Emmy Awards for his work in TV’s Perry Mason. Los Angeles, California
  • 1962 Religion - Sons of Freedom Doukhobor dissidents dynamite electric power pylon on eastern shore of Kootenay Lake at 11:30 pm, bringing down the power lines and blacking out the East Kootenays. Riondel, BC
  • 1966 City of Winnipeg is immobilized for three days (March 4-6) by the blizzard of 1966. Winnipeg, Manitoba
  • 1969 National Library in Ottawa mounts a display of Wilfrid Laurier’s papers and memorabilia; first exhibit of its kind in Canada. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1977 Hockey - Guy Lafleur of the Montréal Canadiens scores his 50th goal of the season against Buffalo Sabres.
  • 1985 Hockey - Michel Goulet of the Quebec Nordiques scores his 50th goal of the season against Buffalo Sabres.
  • 1989 Music - Bryan Adams performs on Breakthrough, released on this day in the Soviet Union; a Greenpeace benefit album, with the Pretenders, U2, the Grateful Dead, Peter Gabriel, Huey Lewis and the News; released in the US and Canada on May 23 as Rainbow Warrior. Russia
  • 1990 National Gallery of Canada announces purchase of Voice of Fire by American abstract painter Barnett Newman for $1.8 million, causing a storm of controversy; the large painting consists of three broad stripes of colour. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1995 Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc. agrees to pay US $810 million for Texasgulf Inc of North Carolina. Regina, Saskatchewan
  • 1996 New federal budget continues the assault on the deficit. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1997 Health - House of Commons passes rigorous anti tobacco bill restricting cigarette advertising and use of tobacco brands in promotion of public, artistic or sporting events. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1997 Students at Nakina Public School, 100 km east of Lake Nipigon, exchange email with Queen Elizabeth, as she launches her official royal website from Buckingham Palace. Nakina, Ontario
  • 1998 Ontario government gives three surviving Dionne quintuplets, Annette, Cecile and Yvonne, $4 million in compensation and an apology for the 9 years that they spent on display at a tourist theme park near North Bay in the 1930s. Toronto, Ontario
  • 2004 Politics - Sheila Copps loses nomination to Tony Valeri to represent the riding of Hamilton East-Stoney Creek in the 2004 federal election. Hamilton, Ontario
  • 2004 Curling - Nokia Brier opens at Saskatoon; to March 14. Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
  • 2004 Military - Corporal Kevin Megeney, of the 1st Battalion, The Nova Scotia Highlanders (North), is killed by an accidental shooting while on base in Kandahar, Afghanistan