Highlights of the day

  • 1969 Montreal Expos visit Shea Stadium to play their first game, beating the New York Mets 11-10.

List of Facts for April 8

  • 1609 Samuel de Champlain and 12 survivors prepare to return to France as ice in the St. Lawrence River thaws; 16 out of his crew of 28 have died from scurvy due to lack of vitamin C; seeing the French suffer, the native Algonkian people teach them how to make ‘tisane d’anneda’, or cedar tea, a medicine containing the vitamin. Québec, Québec (Champlain’s Description of Scurvy)
  • 1610 Samuel de Champlain leaves on fourth voyage to New France. St-Malo, France
  • 1668 Claude d’Aubigny appointed Intendant of New France; serves at Québec from October 22, 1668 to October 22, 1670. Paris, France
  • 1751 William Pigott opens the first inn in Nova Scotia; First in English Canada. Halifax, Nova Scotia
  • 1808 Duncan McGillivray, chief partner of the North West Company, dies in Montréal. Montréal, Québec
  • 1820 Lord Selkirk dies; founded the Red River Colony in the 1810s. Scotland
  • 1873 Lucius Seth Huntington sits on select Commons committee to examine his charges of CPR election financing, known as the Pacific Scandal. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1874 Caraquet Railway Company founded, to build a railway connecting Caraquet and Shippegan Harbour to the Intercolonial Railway near Bathurst. Caraquet, New Brunswick
  • 1874 Crew of the sealer Osprey rescued from the ice. Newfoundland
  • 1875 Parliament of Canada enacts 38 Victoria, Chapter 49, the North-West Territories Act; appoints a lieutenant-governor and a Northwest Territories council with legislative and executive powers, and provides for the creation of a Legislative Assembly to sit at Battleford, Saskatchewan; sets up separate administration run from Ottawa. The Territories now separated politically from Manitoba. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1904 Lansdowne-Cambon Convention - Lord Lansdowne signs French Shore Convention with French counterpart Cambon to settle the French Shore question; French fishermen lose landing rights on Newfoundland coast in return for cash and concessions in Africa. London, England
  • 1905 Frank Oliver appointed as Wilfrid Laurier’s Minister of the Interior and Superintendent General of Indian Affairs. Signals a change in attitude towards insular communal farming colonies in the West.
  • 1907 Literature - L.C. Page & Co. of Boston writes Lucy Maud Montgomery that they are accepting her Anne of Green Gables novel for publication.
  • 1915 Queen’s Park passes Liquor Licence Act; creates Board of Commissioners to handle liquor distribution; origin of Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO). Toronto, Ontario
  • 1936 Government of Alberta defaults on over three million dollars worth of bonds in August of 1936, the darkest year of the Great Depression. Edmonton, Alberta
  • 1937 Hockey - Referee Clarence Campbell officiates his first Stanley Cup match, in Game 2 of the finals, a 4-2 win for Detroit over the Rangers; future NHL President.
  • 1937 Ontario Premier Mitchell Hepburn sends in police to deal with illegal sit-down strike at General Motors plant; strike ends April 26; police called ‘Hepburn’s Hussars’. Oshawa, Ontario
  • 1944 Second World War - RCAF dive bombers start attacks on French railway yards to damage supply routes prior to D-Day. France
  • 1945 Second World War - Royal Canadian Navy cruiser HMCS Uganda joins British Pacific Fleet. Hong Kong, China
  • 1945 Second World War - Canadians capture Zutphen; final offensive in Holland. Zutphen, Netherlands
  • 1945 Second World War - Lt. Gen. Henry Crerar now commanding five Canadian divisions and two tank brigades. Germany
  • 1946 Canadian delegation attends last League of Nations assembly in Geneva; replaced by the United Nations. Geneva, Switzerland
  • 1951 Korean War - 2nd Battalion, Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, advances over the 38th Parallel to Minongdae. Korea.
  • 1952 West Kootenay Power completes the Kootenay Lake span and connects to East Kootenay Power.
  • 1954 Trans-Canada Airlines (TCA) North Star airliner crashes after colliding with RCAF Harvard trainer over Moose Jaw, wrecking three homes; 37 killed, including one death on the ground. Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan
  • 1963 Federal Election - Lester Pearson captures 130 seats for the Liberals in the 26th federal general election; John Diefenbaker’s Progressive Conservatives holds on to 94 seats; Social Credit keep 24, NDP 17; will form minority government.
  • 1969 Baseball - The Montreal Expos visit Shea Stadium to play their First game, beating the National Baseball League New York Mets 11-10; opening game of franchise, First major league baseball team outside the US. The opposing pitcher was the Mets’ Tom Seaver, and the Mets won the World Series later that year. New York City
  • 1974 Health - Ottawa restricts imports of cattle treated with growth hormone diethystilbestrol (DES); suspected carcinogen. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1976 Nova Scotia the eighth province to sign an anti-inflation agreement with Ottawa. Halifax, Nova Scotia
  • 1980 Hockey - New York Islander Denis Potvin scores 2 shorthanded goals in one period against LA Kings; ties NHL record. Uniondale, New York
  • 1981 Parties agree to end debate on the Constitution in the House of Commons. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1984 Hockey - Calgary’s Paul Reinhart becomes the first NHL defenseman to score 2 career playoff hat tricks.
  • 1987 Hockey - Los Angeles Kings 5, Edmonton Oilers 2
  • 1990 Hockey - Edmonton Oilers 1, Winnipeg Jets 2
  • 1996 Hockey - Winnipeg Jets announce they will change their name change to the “Phoenix Coyotes”, beginning with the 1996-97 NHL season.
  • 2000 Hockey - Toronto Maple Leafs beat Tampa Bay Lightning 4-2; surpass the 100-point mark for the first time in team history. Toronto, Ontario
  • 2004 Crime - Department of Justice considers extraditing alleged mafia leader Vito Rizzuto to the United States; accused of three murders in 1981. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 2004 Crime - Nine Hell’s Angels motorcycle gang members are convicted of drug trafficking and gangsterism. Montréal, Québec
  • 2006 Crime - Bodies of eight members of the Bandidos motorcycle gang found in a farmer’s field near the small town of Shedden, about 30 km southwest of London, Ontario; police later described one of Canada’s worst mass murders as an internal cleansing of the biker gang. Shedden, Ontario