Highlights of the day

  • 1497 John Cabot sets sail with son Sebastian to follow Columbus’ route to Asia; discovers Canada instead.
  • 1670 Charles II grants Royal Charter to Prince Rupert and the Hudson’s Bay Company.
  • 1885 Poundmaker holds off William Otter and his 300 soldiers at Cut Knife Hill; lets the Canadian militia retreat.
  • 2011 Stephen Harper’s Conservatives win 167 seats and a majority in the 41st General Election.

List of Facts for May 2

  • 1497 John Cabot sets sail with son Sebastian Cabot to follow Columbus’ route to what he thought was Asia; Cabot’s expedition reaches land June 24th, likely at Cape Breton, then sails east along the south coast of Newfoundland; Italian merchant and explorer Giovanni Caboto Montecataluna. Bristol, England (Sources do not agree on the precise date of departure; May 20 is the other likely candidate),
  • 1602 George Weymouth and expedition set sail on the ships Discovery and Godspeed to find the North West Passage to China; carries letters for the Khan; promised £500 prize by East India Company. Ratcliffe, England
  • 1610 John Guy, the Sheriff and later Lord Mayor of Bristol, is charged by the Company of Adventurers & Planters of London & Bristol (Newfoundland Company) to colonize the island; King James I had given the Company the grant of Newfoundland at the urging of Francis Bacon. London, England
  • 1660 Dollard des Ormeaux with 16 compatriots and 44 Huron and Algonquin allies, starts battle against a war party of 800 Iroquois at an abandoned fur fort at Long Sault on the Ottawa River; the French hold back the Iroquois for several days, but all are killed during the battle or tortured to death as prisoners. The French fight so bravely that the Iroquois abandon their plans to attack Montréal. Hawkesbury, Ontario
  • 1670 King Charles II grants a Royal Charter to his cousin Prince Rupert and a group of investors called The Governor and Company of Adventurers of England trading into Hudson’s Bay: today’s Hudson’s Bay Company. Two French explorers and traders, Pierre-Esprit Radisson and Médard des Groseilliers, proposed the fur-trading company to the group, and mounted a successful season of trade a year earlier. The charter gives the company the exclusive monopoly of commerce in lands flowing into Hudson Bay, and requires them to search for mines, and a route to the South Seas. In exchange, the Company had to pay ‘two Elkes and two Black beavers’ to the King whenever he or his successors visit the territory (a payment that has been made only four times in the Company’s history). In 1859, the HBC’s exclusive trade license expires, and in 1869, the Company agrees to surrender its Rupert’s Land rights to the Crown. In 1870, Manitoba and later the Northwest Territories become part of the new country of Canada. London, England
  • 1786 Printers William Lewis and John Ryan go to trial charged with publishing inflammatory articles; will be found guilty by a jury, fined and made to post a security bond against future infractions; First libel trial in New Brunswick.
  • 1811 Henry Chubb founds the New Brunswick Courier newspaper in Saint John; will champion responsible government in the 1830s. Saint John, New Brunswick
  • 1835 Hudson’s Bay Company launches The Beaver, the First steamship on the British Columbia coast. Victoria, BC
  • 1835 Lord Amherst Governor-in-Chief of Lower Canada; resigns in May. Québec
  • 1838 James Cuthbert chairs the Special Council of Lower Canada, a 22 member body set up by the Governor. Lord Colborne. Québec, Québec
  • 1870 Confederation - George-Étienne Cartier introduces his Manitoba Act into the House of Commons; receives Royal Assent ten days later. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1881 Canadian Pacific Railway starts building its prairie section of track; First sod turned for the CPR as a company line; first rail also laid at Fort William, Ontario. Portage La Prairie, Manitoba
  • 1885 Edmonton Volunteer Infantry disbanded. Edmonton, Alberta
  • 1885 North West Rebellion - **Battle of Cut Knife Hill - Militia Colonel William Otter and his 300 soldiers forced to retreat with eight dead and 15 wounded, as Cree chief Poundmaker holds off his six hour attack at Cut Knife Hill near Poundmaker’s Reserve. Otter, who had attacked without orders, realised that the Crees were surrounding his troops and ordered a quick retreat; Poundmaker commanded his warriors to let the Canadian troops retreat without further attack, otherwise the militia death toll would have been far higher. Poundmaker Reserve, Saskatchewan
  • 1885 North West Rebellion - Thomas Strange relieves Fort Edmonton during the North West Rebellion. Edmonton, Alberta
  • 1885 Selkirk Mining and Smelting Company incorporated by Charles Pooley, Gustavus Wright, and Edgar Marvin.
  • 1887 Captain William Kean dies; famous sealing captain; father of Captain Abram Kean. Newfoundland
  • 1887 Selkirk Mining and Smelting Company incorporated by Charles Pooley, Gustavus Wright, and Edgar Marvin.
  • 1907 Foley, Welch and Stewart Company build the Vancouver, Victoria & Eastern Railway through Cawston, BC and soon into Keremeos, BC.
  • 1919 Winnipeg metalworkers (the Central Metal Trades) go on strike for an eight hour day. Winnipeg, Manitoba
  • 1922 Calgary’s First radio station, CFAC, goes on the air. Calgary, Alberta
  • 1923 Emilio Picariello and his mistress Filumena (Florence) Lassandro hanged at 5:10a.m. and 5:51a.m. for the murder of Alberta Provincial Police Constable Steve Lawson in Sept. 1922; they shot Lawson after he wounded Picariello’s son Steve for running a roadblock carrying a car full of bootleg liquor. Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta
  • 1939 The National Film Act creates the National Film Board as a public production agency, headed by Scottish film maker John Grierson. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1939 See: CBC Archives: A star is born: The NFB makes its debut
  • 1942 Floods inundate Blairmore and Coleman. Alberta
  • 1961 CP Ocean liner Empress of Canada arrives at Montréal on maiden voyage; new flagship of Canadian Pacific fleet. Montréal, Québec
  • 1962 Canadian dollar officially pegged to US currency at US 92.5¢. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1964 Hockey - Toronto Maple Leafs win the sixth game of the final series, beating Montréal Canadiens 4 games to 2 for the Stanley Cup. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1964 Québec pro wrestler Mad Dog Vachon beats Verne Gagne in Omaha to become NWA champion. Omaha, Nebraska
  • 1964 Windfield Farms owner E. P. Taylor sees jockey Bill Hartack ride his stallion Northern Dancer to victory in the Kentucky Derby in 2:0:0; First Canadian-bred horse to win; the same pair will go on to take the Preakness Stakes in Maryland. Louisville, Kentucky
  • 1967 Hockey - Toronto Maple Leafs beat Montréal Canadiens 4 games to 2 for the Stanley Cup. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1969 Federal government and Trans-Canada Telephone Systems form Telesat Canada, to develop communications satellites. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1970 International Olympic Committee awards the 1976 Summer Olympics to Montréal; First time for a Canadian city. Amsterdam, Netherlands
  • 1973 Hockey - Former Montréal Canadiens goaltender Jacques Plante appointed General Manager of the Québec Nordiques. Québec, Québec
  • 1975 Energy - New Brunswick starts building of $900 million Point Lepreau nuclear power station; to provide 30% of New Brunswick’s electricity on completion in 1980. Lepreau, NB
  • 1976 Media - Time Magazine discontinues its Canadian edition after failing to get tax break as a foreign-owned publication. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1978 Trump Davidson dies at age 69; jazz cornetist and bandleader; 1925 founded Melody Five, possibly Canada’s First jazz-styled group; 1944-61 led a dixieland big band at Toronto’s Palace Pier; played regularly on CBC radio until 1965. Sudbury, Ontario
  • 1985 Ontario election - Frank Miller leads PCs to win a minority, but David Peterson’s Liberals will form a coalition with the NDP, forcing Miller to resign; the deal was, no NDP Cabinet ministers, but written agreement on a program and NDP support for the government. Ontario
  • 1986 Prince Charles and Princess Diana officially open the 1986 World Exposition - Expo ‘86; eight years in the making, the Vancouver Exposition is based on a theme of transportation and communication, symbolised as World in Motion, World in Touch; 54 countries are participating; over 20 million visit the fair, until it closes October 13, 1986. Vancouver, BC
  • 1986 Cinema - The Disney film “Portraits of Canada”, produced in conjunction with Telecom Canada, is released at the opening of Expo ‘86, the world exposition held in Vancouver, Canada. The Circle-Vision film, viewed in the round, is directed by Jeff Blyth (whose credits include Wonders of China and American Journeys.) Vancouver, BC
  • 1986 Medicine - Dr. Wilbert Keon performs Canada’s First artificial heart transplant at the Ottawa Civic Hospital; fits patient Noella Leclair, 42, with a Jarvik 7- 70 until a human heart is found several days later. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1986 Joe Ghiz becomes Premier of Prince Edward Island, replacing James Lee. Charlottetown, PEI
  • 1986 Nova Scotia singer Anne Murray’s Now and Forever (You and Me) reaches #1 on the Billboard pop chart. New York, New York
  • 1988 Bruce Curtis transferred to Nova Scotia prison from New Jersey after a campaign by family and friends; was sentenced to 20 years for 1982 shooting death of classmate’s mother; maintained the gun went off accidentally. Halifax, Nova Scotia
  • 1988 National Arts Centre sells 16,408 seats for the British musical CATS, the largest single-day sale of tickets for a musical in Canada. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1990 Hockey - Chicago Blackhawks 2, Edmonton Oilers 5
  • 1991 Justice Bertha Wilson heads Canadian Bar Association task force to improve status of women in legal profession; she retired from the Supreme Court of Canada in November 1990 after 8 years. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1991 Supreme Court of Canada strikes down 190 year old law that let the Crown jail people found not guilty by reason of insanity, or commit them to a mental institution indefinitely. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1995 Baseball - Montreal Expos bat out of order against the Mets in the 6th inning. Montréal, Québec
  • 1997 Special CBC Radio’s Morningside concert raises over $450,000 for victims of the Red River flood in Manitoba; performers include Murray McLauchlan, singing his ballad Red River Valley, and Valdy, who composes a new song, As the Waters Fall, for the occasion. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1998 Camille Thériault sworn in as Liberal Premier of New Brunswick, replacing Frank McKenna. Fredericton, New Brunswick
  • 2011 Election - Stephen Harper’s Conservatives win 167 seats and a majority in the 41st General Election, up from 143 seats at the dissolution of the previous Parliament; the NDP’s Jack Layton to be the Leader of the Opposition, as the Liberals and Bloc lose scores of seats. Canada’s youngest MP in history is 19-year-old New Democrat Pierre-Luc Dusseault, new Member for Sherbrooke, Québec; first centre-right majority government since the Progressive Conservatives won what would be their last majority in 1988.