Highlights of the day

  • 1814 Drummond’s 1,100 troops capture U.S. naval base of Fort Ontario, with valuable supplies and schooners.
  • 1877 Sitting Bull leads 5,000 Lakota into Canada to ask protection from the Queen.
  • 1950 State of emergency declared as the great flood of 1950 engulfs Winnipeg.

List of Facts for May 6

  • 1536 Jacques Cartier leaves ship La Petite Hermine behind and sets sail from St. Croix for France; takes furs and pyrite ore he thinks is gold; accompanied by Chief Donnacona and 9 other Iroquois hostages, including 4 children. Québec, Québec
  • 1604 Pierre de Monts arrives at Le Port du Rossignol with Samuel de Champlain, Louis Hébert and Baron Jean de Poutrincourt; asks Champlain to hunt for a good site for a trading colony; sailed from Havre-de-Grace (Le Havre) March 7. Lunenburg, Nova Scotia
  • 1628 Cardinal Richelieu gets Council of State to ratify the charter of the Company of One Hundred Associates; with a 15 year trade monopoly, the Company agrees to plant 300 settlers immediately, and 16,000 more before 1643. Paris, France. See April 29.
  • 1641 Paul de Maisonneuve prepares to leave France to establish a missionary colony in New France. See May 9.
  • 1665 Jacques de La Potherie Governor of Trois-Rivières appointed acting administrator of New France; serves until September 12, 1665. Québec, Québec
  • 1708 François de Laval dies; appointed First Bishop of New France in 1674. Québec, Québec
  • 1776 American Revolutionary War - Charles Douglas arrives at Québec with a British relief fleet; Thomas and the Americans abandon their siege and retreat upriver to Chambly. Québec, Québec
  • 1777 American Revolutionary War - British General John Burgoyne arrives in Québec as field commander of the British forces against the American rebels; his plan is to march down the Hudson River via the Richelieu River and Lake Champlain through Albany, with a secondary advance through the Mohawk Valley, and divide the rebels at New York. Québec, Québec
  • 1814 War of 1812 - Lt. General Gordon Drummond’s 1,100 troops having captured the American naval base of Fort Ontario, with its valuable supplies and schooners, Colonel Fisher and Captain Mulcaster hold the fort against counterattack; the base will be destroyed, and British control of Lake Ontario will be enhanced until the close of the War of 1812. Oswego, New York
  • 1834 Allan MacNab incorporates the London and Gore Railroad Co. with Hamilton merchants Isaac Buchanan, Peter Buchanan, R.W. Harris and John Young; later the Great Western Rail Road Company (1845) and to the Great Western Railway (1853); to build a line from Niagara Falls via Hamilton through to London and Windsor; completed in Jan. 1854; merged with the Grand Trunk Railway in 1882, after decades of competition.Toronto, Ontario
  • 1854 Cyrus Field founds the New York, Newfoundland, & London Telegraph Company; to build the Atlantic cable. New York, New York
  • 1859 Robert Hobson of the McClintock expedition finds a cairn with a paper signed by Fitzjames and Crozier, dated April 25, 1848, confirming their disaster; last log of the ill-fated Franklin expedition, sent to discover the North West passage. Nunavut
  • 1860 Hugh Allan’s Allan Line steamship service wins government mail contract for weekly postal service to Liverpool. Montréal, Québec
  • 1877 Dakota Sioux Chief Sitting Bull [Tatantanka Iyotake] leads 5,000 of his followers into Canada to ask protection from the Queen and petition land for a reserve; after Crazy Horse and Gall defeated General George Custer and the US 7th Cavalry at the Battle of the Little Big Horn. The Canadian government, concerned about possible conflict with Canadian bands, refuses, and in July 1881, Sitting Bull will return to North Dakota to surrender. In 1883, he becomes a public figure speaking for Indian people and also travels with the Buffalo Bill Wild West Show. Wood Mountain, Saskatchewan See June 25 (*Sitting Bull - Historica Minute)
  • 1880 Lucius O’Brien chairs First meeting of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts; sponsored by Lord Lorne and Princess Louise. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1890 Fire destroys lunatic asylum at Long Point, killing 70 inmates. Longue-Pointe, Québec
  • 1893 First sailing of the State of Idaho (508 tons) launched at Bonner’s Ferry by the Bonners Ferry and Kaslo Transportation Company.
  • 1897 Mining - First reports of gold finds in the Klondike are published in Edmonton. Edmonton, Alberta
  • 1897 West Kootenay Power organization begins dam construction at the Lower Bonnington falls on the Lower Kootenay River.
  • 1898 Yukon Field Force leaves Vancouver for Dawson City, Yukon to keep law and order in the gold fields and assert Canadian sovereignty; 203 volunteers from the Canadian Militia and Permanent Force commanded by T. D. Evans; will assist the NWMP keep order and return in stages over the next two years. Vancouver, BC
  • 1901 Energy - Niagara Parks Commission signs deal with Cataract Construction to divert water around Niagara Falls to generate hydro electricity; start of Niagara’s hydro industry. Queenston, Ontario
  • 1908 Canora becomes the victim of a smallpox outbreak. Canora, Saskatchewan
  • 1910 Accession of King George V to the throne on death of King Edward VII. London, England
  • 1924 Captain Angus Buchanan leaves Prince Albert to begin the First survey of the birds and mammals of northern Saskatchewan. Prince Albert, Saskatchewan
  • 1935 King George V & Queen Mary celebrate their silver jubilee London, England
  • 1939 Finance - Charles Dunning establishes the Central Mortgage Bank, owned by the Government and run by the Bank of Canada; now Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC); money to be loaned at 3% to banks, on condition they lower mortgage rates to 5%. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1939 Edward S. Rogers dies; Canadian inventor of the AC tube (used in his Rogers Batteryless Radio and founder of radio station CFRB, Toronto; father of broadcasting and cable entrepreneur Ted Rogers. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1947 Dropping of wartime price controls causes rise in the price of candy bars.
  • 1950 The Third Man Theme by Canadian bandleader Guy Lombardo peaks at #1 on the pop singles chart; stays there for 11 weeks. New York, New York
  • 1950 State of emergency is declared this morning as the great flood of 1950 engulfs Winnipeg. Winnipeg, Manitoba
  • 1950 Fire at Rimouski causes $10 million in damage. Rimouski, Québec
  • 1954 US House of Representatives approves joining Canada in construction of the St. Lawrence Seaway. Washington, DC
  • 1965 Norman Paterson installed as First Chancellor of Lakehead University. Thunder Bay, Ontario
  • 1966 Minister of Finance announces that the Royal Canadian Mint will strike a $20 Centennial gold coin. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1972 Canadian jockey Ron Turcotte aboard Riva Ridge wins the 98th Kentucky Derby in 2:01.8. Louisville, Kentucky
  • 1973 Hockey - The WHA New England Whalers beat the Winnipeg Jets in five games, 4 games to 1, to win the First World Hockey Association title series, the Avco Cup (named for the sponsor, a finance company). Hartford, Connecticut
  • 1973 Conductor Sir Ernest MacMillan dies at age 79; conductor of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir and head of the Composers, Authors and Publishers Association of Canada. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1987 Composer R. Murray Schafer, a native of Sarnia, Ontario, wins the First Glenn Gould Prize, a $50,000 award for contributions to music; awarded the prize over 35 nominees from 22 countries; Toronto pianist Gould died in 1982 at age 50. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1988 Doughnutgate incident in the NHL playoffs, as New Jersey Devils’ coach Jim Schoenfeld tells referee Don Koharski to ‘eat another doughnut you fat pig!’; he is suspended by the NHL. Buffalo, New York
  • 1990 Prime Minister Brian Mulroney says tough economic measures by his government will continue to make him unpopular with the public. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1990 Hockey - Edmonton Oilers 1, Chicago Blackhawks 5
  • 1991 Canadair gets 100 orders for twin engined Regional Jet; cost $275 million to develop; the plane is a stretched Challenger for less than 100 passengers. Montréal, Québec
  • 1993 Robert Bourassa’s government passes Bill 86, permitting interior English signs if they are smaller than those outside. Québec, Québec
  • 1996 Music - The Tragically Hip play the First of two surprise gigs at the Horseshoe Tavern to promote their new CD, Trouble at the Henhouse. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1997 Music - Canadians Joni Mitchell and Neil Young fail to show for their inductions into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame; Mitchell had just found the daughter she gave up for adoption 32 years earlier, and Young, inducted as a member of Buffalo Springfield, declined to attend after organizers refused to give him more than one free ticket to the induction dinner. Cleveland, Ohio
  • 1999 Paul Okalik, 34-year-old Inuit attorney, chosen First Premier of the Territory by Legislative Assembly of Nunavut. Iqaluit, Nunavut
  • 2000 Pat Duncan becomes premier of Yukon, replacing Piers McDonald. Whitehorse, Yukon