May 23

Highlights of the day

1817 Montréal business leaders establish the Bank of Montreal, with a capital of £250,000.
1873 Act Establishing the North-West Mounted Police receives royal assent. 1887- First CPR Train Steams into the Vancouver Harbour Terminal.

List of Facts for May 23

1541 Jacques Cartier leaves on his third voyage, with five ships and 1500 men, including Guyon, Count de Beaupré; drinking water runs out on a miserable three month crossing. St-Malo, France
1633 Samuel de Champlain appointed Governor of New France; by royal edict, only Roman Catholic settlers will be permitted permanent residence within New France; end of 30 years of colonization by Huguenots. Paris, France
1766 Benjamin Green appointed administrator of Nova Scotia; serves until August 22, 1766. Annapolis, Nova Scotia
1797 David Thompson resigns from the Hudson’s Bay Company at age 27 and joins the North West Company as a surveyor and mapmaker; becomes a partner; has spent 13 years in the fur trade. Montréal, Québec
1817 Finance - Montréal business leaders establish the Bank of Montreal, with a capital of £250,000; opens for business on November 3, 1817. Montréal, Québec
1819 John Franklin sets sail on the Prince of Wales to explore the Arctic coast; will travel from mouth of Coppermine River to Repulse Bay; with Robert Hood, George Back and Dr. John Richardson; recounted in his Narrative of a Journey to the Shores of the Polar Sea in the Years 1819-1820. London, England
1837 Rebellion of 1837 - The Permanent Central Committee of the Patriotes passes a resolution demanding free trade with the United States; led by Louis-Joseph Papineau, the PCC asks for a boycott of all taxable British imports, as a way of starving the government of funds. Montréal, Québec
1842 Barlow Cumberland architect lays the cornerstone of King’s College; now University College of the University of Toronto. Toronto, Ontario
1853 Founding of the Canadian Steam Navigation Company, to offer transatlantic service to Britain. Montréal, Québec
1873 Act Establishing the North-West Mounted Police receives Royal Assent: introduced May 3, 1873; did not immediately establish the NWMP, as it was merely an emergency measure. Originally, the name was to be the North West Mounted Rifles, but it was argued the name sounded too military and might arouse the Americans. Ottawa, Ontario
1873 John A. Macdonald passes legislation to organise a mounted police force, similar to the Irish Mounted Constabulary who would be armed, but would act as a civil force to administer law and order in the Territories; the new North-West Mounted Police to patrol US border and keep peace between Indians and traders; merged with the Dominion Police in 1920 to form the RCMP. Ottawa, Ontario
1873 Department of the Interior given responsibility for administering the NWT; Council of the North-West Territories no longer under the jurisdiction of the lieutenant-governor of Manitoba. Ottawa, Ontario
1879 J.J. Hill, George Stephen, Donald Smith and Norman Kittson form the St. Paul, Minneapolis and Manitoba Railroad Company in St. Paul, Minnesota; the line will lease the Canadian government’s Pembina Branch from St. Boniface to the Boundary. Winnipeg, Manitoba
1885 North West Rebellion - Poundmaker surrenders with his Cree warriors and 150 Métis on hearing of Louis Riel’s defeat; will be sentenced to three years in Stony Mountain Penitentiary; end of North West Rebellion. Fort Pitt, Saskatchewan
1886 Canadian Pacific Railway Engine 374 is the First to steam into the new West Coast terminal at Vancouver harbour; Vancouver will be destroyed by fire in June 1885, and the railway will help the city grow and recover. Vancouver, BC
1887 First CPR intercontinental passenger train from Montreal arrives at Vancouver. Vancouver, BC
1888 Charles Tupper resigns from Commons to return to Canadian High Commission in London, England; serves until Janary 14, 1896. Ottawa, Ontario
1898 Electric lighting illuminates the streets of Grand Forks, BC.
1901 Mint Act receives Royal Assent; branch of British Royal Mint. Ottawa, Ontario
1901 Government passes 1 Edward VII chapter 45; permits the Alberta Railway and Coal Company to lease or sell any or all of its assets to the CPR. Ottawa, Ontario
1901 Kootenay Central Railway incorporated with $1 million in capitalization. Ottawa, Ontario
1901 T.W. Holland granted federal charter for Kettle River Valley Railway by 1 Edward VII chapter 68. Cascade, BC, to Carson, BC, and 50 miles up the Granby River valley: $1.5 million. Ottawa, Ontario
1902 Royal assent granted to 1 Edward VII chapter 8, An Act to provide for the payment of bounties on lead refined in Canada to a limit of $100,000 per producer per year. Beginning July 1, 1902, a per ton bounty of $5 offered, diminishing by $1 per ton each succeeding year. Amended by 3 Edwd. VII chap. 31, 1902/09/08. Ottawa, Ontario
1906 Moncton mayor James Ryan found guilty of two counts of assault in physical attacks against newspaper publisher John Hawke; the pair engaged in fist fights in Hawke’s newspaper office and Moncton’s Council Chambers. Moncton, New Brunswick
1906 Regina decreed official capital of Saskatchewan Regina, Saskatchewan
1907 Similkameen River floods washes out the Vancouver, Victoria & Eastern Railway right-of-way below Cawston, BC.
1925 Girl Guides of Saskatchewan are organized. Saskatchewan
1927 Italian aviator de Pinedo leaves Trepassey for Rome, which he reaches on June 16, 1925. Trepassey, Newfoundland
1929 Aviation - First non-stop flight from Winnipeg to Edmonton is made in six hours and 48 minutes. Edmonton, Alberta
1929 Aviation - Canada’s First airborne wedding takes place in a bi-plane over Regina. Regina, Saskatchewan
1930 Post Office officially renames railway settlement of Crow’s Nest, BC, Crowsnest, BC.
1933 Parliament passes Canadian National-Canadian Pacific Act; directing the two railroad companies to cooperate in delivering rail service to Canadians during the Depression. Ottawa, Ontario
1943 William Aberhart dies in office; radio evangelist, founding leader of Alberta’s Social Credit Party; born at Kippen, near Seaforth, Ontario, Dec. 30 1878; ‘Bible Bill’ Aberhart served during and after the Great Depression; trained as a teacher and later studied to become a Presbyterian minister; 1910 appointed principal at Alexandra School in Calgary and taught Bible classes in the evening; 1925 started broadcasting Sunday afternoon services over the radio to thousands of listeners, and opened the Calgary Prophetic Bible Institute while still acting as principal at Crescent Heights High School; 1932 became interested in the monetary-reform proposals of Major C.H. Douglas and founded the Alberta Social Credit League to promote some of the ideas; 1935 Premier of Alberta when his Social Credit Party came to power. Vancouver, BC
1943 See: CBC Archives: Social Credit pioneer William ‘Bible Bill’ Aberhart dies
1944 Second World War - First Canadian Corps starts breaking through Hitler Line across Liri Valley, near Monte Cassino; British and Canadians occupy Pontecorvo. Pontecorvo, Italy
1956 Arthur J. Trebilcock appointed First full time President of the Toronto Stock Exchange; former Secretary of the Standard Exchange; J.G.K. Strathy fills new post of TSE Chairman. Toronto, Ontario
1962 Engineers start drilling First stretch of tunnel for Montréal’s new Metro subway system. Montréal, Québec
1967 Alberta Election - Ernest Manning’s Social Credit Party re-elected in Alberta with a ninth consecutive majority.
1967 Ontario Government’s GO Transit inaugurated; commuter rail service between Pickering, Toronto, Oakville and Hamilton under an operating agreement with Canadian National. Toronto, Ontario
1968 Lester B. Pearson invited by British Broadcasting Corporation to give the BBC Reith Lectures for this year. London, England
1974 New Brunswick the first province to be officially bilingual; first province with a common law background to draft statutes in both official languages. Fredericton, New Brunswick
1975 Michel Brault co-winner of Best Direction award at Cannes Film Festival for film Les Ordres; feature about the 1970 October Crisis. Cannes, France
1981 Canada’s Wonderland amusement park opens north of the city, just west of Maple, Ontario. Toronto, Ontario
1982 Pope John Paul beatifies Canadians Brother André Bessette and Mother Marie Rose; First steps toward sainthood. Vatican City, Italy
1983 Medicine - John Adams of Thunder Bay, Ontario, receives a heart and two lungs from an American donor; Canada’s first heart-lung transplant. London, Ontario
1985 Hockey - Edmonton Oilers 3, Philadelphia Flyers 1
1986 US imposes 35% tariff on imported Canadian cedar shakes and shingles. Washington, DC
1991 Philadelphia Phillies’ pitcher Tommy Greene no-hits the Montréal Expos in a 2-0 victory. Montréal, Québec
1991 Toronto rap group Dream Warriors make their US debut at SOB’s club in New York. New York, New York
1992 Ontario born rocker Neil Young awarded an honorary music degree from Lakehead University in Thunder Bay. Thunder Bay, Ontario
1995 Marilyn Tan acquitted of charges that she had injected her former lover Conrad Boland with HIV-infected blood. Edmonton, Alberta
1997 Thousands celebrate the end of the worst Red River flooding in nearly 150 years; forced 28,000 people from their homes. Winnipeg, Manitoba
May 23 - Anne of Green Gables house damaged by fire; the Victorian farmhouse that inspired Lucy Maud Montgomery’s novels will reopen on Canada Day after repairs. Prince Edward Island
1999 Alberta pro wrestler Owen Hart, aka “The Blue Blazer,” falls 25 metres to his death from a cable in the rafters of Kemper Arena in Kansas City, when an equipment malfunction occurs as he was being lowered into the ring in the Over the Edge pay-per-view event. His wife will bring a suit against the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) for endangering his life in pursuit of TV ratings. Kansas City, Missouri
2001 Federal Ethics Commissioner releases a report which clears Alfonso Gagliano of any wrongdoing in the sponsorship scandal. Ottawa, Ontario
2001 Yvonne Dionne, one of the Dionne Quintuplets, dies at age 67; born May 28, 1934, to Oliva and Elzire Dionne at Corbeil, Ontario, near North Bay in 1934. The Dionnes were the first surviving quints in history; each weighed less than two pounds and together they weighed only 10 lbs in total a week after birth. Allan Roy Dafoe, the doctor who delivered the babies, also became a celebrity, when he arranged to make them wards of the Ontario government, under his supervision, in a virtual theme park called Quintland, across from the parents’ home. Over 3 million people - up to 6,000 a day - came to watch them play behind a one-way screen, and they endorsed hundreds of products ranging from Quaker Oats to corn syrup, before they were returned to their parents in 1943 after a long custody battle. Their family reunion was bitter and the surviving sisters started a suit against the Ontario government for a portion of their trust fund, but recently settled for $3 million. Montréal, Québec
2003 Provincial report into Walkerton water tragedy urges Ontario to spend $280 million to improve the safety of drinking water. Toronto, Ontario
2005 Military - US Army combat unit at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, adds the names of four Canadians killed by American friendly fire in Afghanistan, from United States Air Force fighter pilot Major Harry Schmidt on April 18, 2002, to their wall of honor. Fort Campbell, Kentucky
2005 Royalty -Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh celebrate Victoria Day in Edmonton; on a 9-day royal tour to celebrate the Alberta and Saskatchewan centennials. Edmonton, Alberta
2006 Politics - Ontario cabinet minister Greg Sorbara reinstated as Finance Minister shortly after an Ontario Superior Court judge ruled the RCMP did not have enough evidence to accuse him of criminal wrongdoing. Toronto, Ontario
2007 Military - Stephen Harper the first Prime Minister to enter a combat zone when he visits the forward operating base in Ma’sum Ghar near Kandahar. Afghanistan.
2007 Terrorism - Supreme Court of Canada orders Ottawa to hand over documents to lawyers for suspect Omar Khadr from interrogation sessions held with him in 2003. Ottawa, Ontario
2008 Immigration - B.C. legislature unanimously passes a motion apologizing for the 1914 Komagata Maru incident in which 376 Indian immigrants were forced to return to India after spending two months on their ship anchored at Vancouver harbour. Victoria, BC
2009 Politics - Ontario Economic Development Minister Michael Bryant resigns his McGuinty cabinet post and his seat in the Legislature to head a new corporation aimed at attracting investment to Toronto. Toronto, Ontario