May 29

Highlights of the day

1914 Empress of Ireland sinks in Gulf of St. Lawrence with loss of 1,024 lives.
1950 Henry Larsen arrives in Halifax on St. Roch; first ship to circumnavigate North America.
1987 Founding of the Reform Party of Canada, with Preston Manning as leader.

List of Facts for May 29

1667 Claude Allouez celebrates First Roman Catholic mass west of the Sault with Nipissing tribe members who fled Iroquois. Thunder Bay, Ontario
1673 Count Frontenac issues proclamation giving the Recollet fathers land on the St. Charles River. Québec, Québec
1690 Commander Portneuf and his lieutenant Courtemanche raid Casco. Casco Bay, Maine
1733 Gilles Hocquart, Intendant of New France, upholds the right of Canadians to have Indians as slaves and to sell them. Québec, Québec
1792 George Vancouver’s ship Discovery starts charting the Juan de Fuca Strait, Puget Sound, Howe Sound, Jarvis Inlet and the Strait of Georgia. BC
1813 War of 1812 - Commodore of Provincial Marine James Yeo raids Isaac Chauncey’s naval base at Sackett’s Harbor from Kingston with Roger Sheaffe; forced to withdraw by Brigadier Jacob Brown. Sackett’s Harbor, New York
1815 British government opens Canadian commerce to US citizens after the War of 1812 ends. London, England
1832 Steamboat Pumper arrives at Bytown from Kingston; First vessel through the Rideau Canal. Ottawa, Ontario
1838 Bill Johnston and a band of rebels attack, loot and burn the Canadian steamboat Sir Robert Peel off Wellesley Island near French Creek in the Thousand Islands; rewards are offered for William Johnson of French Creek, New York, and Daniel McLeod, Samuel Frey and Robert Smith from Upper Canada; Johnson is more a pirate than a patriot. Wellesley Island, Ontario
1849 David Anderson appointed First Anglican Bishop of Rupert’s Land; arrives in Red River October 3, 1849. London, England
1897 First Ukrainian colonists settle in Saskatchewan. Saskatchewan
1900 Theodore Rand dies in Fredericton; educator, poet, former chancellor of McMaster University; was First NB Superintendent of Education under the Schools Act of 1871. Fredericton, New Brunswick
1902 Ontario Election - G. W. Ross’s Liberals win a second consecutive majority. Ontario
1905 William McDougall dies in Ottawa; MP, First Lieutenant-Governor of the North-West Territories (1869). Ottawa, Ontario
1910 Coeur d’Alene and Pend Oreille Railway organized to extend spurs from Spokane International Railway to Bayview, BC on Pend Oreille Lake, and to Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.
1914 Canadian Pacific ocean liner Empress of Ireland outbound from Québec City is rammed in the fog by a Norwegian collier ship Storstad at 1:55 am in the Gulf of St. Lawrence off Point aux Pères, Québec; three minutes later water reaches the dynamos, dousing power and light, and the ship sinks 11 minutes later after Storstad backs out of the hole in the hull; 1,024 lives are lost, 464 saved; $1 million in silver bars later recovered by divers; Canada’s worst and the Atlantic’s third largest maritime disaster after the Titanic and Lusitania. Rimouski, Québec
1919 Winnipeg General Strike - Regina Trades and Labour Council and Moose Jaw Trades and Labour Council decide not to join general strike. Saskatchewan
1920 Delegates at the district meeting of the Methodist Church in Lethbridge pass a resolution urging the Alberta Attorney-General to instruct the Alberta Provincial Police to arrest farmers who worked on Sunday, even though they claimed they had to take advantage of the spring weather. Lethbridge, Alberta
1934 Doctor Allan Roy Dafoe delivers the last of the Dionne Quintuplets: Annette, Emilie (d1954), Yvonne, Cecile and Marie (d1970). Corbeil, Ontario
1939 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth officially open the Lions Gate Bridge to and from Stanley Park and North Vancouver during a royal visit to Canada; construction began November 14, 1938 after one and a half years construction at a cost of $5.8 million. Vancouver, BC
1940 Second World War - Parliament passes $700 million War Appropriations Act, authorizing two more Army divisions. Ottawa, Ontario
1946 Canadian Army troops officially withdraw from Newfoundland after the end of Second World War. Newfoundland
1950 Henry Larsen sails RCMP patrol ship St. Roch to Halifax after passing through the Panama Canal from Vancouver, BC; First ship to circumnavigate the North American continent via the North West Passage. Halifax, Nova Scotia
1963 National Museum of Canada opens its Hall of the Canadian Eskimos (Inuit) exhibit. Ottawa, Ontario
1968 Presbyterian Church in Canada ordains its First female minister, Shirley Jeffery. The church’s general assembly had approved the ordination of women two years before. Appin, Ontario
1970 Hudson’s Bay Company moves its head office from London, England to Winnipeg. Winnipeg, Manitoba
1970 Parliament approves increase in the federal minimum wage from $1.25 an hour to $1.65. Provinces set their own minimum wages, with a high of $1.55 in Alberta and a low of 90¢ for Nova Scotia women. Ottawa, Ontario
1970 The Guess Who’s American Woman/No Sugar Tonight stays at #1 on the Billboard hit chart. New York, New York
1972 Québec bans commercial salmon fishing off Gaspé Peninsula because of depleted stocks. Québec, Québec
1973 Canada announces it will withdraw from International Control Commission (ICCS) truce observance force in Vietnam by July 31, two months after the end of the initial 60-day period. Vietnam
1973 Parliament votes 138-114 in favor of extending a partial ban on hanging for five more years; capital punishment only for murderers of policemen and prison guards. Ottawa, Ontario
1973 Canada announces it will withdraw from International Control Commission (ICCS) truce observance force in Vietnam by July 31, two months after the end of the initial 60-day period. Vietnam
1973 Parliament votes 138-114 in favor of extending a partial ban on hanging for five more years; capital punishment only for murderers of policemen and prison guards. Ottawa, Ontario
1979 Silent film star and movie producer Mary Pickford dies of a stroke at 86; America’s Sweetheart was born in Toronto, Ontario in 1893; started in the theater at age 6 as ‘Baby Gladys Smith’ (her real name), and she toured into the US with her family in a number of theater companies. In 1907, she adopted the family name Pickford and joined the David Belasco troupe, acting in the long running ‘The Warrens of Virginia’. She started in films in 1909 with D.W. Griffith’s Biograph Company, and in 1920 was a co-founder of United Artists with D. W. Griffith, Douglas Fairbanks (later her husband) and Charles Chaplin. Santa Monica, California
1980 John Gray’s play Billy Bishop Goes to War opens at the Morosco Theater in New York for 12 performances; stars Eric Peterson, who co-wrote it with Gray; opened in November, 1978 in Vancouver. New York, New York
1985 Steve Fonyo, amputee, age 19, completes his epic 7924 km cross-Canada marathon started 14 months earlier in Newfoundland, by dipping his artificial left leg into the Pacific Ocean at Mile Zero of the Trans-Canada Highway; officially completing his Journey for Lives run; inspired by Terry Fox, Fonyo raises almost $9 million in donations for cancer research; started at St. John’s, Newfoundland, on March 31, 1984. Victoria, BC
1987 Founding of the Reform Party of Canada, with Preston Manning as leader; Deborah Grey will become the party’s First MP when she wins the Beaver River, Alberta by-election in 1989; The Party will take 52 seats in 1993 election, decimating the Tories, and 60 seats in 1997, taking away Official Opposition status from the Bloc Québecois. The Party will reorganize and rename itself the Canadian Alliance in 2000. In 2003, the Alliance will merge with the Progressive Conservative Party to form the Conservative Party of Canada. Vancouver, BC
1989 Global TV reporter Doug Small and five others charged by RCMP with releasing confidential budget details; budget leaked on April 26, 1989. Ottawa, Ontario
1990 House of Commons passes Bill C-43 by 140-131; allows abortions at all stages of pregnancy, as long as a doctor believes the physical or mental health of the woman is endangered. Ottawa, Ontario
1990 Oakland A’s Rickey Henderson gets his major league record-setting 893rd stolen base in the sixth inning, breaking Ty Cobb’s 62-year-old American League record, but Toronto Blue Jays still beat the Athletics 2-1; Henderson will later play a year for the Jays. Toronto, Ontario
1990 Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev visits Canada en route to his Washington summit with President Bush. Ottawa, Ontario
1993 Hockey - Wayne Gretzky scores three goals, for a record eighth time in his playoff career, to lead the Los Angeles Kings to a 5-4 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs in Game 7 of the NHL Campbell Conference final; Kings advance to the Stanley Cup final. Toronto, Ontario
1995 Scientific panel’s report on Clayoquot Sound, BC offers more than 100 recommendations for logging in area on west coast of Vancouver Island. Victoria, BC
1996 RCMP board the Taiwan-registered ship Maersk Dubai and arrest the captain and five sailors on charges of murdering 3 Romanian stowaways thrown overboard. Halifax, Nova Scotia
1998 Elections - Supreme Court of Canada strikes down a ban on pre-election opinion polls; calls the ban an “insult to the intelligence of voters.” Ottawa, Ontario
2001 Ken Thomson pays $2.2 million at auction for “Baffin Island,” by Group of Seven member Lawren Harris; more than double the previous record for a Canadian painting. Toronto, Ontario
2004 Peter Gibbons wins CASCAR ‘s MOPAR 250 at Delaware Speedway Delaware, Ontario
2006 Aviation - WestJet Airlines settles lawsuit; admits its “highest management levels” schemed to steal commercial data from arch rival Air Canada; pays all legal bills, plus a $10 million donation to charity.
2006 Ontario Labour Relations Board rules illegal a wildcat strike by Toronto Transit Commission workers, affecting 800,000 riders. Toronto, Ontario
2009 Aboriginal - Ontario government signs agreement to transfer former Ipperwash Provincial Park back to native hands. Ipperwash, Ontario