May 30

Highlights of the day

1811 HBC grants Lord Selkirk Land Along the Red and Assiniboine Rivers for a Colony.
1832 Rideau Canal officially opens to traffic, with 47 locks linking the Ottawa River at Ottawa with Lake Ontario at Kingston, Ontario
1905 King Edward VII grants coats of arms to PEI and Alberta.

List of Facts for May 30

1574 King Henri III starts reign; to 1589; on death of King Charles IX. France
1675 Jacques Duchesneau appointed Intendant of New France; serves from September 16, 1675 until 1682. Paris, France
1718 Henry Kelsey made Governor of all Hudson Bay Company settlements; until 1722. Churchill, Manitoba
1769 British Privy Council separates St. John Island from its 1763 annexation with Nova Scotia, at the request of Walter Patterson and other proprietors; also gives the province a separate representative government, Canada’s second oldest after Nova Scotia, which comes into being in 1773. Patterson will be appointed Governor of St. John Island on July 14, 1769. Its name will be changed to Prince Edward Island on June 3, 1799. London, England
1811 Lord Selkirk is granted over 70 million acres (300 000 km2) along the Red River and Assiniboine River in present-day Manitoba and North Dakota by the Hudson’s Bay Company. Selkirk pays 10 shillings for the land, which he calls Assiniboia, and agrees to supply 200 able-bodied men each year for 10 years. The Red River settlers will struggle with natural disasters and against the Métis population until 1836, when Assiniboia again comes under HBC control. London, England
1814 War of 1812 - British seamen ambushed in Sandy Creek, New York, near Sackett’s Harbour. Sackett’s Harbour, New York
1814 Residents of Saint John hold an ox roast in King’s Square to celebrate the abdication of Napoleon Bonaparte. Saint John, New Brunswick
1832 Rideau Canal officially opened to traffic, with 47 locks linking the Ottawa River at Ottawa with Lake Ontario at Kingston, Ontario; First proposed as a military route between the two cities; 50 dams built to control water levels along the route. Ottawa, Ontario
1838 Westminster renews Hudson’s Bay Company’s chartered privilege of exclusive trade rights in Rupert’s Land and Athabasca, and guarantee of exclusive trading rights west of the Continental Divide, for 21 years. London, England
1848 Fredericton gets city charter. Fredericton, New Brunswick
1849 Lower Canada Assembly authorizes the Chambly ship canal from Lake Champlain to the St. Lawrence River. Québec, Québec
1849 Lord Elgin again attacked by mob; Tory violence continues through into the summer. Montréal, Québec
1849 King’s College chartered as the University of Toronto; effective January 1, 1850. Toronto, Ontario
1851 Opening of telegraph line from Saint John, New Brunswick to St. Andrew’s and the US border; part of Atlantic Cable link through to New York. St. Andrews, New Brunswick
1853 Elisha Kent Kane commands the second Grinnell expedition in the Advance to Baffin Bay, through Smith Sound to Kane Basin; winters at Rensselaer Bay, Greenland. Baffin Bay, Nunavut
1855 Founding of the Hamilton & South Western Railroad. Hamilton, Ontario
1858 British Parliament revokes charter of Hudson’s Bay Company to the mainland of British Columbia; due to need to keep order during gold rush. London, England
1864 Chilcotin Indians massacre group of road builders. BC
1864 Prince Edward Island Legislature appoints delegates to Charlottetown conference on Maritime Union. Charlottetown, PEI
1876 Fire in Montréal destroys 411 homes. Montréal, Québec
1879 Edgar Dewdney appointed Commissioner of Indian Affairs in the NWT. Battleford, Saskatchewan
1883 Charles Tupper resigns as an MP to serve as Canadian High Commissioner in London; takes office in 1884 replacing Alexander Galt. Ottawa, Ontario
1895 Parliament declares the core of what become Waterton Park a protected area. Ottawa, Ontario
1897 Almighty Voice (Kitchi-manito-wya) and his two companions are surrounded and shot to death after a 19 month search; two NWMP officers and one civilian are killed in the gun battle. A young Cree raised on traditional tales of raiding and battle, Almighty Voice had stolen and killed a steer; jailed at Duck Lake in 1895, he escaped, and two weeks later shot and killed NWMP Sergeant Colin Colebrook, who had tracked him down. Duck Lake, Saskatchewan
1898 Malcolm Cameron begins term as Lieutenant-Governor of the NWT. Regina, Saskatchewan
1905 King Edward VII grants Prince Edward Island its Coat of Arms. London, England
1907 King Edward VII grants Alberta’s Coat of Arms by Royal Warrant; described as: Azure in front of a Range of Snow Mountains proper, a Range of Hills Vert, in base a Wheat Field surmounted by a Prairie both also proper, on a Chief Argent, a St. George’s Cross. Windsor, England
1913 Military - The Senate of Canada rejects by a vote of 51 to 24 Robert Borden’s bill to assist the Royal Navy instead of developing a Royal Canadian Navy. Ottawa, Ontario
1927 Police arrest Lethbridge evangelist for bootlegging after they discovered that his travel church - a trailer towed behind his car - was actually a working distillery. Lethbridge, Alberta
1938 Lawyer and financier Charles Vance Miller dies, ending the stork derby; willed estate to the Toronto woman who gave birth to most children in 10 years following his death; four mothers each will have nine children and each will receive $100,000. Toronto, Ontario
1940 Toronto Stock Exchange declines 25% after German victories in Europe. Toronto, Ontario
1942 Second World War - British and Canadian planes ravage Cologne in Second World War’s First thousand-plane bomber raid; over 500 Canadians involved in First saturation attack aimed at crippling Nazi war production; the gothic Cologne Cathedral is miraculously left standing. Cologne, Germany
1944 The Guy Lombardo Orchestra (vocal: Skip Nelson) has a #1 hit with the single It’s Love, Love, Love. New York, New York
1951 Korean War - Canadian troops suffer defeat in an operation to scale Hill 467 near Chail-li, not realizing that it was so well-defended; discovering the dangers of a direct assault, the Canadians retreat quickly, still suffering 6 killed and 54 wounded. Chail-li, Korea
1959 Writer Anastasia Mary English dies at St. John’s. St. John’s, Newfoundland
1961 Torrential storm drops 25 centimetres of rain in one hour; one of Canada’s most intense rainstorms on record also created the greatest flash flood in Canadian history. A huge dust cloud preceded the storm, which had a black cloud tinged with what onlookers described as greenish, pinkish and brownish colours. Heavy hail also fell, and remained where it had drifted for days afterward. Buffalo Gap, Saskatchewan
1965 Rioting breaks out around Allan Gardens after 5,000 people protest against neo-Nazi rally. Toronto, Ontario
1966 PEI Election - Alexander Campbell leads Liberals to win in Prince Edward Island provincial election. PEI
1968 Venetia Barrette wins First $100,000 grand prize in Montréal’s voluntary tax lottery scheme. Longueuil, Québec
1975 Parliament raises number of Senate seats from 102 to 104; adds two new seats for Yukon and NWT. Ottawa, Ontario
1985 Hockey - Philadelphia Flyers 3, Edmonton Oilers 8; Oilers win second consecutive Stanley Cup, beating the Philadelphia Flyers four games to one. Edmonton, Alberta
1986 Canadian country music performer Joe Brown dies; founder of The Family Brown. Ottawa, Ontario
1990 Mikhail Gorbachev visits Ottawa for talks with Prime Minister Brian Mulroney; discuss unified Germany in NATO, USSR security concerns and Moscow’s sanctions against Lithuania. Ottawa, Ontario See CBC Archives: Gorbachev wows ‘em in Ottawa
1991 Justice Minister Kim Campbell introduces new gun control legislation, boosting penalties for some firearms offences while exempting competition shooters. Ottawa, Ontario
1991 Statistics Canada says Unemployment Insurance payouts up 34.3% from April 1990; 1.22 million Canadians get benefits; 10.2% unemployed. Ottawa, Ontario
1992 Canada backs UN sanctions against Serbia and Montenegro; oil imports, air flights, all trade except food and medicine. United Nations, New York
1992 Constitutional reform talks break up with distinct society clause for Québec, native self-government agreed on; also more provincial powers in immigration, job training and culture. Ottawa, Ontario
1996 Medicine - Alberta agrees to ban extra-billing at private clinics, starting July 1; Ottawa had held back about $3.6 million in transfer payments under the Canada Health Act. Edmonton, Alberta
1997 Media - CBC Morningside host Peter Gzowski signs off on his last show in Moose Jaw, where he got his start as a journalist. Gzowski presided over 3,000 hours of radio and conducted 27,000 interviews for Morningside over 15 years. Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan
1997 Hockey - Lawyer Ken Dryden appointed President of the NHL’s Toronto Maple Leafs; Toronto native a former Stanley Cup winning Montréal Canadiens goaltender. Toronto, Ontario
1997 Aviation - Ohio-based Comair agrees to purchase 30 Canadair Regional Jets from Bombardier for $600 million; option for a further $600 million. Montréal, Québec
2004 Medicine - Canadian Red Cross pleads guilty to one charge arising from the tainted-blood scandal; publicly accepts blame for the negligence that left thousands of people with HIV and hepatitis C; the Crown drops criminal charges if the Red Cross pays a $5,000 fine and dedicates $1.5 million to a scholarship fund and research project aimed at reducing medical errors. Ottawa, Ontario
2004 Art - Record prices at Sotheby Canada’s sale - A.Y. Jackson’s “In Jasper Park” auctioned for $475,000; a Tom Thomson’s oil sketch of Algonquin Park fetches $370,000. Toronto, Ontario
2006 Mining promoter Peter Munk donates $37 million to the Toronto General Hospital; largest-ever to a Canadian hospital. Toronto, Ontario
2007 Military - Taliban shoot down Chinook helicopter near Kandahar, killing seven NATO soldiers, including Cpl. Darrell Jason Priede, 30, of Burlington, Ontario. Afghanistan
2010 Military - General Daniel Menard, Canadian commandant in Kandahar, relieved of command after it was alleged he was involved in an inappropriate relationship with a female subordinate. Afghanistan