Highlights of the day

  • 1896 Wilfrid Laurier sworn in as Canada’s 7th Prime Minister, succeeding Charles Tupper.
  • 1921 Irene Parlby elected to the Alberta Legislature; First woman cabinet minister in Canada.
  • 1990 Corporal Marcel Lemay, a 31 year old constable, killed during gun battle at Kanesetake, near Oka, Québec.

List of Facts for July 11

  • 1576 Martin Frobisher sights Greenland but cannot land because of ice and fog; storm causes the Michael to turn back. Greenland, Denmark
  • 1603 Samuel de Champlain gets back to Tadoussac and departs with Gravé du Pont to Gaspé; hears Prévert’s comments on Acadian minerals. Tadoussac, Québec
  • 1616 Samuel de Champlain arrives back in Québec. Québec, Québec
  • 1750 Fire almost completely destroys newly-established community of Halifax. Halifax, Nova Scotia
  • 1776 Captain James Cook sets sail on his third and last voyage with the HMS Resolution and HMS Discovery, to seek a North West Passage round the north coast of America from the Pacific, and win the £20,000 prize offered by Parliament in 1775; makes first for Tasmania, then New Zealand and Tahiti, then turns north, arriving along the Oregon Coast by March 1778; on March 29, 1778, they reach Nootka Sound (named King George’s Sound by Cook) and drop anchor; they stay for a month, repairing the ships and trading with the local Nootka people, then go north on April 26, 1778; they fail to find a passage; nine months later Cook is killed on a Hawaiian beach. Portsmouth, England
  • 1814 War of 1812 - John Sherbrooke captures Eastport, Maine, with a force from Halifax; later Castine, Maine and Machias, Maine. Eastport, Maine
  • 1838 Lord Durham reaches Kingston to begin week-long visit to Upper Canada. Kingston, Ontario
  • 1873 News of Cypress Hills Massacre reaches Ottawa; danger of American intervention forces the Government to send police to the Canadian West. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1887 Brandon Mail calls for the abolition of Manitoba’s dual French-English school system. Brandon, Manitoba
  • 1888 Kootenay Mining and Smelting Company launches steamboat Galena onto Upper Kootenay River at Bonners Ferry, BC.
  • 1889 Premiere of opera entitled Leo, the Royal Cadet, at Martin’s Opera House under the patronage of the Royal Military College. Kingston, Ontario
  • 1896 Wilfrid Laurier sworn in as Canada’s 7th Prime Minister, succeeding Charles Tupper; Canada’s first French-speaking Prime Minister; will serve to October 6, 1911; MP Drummond-Arthabaska 1874-1877, Québec East 1877-1919; Liberal Party Leader 1887-1919; Leader of the Opposition 1887-1896, 1911-1919. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1896 William Fielding retires as Premier of Nova Scotia to become Minister of Finance in the Laurier government; former anti-Confederation repealer. Halifax, Nova Scotia
  • 1901 Western Federation of Miners WFM) Local No.38 goes on strike against Rossland mines; a failure. Rossland, BC
  • 1906 Senate passes the Lord’s Day Act; supported by Protestant and Roman Catholic churches and labor groups; struck down by Supreme Court of Canada in 1985. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1908 Fire strikes downtown Grand Forks. Grand Forks, BC -
  • 1911 Founding of the Canadian Professional Golfers Association. Toronto, Ontario -
  • 1911 Forest fire breaks out in Porcupine district near Timmins, Ontario; fanned by high winds into a 40 km long front, the fire takes 200 lives; over 3,000 left homeless; burns up 2200 sq. km, destroying the mining communities of South Porcupine, Ontario, Cochrane, Ontario and Goldlands, Ontario. Cobalt, Ontario -
  • 1911 R.H. Bohart drives the first car through the Crowsnest Pass; a 30 horse-power Everitt made by the Trudhope Motor Company of Orillia, Ontario. Alberta/BC -
  • 1917 First World War - Arthur Meighen introduces Conscription Act; splits Opposition into Conscription Liberals and Laurier Liberals; Solicitor General. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1921 Irene Parlby elected to the Alberta Legislature; First woman cabinet minister in Canada. Alberta -
  • 1924 Canada signs trade agreement with Netherlands. Ottawa, Ontario -
  • 1936 Record - Manitoba experiences its hottest day on record - 44.4 degrees Celsius. Manitoba
  • 1940 Second World War - Petty Officer D. A. Hewitt is the First Canadian killed in the Battle of Britain. Britain
  • 1944 Second World War - Guy Simonds, 2nd Canadian Corps, takes over operational command of the 2nd Canadian Armoured Brigade, 2nd Canadian Infantry Division and 3rd Canadian Infantry Division in Normandy. Caen, France
  • 1955 Seven American teenagers die on Mount Temple, near the Valley of the Ten Peaks; Canada’s worst single mountaineering accident. Lake Louise, Alberta -
  • 1960 Northwest Territories Council holds First session at Resolute Bay; most northerly point for any legislative meeting. Resolute Bay, Nunavut -
  • 1966 Andy McNaughton dies; Saskatchewan-born Army officer, scientist, and diplomat. Ottawa, Ontario -
  • 1967 Canadian Pacific Railway inaugurates First major unit train, shipping 3,700 tons of sulfuric acid from Copper Cliff to CIL in Sarnia, Ontario. Sudbury, Ontario -
  • 1968 Canadian university presidents meet to discuss campus unrest; 40 presidents. Ottawa, Ontario -
  • 1974 US starts anti-dumping action against Canada for eggs shipped to the States. Washington, DC -
  • 1979 Neil Young’s concert film, Rust Never Sleeps, debuts at the Bruin Theatre in Westwood; a documentary of his last US tour; his LP of the same name is released at the same time. Westwood, California
  • 1980 UNESCO unveils plaque at L’Anse aux Meadows, declaring Norse ruins First World Heritage Site; First Europeans known to visit North America landed there c950. L’Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland
  • 1984 Record - Canadian dollar sinks to US74.86¢, an all-time low to that date.
  • 1984 Montreal Expos catcher Gary Carter named the MVP of the All-Star game. Montréal, Québec
  • 1986 Singer Gordon Lightfoot and five others start a 3 week long canoe trip through the Arctic. Yellowknife, NWT
  • 1989 Canadian marathoner Vicki Keith, from Kingston, Ontario, becomes the First person to swim the English Channel using the butterfly stroke. Dover, England
  • 1990 Corporal Marcel Lemay, a 31 year old constable, killed during gun battle as 100 members of La Sûreté du Québec attack Mohawk barricades, put up in March to block expansion of a golf course on land they claim was never signed away. Mohawks at Chateauguay (Kahnawake) set up sympathy blockade at Mercier bridge leading into Montréal, causing massive traffic jams for thousands of south shore commuters. The Kanesetake protesters will surrender to the military on September 26, after a 2-month-long siege. Oka, Québec
  • 1991 Carla Hills American trade representative says North American free-trade deal NAFTA will not endanger auto pact or harm Canadian culture. Washington, DC
  • 1991 Nationair charter jet crashes in Saudi Arabia killing all 261 on board, including 14 Canadian crew members. Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
  • 1992 Céline Dion’s ‘If You Asked Me To’ peaks at #4 on the pop singles chart. New York, New York
  • 2000 Dr. Garson Romalis is stabbed outside his Vancouver abortion clinic by a suspected anti-abortion extremist; in 1994 he was shot at his home by an anti-abortion sniper from Vermont. Vancouver, BC
  • 2002 Strike - Queen’s Park passes back-to-work legislation to end a two-week strike by Toronto garbage collectors that left the city covered in mounds of rotting waste. Toronto, Ontario
  • 2003 Canadian Zahra Kazemi, a Montreal-based journalist and photographer, arrested for taking pictures outside a prison, dies of brain hemorrhage, beaten to death by Iranian security forces while in custody. In 2004 a closed trial will be held for the secret agent charged with the murder, Mohammad Reza Aghdam Ahmadi. He pleaded innocent on July 17, 2004 and the trial was abruptly ended the next day, with the court acquitting Ahmadi. Iran later admitted that Kazemi was murdered. Teheran, Iran
  • 2003 Canadian government gives Air Canada the right to operate scheduled passenger flights to Cuba. Montréal, Québec
  • 2004 Hail and torrential rain causes floods in Edmonton; damage to the West Edmonton Mall is estimated in the millions. Edmonton, Alberta
  • 2005 Deh Cho First Nations agree to a deal with the Canadian government to get participation in the environmental assessment and regulatory review of the $5.7 billion Mackenzie Valley Pipeline gas project. Yellowknife, NWT