Highlights of the day

  • 1783 British Crown announces land grants to American loyalists.
  • 1812 British soldier James Hancock first person killed in the War of 1812.
  • 1981 UNESCO names Yoho Park’s Burgess Shale deposit Canada’s 5th World Heritage Site.

List of Facts for July 16

  • 1536 Jacques Cartier returns to St. Malo after his second voyage to the new world, an absence of 14 months. St-Malo, France
  • 1647 Jean de Quen discovers Lac St-Jean and route leading into interior; guided by Montagnais oarsmen from Tadoussac, Québec, the priest wanted to found a mission for members of the Porcupine tribe who already been converted to Catholicism; after ‘ten jumps or ten portages’ up the Saguenay River, he reaches what they called Lake Piekouagami, an large inner sea, which he describes as so large that you can barely see its shores. It seems round in shape. Its waters run deep and are teeming with fish, such as pike, salmon, trout, goldfish, white fish, carp, and many other such species. It is surrounded by flat country leading to a lofty mountain range, four or five leagues off. It feeds on the water of fifteen rivers or so, which serve as fishing trails for those smaller nations that come fishing here and gather to trade and sustain the goodwill they have for each other. Lac St-Jean, Québec
  • 1665 Twelve horses are brought to Québec for use by Canadian farmers; First since time of Governor de Montmagny. Québec, Québec
  • 1779 American Revolutionary War - American Light Infantry under Brigadier General Anthony Wayne, a veteran of Québec, make a successful midnight surprise assault against British fortifications at Stony Point; Col. Johnson loses 63 killed, 70 wounded and 500 captured, to 15 killed and 80 wounded on the American side; Johnson abandons the fort two days later. Wayne’s victory lifts American morale and proves to the world that the Continental Army can match the best troops of Europe. Stony Point, New York
  • 1783 British Crown announces land grants to American loyalists; heads of families get 100 acres, members of families 50 acres each, single men 50 acres, non-commissioned officers 200 acres. Montréal, Québec
  • 1792 John Graves Simcoe issues a royal proclamation dividing Upper Canada into districts and counties, and setting the allotment of representatives. Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario
  • 1812 War of 1812 - Start of week long set of skirmishes at the River Canard bridge on the route between Windsor/Sandwich and Fort Malden; an advance guard from US General William Hull’s army, who had captured Sandwich, were marching south, and were stopped by a patrol of the 41st guarding the bridge; a British soldier named James Hancock is killed - the first person to die in the War of 1812 - and another soldier John Dean is wounded and captured. When General Brock enters newly-captured Fort Detroit on August 16 1812, his first deed is to personally release Dean and congratulate him in front of the troops. Amherstburg, Ontario
  • 1812 Third session of seventh Parliament of Lower Canada meets until August 1, 1812. Québec, Québec
  • 1818 First Roman Catholic missionaries arrive at Red River. Manitoba
  • 1836 Constitutional Reform Society organizes in Upper Canada. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1837 Rebellion of 1837 - Patriotes hold illegal protest meeting at Deschambault. Deschambault, Québec -
  • 1849 Richard Blanshard appointed Governor of Vancouver Island; serves until August, 1851. Victoria, BC August 2, 1851
  • 1860 Incorporation of the City of New Westminster. New Westminster, BC
  • 1870 First recorded cricket match in Manitoba is played. Manitoba
  • 1880 Emily Howard Stowe is the First woman licensed to practice medicine in Canada; she has been practicing in Toronto since 1867, when she graduated from the New York Medical College for Women (no Canadian medical college would then accept a female student). Stowe also founded Canada’s First suffrage group - the Toronto Women’s Literary Club. Toronto, Ontario -
  • 1893 SF&N/N&FS steel crosses the Boundary. BC
  • 1895 Center Star Mining and Smelting Company registered in British Columbia; capitalized to $500,000, headquartered at Rossland, BC: president, Patrick A. Largey. Victoria, BC
  • 1895 Rossland Miners’ Union No.38 formed; president, W.A. Crane. Rossland, BC
  • 1896 Ottawa establishes a reserve for Alberta Métis at Saint-Paul-des-Métis at the urging of Father Albert Lacombe. St. Paul, Alberta
  • 1902 Charles Hill acquires mineral rights to the property which will eventually host the Hillcrest mine. BC
  • 1909 Department of Indian Affairs insists the Piegan or Piikani hold a vote to approve the sale of certain lands; they reject the request. Calgary, Alberta
  • 1915 Quintette bridges near Hope finished. Hope, BC
  • 1923 Howard Ferguson sworn in as Conservative Premier of Ontario, replacing UFO leader Ernest Drury. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1924 Saskatchewan legislature repeals prohibition of liquor, in place since 1916; brings in government control of sales. Regina, Saskatchewan
  • 1925 Edgar Rhodes sworn in as Premier of Nova Scotia, replacing Ernest Armstrong. Halifax, Nova Scotia
  • 1927 Canada at first refuses to join US in building a St. Lawrence Seaway to allow larger ocean going ships to reach the Great Lakes from the Atlantic Ocean. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1935 Allison Dysart sworn in as Premier of New Brunswick, replacing Leonard Tilley. Fredericton, New Brunswick
  • 1940 CPR wins permission to abandon its four miles of trackage between Okanagan Landing and Vernon; the rails are lifted by August. Vernon, BC
  • 1945 Second World War - US scientists explode First atomic bomb using Canadian U-235 from the NWT refined in Port Hope, Ontario. White Sands, New Mexico
  • 1958 Duff Roblin sworn in as Premier of Manitoba. Winnipeg, Manitoba
  • 1958 Manitoba Theatre Centre stages First production; Canada’s first regional theatre. Winnipeg, Manitoba
  • 1964 Parliament passes Bill extending Canada’s fishing limits to 19.3 km (the 12 mile limit). Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1965 Department of National Defence to place $215 million order for Northrop CF-5 aircraft. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1966 Ottawa grants $2 million to endow the Vanier Institute of the Family. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1970 Manitoba legislature approves bill allowing the use of French as a language of instruction in public schools; end of 54 year old language fight. Winnipeg:, Manitoba
  • 1970 Opening of 9th British Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh; Canada finishes 3rd of 41 nations competing; 18 gold medals, 24 silver, 2 bronze. Edinburgh, Scotland
  • 1971 District of Elkford, BC incorporated.
  • 1972 Charlie Chamberlain dies at age 61; member of Don Messer’s Islanders since the group’s beginning in Charlottetown in 1939. Halifax, Nova Scotia
  • 1975 Fire ravages Bell Organ factory, founded in 1864, in Guelph. Guelph, Ontario
  • 1977 Marg Osburne dies at age 49; member of Don Messer’s Islanders, a fixture on Canadian radio and television for over 30 years. Halifax, Nova Scotia
  • 1979 Group of 135 pothead whales beach themselves at Point au Gaul for no known reason; rescue workers try to free them, but in vain. Point au Gaul, Newfoundland
  • 1981 UNESCO names Yoho National Park’s Burgess Shale deposit Canada’s 5th World Heritage Site; there are about 140 species of soft-bodied marine invertebrates in the 530-million-year-old deposit in the Rockies, 75 km west of Banff. Yoho, BC
  • 1988 Edmonton Oilers superstar hockey player Wayne Gretzky marries Hollywood starlet Janet Jones (Police Academy 5). Edmonton, Alberta
  • 1988 British rock singer Sting cancels Calgary concert due to severe throat infection (some suggest he was invited to the Gretzky wedding); Edmonton show the following night also canceled; 11,000 fans get refunds. Calgary, Alberta
  • 1990 Provincial court judge throws out charges against Global TV reporter Doug Small in the 1989 federal budget leak case. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1992 Statistics Canada says inflation at annual rate of 1.1% in June; lowest in 30 years, since John Diefenbaker was Prime Minister in 1962. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1994 CFL Shreveport Pirates play their First Canadian Football League home game against the visiting Toronto Argonauts. Shreveport, Louisiana
  • 1997 Calgary concert promoters to call off a show by shock rocker Marilyn Manson when a judge refuses to grant them an injunction to force Max Bell Arena operator Larry Ryckman to allow the concert to go ahead; Ryckman faced opposition from church groups and parents; another judge later ordered him to pay damages to the promoters. Calgary, Alberta
  • 2004 Canada suspends the withdrawal of its ambassador to Iran after that country announces it will allow some diplomatic observers at the trial of Canadian photographer Zahra Kazemi’s alleged murderer. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 2009 Defence Minister Peter MacKay announces an untendered $9 billion plan to buy 65 advanced fighter aircraft. Ottawa, Ontario