Highlights of the day

  • 1629 David & Lewis Kirke force Samuel de Champlain to surrender his fur fort at Québec.
  • 1773 First Scottish settlers arrive at Pictou, Nova Scotia.

List of Facts for July 20

1871- Cartier’s British Columbia Act comes into effect, making BC the sixth province to enter Confederation

  • 1534 Jacques Cartier enters the bay which he names Baie de Chaleur; thinks it is a passage to the Far East. Baie de Chaleur, Québec/New Brunswick
  • 1576 Martin Frobisher reaches southeastern end of Baffin Island; names Resolution Island ‘Queen Elizabeth’s Foreland’. Resolution Island, Nunavut
  • 1585 John Davis sights east coast of Greenland; calls it ‘Land of Desolation’; rounds Cape Farewell; sails up western coast; names the old Norse Settlement ‘Gilbert Sound’. Greenland, Denmark
  • 1611 Samuel de Champlain leaves Québec for Tadoussac, Québec, then back to France. Québec, Québec
  • 1616 Samuel de Champlain sails for France. Québec, Québec
  • 1620 Samuel de Champlain starts building Fort St-Louis on Cap Diamant; first fort built on the cliff at Québec. Québec, Québec
  • 1628 David & Lewis Kirke defeat Claude de Brison and Roquement in the Gulf of St. Lawrence; capture 17 supply ships of the Company of 100 Associates; Claude de La Tour captured and taken to England. Gaspé, Québec
  • 1629 David & Lewis Kirke force Samuel de Champlain to surrender his fur fort at Québec; backed by London fur traders, the Kirke brothers occupy New France until 1632; Champlain sent to England as a prisoner. Québec, Québec
  • 1653 Paul de Maisonneuve and Marguerite Bourgeois depart for New France; will arrive at Québec on September 22, 1653. Le Havre, France
  • 1697 Treaty of Ryswick - Warring powers meet at Ryswick to end the War of the League of Augsbourg, called King William’s War (1689-1697) in America; France and Spain recognize King William III as King of England. Rijswijk, Netherlands
  • 1773 Scottish settlers arrive at Pictou. Pictou, Nova Scotia
  • 1814 War of 1812 - Eight Americans hanged for treason in the Bloody Assize. Ancaster, Ontario
  • 1817 Lord Selkirk welcomes his exiled settlers back from Norway House, Manitoba. Winnipeg, Manitoba
  • 1820 Mohawks cede over 13,350 hectares in the Bay of Quinte region to the Crown. Quinte, Ontario
  • 1854 Laying of first stone of the Victoria Railway Bridge from Montreal to the south shore of the St. Lawrence River. Montreal, Quebec
  • 1859 Queen Victoria renames town of Queensborough, BC New Westminster. New Westminster, BC
  • 1864 J. C. Haynes and Constable Young depart Osoyoos for Wild Horse, BC leaving Constable W. H. Lowe in charge. Osoyoos, BC February 15, 1872. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1872 Federal Election campaign begins. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1885 An Act to Restrict and Regulate Chinese Immigration to Canada receives royal assent in Ottawa. Head tax of $50 imposed. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1885 North West Rebellion - Trial of Louis Riel for treason begins at Regina, the capital of the Northwest Territories; delayed for two weeks to allow the defence to prepare its case; Riel wishes to plead not guilty, but his lawyers enter an insanity plea over his objections. Regina, Saskatchewan
  • 1887 Military - The First Graving Dock in Esquimalt Harbour receives its first ship, HMS Cormorant; the drydock will close June 1, 1927 when it is replaced by the larger “Esquimalt Graving Dock” (completed in 1924 and will officially open July 1, 1927. It is rehabilitated and brought back into service in 1945; renamed “Naden” dock in 1971, it is still in service. Victoria, BC
  • 1891 Kootenay Smelting and Trading Syndicate smelter at Revelstoke begins smelting; later changes name to the British Columbia Smelting and Trading Syndicate. Revelstoke, BC
  • 1896 D. C. Corbin lets $555,400 contract for construction of the Columbia and Red Mountain/Red Mountain Railway and the Northport Bridge; takes it himself. BC
  • 1905 Royal Assent granted to 4-5 Edward VII, chapter 3: An Act to establish and provide for the Government of the Province of Alberta (The Alberta Act, 1905, creating the new Province of Alberta. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1905 Royal Assent granted 4-5 Edward VII, chapter 42: An Act to establish and provide for the Government of the Province of Saskatchewan (The Saskatchewan Act, 1905, , creating the new Province of Saskatchewan. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1905 Regina, Saskatchewan and Edmonton, Alberta declared the capitals of Alberta and Saskatchewan. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1906 Treaty No. 10 is signed with First Nations people of northern Saskatchewan and the NWT. Saskatchewan
  • 1908 Prince of Wales arrives in Québec for the 300th anniversary celebration. Québec, Québec
  • 1928 Japan opens legation in Ottawa. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1932 Ottawa Imperial Conference is held; creates a zone of preferential trade within the British Commonwealth of Nations. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1942 Parliament passes Veterans Land Act (VLA), to award land grants or veterans’ mortgages. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1944 Second World War - Canadian 2nd Infantry Division sets out to capture Verrières Ridge (Hill 67), a 88 metre-high kidney-shaped hill overlooking the main road running from Caen, France south to Paris, defended by SS veterans of the 1st Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler. Guy Simonds sends the 6th Brigade with the Essex Scottish Regiment into the centre at 1500 hrs; South Saskatchewan Regiment mauled during heavy rain after losing air support, losing 200 dead, wounded, or captured; Essex Scottish stops German counterattack; Queen’s Own Highlanders movs to secure St. André-sur-Orne, France, and Les Fusiliers Mont-Royal advance behind tanks and artillery barrage to attack heavily fortified Beauvoir and Troteval farms; ambushed by Germans camouflaged and hiding in cellars; 60% of the Fusiliers killed or wounded. Out of 877 tanks attacking this day, 437 are lost. General Bernard Montgomery finally calls off Operation Goodwood/Atlantic that afternoon, after the British and Canadian armies lose 4,000 men and 500 tanks, over 1/3 of their total armour. Frenouville, France
  • 1945 Ottawa sends out first Family Allowance payments to Canadian families; critics call it a waste of money, say it will encourage poor families to have more children. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1963 City of Montréal annexes Rivière-des-Prairies, Québec. Montréal, Québec
  • 1972 Maurice Richard hired to coach the Québec Nordiques hockey team. Québec, Québec
  • 1975 Fire burns down business section of Springhill, destroying 25 buildings and causing over $3 million in damages. Springhill, Nova Scotia
  • 1977 CRTC fails to find separatist bias in Radio-Canada French-language service. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1978 A. J. Casson Retrospective art exhibition opens at Art Gallery of Ontario; last living member of the Group of Seven. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1978 CPR given permission to abandon Osoyoos Subdivision south of Okanagan Falls; rails removed the following summer. Okanagan Falls, BC
  • 1980 World Future Society and Canadian Futures Society open 5-day First Global Conference on the Future; 4,000 thinkers from all over the world attend. Toronto, Ontario CBC Archives)
  • July 20 - Canada to provide $12.3 million for rural development in Nepal over three years. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1985 James Keegstra fined $5,000 by Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench for willfully promoting hatred against Jews; former school teacher taught Eckville students that the Holocaust didn’t happen and that a Jewish conspiracy controls world affairs; Alberta Court of Appeal overturns verdict in 1988; Supreme Court of Canada will agree there should be a new trial in 1990; second jury convicts Keegstra in 1992. Calgary, Alberta
  • 1986 Bobby Rahal of Dublin, Ohio, wins Toronto’s First major auto race, the Molson Indy. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1988 Air Canada acquires 34 Airbus A-320 passenger jets. Montréal, Québec
  • 1990 Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co (A & P) buys 58 Miracle Food Mart stores and 11 Ultra-Mart food and drug stores from Steinberg Inc. for $235.5 million; stores mostly in Toronto area. Montréal, Québec
  • 1994 Country star Billy Ray Cyrus announces at a concert in Boston that he will donate $1,000 towards the search for a missing eight-year-old Saskatchewan girl, Ashley Krestianson; searchers were trying to guide her out of the bush by playing Cyrus’s Achy Breaky Heart, one of her favourite songs; her body was found a few weeks later. Boston, Massachusetts
  • 1995 Supreme Court of Canada upholds $1.6 million libel award to Casey Hill in his dispute with the Church of Scientology; Hill v. Church of Scientology of Toronto the largest libel award to date in Canadian history. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1996 Saguenay Flood - Earth dam owned by Stone Consolidated ruptures its banks after torrential rains fill Lac Ha! Ha! to overflowing; wall of water moves down the river at 32 kmh, wiping out everything in its path, from Boilleau to La Baie, Québec, and destroying over 150 homes and cottages; estimated 277 mm of rain falls around the Réserve faunique des Laurentides over a 28 hour span; floods kill 10, leave 10,000 homeless; inquiry later reports the region’s system of dams was poorly maintained. Boilleau, Québec
  • 1998 Southam Press newspaper chain acquires the Financial Post newspaper from Sun Media; later forms a part of the National Post. Toronto, Ontario
  • 2005 Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin (acting as the Governor General’s deputy or administrator of the government) gives royal assent to the Civil Marriage Act; Canada the world’s 4th nation to grant full legal rights to same-sex couples, and permit same-sex marriage. Ottawa, Ontario