Highlights of the day

  • 1814 British Win Firefight at Lundy’s Lane; Americans Retreat

List of Facts for July 25

  • 1534 Jacques Cartier leaves Gaspé with Domagaya and Taignoagny, two sons of Iroquois Chief Donnacona; promises to return them the following year. Gaspé, Québec
  • 1629 David Kirke & Lewis Kirke defeat Emery De Caen and capture his supply ship; First naval combat on the St. Lawrence River between the English privateers and French merchants. La Malbaie, Québec
  • 1686 Pierre d’Iberville captures the Hudson’s Bay Company’s Fort Albany after a two-week siege. Churchill, Manitoba
  • 1722 Three Years War begins along the Maine and Massachusetts border; mostly guerrilla raids by Indians along the Kennebec River. Maine
  • 1755 Charles Lawrence meets with Acadians and orders them to take oath of allegiance to British Crown; most refuse. Halifax, Nova Scotia
  • 1758 French and Indian War - James Wolfe’s troops silence Louisbourg’s Island battery, and an exploding shell lands on the deck of the French warship Celèbre, setting off barrels of gunpowder; the fire jumps from ship to ship, destroying all but two of the French warships, the Prudent and Bienfaisant; at midnight, Jeffrey Amherst sends 25 boatloads of Marines into the harbour and takes the last two French ships. Louisbourg, Nova Scotia
  • 1759 French and Indian War - William Johnson and Brigadier General John Prideaux get surrender of Fort Niagara from outnumbered and outgunned French Commander Pierre Pouchot; he insists upon a solemn promise that Johnson would protect them from his Iroquois allies. Youngstown, New York
  • 1759 French and Indian War - French abandon Fort Rouillé when they hear that William Johnson has captured Fort Niagara. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1779 American Revolutionary War - Francis McLean drives off American attack on Castine. Castine, Maine
  • 1787 George Dixon names Queen Charlotte Islands; trader with the King George’s Sound Company. Queen Charlotte Islands, BC
  • 1814 War of 1812 - Gordon Drummond arrives with reinforcements for a retreating General Phineas Riall at Lundy’s Lane, 2 km below the falls, and takes the battle to Jacob Brown’s Americans at 6 pm; Drummond stalemates the Americans in a bitter all night battle, one of the bloodiest in the War of 1812; British and Canadians take 878 casualties, with 84 killed, out of 3,000 men; Americans withdraw the following day to Fort Erie with 853 casualties, including 171 killed, and General Riall as their prisoner. Niagara Falls, Ontario
  • 1814 See: British Win Firefight at the Battle of Lundy’s Lane
  • 1837 Rebellion of 1837 - Bishop Jean-Jacques Lartigue tells his priests to warn their flocks that rebellion against the established authority is a sin; opposed Louis-Joseph Papineau’s anti-clerical position, and his support for secular rather than religious schools. Montréal, Québec
  • 1837 Abbé Ignace Bourget consecrated a titular Roman Catholic Bishop; assistant to Bishop Jean-Jacques Lartigue, whom he replaced on April 3, 1840. Montréal, Québec
  • 1850 Francis Fulford consecrated First Anglican Bishop of Montréal. Montréal, Québec
  • 1852 Father Joseph Bourassa blesses the church at Lac Ste. Anne; First Roman Catholic church west of the Red River Colony. Lac Ste. Anne, Alberta
  • 1871 Manitoba Lieutenant Governor Adams Archibald negotiates Treaty #1 in Southern Manitoba with Swampy Cree and Chippewa (Ojibway); 26,875 sq km; $3 per Indian, acreage. Old Fort Garry, Manitoba
  • 1873 British Columbia government protests Canada’s failure to build railroad connection to fulfill terms of union; as promised by George-Étienne Cartier. Victoria, BC
  • 1874 Alexander Muir conducts a choir of schoolchildren singing his song, ‘The Maple Leaf Forever’, at the laying of the foundation stone for the Christian Baptist Church; not the First time; the 1871 sheet music says it had already been sung with great applause by J. F. Hardy, Esquire, in his popular entertainments. Newmarket, Ontario
  • 1874 See: Alexander Muir Writes The Maple Leaf Forever
  • 1879 Letellier de St-Just loses his position as Lieutenant Governor of Québec. Québec, Québec
  • 1891 Henry White and Matthew Hotter respectively stake the Knob Hill and Old Ironsides properties on Phoenix Mountain. BC
  • 1899 Theodore Heintzman dies at age 82; started making pianos in Toronto before 1860, founded the Heintzman and Company piano manufacturing company in Toronto in 1866; moved operations to Hanover, Ontario in 1978. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1905 James Walsh dies; NWMP officer and Territorial Commissioner; Fort Walsh was named in his honour. Saskatchewan
  • 1905 Parliament passes Northwest Territories Act; sets new boundaries after the creation of Alberta and Saskatchewan; headed by a Commissioner. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1908 Prince of Wales inspects naval review at Québec; to celebrate 300th anniversary. Québec, Québec
  • 1909 Central Baptist Church dedicated. Blairmore, Alberta
  • 1911 Bobby Leach survives drop over Niagara Falls in a steel barrel; spends 23 weeks in hospital recovering from injuries. Niagara Falls, Ontario
  • 1911 Carillon and Grenville Railway abandoned; portage railway opened October 25, 1854; last remaining broad gauge (5’6) line in North America; later acquired by the Canadian Northern Railway as part of its new Montréal to Ottawa line. Hawkesbury, Ontario
  • 1911 Fire destroys much of downtown Grand Forks, BC.
  • 1917 First World War - Finance Minister Sir Thomas White introduces the Income Tax War Bill; proposal to levy the First national tax on personal income on Canadians; supposedly as a wartime measure only. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1920 Canadian Marconi Company makes First transatlantic two-way radio broadcast from Signal Hill to the SS Victoria. St. John’s, Newfoundland
  • 1937 Edward Saunders dies; Dominion Experimental Farm scientist developed the superior Marquis wheat strain which helped open the Prairies to farming. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1944 Second World War - British General Bernard Montgomery orders the 2nd Canadian Infantry Division and 3rd Canadian Infantry Division around Caen are ordered by to push the entrenched German army off Verrières Ridge, take the heat off the Americans at St-Lô, and clear the main road through Falaise to Paris. Operation Spring begins with six infantry divisions and three tank squadrons attacking separately along an 8 km front against entrenched 1st SS Division panzer positions well sited on commanding high ground. In the early hours, German snipers ambush the advancing Canadians from cellars, tunnels and mine shafts, while Guy Simonds’ plan to guide the assault troops toward Tilly-la-Campagne by bouncing searchlights off the clouds to produce artificial moonlight fails when someone orders the lights dropped to ground level, silhouetting the men to German fire; only about 100 men and just four tanks of the 3rd Division’s North Nova Scotia Highlanders, the Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry Highlanders, and the 2nd Armoured Brigade’s Fort Garry Horse make it back to base; Allies will suffer 18,444 casualties, with 5,021 killed. Normandy, France
  • 1950 Korean War - RCAF Squadron 426 leaves Dorval Airport for the Far east as the United Nations-mandated conflict in Korea begins. Montréal, Québec
  • 1952 CBC/Radio Canada TV covers Montréal Royals baseball game; First experimental Canadian telecast; regular television programming begins in September, 1952. Montréal, Québec
  • 1958 Harry Warner dies at 76; born December 12, 1881; film executive, one of Warner Brothers born at London, Ontario. Hollywood, California
  • 1960 Premiers meet for 3-day federal-provincial conference on constitutional amendments and tax issues; to July 27, 1960. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1966 Charlottetown Festival premieres the musical Turvey, based on Earle Birney’s novel about the comic adventures of a Canadian soldier during Second World War; revised and restaged in 1970 as Private Turvey’s War. Charlottetown, PEI
  • 1966 Martine van Hamel wins junior class of international ballet competition in Bulgaria; Toronto ballerina. Sofia, Bulgaria
  • 1969 Parliament amends Official Languages Act to declare English and French the official languages of Canada; the statute arose from a Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism recommendation, and declared that federal institutions must provide services in English or French at the customer’s choice; principles of the Act will be enshrined in the 1982 Constitution through the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1969 Toronto native Neil Young joins rock group Crosby, Stills and Nash for the First time at a concert at the Fillmore East; former Buffalo Springfield member with Stephen Stills; Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young will perform at Woodstock a month later; they break up in 1971. New York, New York
  • 1973 Louis St-Laurent dies in Québec at age 91; born February 1, 1882, at Compton, Québec; educated at St. Charles Seminary, Sherbrooke and Laval University; Professor of Law, Laval University 1914; President of the Canadian Bar Association 1930-1932; Counsel to Rowell-Sirois Commission on Dominion-Provincial Relations 1937-1940; MP Québec East 1942-1958; Liberal Party Leader 1948-1958; Canada’s 12th Prime Minister November 15, 1948-June 21, 1957; Leader of the Opposition 1957-1958. Québec, Québec
  • 1974 Peacekeeping - Government increases the Canadian contingent of the UN peacekeeping force on Cyprus from 486 to 950; at request of United Nations. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1975 Henry Morgentaler sentenced to 18 months in jail for performing abortions; serves 10 months before a retrial ordered. Montréal, Québec
  • 1978 Canadian rock drummer Jim Walker, who had played with the Furys, joins former Sex Pistol singer John Lydon, aka Johnny Rotten in a new band called Public Image Limited. London, England
  • 1981 McDonald Royal Commission condemns illegal RCMP activities against Québec separatists and other dissidents; recommends civilian agency to take over security work. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1982 Riot erupts at Archambault Prison, a maximum-security institution near Montréal; inmates trying to escape kill three guards; two convicts commit suicide. Archambault, Québec
  • 1989 Canadian War Museum pays $79,000 at auction to acquire Victoria Cross awarded posthumously to Private William Milne of Saskatchewan; assisted by public donations; medal one of the five awarded to Canadians for the Battle of Vimy Ridge in 1917. London, England
  • 1990 Lucien Bouchard announces formation of the Bloc Québecois, a federal political party consisting of himself, five other ex-Conservative MPs and ex-Liberal Jean Lapierre; all of whom left their parties after the failure of the Meech Lake Accord; Bouchard is a former Environment Minister in Brian Mulroney’s government and Canadian Ambassador to Paris. Montréal, Québec
  • 1990 Musical Les Miserables opens at the Princess Elizabeth Theatre in Vancouver. Vancouver, BC
  • 1992 Canadian team attends the opening of the 25th Olympic Games; the 1996 Barcelona Olympics end August. 9, 1992. Barcelona, Spain
  • 1992 Canadian rocker Bryan Adams, en route from Zurich to Vienna as part of a concert tour, helps out two motorists whose car struck his on a highway in Switzerland; the other car skidded out of control, grazed his car and hit an embankment. St. Gallen, Switzerland
  • 1994 Figure skating couple Isabelle Brasseur and Lloyd Eisler turn professional. Montréal, Québec
  • 1996 Curtis Myden wins his second bronze medal of the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, placing third in the 200m individual medley. Atlanta, Georgia
  • 1996 Coach House Press says it will cease operations; literary publisher blames cutbacks by government of Mike Harris. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1996 Agriculture - Eastern Canadian potato farmers hit by potato blight; new strain of same fungus that caused Irish potato famine in 1850s.
  • 1996 Flood losses in the Saguenay region top estimated $500 million. Chicoutimi, Québec
  • 1997 Rocker Rick Danko, formerly of The Band, gets a suspended sentence in Japan for drug smuggling. Japan
  • 2002 Pope John Paul II appears at before as many as 200,000 young faithful at a Catholic youth festival on Downsview Canadian Forces base. Toronto, Ontario