Highlights of the day

  • 1866 Cyrus Field’s Anglo-American Telegraph Company lays the first telegraph cable from Wales to Newfoundland.
  • 1953 Korean War ends with armistice after three years; 21,940 Canadians served.
  • 1996 Donovan Bailey wins Olympic gold for Canada at Atlanta; runs record 100 m sprint in 9.84.

List of Facts for July 27

  • 1606 Jean de Poutrincourt arrives at Port-Royal on the Jonas with Louis Hébert; the expedition sows grain and other foods successfully; the First permanent French colony in Canada. Annapolis, Nova Scotia
  • 1636 Signature of the First marriage contract in New France; such notarized family agreements often predated Church weddings. Québec, Québec
  • 1749 Edward Cornwallis reports to London on his new settlement at Chebucto: “It has all the conveniences I could wish except a fresh water river. Nothing is easier than to build wharves; one is already finished for ships of 200 tons. I have constantly employed all the carpenters I could get from Annapolis and the ships here to build log houses for stores. I have likewise offered the French at Minas considerable wages to work, and they have promised to send fifty men to remain until October. As there was not one clear yard of clear ground you will imagine our difficulty and what we have here to do; however, they have already cleared about twelve acres, and I hope to begin my house in two days; I have a small frame and pickets ready.” Halifax, Nova Scotia
  • 1762 Charles de Ternay captures Fort William Henry at St. John’s. St. John’s, Newfoundland
  • 1812 Fifth session of sixth Parliament of Upper Canada meets until August 5, 1812; passes Act for defence of province. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1853 Grand Trunk Railway completed from Sherbrooke to the US border. Sherbrooke, Québec
  • 1865 Death of Augustin-Norbert Morin, lawyer, poet, former co-Premier of the Province of Canada. Montréal, Québec
  • 1866 Cyrus Field and his Anglo-American Telegraph Company finally succeed, after two failures, in laying the First workable underwater telegraph cable 1,686 miles long across the Atlantic Ocean to Wales; had set up operations in Newfoundland, using Frederick Gisbourne’s technology; the steamship Great Eastern had successfully retrieved and mended the broken cable from earlier attempts. Heart’s Content, Newfoundland - See Field’s self-serving account Here
  • 1880 Old Hotel Donnacona becomes a hospital. Montréal, Québec
  • 1886 The barque W.B. Flint sails into Port Moody, beginning the CPR’s trans-Pacific trade. Port Moody, BC
  • 1891 Last spike driven on the Calgary and Edmonton Railway; begun July 21, 1890; the line reduces what was a five-day stagecoach journey to a train trip of only a few hours; C & E taken over by CPR in 1903. Strathcona, Alberta
  • 1893 Lawrence Vankoughnet resigns as Deputy Superintendent-general of Indian Affairs, under pressure from the Minister of the Interior Mayne Daly; succeeded by Hayter Reed.
  • 1897 Government approves contract to build the British Columbia Southern Railway. Victoria, BC
  • 1897 Record - Toronto has its greatest one-day rainfall, a torrent amounting to 98.6 mm. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1898 Michael Heney operates First locomotive on his White Pass & Yukon Railway. Skagway, Alaska
  • 1913 First issue of the newspaper Le Droit published at Ottawa. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1921 Frederick Banting First isolates insulin from the pancreatic duct of a dog; assisted by colleagues J. J. R. Macleod, Charles Best, and Bertram Collip at the University of Toronto; in January 1922, they administer insulin to 14 year old Leonard Thompson, and prove it an effective lifesaving treatment for diabetes in humans; in 1923, Banting and Macleod will be the First Canadians to win a Nobel Prize (they will share the award with Best and Collip); Banting does not patent the process, but assigns the rights to the University of Toronto, who will manufacture it through Connaught Laboratories. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1924 Closing of the eighth Olympic games in Paris. Canada won no gold medals, but silver in the Rowing Eights: Arthur Bell, Ivor Campbell, Robert Hunter, William Langford, Harold Little, John Smith, Warren Snyder, Norm Taylor, William Wallace; silver in the Coxless Fours: Archie Black, Colin Finlayson, George MacKay, William Wood; silver in Team Clay Pigeon: William Barnes, George Beattie, John Black, James Montgomery, Sam Newton, Sam Vance; bronze in Boxing 66.68 kilograms: Doug Lewis. Paris, France
  • 1926 Smelting of the First aluminum ingot at Arvida; the town is named for Arthur Vining Davis. Arvida, Québec
  • 1932 Saskatchewan Farmer-Labour Party is formed; later the CCF. Regina, Saskatchewan
  • 1934 Saskatchewan Farmer Labor Party becomes the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF); forerunner of the NDP. Regina, Saskatchewan
  • 1935 New Brunswick Election - Allison Dysart leads Liberals to victory in NB provincial election. New Brunswick
  • 1942 Symbols - Prime Minister Mackenzie King tells the Commons that this is not an appropriate time for proclaiming a national anthem; suggests There are times and seasons for all things and this time of war when there are other more important questions with which parliament has to deal, we might well continue to follow what has become the custom in Canada in recent years of regarding God Save The King and O Canada each as national anthems and entitled to similar recognition. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1952 Opening of the Faculty of Law at the University of Ottawa. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1953 Korean War - Armistice ends three year old Korean conflict; a 4 km wide buffer zone is created to separate the two Koreas; 21,940 Canadians served in Korea in the Canadian Army, 3,621 in the RCN, and 1,104 in the RCAF; in total 314 Canadians were killed and 1211 injured during the conflict; 7,000 Canadians will serve in Korea with UN peacekeeping forces after end of war, until November; 116,000 UN troops and 1.5 million Chinese and North Koreans were killed during the conflict. Panmunjon, Korea
  • 1959 Toronto joins New York, Houston, Denver, and Minneapolis-St. Paul as one of the five cities named as part of the new Continental Baseball League; Branch Rickey was named League president. New York, New York
  • 1960 Canadian Army peacekeeping units were formed for service in the Congo on behalf of the United Nations. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1962 Opening of Agassiz Mountain Prison, purpose-built to house Doukhobors led by Frances Storgeoff. BC
  • 1962 Canadian Talent Library begins operations. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1964 Tunku Abdul Rahman Prime Minister of Malaysia, starts three-day visit to Canada. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1965 Alan Lunt premieres musical play ‘Anne of Green Gables,’ based on the novel by Lucy Maud Montgomery, at the Charlottetown Festival. Charlottetown, PEI
  • 1971 City of Winnipeg Act is passed. Winnipeg, Manitoba
  • 1972 NHL Montréal Canadiens star Rocket Richard jumps leagues to the WHA and signs a one year contract as coach of the World Hockey Association Québec Nordiques. Québec, Québec
  • 1981 Federal government announces 20% cut in Via Rail passenger service. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1982 Montreal Expos win their 1,000th game with a 4-3 win over the Chicago Cubs. Montréal, Québec
  • 1983 Crow’s Nest Industries Limited dissolved. BC
  • 1984 Anne Murray single ‘Just Another Woman in Love’ peaks at #1 on the Billboard pop singles chart. New York, New York
  • 1984 Montreal Expos’ Pete Rose passes Ty Cobb for the most career singles with #3,503, getting the hit against his former team, the Philadelphia Phillies. Montréal, Québec
  • 1991 Bryan Adams’ single ‘(Everything I Do) I Do It For You’ peaks at #1 on the Billboard pop singles chart and will stay there for seven weeks. New York, New York
  • 1991 Riot - 2,000 youths riot after a concert by rap star MC Hammer; smash and loot downtown stores, and wreck tourist establishments along the beach; 90 jailed, 60 treated for injuries. Penticton, BC
  • 1992 Justice Minister Kim Campbell unveils new firearms regulations; 60 military-type weapons banned; magazines limited to 5, 10 shot; guns must be stored away from ammunition, and kept locked. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1995 Conrad Black’s Hollinger Inc. buys 19 of 21 small newspapers in Ontario and Saskatchewan that Thomson Corp. put up for sale as part of a reorganization. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1996 Donovan Bailey wins Olympic gold for Canada at the Atlanta Olympics, running the 100 m sprint in 9.84, setting a new world record; competition held beneath flags at half-mast to honour the one person killed and 100 injured by a pipe bomb. At Lake Lanier, Canadian rowers Marnie McBean and Kathleen Heddle also win gold in the double sculls, becoming Canada’s First and only three-time Olympic gold medalists. Both Silken Laumann and Derek Porter row to silver in their single sculls. Canada now has 2 gold, 3 silver, 3 bronze medals in the games. Atlanta, Georgia
  • 1999 Nov Scotia Election - John Hamm’s Conservative Party wins a majority of seats in the NS House of Assembly; Tory leader Hamm succeeds Liberal Russell MacLellan as Premier. Nova Scotia