Highlights of the day

  • 1793 John Graves Simcoe decides Toronto Bay will be a good place for a fort and settlement.
  • 1916 Lightning ignites forest fire in Northern Ontario; destroys Cochrane and Matheson; kills 223.
  • 1992 General Lewis Mackenzie’s UN peacekeepers hand over Sarajevo Airport to French relief force.

List of Facts for July 29

  • 1609 Samuel de Champlain meets a large war party of Iroquois heading north near Ticonderoga. Ticonderoga, New York
  • 1633 The great Franco-Huron Council meets at Québec. Québec, Québec
  • 1657 Gabriel de Queylus arrives in Québec as Vicar General of New France with 3 other priests of the Sulpician Order in a party with Pierre de Maisonneuve; on the way to found the Séminaire de Montréal; sent by La Société des Prêtres de St-Sulpice. Québec, Québec
  • 1658 Pierre de Voyer arrives at Québec to take up his duties as Governor of New France. Québec, Québec
  • 1744 Joseph Duvivier besieges Paul Mascarene and his 50 men at Annapolis Royal; on October 2, 1744, he will abandon the siege and move to winter quarters at Minas. Annapolis, Nova Scotia
  • 1756 French and Indian War - Marquis de Montcalm arrives at Fort Frontenac to join François de Bourlamaque and his 3,000 men in an attack on the English. Kingston, Ontario
  • 1792 William Osgoode elected First Speaker of Legislative Council of Upper Canada. Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario
  • 1793 John Graves Simcoe sails into Toronto Bay by the western gap and decides that the site will be a good place for a fort and a settlement. Toronto, Ontario - See Elizabeth Simcoe’s Account.
  • 1812 War of 1812 - Word of the US declaration of war arrives in England 41 days after it is declared. London, England
  • 1830 Jewish merchant Samuel Hart named to a judgeship in Trois-Rivières. Trois-Rivières, Québec
  • 1837 Rebellion of 1837 - Patriotes hold illegal protest meeting at l’Assomption. L’Assomption, Québec
  • 1848 Completion of First suspension bridge over the Niagara Gorge. Niagara Falls, Ontario
  • 1873 Immigration - First party of 285 Icelandic settlers bound for Manitoba reach Canada. Québec, Québec
  • 1882 Joseph-Adolphe Chapleau resigns as Premier of Québec to become Secretary of State in John A. Macdonald’s government. Québec, Québec
  • 1882 NWMP announce decision to move headquarters from Fort Walsh to Pile-o’-Bones (Regina). Fort Walsh, Alberta
  • 1885 CPR completes BC leg from Port Moody to Savona’s Ferry. Savona’s Ferry, BC
  • 1886 Joseph Duhamel appointed First Roman Catholic Archbishop of Ottawa. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1889 Baillie-Grohman Syndicate’s canal across Canal Flats declared complete: 6700 feet long by 45 feet wide by 11 feet deep. Canal Flats, BC
  • 1895 Canadian Territorial Exhibition opens. Regina, Saskatchewan
  • 1898 British Columbia Southern Railway steel reaches the Kootenay River at Wardner, BC.
  • 1898 White Pass and Yukon Railway starts operations; last spike drivne on this day in 1900. Skagway, Alaska
  • 1900 Last Spike driven on the White Pass & Yukon Railway from Skagway to Whitehorse, Yukon; started in 1898, at the height of the Klondike gold rush; 35 men were killed during construction; summit of White Pass reached in February, 1899; ceased operations October, 1982. Carcross, Yukon
  • 1903 Grand Trunk Railway directors sign agreement with Ottawa to build Winnipeg-Prince Rupert leg of the National Transcontinental Railway and to run the entire line when finished; Ottawa to complete Moncton to Winnipeg leg. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1907 Sir Robert Baden-Powell forms the Boy Scout movement, with assistance from Canadian financier Lord Strathcona. London, England
  • 1907 John Nathan appointed First Constable of Coleman, Alberta.
  • 1911 Canadian Northern Railway completed between Montréal and Port Arthur. Thunder Bay, Ontario
  • 1912 Captain Joseph-Elzéar Bernier leaves for a private Arctic trading expedition on the Minnie Maid. Québec, Québec
  • 1912 Judicial Committee of the Privy Council upholds the power of the Canadian provinces to make marriage laws. London, England
  • 1916 Fire - Lightning ignites large forest fire in Northern Ontario; destroys towns of Cochrane, Ontario and Matheson, Ontario and kills 223 people. Matheson, Ontario
  • 1919 Sarah Ramsland elected as a Saskatchewan MLA; the First woman to sit in the Saskatchewan Legislature. Saskatchewan
  • 1922 Bob Edwards publishes the last edition of the Calgary Eye Opener. Calgary, Alberta
  • 1924 Dollard-des-Ormeaux incorporated as a city. Dollard-des-Ormeaux, Québec
  • 1930 US Coast Guard tows the BC rum-runner Ray Roberts into San Francisco with a cargo of 1,050 cases of whiskey. San Francisco, California
  • 1941 Second World War - Prime Minister Mackenzie King tells war cabinet he would rather resign than support conscription. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1943 Second World War - First HMCS Winnipeg is commissioned. Esquimalt, BC
  • 1948 Canadian team watches as King George VI opens the 14th Olympic Games at Wembley Stadium; with 59 nations and 4,099 competitors; London Olympics lasts to August 4, 1948. London, England
  • 1964 Canada increases aid to Malaysia under Colombo Plan by $4.5 million. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1971 Sydney Oland and the Oland family donate the schooner Bluenose II to the province of Nova Scotia as a floating museum; replica of original. Halifax, Nova Scotia
  • 1974 J. S. Woodsworth Building is dedicated. Winnipeg, Manitoba
  • 1977 Crime - Emanuel Jacques tortured and murdered in apartment above Toronto body-rub parlour; 12-year-old’s death leads to police crackdown on Yonge Street ‘Strip’. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1981 Record - Alex Baumann sets his First world swimming record, in the 200 Metre Individual Medley (butterfly, breaststroke, backstroke and freestyle). Three years later, Baumann will win two Gold Medals at the Los Angeles Olympics, scoring world records in both the 200 and 400 IM. La Prairie, Québec
  • 1983 Raymond Massey dies at age 86; born in Toronto August 30, 1896. The brother of Governor General Vincent Massey, Raymond was a stage, film and TV actor and movie producer whose most popular roles were Abe Lincoln in Illinois (1940), and TV’s Anton the spymaster in I Spy and Dr. Kildare’s Dr. Leonard Gillespie (1961-66). Los Angeles, California
  • 1984 Juli Inkster wins the 12th du Maurier Golf Classic.
  • 1985 Jacques Lemaire resigns as coach of the Montréal Canadiens. Montréal, Québec
  • 1988 External Affairs Minister Joe Clark says Canada will deny visas to all South African athletes, amateur and professional, wishing to compete in events in Canada; action consistent with the 1977 Gleneagles Agreement which encouraged Commonwealth countries to combat apartheid in this way. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1992 General Lewis Mackenzie’s Canadian UN peacekeepers hand over Sarajevo Airport to French relief force; 800 return to base in Croatia. Sarajevo, Bosnia
  • 1994 Canadian comedian Jim Carrey’s film The Mask opens in theatres. Hollywood, California
  • 1998 Pay Equity - Federal human rights tribunal rules that Canadian public servants in female-dominated job categories deserve compensation for unequal pay; payment to be retroactive to March, 1985 and would range from $10k to 20k. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 2002 At least 23 young Cubans from a group who traveled to Toronto to see Pope John Paul II decide not to return to the Communist-ruled island and ask for asylum in Canada. Toronto, Ontario