Highlights of the day

  • 1701 Louis de Callières signs “The Great Peace of Montreal” with 38 Huron and Iroquois chiefs.
  • 1914 Canada and the Empire Go to War with Germany and Austria-Hungary when Germany invades Belgium
  • 1922 Telephone service halted for 80 seconds to mark death of Alexander Graham Bell August 2.
  • 1998 Nisga’a Treaty signed; BC and Canada to make 2,000 sq km in the Nass valley as Nisga’a territory.

List of Facts for August 4

  • 1637 Huron council blames smallpox epidemic on the sorcery of the black robes (Jesuits). Ontario
  • 1689 War party of 1,500 Iroquois attacks Lachine, upriver from Ville-Marie (Montréal), burning houses and killing settlers over a two day period; estimates of the dead range from 25 to 40; it is likely that 90 settlers were captured by the Iroquois, and never returned. Lachine, Québec
  • 1701 Louis de Callières signs a general treaty of peace with 38 Huron and Iroquois chiefs; “The Great Peace of Montreal” ends 14 years of fighting. Montréal, Québec
  • 1757 French and Indian War - Marquis de Montcalm orders his 6,200 troops to attack Fort William Henry, while his 1,800 Indian allies start shooting from the cover of tree stumps in the open areas on all sides of the fort, defended by 2,500 British under Col. George Munro. At 3 pm Montcalm asks Monro to surrender before the French Cannon are brought to bear on the fort. Munro refuses. Montcalm directs main thrust of siege on north side of the fort, with two artillery batteries, one directly against the north bastion, the other to cross fire at the same time, to deliver ricochets onto the defenses. Lake George, New York
  • 1763 Pontiac’s Resistance - Pontiac’s Delaware, Shawnee, Mingo, and Huron allies led by Guyasuta attack Colonel Henry Bouquet and his troops - the 60th Royal Americans, the 42nd Royal Highlander Battalion, and the 77th Highland Unit - at Bushy Run as they are marching to the relief of Fort Pitt; the British hold their ground and build a redoubt; the following day the allied tribes attack as Bouquet feigns a retreat, but they are ambushed by hidden troops, and flee in a disorganized rout. Bouquet will relieve the fort August 10, 1763. Knowing the Native American susceptibility to smallpox, General Amherst had written to Bouquet in May 1763, You will do well to try to inoculate the Indians, by means of Blankets, as well as to try every other method, that can serve to extirpate this execrable race. Bouquet did not use this tactic, but Captain Simeon Ecuyer, in command of Fort Pitt, tried it in desperation. He was short of supplies and over-taxed by six hundred settlers seeking the protection of its walls, in addition to his garrison of one hundred and twenty-five men. He was also surrounded by what Captain Ecuyer believed were one thousand Native Americans, who kept him cut off from supplies. So he sent a hospital blanket and two handkerchiefs that had been exposed to smallpox in the fort’s sick ward to the Native Americans. This tactic had no known immediate effect. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
  • 1769 Prince Edward Island comes into being as the British Crown separates the Island of St. John from Nova Scotia. The new colony, population 250, is given a governor, lieutenant-governor, executive and legislative councils, a Supreme Court and civil service, and plans are made for a legislative assembly. Charlottetown, PEI
  • 1814 War of 1812 - Lt. Col. Robert McDouall and a small garrison of less than 200 seamen, Michigan Fencibles and Newfoundland Regiment regulars beats off Col. George Croghan and 750 Americans at Mackinaw. Michilimackinac, Michigan
  • 1837 Thomas Simpson reaches Barrow Point; takes possession for Britain; travelling alone without Peter Dease. Point Barrow, Alaska
  • 1839 John Strachan appointed First Anglican Bishop of Toronto, serving until his death in 1867. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1858 Edmund Head refuses to dissolve Parliament and call election when ‘Short Ministry’ defeated in House; George Brown & Antoine Dorion resign. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1892 CPR leases the S&O Railway for 25 years; re-leased in July 1915 for 999 years. BC
  • 1910 Surplus British Royal Navy cruiser becomes HMCS Rainbow, the First ship commissioned by the Royal Canadian Navy. Halifax, Nova Scotia
  • 1914 First World War - Britain declares herself and her Empire at war with Germany and Austria-Hungary when Germany invades Belgium; Canada automatically enters the War on Britain’s declaration; Canada will vote to spend $50 million to raise an army; the US proclaims neutrality. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1922 All telephone service in Canada is halted for 80 seconds, starting at 6:25 pm, to mark the death of Alexander Graham Bell on August 2 at his Beinn Bhreagh home on Cape Breton Island. Baddeck, Nova Scotia
  • 1927 Opening of the Peace Bridge between the US and Canada. Niagara Falls, Ontario
  • 1930 Fire - Arsonist destroys CNP Lumber’s No.1 plant in Wardner, BC.
  • 1943 Ontario Election - George Drew wins a majority in provincial election for Conservatives, defeating Harry Nixon’s Liberals; CCF capture 34 seats. Ontario
  • 1944 Second World War - Canadian Generals Harry Crerar and Guy Simonds prepare to launch Operation Totalize with 3 exhausted infantry divisions, and 2 armoured divisions: (4th Canadian and the 1st Polish); to attack towards Falaise, France on the 8th, bolster the American advance to the west and trap retreating German armour. Five German divisions scatter before the American front, seven in battle with the Canadians, 19 massed between the Vire and Orne rivers. On August 6, 1944, Adolf Hitler will order his Panzer divisions to counter-attack. Normandy, France August 4 - Second World War - RAF Squadron Leader Ian Bazalgette of Calgary, Alberta, is shot down over France in his Lancaster bomber during an incendiary raid on a German missile launch pad near Beauvais; with both starboard engines hit by anti-aircraft fire, he continues to guide his squadron to their target; after dropping his bombs, the fuel tank explodes, and he orders his crew to bail out; he stays at the controls and guides the Lancaster away from the village of Senantes before it crashes, killing him and two comrades. Bazalgette will be awarded the Victoria Cross posthumously; the the only Alberta-born VC; a junior high school in Calgary is named in his honour. Beauvais, France
  • 1950 Korean War - Canada decides to send 4,000 soldiers to Korea to assist the UN Force. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1952 Fire badly damages the Parliamentary Library in Ottawa. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1954 Uranium rush begins after discoveries in northern Saskatchewan. Saskatchewan
  • 1960 Canadian Bill of Rights approved by Commons; launched by John Diefenbaker, the Bill receives Royal Assent August 10, 1960; it sets out Canadian civil rights and freedoms in written form and obliges the government to guarantee them; applies only to federal law because it is not in the constitution; precursor to Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, entrenched in the Canadian Constitution in 1982. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1961 New Democratic Party convention elects former Saskatchewan Premier Tommy Douglas as its leader. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1972 CPR begins rail operations on the former EBC Railway line to Coal Mountain, BC.
  • 1976 Roy Thomson, Lord Thomson of Fleet dies at age 82; Toronto born barber’s son became a millionaire owner of broadcasting stations and newspapers and North Sea oil holdings; he was elevated to the peerage in 1963. London, England
  • 1978 Disaster - Forty one handicapped persons die when their bus plunges into Lac d’Argent in the Eastern Townships. Eastman, Québec
  • 1978 Molson Brewery acquires Montréal Canadiens hockey team for $20 million. Montréal, Québec
  • 1983 New York Yankee outfielder Dave Winfield charged by Toronto police with causing unnecessary suffering to an animal after he kills an Exhibition Stadium seagull with a thrown baseball during warm-ups for the 5th inning; charges later dropped after Winfield convinces police the killing was accidental; the ‘Fowl Ball’ incident. Winfield later becomes a member of the Toronto Blue Jays himself. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1989 Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Dave Stieb’s perfect game broken up in 9th inning with 2 outs by NY Yankee Roberto Kelly. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1990 Crime - Three armed bandits, brandishing handguns and a phony hand grenade, make off with $300,000 in merchandising receipts from a New Kids on the Block Concert at Olympic Stadium; police suspect an inside job because the robbers had security passes to get backstage. Montréal, Québec
  • 1991 Québec Premier Robert Bourassa announces he will rejoin constitutional talks; boycotted since the Meech Lake Accord; likes July 7, 1991 proposals by Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and other premiers; wants Senate changes. Québec, Québec
  • 1996 Olympics - Closing of the 26th Olympic Summer games in Atlanta; Canada won 3 gold, 11 silver, 8 bronze medals. Atlanta, Georgia
  • 1996 Laura Davies wins the 24th du Maurier Golf Classic.
  • 1998 The Governments of British Columbia, Canada and the Nisga’a settle land claim; nearly 2,000 square kilometres of land in the Nass River valley is officially recognized as Nisga’a, and a 300,000 cubic decameter water reservation is also created. The agreement also creates the Bear Glacier Provincial Park; first formal treaty signed by a First Nation in British Columbia since the Douglas Treaties in 1854; given Royal Assent April 13, 2000. Victoria, BC
  • 2005 Supreme Court of Canada suspends for 12 months its Chaoulli Case ruling that the Québec government cannot prevent people from paying for private health insurance procedures covered under medicare. Ottawa, Ontario