Highlights of the day

  • 1813 Commodore Isaac Chauncey’s ships Hamilton & Scourge capsize in heavy gale on Lake Ontario; 53 sailors drown.
  • 1918 General Arthur Currie mounts assault with 600 tanks against 20 German divisions along 14 km front at Amiens; start of Canada’s Hundred Days.

List of Facts for August 8

  • 1585 John Davis rounds peninsula he calls Cape of God’s Mercy (Cape Mercy) then enters wide and deep bay; calls it Cumberland Sound; hopes it is the North West Passage. Cape Mercy, Nunavut
  • 1610 Samuel de Champlain departs for France, leaving behind party of 16 under command of Jean du Parc. Québec, Québec
  • 1619 Rasmus Jensen ship’s chaplain holds First Lutheran service in Canada with Jens Munk and crew; only Munk and two others will survive the voyage. Ice Cove, Nunavut
  • 1641 Jeanne Mance arrives in New France with Madame de La Peltrie and settlers bound for Montreal; Paul de Maisonneuve has a rougher crossing, and arrived in September; on behalf of La Société Notre-Dame; they spend the winter at Ste-Foy near Quebec City, and the following Spring go up river to found Ville Marie (Montreal), where Jeanne Mance also founds the Hôtel Dieu de Montréal. Québec, Québec See May 17.
  • 1740 François de Lauberivière dies 12 days after arriving in Québec; newly appointed Bishop. Québec, Québec
  • 1758 French and Indian War - Andrew Rollo captures Prince Edward Island (Île St-Jean) from the French, deports 3,500 inhabitants to France, builds Fort Amherst. Port La Joie, PEI
  • 1758 French and Indian war - Robert Rogers defeats French at Fort Anne; Rogers’ Scouts. Fort Anne, Québec
  • 1774 Juan Hernandez sails south to Vancouver Island. Vancouver Island, BC
  • 1812 War of 1812 - American General William Hull withdraws to Fort Detroit. Detroit, Michigan
  • 1813 War of 1812 - US Commodore Isaac Chauncey’s ships Hamilton and Scourge capsize in minutes in a heavy gale off Forty Mile Creek on Lake Ontario, and 53 sailors drown; the ships were putting on extra sail to escape British Captain James Yeo’s fleet, and sank from a shift in weight of the guns; largest loss of life suffered by the United States Navy in the war. Yeo did not see the disaster happen, and did not press his advantage. Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario
  • 1833 George Back and his team reach Fort Resolution on Great Slave Lake on their expedition to find Arctic explorer Capt. John Ross. Fort Resolution, NWT
  • 1888 Columbia Transportation Company’s steamboat Despatch leaves Revelstoke, BC.
  • 1898 Cabinet authorizes CPR to lease the Columbia and Western Railway for 999 years. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1898 H.W. Forster and J.J. Hill incorporate the Kootenay Railway and Navigation Company in England. Capitalized at £500,000. London, England
  • 1898 John Herbert Turner is dismissed as Premier of British Columbia. Victoria, BC
  • 1907 Bill Miner, the Gentleman Bandit, escapes from the British Columbia Penitentiary and flees to the US, where he continues his bank robbing career until his death in a Georgia prison; he was jailed for 25 years for his part in a bungled CPR train robbery in Kamloops, BC in 1906; the film, The Grey Fox, is based on his exploits. New Westminster, BC
  • 1908 Corbin Coke and Coal Company incorporated in the State of Washington, capitalized at two million dollars, Albert Allen, president. Seattle, Washington
  • 1913 Great Northern Railroad takes over Kootenay Valley Railway. BC
  • 1916 Edgar Dewdney dies; interred in Ross Bay Cemetery. Victoria, BC
  • 1916 Disaster - Twelve die in three explosions at Michel’s New No.3 East Mine. Michel, BC
  • 1918 First World War - General Sir Arthur Currie, with the Canadian Corps, backed by some Australian and British units, mounts a four day assault with 600 tanks against 20 German divisions along a 14 km front at Amiens; takes 16,000 prisoners in two hours; marks the start of Canada’s Hundred Days, a string of almost continuous victories, during which the Canadian Corps played the major role in breaking the German lines and driving them back along the Western Front, culminating in the First World War armistice of Nov. 11. German General Erich Ludendorff called today the black day of the German army. Amiens, France
  • 1918 John Croke becomes the First Newfoundlander to be awarded the Victoria Cross; he had captured a German machine gun nest while severely wounded. London, England
  • 1922 John Bracken sworn in as First UFM (United Farmers of Manitoba) Premier of Manitoba, replacing Tobias Norris. Winnipeg, Manitoba
  • 1934 J. R. Ayling and L. Reid leave from Wasaga Beach to London in First non-stop transatlantic flight from Canada to England; arrive August 9, 1934. Wasaga Beach, Ontario
  • 1944 Second World War - Canadian Army and Poles break through the first German defence line south of Caen, and occupy the villages of Cramesnil, Secqueville, Cintheaux and St-Aignan; as Americans conquer Brittany and head toward Paris. Normandy, France
  • 1944 Alberta Election - Ernest Manning leads Social Credit to re-election victory in Alberta; third consecutive majority. Alberta August 8 - Second World War - German U-boat U-667 torpedoes and sinks RCN Flower Class corvette HMCS Regina off Trevose Head, Cornwall; thirty of her ship’s company are lost. Cornwall, England
  • August 8 - Québec Election - Maurice Duplessis returns to power in Quebec election, partly due to Union Nationale use of conscription issue; Prime Minister of Quebec to 1959. Quebec
  • 1945 Fire - First reports of major fire- ‘the Big Burn’ - in the Sumallo Valley. BC
  • 1961 CFL Hamilton Tigercats beat the NFL Buffalo Bills, 38-21 in a summer exhibition game in Hamilton. Hamilton, Ontario
  • 1961 Record 46-kg lake trout caught in Lake Athabasca. Saskatchewan
  • 1968 Montreal Mayor Jean Drapeau approves Jarry Park for interim use by the National League Montreal Expos. Montréal, Québec
  • 1977 Ottawa approves Foothills Pipe Lines (Yukon) Ltd. plan for Alaska Highway pipeline; pending outcome of negotiations with the US. Yukon
  • 1982 Pierre Trudeau gives a rude finger gesture from a train window to a group of protesters shouting anti-French slogans. Salmon Arm, BC
  • 1985 Kootenay and Elk Railway Company struck from British Columbia’s Register of Companies. Victoria, BC
  • 1987 Québec pop star Rene Simard marries Marie-Joseph Taillefer; among the 450 guests are former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, who proposes the toast, and singer Ginette Reno, who sings a love ballad for the newlyweds. Traffic in the Laurentian town is re-routed as 6,000 fans start gathering just after dawn for the ceremony that afternoon. St-Sauveur, Québec
  • 1991 Ron Joyce sells Tim Horton’s, Canada’s No. 1 doughnut chain to Wendy’s International Inc.; $300-million deal makes Tim Horton’s co-founder the U.S. burger giant’s largest single shareholder. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1992 Heavy metal fans go on a rampage, smashing windows in Olympic Stadium and throwing rock and bottles at police after Metallica has to end its performance when lead singer James Hetfield is burned by an exploding stage prop, and Guns N’ Roses lead singer Axl Rose stops his concert due to a sore throat; damage is estimated at about $300,000, eight police officers are slightly injured and a dozen people arrested. In 1995, Metallica sued promoter Donald K. Donald for $254,000, claiming they were never paid for the show, and Donald paid $300,000 as an out-of-court settlement to spectators to the aborted show. Montréal, Québec
  • 1995 Record - Premiere of Canadian stage production of Walt Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, at the Princess of Wales Theatre in Toronto; at $17 million, the most expensive stage production in Canadian history to date. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1996 Jean Chrétien names former Prime Minister Kim Campbell as Canadian consul general in Los Angeles. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1996 Jean Chrétien names Senator Jean-Louis Roux Lieutenant Governor of Quebec; Roux forced to resign after allegations he wore a swastika when young. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 2004 Fire - Mudslides wipe out several buildings in Kuskonook, thanks in part to fire damage in the forests above in 2003. Kuskonook, BC.
  • 2005 Energy - US Congress passes George W. Bush’s Energy Policy Act, which sees Canada’s oil sands as a strategic continental resource. Washington, DC