Highlights of the day

  • 1535 Jacques Cartier enters a sheltered bay he names Baie St-Laurent, in honour of the Roman martyr’s feast day.
  • 1757 Marquis de Montcalm fails to prevent massacre of families after victory over British at Fort William Henry.
  • 1876 Alexander Graham Bell makes first long-distance telephone call from Brantford to Bell homestead near Paris, Ontario.
  • 1953 Louis St. Laurent wins 22nd general election; Liberals captures 171 seats to George Drew’s 51.

List of Facts for August 10

  • 1497 John Cabot tells King Henry VII of his trip to Asia; receives a £10 reward for his discoveries. Bristol, England
  • 1535 Jacques Cartier enters a sheltered bay he names Baie St-Laurent, in honour of the Roman martyr’s feast day - St. Lawrence was a deacon of Pope Sixtus II, whom he followed to his death; name given in early 1600s to Gulf of St. Lawrence & St. Lawrence River. Baie Ste-Geneviève, Québec
  • 1658 Completion of the Hôtel Dieu hospital at Québec. Québec, Québec
  • 1685 Pierre d’Iberville captures an HBC trading vessel. Hudson Bay, NWT
  • 1689 Pierre d’Iberville successfully defends Fort Albany against English counterattack; surrenders Fort New Severn. Fort Albany, Ontario
  • 1703 Abenaki Indians raid English settlements in Maine; during Queen Anne’s War (War of the Spanish Succession) 1702-1713. Maine
  • 1756 French and Indian War - Marquis de Montcalm reaches British post of Fort Ontario and starts artillery attack on garrison consisting of two new British line regiments, the 15th Regiment and 51st Regiment, under James Mercer; French Canadians and Indian allies also start to fire with small arms; that night, the French start digging trenches behind the high ground to the north of the fort; two days later, they have a battery set up, with cannon on high ground, about 25 metres from the fort. Oswego, New York
  • 1757 French and Indian War - Marquis de Montcalm victorious at Fort William Henry; fails to prevent massacre of the departing British men, women and children by his Indian allies; they had been expecting payment in booty, captives, and scalps and were disappointed at the lenient surrender terms; some dug up the graves of people who had died during the siege, infecting themselves with Smallpox as they attempted to scalp the corpses and steal valuables. Some reports claimed as many as 1500 killed, but modern scholars put the number at 70-180 dead. The French burn the fort and retreat to Fort Carillon; some Indian allies take Smallpox back to their villages that winter; the resulting epidemic during the winter of 1757-58 takes most of the Great Lakes tribes out of the war. Lake George, New York
  • 1764 James Murray forms civil government in Québec; end of military regime; deadline for transport of French who wish to return to France. Québec, Québec
  • 1827 Race riots in Cincinnati cause some 1,000 blacks to leave for Canada. Cincinnati, Ohio
  • 1840 Star of the East is the First known balloon to fly in Canada. Saint John, New Brunswick
  • 1846 Meeting of 6,000 petitions the government to promote more railway development in Canada. Montréal, Québec
  • 1850 Currency - Assembly of the Province of Canada passes An Act to amend the 1841 Currency Act; sets value of the US dollar at 5 shillings; empowers Canada to mint silver coinage in amounts of 5s, 2s 6d, 2s, 1s 3d, 1s, 6d, and 3d, and gold coins in values of 10s, 12s 6d, 1 pound, and 1 pound 5 s. Kingston, Ontario
  • 1850 Incorporation of Québec & Richmond Railroad Company. Kingston, Ontario
  • 1850 Victoria College moves to Toronto from Cobourg, Ontario; affiliated with the Methodist Church; today part of the University of Toronto. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1864 Judge Haynes and Constable W. C. Young arrive at Fisherville on Wild Horse Creek. Fisherville, BC
  • 1876 Alexander Graham Bell makes the world’s First long-distance telephone call from Brantford to the Bell homestead near Paris, Ontario; using a 13 km long telegraph line strung from Brantford. Brantford, Ontario
  • 1877 Strike of stonecutters and masons halts construction of the Québec parliament Buildings. Québec, Québec
  • 1883 Father Albert Lacombe elected President of the Canadian Pacific Railway, as William Van Horne steps aside for one hour; Lacombe is also given a life pass on the CPR in recognition of his efforts to keep the peace between the Blackfoot and CPR workers. Calgary, Alberta
  • 1888 Captain Robert Sanderson brings steamboat Despatch into Mill Pond at what is soon Sproat’s Landing to let off his partner, J. F. Hume, who begins building a warehouse nearby. BC
  • 1891 First train of the Calgary & Edmonton Railway (C&E) from Calgary arrives at Strathcona, Alberta. Edmonton, Alberta
  • 1891 Hector-Louis Langevin retires as Minister of Public Works in the John A. Macdonald government. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1897 CPR’s Trail smelter pours its First ingot of gold. Trail, BC
  • 1904 West Canadian Collieries registered in Canada as a foreign company. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1907 John Underwood of Krugerville the First man in Canada lifted into the air by a kite; spends 15 minutes aloft tethered 4 metres in the air; Underwood brothers were farmers inspired by the Wright brothers. Krugerville, Alberta
  • 1910 J. A. D. McCurdy sends the First wireless message from an airplane in flight; during testing at Camp Petawawa. Pembroke, Ontario
  • 1910 Wilfrid Laurier drives the First spike on the Alberta Central Railway. Alberta
  • 1921 Future US President Franklin Roosevelt stricken with polio at his summer home on the Canadian island of Campobello. Campobello Island, New Brunswick
  • 1925 New Brunswick Election - John Baxter leads Conservatives to power in NB provincial election; New Brunswick Premier until 1931. New Brunswick
  • 1927 Stephan Stephanson dies; born in Iceland in 1853, immigrated with his family to Wisconsin in 1878, and then to Alberta in 1889, where he took a homestead, farming in the day, and writing Icelandic narrative; known as ‘Klettafjallaskadid,’ the Poet of the Rocky Mountains. Markerville, Alberta
  • 1928 Prince Albert National Park officially opens. Prince Albert, Saskatchewan
  • 1930 British airship R-100 leaves its mooring mast south of Montréal, Québec for a day long tour of Ottawa, Southern Ontario, the Niagara Peninsula and Toronto, where it causes terrible traffic jams; aboard are 18 Canadian military officers, government officials and a journalist; on its return, the reduction gear of one of the engines fails just before mooring; and the propeller falls into the St. Lawrence; the R-100 is forced to fly home on five engines instead of six. St-Benoît, Québec
  • 1935 John Buchan, Lord Tweedsmuir, appointed Governor General of Canada; the journalist and novelist serves from November 2, 1935 to February 11, 1940. London, England
  • 1941 Second World War - US President Franklin Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill have their second meeting at Placentia, on a British warship; four days later they will issue the Atlantic Charter setting forth eight goals for the world; a document that will serve as the basis for the United Nations Charter. Placentia Bay, Newfoundland
  • 1949 Avro Canada C.102 Jetliner takes maiden flight; designed to meet a Trans-Canada Airlines requirement; First jet transport to fly in North America and second to fly in the world, 13 days after the flight of the De Havilland 106 Comet; government halts development in 1951 to force Avro to concentrate on the CF-100 jet fighter. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1953 Federal Election - Louis St. Laurent wins 22nd general election; Liberal Party captures 5th sucessive majority, with 171 seats to 51 Progressive Conservatives; 23 CCF; 15 Social Credit; 5 others; defeats George Drew with 48.8% of popular vote; Lionel Bertrand elected by acclamation in Québec.
  • 1953 Wilbert Coffin jailed for murder. Québec, Québec
  • 1954 Groundbreaking ceremonies held at Cornwall and Massena, New York for St. Lawrence River hydro-electric power plant; part of the St. Lawrence Seaway project. Cornwall, Ontario
  • 1960 Human Rights - John Diefenbaker’s Canadian Bill of Rights receives Royal Assent and becomes law; document applies only to federal law because provincial consent not obtained; recognizes rights of individuals to life, liberty, personal security and enjoyment of property; protects rights to equality before the law and freedoms of speech, religion, assembly and association and the press; not superseded by the 1982 Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1961 National Capital Commission starts restoring east side of Sussex Drive as Centennial project. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1966 Brian Parks of Winnipeg, Manitoba wins world bridge trophy.
  • 1966 Daylight meteor flashes across the sky from Utah to Canada; only known case of a meteor skipping through the Earth’s atmosphere and leaving it again.
  • 1966 Disaster - Heron Road Bridge over the Rideau River and Rideau Canal collapses, killing 9 construction workers and injuring 80. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1970 Strike - Québec National Assembly legislates 40,000 striking construction workers back to work. Québec, Québec
  • 1972 Heavy meteorite weighing an estimated 1 million kg grazes atmosphere above Canada.
  • 1973 La Presse acquires Montréal-Matin tabloid newspaper. Montréal, Québec
  • 1977 Strike - Parliament passes law to end three-day strike by air traffic controllers over wages; some Canadian controllers had refused to handle US flights after American work stoppage made the skies unsafe; trans-Atlantic air traffic thrown into chaos. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1977 Phillies and Montréal Expos play a doubleheader that ends at 3:23 am. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
  • 1980 Pat Bradley wins the 8th du Maurier Golf Classic (Peter Jackson Classic).
  • 1981 Strike by 23,000 Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) ends after 42 days.
  • 1982 Claude Ryan resigns as Leader of the Parti Liberal du Québec; Gérard-D. Lévesque interim leader. Montréal, Québec
  • 1987 CKO All-News Radio announces the purchase of Newsradio; now defunct. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1989 Vicki Keith the First to swim the 31 km Strait of Juan de Fuca using the butterfly stroke. Victoria, BC
  • 1990 Peacekeeping - Canada to send three ships and 800 sailors to the Persian Gulf as part of multinational force to force Iraq to withdraw from Kuwait. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1993 Newspaper Le Devoir rescued by investments from Le Fonds de Solidarité ($300,000) and Les Caisses Populaires Desjardins ($200,000). Montréal, Québec
  • 1993 Man burns himself to death on Mount Royal. Montréal, Québec
  • 1995 Laval Cosmodome receives a lump of moon rock from NASA. Montréal, Québec
  • 1995 Fishery - Ottawa shuts down B.C.’s Fraser River salmon fishery over concerns about fish stocks. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 2001 Trade - US Commerce Department says it will impose a 19.3% tariff on Canadian softwood lumber; Canadian lumber interests call the measure unfair and vow to fight. Washington, DC
  • 2005 Trade - Canada wins a ruling against the US under NAFTA ordering the US to drop punitive duties on Canadian softwood and refund $4 billion already collected; the US refuses to comply and will win some support from the World Trade Organization (WTO). Washington, DC