Highlights of the day

  • 1862 William Barker and partners strike gold in Williams Creek; sparks massive gold rush into the Cariboo.
  • 1896 George Washington Cormack stakes his first Yukon gold claim at Bonanza Creek.
  • 1904 Windsor wagonmaker Gordon McGregor founds Ford of Canada with Henry Ford of Detroit.
  • 1990 Canadian Army replaces the Sûreté du Québec (SQ) at the Kanesatake Mohawk reserve barricades, Oka, Québec.

List of Facts for August 17

  • 1615 Samuel de Champlain arrives at the Huron village of Cahiagué on Lake Simcoe, after traveling down La mer douce - Lake Huron. Oro, Ontario
  • 1635 Father Jean de Quen arrives in Québec; will found a mission for the fishermen and Montagnais at Ange-Gardien (Sept-Îles, Québec) in 1651. Québec, Québec
  • 1706 Québec law requires taverns to close at 9:00 pm. Québec, Québec
  • 1774 Juan Hernandez discovers Nootka Sound, on the west coast of Vancouver Island, four years before Captain James Cook’s arrival; the local Nootka people are skilled whalers and trappers of sea otters. Nootka Sound, BC
  • 1775 Québec Legislative Council meets for the First time. Québec, Québec
  • 1809 Construction of Admiral Horatio Nelson’s Monument begins; at the top of Jacques Cartier Square. Montréal, Québec
  • 1833 Royal William, built at Québec, arrives at the Isle of Wight from Halifax, Nova Scotia; becomes the First steamship to cross the Atlantic entirely on its own power; later the First steamship to fire a gun. Gravesend, England
  • 1855 First Sisters of the Assumption (Soeurs de l’Assomption) arrive at Nicolet; one year later, on this date, they found la Communauté des Soeurs de l’Assomption. Nicolet, Québec
  • 1862 Cariboo Gold Rush - William Barker and his seven partners strike gold at a depth of forty feet near Williams Creek, which sparks a massive gold rush into the Cariboo; strikes also found at Lightning Creek, Lowhee Creek and other streams running into the Quesnel River; the towns of Richfield, Camerontown and Barkerville grow up around the finds; Barkerville has been restored and is now a tourist attraction and historic town. Barkerville, BC
  • 1875 Cornerstone of First Winnipeg City Hall is laid. Winnipeg, Manitoba
  • 1878 Dissolution of the 3rd Parliament of Canada. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1889 Canadian College of Music opens in Ottawa. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1896 George Washington Cormack rips some bark off a tree, and writes on it: I name this Creek Bonanza. George Carmack. Along with his wife Kate and Indian brothers-in-law Tagish Charlie and Skookum Jim, he stakes a gold claim in the Rabbit Creek tributary of the Klondike River. He was acting on a tip from Canadian prospector Robert Henderson. According to Carmack, the gold veins were thick between the flaky slabs, like cheese sandwiches. Within two years, the Klondike Gold Rush will turn nearby Dawson into the largest city north of San Francisco and west of Winnipeg. Within three years, all important Creeks in the Klondike valley had been staked out by the gold-seekers. Total value of gold production in the eight years after the find exceeded $100 million. Bonanza Creek, Yukon
  • 1900 International Navigation and Trading Company launches steamboat Kaslo (765 tons) at Mirror Lake yards; sank in 1910. Kaslo, BC
  • 1904 Transport - Canadian entrepreneur Gordon McGregor, owner of the Walkerville Wagon Works, near Windsor, Ontario, signs an agreement with Henry Ford’s Detroit company to create the Ford Motor Company of Canada, to manufacture and sell Ford automobiles in Canada and all parts of the British Empire, except Great Britain and Ireland; the new company converts McGregor’s wagon works into a two-cars-a-day Ford Model C assembly line, and rolls out the first vehicle in in late September. The Company’s first export sales are to Calcutta, India. Walkerville, Ontario
  • 1904 Saguenay town of Jonquière incorporated. Jonquière, Québec
  • 1910 Dominion Copper Company dissolved. BC
  • 1911 Federal Election - Wilfrid Laurier begins his election campaign in Three Rivers. Trois-Rivières, Québec
  • 1912 Ontario Department of Instruction issues Circular No. 17 bans the teaching of the French language in Ontario schools. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1913 Ontario Department of Instruction again issues Circular No. 17; bans use of French language in Ontario schools past Grade 1. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1914 Chanteuse Mary Travers (La Bolduc) marries Édouard Bolduc. Québec
  • 1923 Failure of the Home Bank, with 71 branches across Canada; some top managers jailed; First chartered bank to go under since Farmer’s Bank in 1911. Montréal, Québec
  • 1927 John Oliver, Premier of British Columbia, dies in office.
  • 1936 Québec Election - Maurice Duplessis leads his Union Nationale to landslide victory in their First Québec election; Union Nationale 76, Liberals 14; soon brings in promised old age pensions. Québec
  • 1936 Currency - Bank of Canada starts printing bilingual money. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1936 Disaster - Montréal store hit by gas explosion; three killed. Montréal, Québec
  • 1937 Alberta Bank Employees Civil Rights Act is disallowed by the federal government. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1940 Second World War - Mackenzie King meets Franklin D. Roosevelt for two-day conference at Ogdensburg to discuss North American Defence; will sign August 18; discuss modifying cash and carry principle for delivery of arms from US factories to Canadian forces; agree to set up a Canadian-American Permanent Joint Board of Defence, composed of senior officials from both countries. Ogdensburg, New York August 17 - Second World War - RCAF’s No. 1 Fighter Squadron sees action over England in the Battle of Britain. Britain August 17 - Second World War - Ministry of National Defence sets up 14 military training centres in Québec. Québec
  • 1942 Wartime Metals Corporation acquires Emerald mine near Salmo, BC
  • 1943 Second World War - Force of 597 RAF and RCAF Lancaster II bombers blast the Peenemunde research station on an island in the Baltic Sea, where the V-1 and V-2 rockets and their launching systems were under development; unknown to all but a few at the time, the station was also being set up to develop a potential atomic weapon that could ride atop the rockets. Peenemunde, Germany August 17 - Second World War - Allied forces gain complete control of Sicily after five week campaign; Canadians have suffered 2,434 casualties since the July 10 invasion. Sicily, Italy August 17 - Second World War - Mackenzie King hosts Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill at the sixth Anglo-American War Conference, held in the Chateau Frontenac; the First Québec Conference plans 1944 landings in France. Québec, Québec
  • August 17 - George Drew sworn in as Conservative Premier of Ontario, replacing Liberal Harry Nixon. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1944 Second World War - Canadian Army still trying to close off the Falaise Gap, near the village of Chambois on the River Dives, that is letting parts of the encircled German 7th Army escape annihilation; attack on Hans von Luck’s depleted 125th Panzer Grenadier Regiment; 1st Polish Armoured Division tries to block the German line of retreat just east of the town; First contact made with Patton’s Americans; 4th Canadian Armoured division occupies Trun and the Canadian 2nd division liberates the town of Falaise. Chambois, France
  • 1944 L.-P. Roy appointed editor in chief of the L’Action Catholique newspaper. Montréal, Québec
  • 1948 Alberta Election - Ernest Manning’s Social Credit Party wins a fourth consecutive majority in Alberta. Alberta
  • 1948 Imperial Oil opens its oil refinery at Clover Bar. Clover Bar, Alberta
  • 1959 Town of LaSarre incorporated. LaSarre, Québec
  • 1959 Oil First discovered in the Yukon Territory. Yukon
  • 1965 Beatles play Maple Leaf Gardens; Toronto Telegram reviewer says, “The Beatles whipped Toronto’s teens into ecstatic frenzy last night in two wild 30 minute performances.” Toronto, Ontario
  • 1965 Disaster - Four treasure seekers drown in money pit at Oak Island in Mahone Bay, digging for buried treasure; Bob Restall, Bobbie Restall, Karl Grasser, and Cyril Hiltz were overcome by gas, likely carbon monoxide from a generator. Oak Island, Nova Scotia
  • 1966 Beatle John Lennon expresses admiration for American draft dodgers who had fled to Canada; in a Toronto news conference. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1969 Terrorism - FLQ bomb explodes in a Ministry of Labour office. Montréal, Québec
  • 1970 Arthur Erickson wins top architectural prize for his Canadian pavilion at Expo ‘70 in Osaka. Osaka, Japan
  • 1971 Ottawa creates 457 French language speaking units in public service; affects 29,000 employees. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1972 Dennis Study on housing shows 6 developers in 10 of Canada’s largest cities own over 50% of stock. Ontario
  • 1982 Montréal Expos catcher Gary Carter the First Expo to reach the 1,000 hit mark, as he hits an infield single against the Atlanta Braves. Atlanta, Georgia
  • 1983 Former Montréal Canadien Jacques Demers appointed trainer of the NHL St. Louis Blues. St. Louis, Missouri
  • 1985 Corey Hart plays his First show as an arena headliner before 18,000 home town fans; he is so moved by the enthusiasm of the crowd that he became choked up in the middle of a song; his hit single, ‘Never Surrender’ peaks this week at #3 on the Billboard pop chart. Montréal, Québec
  • 1987 Premier Bill Vander Zalm officates at the opening of the Mascot Gold Mining Company’s Nickel Plate open pit mine. BC
  • 1988 Torontonian Jeff MacInnis, 25, and Mike Beedell, 32, of Ottawa, sail their catamaran through the North West Passage; First to navigate the Passage by wind power alone. Nunavut
  • 1990 Oka Crisis - Canadian Army replaces the Sûreté du Québec (SQ) at the Kanesatake Mohawk reserve barricades, at the request of Québec Premier Robert Bourassa. Oka, Québec See July 11.
  • 1990 Montréal Olympics deficit swells to $16 billion. Montréal, Québec
  • 1991 Rocker Rod Stewart opens his 40-city Vagabond Heart tour in Halifax. Halifax, Nova Scotia
  • 1992 Marcel Beaudry appointed Chairman of the National Capital Commission; replacing Jean Pigott; former Mayor of Hull, Québec. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1992 Stan McKay, a Cree from north of Winnipeg, is elected the First aboriginal Moderator of the United Church of Canada. Winnipeg, Manitoba
  • 1992 Sergeant Michael Ralph killed when his UN vehicle is blown up by a land mine; combat engineer from St. John’s, Newfoundland. Croatia
  • 1994 Québec City announces it is applying to host the 2002 Olympic Winter Games; will be awarded to Salt Lake City. Québec, Québec
  • 1995 Forestry - U.S. forestry companies Boise Cascade Corp. and Stone Container Corp. say they will merge their Canadian newsprint subsidiaries. Chicago, Illinois
  • 1996 Ottawa, Ontario actor Matthew Perry appears on the cover of TV Guide with his co-stars from the television sitcom Friends. New York, New York
  • 1997 Canadian country singer Hank Snow honoured as old Canadian National train station in Liverpool reopens as the Hank Snow Country Music Centre; 83 year old Snow too ill to attend, but donates two vintage cars and one of his rhinestone suits to the centre. Liverpool, Nova Scotia