Highlights of the day

  • 1690 HBC trader Henry Kelsey joins Assiniboine hunt; first European to describe bison on the Prairies.
  • 1812 War of 1812 - USS Constitution (Old Ironsides) defeats the 38-gun British frigate HMS Guerriere.
  • 1882 Founding of Saskatoon by the Temperance Colonization Society.

List of Facts for August 20

  • 1583 Humphrey Gilbert sails to Cape Race to fish for cod and explore mainland; sends two ships back to England. Cape Race, Newfoundland
  • 1585 John Davis sails 290 km into Cumberland Sound; blocked by land. Cumberland Sound, Nunavut
  • 1586 John Davis mounts hilltop to look for sea route; finds none through islands at head of Cumberland Sound; sails down coast of Labrador, stopping at Davis Inlet and Hamilton Inlet. Cumberland Sound, Nunavut
  • 1642 Fort Richelieu attacked by Iroquois raiders. Sorel, Québec
  • 1648 Louis de Coulonge arrives as Governor of New France; to 1651; Pierre de Maisonneuve named Governor of Montréal. Québec, Québec
  • 1664 Sovereign Council of New France orders shipload of ‘undesirables’ sent back to France. Québec, Québec
  • 1681 The Hôtel Dieu of Montréal offers Canada’s First hospital insurance plan. Montréal, Québec
  • 1690 Hudson’s Bay Company trader Henry Kelsey sees buffalo on the Prairies, southwest of The Pas; the First white man to describe them. Manitoba
  • 1691 Henry Kelsey of the HBC continues his travels across the grasslands of the Canadian Prairies. Manitoba
  • 1707 Massachusetts militia colonel John March driven away from Port Royal by de Subercase and Pierre Morpain, Caribbean privateer. Annapolis, Nova Scotia
  • 1738 First iron smelted by the upper blast furnace of the Forges de St-Maurice. Trois-Rivières, Québec
  • 1742 Jean Urbain named director of the Forges de St-Maurice. Trois-Rivières, Québec
  • 1812 War of 1812 - Isaac Hull on the USS Constitution finally closes on the 38-gun British frigate HMS Guerriere on the second day of a furious two-day battle 1000 km east of Halifax, Nova Scotia; for 20 minutes the two vessels bombard each other in close and violent action; the Guerriere is de-masted and rendered a wreck while the Constitution escapes with only minimal damage because of its 7 inch live oak planks. Guerriere is too badly damaged to take in tow, so the Americans take out the wounded and set her on fire before returning to Boston. Witnesses later claim that the British shot merely bounced off the Constitution’s sides, as if the ship were made of iron rather than wood. Nicknamed (Old Ironsides), the Constitution will defeat or capture seven more British ships during the war, and run the British blockade of Boston twice. The USS Constitution is the oldest commissioned ship afloat in the world and is still in service in the US Navy. Nova Scotia
  • 1819 Trial - Robert Gourlay again found guilty of sedition under the Alien Act; banished to US the following day. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1820 John Franklin goes into winter quarters at Winter Lake; between Great Slave Lake and the Coppermine River. Winter Lake, NWT
  • 1849 Riot - Rioters burn the Cyrus Hotel in Montréal. Montréal, Québec
  • 1858 Colony of British Columbia established; Hudson’s Bay Company required to give up control of Vancouver Island to local authorities. London, England
  • 1869 Red River Rebellion - Canadian survey crew arrives in Fort Garry to resurvey the settlement; will ignore existing agreements and ignite the Red River Rebellion. Winnipeg, Manitoba
  • 1872 Mgr. Ignace Bourget meets with George-Étienne Cartier to discuss support his party in the upcoming election. Montréal, Québec
  • 1882 First CPR train reaches Regina. Regina, Saskatchewan
  • 1882 Founding of Saskatoon by the Temperance Colonization Society, an Ontario group that wants to make the settlement the capital of a temperance colony; surveyed by F. L. Blake; First settlers reach the townsite overland from Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan in 1883. Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
  • 1883 First session of the Northwest Territories Legislative Council meets in Regina, NWT. Regina, Saskatchewan
  • 1884 St. Mary’s Reserve No.1 registered for the Ktunaxa. Alberta
  • 1890 CPR leases Columbia and Kootenay Railway and Navigation Company’s railroad for 999 years. BC
  • 1891 Maiden voyage of C&KSN steamboat Columbia (534 tons) built in Portland and assembled by A. Watson at Little Dalles; burned in 1894. BC
  • 1899 First play presented in new Hull, Québec theatre. Gatineau, Québec
  • 1907 Founding of the University of Saskatchewan at Saskatoon. Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
  • 1912 Strike started by Fort William, Ontario dock workers. Thunder Bay, Ontario
  • 1914 Disaster - Purser’s safe raised from the wreck of the sunken liner Empress of Ireland after two months of salvage operations. Rimouski, Québec
  • 1917 First World War - Troops from Manitoba take part in the Battle of Hill 70, which lasts from August 15, 1917 to August 25, 1917. Loos, France
  • 1923 Farming - Start of membership drive to create the Alberta Wheat Pool begins; memberships cost $3 each. Alberta
  • 1925 Major Georges-Philéas Vanier appointed CO of the 22e Régiment at Québec. Québec, Québec
  • 1925 Kettle Valley Railway reopens its Copper Mountain spur near Princeton, BC
  • 1927 John MacLean sworn in as Liberal Premier of British Columbia, replacing John Oliver; serves to August 20, 1928. Victoria, BC
  • 1928 John Duncan MacLean resigns as Premier of British Columbia. Victoria, BC
  • 1940 Second World War - British Prime Minister Winston Churchill pays tribute to the Royal Air Force in the Battle of Britain, saying Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few. Some of the few were Canadians. London, England
  • 1941 Second World War - Prime Minister Mackenzie King arrives in England for wartime talks and to visit the troops. London, England
  • 1944 Second World War - Major David Currie’s squadron holds fast in St-Lambert, a village half-way between Chambois and Trun, and the main escape route to the east; the Germans tried to mount a final decisive attack to break through the gap in the evening; Currie uses his 17-pounder anti-tank gun to knock out a Tiger tank, uses his command tank to knock out a Tiger and a rifle to deal with snipers who had infiltrated close to his HQ; in total, his squadron knock out seven German tanks, 12 88-mm guns, and forty German armoured vehicles; 300 German are killed, 500 wounded, and 2100 captured; after three days of continuous fighting, the Canadians take the village and block off the German escape route; when Currie is finally relieved, he collapses from nervous exhaustion. The only officer in his unit not killed or wounded, Currie will win the Victoria Cross, the only Canadian awarded the VC for action in Normandy who did not die in the process of earning it. St. Lambert-sur-Dives, France
  • 1944 The First Canadian Army and Patton’s Americans link up at Chambois, but the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders are overrun by Germans trying to break out in a series of counter-attacks. Chambois, France
  • 1955 Winnipeg’s Gisele MacKenzie has a #1 Billboard hit with Hard to Get. New York, New York
  • 1964 First Ladies Marian Pearson & Lady Byrd Johnson open Roosevelt Campobello International Park at Franklin D. Roosevelt’s former summer home on Campobello Island, New Brunswick
  • 1964 Ontario Hydro announces new 1 million kw nuclear power station at Fairport, east of Toronto. Darlington, Ontario
  • 1966 Bromont incorporated. Bromont, Québec
  • 1968 Warsaw Pact troops invade Czechoslovakia to end the Prague Spring of political liberalization; Canada receives thousands of Czech refugees. Czechoslovakia
  • 1969 Frank Zappa disbands the Mothers of Invention after an eight-day tour in Canada; says he is tired of people who clap for all the wrong reasons. California
  • 1970 Disaster - Wind storm and tornado with winds up to 160 kilometres per hour hits Sudbury; in the span of five minutes, the storm kills 6 people, injures 200 and causes $17 million dollars in property damage. Sudbury, Ontario
  • 1972 Dave Barrett sworn in as NDP Premier of British Columbia; serves until December 11, 1975. Victoria, BC
  • 1973 Record - Saskatchewan Rough Riders CFL fullback George Reed sets all time world pro football rushing record, beating the 12,312 yards held by the NFL’s Jimmy Brown; Reed also broke Brown’s record of 106 touchdowns a week earlier. Regina, Saskatchewan
  • 1974 Ottawa native Paul Anka (with Odia Coates) has a Billboard #1 Pop Hit with ‘(You’re) Having My Baby’; his last #1 was ‘Lonely Boy’ in 1959; longest recorded gap between top singles. New York, New York
  • 1976 Gordon Lightfoot releases single, The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, from his album Summertime Dream, about an ore carrier which sank on Lake Superior; will reach #2 on the Billboard Hot 100. New York, New York
  • 1978 Oakville, Ontario, native Sandra Post wins the LPGA Lady Stroh’s Golf Open. USA
  • 1980 Riot - Crowd of 1,400 rock fans riot when rocker Alice Cooper cancels a show due to illness. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1982 Trial - Former Indian Affairs Minister John Munro awarded $75,000 in libel damages against Toronto Sun newspaper. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1982 South Porcupine, Ontario native Don Lever becomes the First captain of the new NHL team, the New Jersey Devils. New Jersey
  • 1983 Robert Bourassa announces his return to politics. Québec, Québec
  • 1983 Vancouver, BC group Loverboy has a Billboard #11 Pop Hit with Hot Girls In Love. New York, New York
  • 1986 Poet Milton Acorn dies at age 63; 1976 winner of the Governor General’s Award for English-language poetry. Charlottetown, PEI
  • 1987 Federal government slaps a total ban on smoking in public service offices, starting January 1, 1988; smoking by government employees at all public service counters ends immediately. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1990 Oka Crisis - Canadian Army moves to dismantle barricades on the Mercier Bridge south of Montréal put up by Mohawks; after three days of rioting by South Shore residents against the police. Kahnawake, Québec
  • 1992 Robert Fleming says proposed Constitution will cost $300 million more a year, with a larger Commons, more complex Senate; author of book on Parliament and legislatures. Calgary, Alberta
  • 1997 Hudson Bay Railway, owned by Omnitrax of Denver, Colorado, takes over operation of former CN lines to Flin Flon, Manitoba Lyn Lake, Manitoba and Churchill, Manitoba. The Pas, Manitoba
  • 1998 Supreme Court of Canada rules that Québec should not secede from Canada unilaterally without first negotiating the terms of secession with the federal government and the other provinces; obligates Ottawa and the other provinces to negotiate if a clear majority of Québeckers voted Yes on a clearly worded question regarding secession. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1999 T. Eaton Company files for bankruptcy, terminating employment contracts of all 13 000 Eatons employees. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1999 US Department of the Interior removes peregrine falcon from list of endangered species in North America; counting 1650 breeding pairs on the continent, up from only 39 in 1970. Washington, DC
  • 2004 Catherine Clark new host of a daily local talk show on Rogers Cable in Ottawa; daughter of Joe Clark and Maureen McTeer. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 2004 Groupe TVA and Sun Media announce plans to acquire Toronto television station Toronto One from CHUM Limited when CHUM purchases the Craig Media TV stations. Toronto, Ontario
  • 2005 Terrorism - New airport security system debuts, after three years of trials. Canada