Highlights of the day

  • 1541 Jacques Cartier Builds Fort Charlesbourg-Royal for Roberval.
  • 1797 Emanuel Allen sold at public auction in Montréal; last slave transaction in Canada.

List of Facts for August 23

  • 1541 Jacques Cartier arrives at Cap Rouge on his third voyage to Canada; starts to build fort at Charlesbourg-Royale 16 km upstream from his old fort at Québec; First official French settlement in America north of Mexico. Cap Rouge, Québec
  • 1577 Martin Frobisher kidnaps three Inuit, then sets sail for England. Frobisher Bay, Nunavut
  • 1623 Francis de Pontgravé leaves Port Royal to return to France; afflicted with gout. Annapolis, Nova Scotia
  • 1667 Habitants of New France required to give 1/26 of their harvest to their seigneur (le dîme). Québec, Québec
  • 1691 Henry Kelsey takes part in buffalo hunt with Assiniboine Indians; First European to reach Prairies; First to take part in a buffalo hunt; employee of the Hudson’s Bay Company. Manitoba
  • 1711 British Admiral Hovenden Walker orders invasion fleet to turn back to England after gales and heavy fog in the St. Lawrence River sink 8 of his 15 warships and troop transports, drowning nearly 900 men; attempt to capture New France by sea fails. Île-aux-Oeufs, Québec
  • 1724 Sebastien Rale killed in British raid on Abenaki village of Norridgewock. Norridgewock, Maine
  • 1766 Michael Francklin appointed Administrator of Nova Scotia; serves to November 26, 1766 Halifax, Nova Scotia
  • 1797 Emanuel Allen sold at public auction in Montréal; last slave transaction in Canada. Montréal, Québec
  • 1820 Lost pig enters the Bank of Montréal on St. James Street. Montréal, Québec
  • 1828 John Colborne, Lord Seaton appointed Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada; serves from November 4, 1828 to November 30, 1835. London, England
  • 1834 Founding of ‘The Whig’ newspaper in Kingston; today’s Whig-Standard. Kingston, Ontario
  • 1835 Lower Canada Governor Lord Gosford arrives at Québec. Québec, Québec
  • 1835 Red River settlers protest Hudson’s Bay Company monopoly and high prices. Red River, Manitoba
  • 1850 HMS Assistance and HMS Intrepid find traces of lost Franklin Expedition in Lancaster Sound, at Cape Riley and Beechey Island. Lancaster Sound, Nunavut
  • 1853 William Rowan appointed Administrator of Canada; serves until June 10, 1854. London, England
  • 1869 Anthony Musgrave appointed Governor of the United Colony of British Columbia; serves to July 20, 1871. Victoria, BC
  • 1870 Red River Rebellion - Garnet Wolseley arrives in Red River with expeditionary force after 96 day trek from Ontario. Winnipeg, Manitoba
  • 1871 ‘Paris Crew’ from Saint John defeat Renfrew crew from England in a rowing race. Saint John, New Brunswick
  • 1876 Cree, Saulteaux, Assiniboine and Chipewyan chiefs meet to negotiate Treaty #6 in Central Alberta and Saskatchewan; get famine relief when necessary; also adherents to 1899 treaty; total 194,725 sq km set aside for reserves. Fort Carlton, Saskatchewan
  • 1882 NWT Lieutenant Governor Edgar Dewdney replaces Battleford with Regina as the seat of government for the Northwest Territories; formerly Wascana, Cree for ‘Pile of Bones’, referring to the buffalo bones that formerly littered the area and were now a cash crop; renamed Regina, after Queen Victoria, by Governor General Lord Lorne. Regina, Saskatchewan
  • 1883 Memorandum of Association declares that the British Columbia Copper Mining Company, had been formed to exploit ore bodies on Copper Mountain. Victoria, BC
  • 1883 Northern Pacific Railroad completed in the northern US; no spur lines permitted into Canada.
  • 1887 J. C. Rykert registers a 320-acre pre-emption (Lot 252) on the Kootenay River just north of the Boundary near Creston, BC.
  • 1890 Moncton incorporated as a city. Moncton, New Brunswick
  • 1891 Regular service begins on Calgary & Edmonton Railway. Alberta
  • 1892 Kootenay Lake Reduction Company and Kootenay Mining and Smelting Company incorporated, capitalized to $285,000; president Willard A. Hendryx; to develop the Bluebell mine. Victoria, BC
  • 1898 British Columbia Southern Railway tracks reach Cranbrook, BC.
  • 1903 Albert Peter Low of the Geological Survey of Canada leaves Halifax on the vessel ‘Neptune’, captained by Robert Bartlett , on an expedition to explore and establish Canada’s authority in the waters of Hudson Bay and the Arctic; Low will later write an account called The Cruise of the Neptune. Halifax, Nova Scotia
  • 1904 Canadian Pacific Railway shay and 25 ore cars derail near Oro Denoro mine on Phoenix Mountain; loss: $25,000. BC
  • 1917 Ontario cabinet passes order-in-council allowing the city of Berlin to change its name to Kitchener, effective September 1, 1917; due to wartime anti-German sentiment. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1919 Opening of Prince Edward Viaduct (Bloor Viaduct) to car traffic; construction of the 1.6 km long viaduct over the Don Valley connecting Bloor Street to Danforth Road completed in 1918 for streetcar traffic; started in 1915; largest of three sections crosses 38 metres above the Don River. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1922 Winnipeg Free Press reports the following as evidence of rapid mail delivery: a letter mailed August 10, 1922 at 8:30 p.m. in Manchester, England is received in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba on August 21, 1922 at 5:30 p.m. (10 days, 21 hours). Winnipeg, Manitoba
  • 1926 Dedication of Waterloo Pioneers Memorial Tower, commemorating German settlement in western Ontario. Waterloo, Ontario
  • 1933 Marie Dressler stars in Dinner At Eight, premiering at the Astor; with Jean Harlow, Wallace Beery, Lionel Barrymore, John Barrymore and Billie Burke. New York, New York
  • 1939 Second World War - Mackenzie King warns Cabinet to prepare for war as German Foreign Minister Ribbentrop and his Soviet counterpart Molotov sign non-aggression pact. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1941 Second World War - Mackenzie King booed by restless Canadian Army troops in England when he makes a speech; most have been in England for a year without seeing action. Aldershott, England
  • 1943 Trans Canada Airlines starts transatlantic service; now Air Canada. Montréal, Québec
  • 1949 Herbert Greenfield dies; farmer, politician, businessman; Premier of Alberta 1921-1925. Alberta
  • 1957 Saskatchewan Premier Tommy Douglas opens 740 km stretch of Trans-Canada Highway; province First to complete its portion of highway. Regina, Saskatchewan
  • 1958 Future Québec Premier Robert Bourassa marries Andrée Simard of the shipbuilding family. Québec, Québec
  • 1965 Opening of five day conference on world development at Banff; topic: Canada as a middle power; sponsored by University of Alberta and Canadian Institute of International Affairs. Banff, Alberta
  • 1970 Ottawa and Québec agree to establish St. Maurice National Park 160 km NE of Montréal in La Mauricie. Grand-Mère, Québec
  • 1974 Paul Anka’s (You’re) Having My Baby the #1 Billboard hit for the second week in a row. New York, New York
  • 1974 The Lovin’ Spoonful’s hit single Summer in the City stays at #1 on the rock Billboard chart; with Toronto’s Zal Yanovsky. New York, New York
  • 1978 Helen Vanderburg of Calgary, Alberta takes the gold medal for synchronized swimming at the third World Aquatic Championships. Berlin, Germany
  • 1980 The Talking Heads make their live debut as a nine-piece band (up to now a quartet) at the Heatwave Festival, billed as a ‘new-wave Woodstock’; other acts include the Pretenders and Elvis Costello. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1982 Terrorism - Colonel Atilla Altikat assassinated by Armenian terrorists; Turkey’s military attaché to Canada. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1988 Fire ignites thousands of litres of oil laced with PCBs at a storage dump in St-Basile-le-Grand, SE of Montréal, forcing 3,000 residents to evacuate for 19 days; local labourer later admits to arson. St-Basile-le-Grand, Québec
  • 1988 Strike by Canada Post workers begins. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1989 Rick Dempsey hits leadoff home run in the 22nd inning, giving the Los Angeles Dodgers a 1-0 victory over the Montréal Expos; second-longest shutout in major league baseball history. Montréal, Québec
  • 2002 Statistics Canada reports 2002 one of worst growing seasons since the dust bowl of the 1930s; slashes crop production forecasts; confirms prairie farmers’ worst fears. Ottawa, Ontario