Today’s Fetures:

  • 1785 Fleury Mesplet first publishes the bilingual Montreal Gazette; oldest operating newspaper in Canada.
  • 1875 North-West Mounted Police establish Fort Brisebois, renamed ‘Fort Calgary
  • 1943 Franklin Roosevelt makes first official visit to Canada by a sitting US President.

List of Facts for August 25

  • 1632 Religion - Jesuit father Paul LeJeune baptizes a young Iroquois named Louis. Québec, Québec
  • 1665 French engineers start to build Fort Chambly, and to rebuild Fort Richelieu (Fort Sorel) to protect the Richelieu Valley. Sorel, Québec
  • 1689 Montréal raided by Iroquois war party. Montréal, Québec
  • 1718 Immigration - Hundreds of French colonists arrive in Louisiana directly from France instead of Québec; many settle in present-day New Orleans. The town is founded and named in honor of the Duc d’Orléans. New Orleans, Louisiana
  • 1753 Pierre de Vaudreuil named Lieutenant General of New France; former Governor of Louisiana 1742-53; head of the military; Québec-born, he will later succeed Duquesne and serve as the last Governor of New France 1755-60. Québec, Québec
  • 1758 French and Indian War - John Bradstreet arrives at Fort Frontenac after four day journey with 2,600 provincial troops, 40 Indian scouts, and 360 armed sailors in bateaux and whaleboats from Oswego. The fort is practically defenseless; Commandant Pierre de Noyan has only 120 French Regulars, 40 Acadians and Indians, with their women and children. Kingston, Ontario
  • 1760 French and Indian War - Battle of the Thousand Islands sees Pierre Pouchot mount France’s last stand at Fort Lévis, with 400 defenders; surrenders to William Colville, Lord Amherst, who is advancing on Montréal with 10,000 men from Fort Oswego down the St. Lawrence, while William Haviland marches up Lake Champlain. Prescott, Ontario
  • 1782 First census of Newark, Upper Canada, lists 83 people. Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario
  • 1785 Fleury Mesplet publishes the First issue of ‘The Montreal Gazette /Le Gazette de Montréal’; the oldest newspaper still in existence in Canada. Montréal, Québec
  • 1791 Alured Clarke takes office as Lieutenant-Governor; serves as Administrator of Québec ; serves to September 24, 1793. Québec, Québec
  • 1814 War of 1812 - Looting British troops burn the American Library of Congress with its 3,000 books, many from the personal library of Thomas Jefferson; see August 24, 1814. Washington, DC
  • 1818 Bank of Canada begins operations at Montréal; the private institution is not a success. Montréal, Québec
  • 1824 First conference of the Methodist Church of Canada. Montréal, Québec
  • 1845 Oblate missionaries Father Pierre Aubert and Brother Alexandre Taché arrive in Red River. St. Boniface, Manitoba
  • 1860 Albert Edward, the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII) opens the Crystal Palace on St. Catherine Street, a replica of the Crystal Palace in London; then he formally opens the Victoria Railway Bridge, operating since December 12, 1859. Montréal, Québec
  • 1873 Disaster - Second day of the Great Nova Scotia Cyclone, as an Atlantic Hurricane slams into Cape Breton Island, washing away wharves and destroying at least 1200 fishing boats in the Atlantic provinces; 360-380 drowned. Sydney, Nova Scotia
  • 1875 North-West Mounted Police establish Fort Brisebois, NWT (soon renamed ‘Fort Calgary’). Calgary, Alberta
  • 1875 See: NWMP Establish a Fort at Calgary
  • 1878 First issue of the Saskatchewan Herald published; province’s First newspaper. Regina, Saskatchewan
  • 1885 First CPR trains arrive in the Coal Banks (later renamed Lethbridge). Lethbridge, Alberta
  • 1901 Québec painter Marc-Aurèle Suzor-Côté holds his First exhibition in Montréal. Montréal, Québec
  • 1902 Fire destroys upper Spokane Street in downtown Rossland, BC.
  • 1903 Education - Trinity College federates with the University of Toronto; incorporated by John Strachan July 16, 1852.
  • 1906 King Edward VII grants a Coat of Arms to Saskatchewan. Windsor, England
  • 1917 Trial - Calgary court gives the death sentence to Sinnisiak and Uluksuk, two Inuit found guilty of the 1913 murder of an Oblate missionary, in the First trial of Inuit in a Canadian court; hired by two Oblates to act as guides in the Coppermine district of the NWT, the two Inuit killed the priests and stole some of their goods during a dispute, when one of the priests struck Sinnisiak; NWMP arrested the men in 1916 and brought them to Calgary; sentence later commuted to life imprisonment, and they were released two years later. Calgary, Alberta
  • 1919 E. L. Richardson and Guy Weadick open the Calgary Victory Stampede, sponsored by Pat Burns, A. E. Cross, George Lane and A .J. McLean, who financed the First Calgary Stampede in 1912. Calgary, Alberta
  • 1919 Edward, the Prince of Wales visits Toronto; sets precedent by holding reception at City Hall to meet public; son of King George V; future King Edward VIII. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1928 Football - Founding of the Tri-City Rugby Football Union, with teams from Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Regina, Saskatchewan and Winnipeg. Winnipeg, Manitoba
  • 1937 Epidemic - Queen’s Park announced a delay of school openings due to a polio epidemic sweeping southern Ontario. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1940 Second World War - Winston Churchill urges Mackenzie King to release French gold to the British; stored in the Bank of Canada in Ottawa. London, England
  • 1941 Second World War - Small British-Canadian commando force destroys radio and weather stations and coal supplies on Spitsbergen Island; to destroy anything of use to the Germans. Spitsbergen, Norway
  • 1943 Second World War - Franklin Roosevelt visits Ottawa to address Parliament and discuss mutual defence; the first official visit to Canada by a sitting US President. Warren Harding was the first US president to visit Canada while in office, stopping in Vancouver on return from a trip to Alaska in 1923, a week before his sudden death. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1944 Second World War - Canadian Corps starts attack on the Gothic Line with the objective of capturing Rimini; cross the Metauro River, the First of six rivers lying across the path of the advance; move on to the Foglia River where the Germans have concentrated their forces. Rimini, Italy
  • 1955 Farming - Agricultural experts from Soviet Union start three-week tour of Canada’s farming areas. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1960 Olympics - Canadian athletes attend opening of the Rome Summer Olympics, the 17th modern Olympiad; a total of 83 nations and 5,345 competitors attend; closes September 11, 1960. Rome, Italy
  • 1969 Detroit Lions beat Boston Patriots 22-9 in NFL summer exhibition game. Montréal, Québec
  • 1978 Strike by Air Canada workers begins. Montréal, Québec
  • 1979 California Angels trounce the Toronto Blue Jays, 24-2. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1981 McDonald Commission - David C. McDonald’s commission on RCMP wrongdoing recommends that security officials be allowed to open mail; with warrant from Solicitor General and federal judge. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1984 Federal Election - Progressive Conservative Party leader Brian Mulroney slams Prime Minister John Turner in a televised election debate. Mulroney charged Turner had a choice when presented with a list of patronage appointments from former prime minister Pierre Trudeau. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1987 Canadian Medical Association decides to allow MDs to disclose blood-test results of people infected with HIV, the AIDS virus; normally a breach of patient confidentiality. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1990 Morley Callaghan dies at age 87; wrote 20 novels and over 100 short stories; friend of Scott Fitzgerald & Ernest Hemingway; won Governor-General’s Award in 1952 for his novel The Loved and the Lost. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1990 UN Security Council passes US-Sponsored resolution to enforce trade embargo, with military action against Iraq; after several days of debate. United Nations, New York
  • 1991 Donald Marshall, Senior dies at age 66; Grand Chief of 30,000 person Mi’kmaq Nation (Micmac); father of Donald Marshall. Sydney, Nova Scotia
  • 1994 Environment Minister Jean Charest announces $25m to be spent of protecting ozone layer; to eliminate sources, study Arctic ozone layer; out of $3 billion Green Plan. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1999 Baseball - St. Marys selected to be the home of the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum; 30 acre site adjacent to the St. Marys quarry will house an old stadium and museum with artifacts of Canadian baseball history; according to University of Western Ontario professor Bob Barney, Adam Ford, an early mayor of St. Marys, chronicled Canada’s First game at nearby Beachville, Ontario in 1838. St. Marys, Ontario
  • 1999 Dan Miller sworn in as Premier of British Columbia; as interim leader of the NDP, replacing Glen Clark who resigned on August 21, 1999. Victoria, BC
  • 2003 Jean Chrétien signs agreement in the Northwest Territories bestowing self-government and mineral wealth on the 4,000 Dogrib Indians (Tlicho First Nation). Yellowknife, NWT
  • 2004 Crime - Toronto Police Emergency Task Force sniper kills man who takes a woman hostage outside of Union Station. Toronto, Ontario