Highlights of the day

  • 1774 Samuel Hearne & Matthew Cocking build Cumberland House; 1st HBC post inland.
  • 1864 Alexander Galt discusses financial aspects of Confederation proposal at Charlottetown.
  • 1962 John Diefenbaker officially opens the Trans-Canada Highway at Rogers Pass.

List of Facts for September 3

  • 1535 Jacques Cartier and his crew sight white beluga whales in the St. Lawrence. Tadoussac, Québec
  • 1607 Charles de Poutrincourt and his group leave from Canseau for France; arrives back in St-Malo October 1, 1607. Canso, Nova Scotia
  • 1607 Samuel de Champlain leaves for Québec with Louis Hébert. St-Malo, France
  • 1657 Abbé de Queylus becomes Montréal’s First Roman Catholic priest. Montréal, Québec
  • 1763 Pontiac’s Rebellion - Major Henry Gladwin and his starving garrison at Detroit relieved as 350 Pontiac supporters in canoes fail to capture the schooner Huron, carrying provisions from Niagara, in the Detroit River. Detroit, Michigan
  • 1774 HBC traders Samuel Hearne & Matthew Cocking build Cumberland House; First Hudson’s Bay Company post inland, and the oldest continuously occupied settlement west of Ontario. Cumberland House, Saskatchewan
  • 1783 American Revolutionary War - Americans John Adams, Benjamin Franklin and John Jay sign the Treaty of Paris at Versailles, after two years of negotiating; ends the American Revolutionary War, fixes Canadian boundary; deals with fishing rights. Versailles, France
  • 1784 Joseph DesBarres appointed First Lieutenant-Governor of Cape Breton Island; serves until October 10, 1787. Cape Breton, Nova Scotia
  • 1811 George Prevost arrives at Québec from Nova Scotia, where he was Lt-Governor, to be Administrator of Lower Canada; will serve as Governor in Chief of Canada to 1815, and commander in chief of British forces in the War of 1812. Québec, Québec
  • 1814 War of 1812 - Lieutenant Miller Worsley leads 77 men by canoe north from Wasaga Beach, Ontario, captures American warship ‘Tigress’ at anchor in False Detour Channel; about 88 km northeast of Mackinac Island; then goes after ‘Scorpion’. Manitoulin Island, Ontario
  • 1825 Enos Collins founds the Halifax Banking Company with Samuel Cunard and five others; called the Collins Bank. Halifax, Nova Scotia
  • 1833 Riot - British soldiers and civilians clash in Montréal rioting. Montréal, Québec
  • 1841 Robert Baldwin introduces the September Resolutions in favour of responsible government; passed by Assembly of the Province of Canada. Montréal, Québec
  • 1843 Education - Survery shows Québec has 1,298 schools, of which 665 are elementary schools. Québec
  • 1864 Confederation - Charlottetown Conference - The Canadian case continues as John A. Macdonald and George-Étienne Cartier outline the arguments in favour of Confederation; Canada East’s Alexander Galt discusses the financial aspects of the proposal; the delegates then take a luncheon aboard the Queen Victoria, hosted by the Canadian Delegation; they return for dinner at the residence of Colonel Gray, Premier of Prince Edward Island. Charlottetown, PEI
  • 1876 Fire destroys over 500 houses in St. Hyacinthe. St-Hyacinthe, Québec
  • 1879 Opening of the First Toronto Industrial Exhibition, which later becomes the Canadian National Exhibition (CNE). Toronto, Ontario
  • 1888 First Labour Day (Fête du Travail) parade in Montréal. Montréal, Québec
  • 1894 Labour Day officially celebrated in Canada for the First time. Canada
  • 1896 First C&RM/RMR railway construction train crosses the Columbia River from Northport on D. C. Corbin’s cable-controlled reaction ferry. BC
  • 1901 Blairmore, NWT, incorporated as a village. Blairmore, Alberta
  • 1912 Alberta Legislature building officially opens. Edmonton, Alberta
  • 1914 First World War - Mobilization of the 13th Battalion and 14th Battalion of Infantry, and the General Hospital Battalion No. 1 at Valcartier. Valcartier, Quebec
  • 1916 First World War - Allies finally turn back the Germans in the Battle of Verdun. Verdun, France
  • 1918 Unveiling of a statue of Louis Hébert at Québec. Québec, Québec
  • 1920 Pierre-Georges Roy named the Archivist of Québec. Québec, Québec
  • 1923 Canadian silent film star Mary Pickford stars in Ernst Lubitsch’s First American film Rosita, premiering at the Lyric Theater. New York, New York
  • 1935 William Aberhart sworn in as Premier of Alberta, replacing Richard Reid; serves to May 23, 1943 when he died in office; Leader of the Alberta Social Credit Party and head of the First Social Credit government in the world. Edmonton, Alberta
  • 1939 Second World War - Merchant seawoman Hannah Baird of Verdun, Québec sees her ship, Cunard liner SS Athenia torpedoed and sunk by a German U-boat en route to Montréal, one week before Canada declared war and one week after the merchant service and military were placed on a war alert. Baird was the first Canadian casualty of the Second World War. Atlantic Ocean
  • 1939 Second World War - Britain declares war on Germany two days after the Nazi invasion of Poland; France follows 6 hours later, and then Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Canada on week later. On September 5, 1939, the United States will proclaim neutrality. London, England
  • 1939 Second World War - Hector McKinnon chairs new Wartime Prices and Trade Board; selective powers to control prices, supply and distribution; former Commissioner of Tariffs; only full-time member. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1940 Second World War - US President Franklin D. Roosevelt announces Lend Lease Program, where 50 American destroyers will be traded to Britain, of which 7 go to Canada, in exchange for leases on naval and air bases in the British colonies, including St. John’s, Newfoundland, and Bermuda; Canada also agrees to shelter the destroyers in Canadian ports before they are handed over to British crews. Washington, DC
  • 1943 Second World War - The British Eighth Army, including the 1st Canadian Division, the 5th British Division and the 1st Canadian Army Tank Brigade launches the invasion of the Italian mainland across the Strait of Messina from Sicily, taking Reggio Calabria and Taranto; they meet little resistance since the Germans had pulled back to establish their line of defence across the narrow, mountainous central part of the peninsula; the Canadians go on to capture Reggio, and advance across the Aspromonte Mountains and along the Gulf of Taranto to Catanzaro. In spite of rain, poor mountain roads, and German rearguard actions, they will be 75 miles inland from Reggio by September 10. Also on this day, the new Italian government signs a secret armistice with the allies after overthrowing Mussolini, but the Germans seize control and it is German troops that the Allies faced in their advance up the Italian peninsula. Mark Clark’s US Fifth Army, with two British and two US divisions, will meet much stiffer German resistance when it assaults the beaches of Salerno September 9, 1943. Messina, Italy
  • 1944 Second World War - Canadian troops liberate Abbéville in France. Abbéville, France
  • 1962 John Diefenbaker officially opens the Trans-Canada Highway at Rogers Pass; stretching over 4800 miles from coast to coast. Rogers Pass, Alberta
  • 1965 Government grants $1 million for cultural exchange with French-speaking European countries. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1968 Eric Kierans, Postmaster-General raises cost of First class letter to 12¢, as of November 1, 1969. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1970 Police - RCMP Commissioner W.L. Higgitt is presented with the Commissioner’s Tipstaff by the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police. The tipstaff serves in the same way as a badge of the Queen’s authority for law enforcement. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1974 Census - Statistics Canada reports that the population of Manitoba has risen above one million. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1975 Québec Association of Protestant School Boards starts legal action against Québec’s Official Language Act. Québec, Québec
  • 1978 Opening of 8 new stations on the Montréal Metro. Montréal, Québec
  • 1979 Media - CFMT-TV goes on the air, broadcasting in 26 languages to an audience of 4.5 million. It is the world’s first full time private multilingual TV station; MT= Multicultural Television. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1980 Toronto Stock Exchange starts Financial Futures Market; 91-Day T-Bill and Long Term Canada Bond contracts. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1984 Thomas Brigham arrested after a bomb explodes in a locker area of Montréal’s Central Station, killing 3 and injuring 47; mentally handicapped man from of Rochester, New York. Montréal, Québec
  • 1985 Failure of the Commercial Bank of Canada. Montréal, Québec
  • 1987 Montreal’s Cirque du Soleil performs to rave reviews in Los Angeles. Los Angeles, California
  • 1989 One pilot killed as two Snowbird jets collide during Canadian National Exhibition airshow; other pilot ejects safely over Lake Ontario. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1992 Prime Minister Brian Mulroney announces a national referendum will be held October 26, 1992 on the Charlottetown Accord; he will later define a referendum victory as a Yes vote of 50 per cent plus one in each province; Bill 150 will be amended to reflect the Charlottetown resolutions, giving Québec control over manpower, regional development, immigration, but diminishing Québec’s weight in the Senate. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1995 Earle Birney dies at 91; poet, novelist and teacher; works include David and Other Poems (1942), Now Is Time (1945), Turvey (1949), Copernican Fix (1985), Words on Waves (1985), Spreading Time: Remarks on Canadian Writing and Writers 1904-1949 (1989), and Last Markings (1991). Toronto, Ontario
  • 1997 One person killed in Saskatchewan train derailment. Saskatchewan
  • 1998 Strike - Start of three-week lockout of Ontario Roman Catholic school system teachers. Ontario
  • 1999 Disaster - Multiple crash of over 60 vehicles kills 7 people on a foggy patch of Highway 401 between Windsor and London. Ontario
  • 2003 Bank of Canada cuts interest rates by 25 basis points to 2.75 percent on because of lower-than-expected inflation as well as sagging growth. Otawa, Ontario