Highlights of the day

  • 1766 Guy Carleton named Lieutenant Governor of Québec
  • 1874 Métis Jerry Potts begins his association with the NWMP as a scout and translator.
  • 1875 Saulteaux, Swampy Cree and others sign Treaty #5 at Norway House, Manitoba.

List of Facts for September 24

  • 1646 Epidemic - Father Isaac Jogues abandoned by a Huron guard at Fort Richelieu and taken prisoner by the Iroquois, who blame the Jesuit Black Robes for a smallpox and famine outbreak. Chambly, Québec
  • 1647 Religion - Building of Église Notre-Dame in Québec begins. Québec, Québec
  • 1669 Robert de La Salle meets Louis Jolliet and Father Jacques Marquette at St. Ignace Mission. Mackinaw, Michigan
  • 1683 Human Rights - Jews expelled from all French possessions in America, including New France. Paris, France
  • 1685 Currency - Playing cards used as money in New France to finance pay to soliders when payship fails to arrive. Québec
  • 1688 Louis de Lahonton sets out from Fort Michilimackinac to explore west; will reach the Mississippi River via the Wisconsin River. Mackinaw, Michigan
  • 1761 Henry Ellis appointed Governor of Nova Scotia; until November 21, 1763; never comes to province to assume office. London, England
  • 1766 Guy Carleton named Lieutenant Governor of Québec. London, England
  • 1788 Trade - First shipment of Canadian furs sent to China; primarily sea otter. Nootka Sound, BC
  • 1811 Lord Selkirk’s advance party of Red River colonists reach York Factory. Churchill, Manitoba
  • 1827 Hudson’s Bay Company arms Talkotin Indians to help them drive off stronger Chilkotin people. BC
  • 1841 Richard Jackson appointed Administrator of the Province of Canada, serves until January 12, 1842 as Commander-in-Chief of British North America. Montréal, Québec
  • 1844 Start of First international cricket match; Canada defeats the US the following day. Montréal, Québec
  • 1859 Capital of the Province of Canada moves from Québec City to Ottawa; previously in rotation at Toronto, Kingston and Montréal. Ottawa, Ontario September 24 - Sport - Lower Canada v G Parr’s XI is the first ever Cricket match played in Canada - source
  • 1860 Gold Rush - James Douglas Governor of British Columbia arrives at the Rock Creek gold camp on his tour of inspection, resulting in immediate instructions to W. G. Cox to establish a Customs Post there. BC BC
  • 1869 Crash - Jay Gould’s and James Fisk’s attempt to corner gold market in collusion with Washington officials fails when Federal gold released for sale; markets crash; Black Friday on Wall Street leads to recession in North America. New York, New York
  • 1874 Métis Jerry Potts begins his association with the NWMP as a scout and translator. Alberta
  • 1875 Treaty - Saulteaux, Swampy Cree and others sign Treaty #5 in Northern Manitoba; adhesions Sept 28; also adherents in 1908-10, total 160,930 sq km. Norway House, Manitoba
  • 1885 First train across the Turkey Trail between Dunmore, Alberta and Coal Banks in the District of Alberta. Alberta
  • 1891 Religion - Jewish settlement at Hirsch, fifteen miles east of Estevan, Saskatchewan, celebrates the First Yom Kippur holiday in Saskatchewan. Hirsch, Saskatchewan
  • 1897 Niagara Falls Suspension Bridge Company and the Niagara Falls International Bridge Company open new double track steel arch bridge to New York State; upper floor leased to the Grand Trunk Railway. Queenston, Ontario
  • 1901 Telegraph connection completed between Yukon and southern Canada. Whitehorse, Yukon
  • 1905 Wildlife - Henry Fleming the First person to band a bird in Canada. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1912 Aviation - Walter Edwards flies his re-assembled Curtiss at Nelson, BC.
  • 1927 Conn Smythe changes the name of the NHL’s Toronto St. Patricks hockey team to the Toronto Maple Leafs. Toronto, Ontario September 24, 1935 -
  • 1935 Alberta Social Credit Premier William Aberhart announces an issue of 10 year $25 Prosperity Bonds to be sold to Albertans; to help province clear its $150 million debt. Edmonton, Alberta
  • 1935 Two Canadian cowboys, Earl W. Bascom and his brother Weldon Bascom, produce history’s first rodeo held outdoors at night under electric lights. It is held in Columbia, Mississippi.
  • 1939 Québec Election - Maurice Duplessis calls provincial election for October 25, 1939, asks for ‘a vote for autonomy against conscription’. Québec, Québec
  • 1941 Second World War - Canada joins eight other allied governments in pledging support to the Atlantic Charter, an eight-point declaration issued by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill. London, England
  • 1942 Alaska Highway opened at Contact Creek, 305 miles north of Fort Nelson, BC; first built to serve as a military road from Edmonton to Alaska. Contact Creek, Yukon
  • 1945 E. P. Taylor incorporates Argus Corporation, Canada’s largest holding company; a private investment company to handle his Canadian Breweries and other holdings. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1950 Korean War - Canadian military mission arrives in Tokyo; First Canadian unit dispatched to Korean conflict. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1952 Crime - Thieves make off with six boxes of gold bullion worth $300,000 from an unguarded building at Malton Airport. The gold, awaiting shipment to Montréal, is never found; likely flown to New York in a private plane and smuggled to Hong Kong. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1956 Diplomacy - Canada signs atomic energy agreement with Britain and the United States in Washington. Washington, DC
  • 1956 Espionage - External Affairs requests withdrawal of G. F. Popov, second secretary of the Soviet Embassy in Ottawa, for attempting to bribe an RCAF civilian employee. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1956 Telecom - First transatlantic telephone cable system from Newfoundland to Scotland starts operations. St. John’s, Newfoundland
  • 1957 Hartland Molson and Molson family acquire the Montréal Canadiens hockey club. Montreal, Quebec
  • 1958 Military - Defense Minister George Pearkes decides to cancel the Canadian fire control and missile systems of the Avro Arrow program; a major step in the road to final cancellation February 20, 1959. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1959 Ross Thatcher elected leader of the Saskatchewan Liberal Party, four years after quitting the provincial NDP; later becomes Premier. Regina, Saskatchewan
  • 1962 John Diefenbaker opens the Garden of the Provinces park in Ottawa. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1965 Peacekeeping - Bruce Macdonald appointed to command United Nations India-Pakistan Observation Mission. United Nations, New York
  • 1965 Royal Canadian Navy commissions HMCS Ojibwa, First of three RCN Oberon class submarines. Chatham, England
  • 1967 Opening of the First Festival western de St-Tite, Québec’s premiere rodeo sponsored by the Boulet boot company. St-Tite, Québec
  • 1969 Environment - Ontario bans use of pesticide DDT, effective January 1, 1970. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1972 Summit Series - Canadian NHL All Stars defeat Soviet team 3-2 in second game in the USSR; USSR still leads series 3-2 with one tie. Moscow, Russia
  • 1973 Diplomacy - Canada officially recognizes new Agusto Pinochet military government in Chile. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1977 Canadian dollar drops to 89.88¢; Bank of Canada arranges US $1.5 billion standby credit; for First time since 1939. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1977 Ken Hinton of the CFL British Columbia Lions returns a punt 130 yards. Vancouver, BC
  • 1984 Queen Elizabeth II starts two-week Canadian tour with Prince Philip; visits New Brunswick, Ontario and Manitoba; tour delayed by the election. Moncton, New Brunswick
  • 1985 Baseball - Montréal Expos Expo Andre Dawson get 6 RBIs in one inning (5th); ninth major leaguer to reach this mark; also joins Willey McCovey in hitting hit 2 homers in an inning twice in a game. Montréal, Québec
  • 1988 Baseball - Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Dave Stieb has his no-hitter broken up with 2 outs in the 9th inning, giving up a bad-hop single to Julio Franco. Stieb settled for a 1-0, one-hit victory over the Cleveland Indians. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1988 Olympics - Ben Johnson breaks his own world record to win the 100 metre sprint gold medal in 9.79 seconds against arch-rival, American Carl Lewis, at the 24th Olympiad (Seoul Summer Olympics). Johnson is forced by the lOC to return the medal and is disqualified from the Games after a positive anabolic steroid drug test two days later. Seoul, Korea
  • 1990 Jean Chrétien to run in federal by-election in Beausejour, vacated by retiring MP Fernand Robichaud; represented St-Maurice 1963-1986. Beausejour, New Brunswick
  • 1991 Brian Mulroney presents 59 page report of Dobbie-Castonguay Committee (later Beaudoin-Dobbie Committee, entitled ‘Shaping Canada’s Future Together, to Parliament; the 30 member Committee, which started work June 19, 1991, proposes recognizing Québec as a distinct society, Native self-government and an elected Senate. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1992 Baseball - Toronto Blue Jays Dave Winfield drives in four runs with a homer and a two-run double in an 8-2 win over the Baltimore Orioles; becomes the First 40 year old and the oldest major league player to knock in 100 RBIs. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1992 Peacekeeping - External Affairs Minister Barbara McDougall says Canada will cut UN peacekeeping grant if others don’t pay share; may pull out ofCyprus; 4,300 Canadian soldiers currently committed. United Nations, New York
  • 1996 Justice Jean Bienvenue resigns from the Quebec Superior Court after a storm of protest; he remarked during a murder trial that women can be crueller than men and the Nazis did not eliminate millions of Jews in a painful and bloody manner. They died in the gas chamber without suffering. Montreal, Quebec
  • 1998 South African President Nelson Mandela visits the Canadian Human Rights Monument, and unveils a commemorative plaque honouring John Peters Humphrey, a Canadian jurist who served for twenty years as the Director of the United Nations Division of Human Rights, drafting and championing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. During his remarks at the unveiling, President Mandela expressed his desire that the Monument “inspire all who see it to join hands in a partnership for world peace, prosperity, and equity.” Ottawa, Ontario
  • 2004 Same Sex Marriage - Nova Scotia Supreme Court rules that banning same-sex unions is unconstitutional; becomes the sixth Canadian province or territory to allow gay marriage. Halifax, Nova Scotia