Highlights of the day

  • 1671 Hudson Bay furs first auctioned at Garroway’s Coffee House, London; founding of HBC follows.
  • 1912 Thomas Wilby & Jack Haney reach Victoria after 1st cross-Canada motor trip of 52 days.
  • 1970 FLQ Terrorists murder QC Labour Minister Pierre Laporte; body found at St-Hubert Airport.

List of Facts for October 17

  • 1540 Jacques Cartier gets commission for third voyage from King François I; named Captain General in support of Roberval expedition. Paris, France
  • 1541 Jean-François de Roberval given seigneurial ownership of Canada, Newfoundland and Labrador; Jacques Cartier appointed a subordinate. Paris, France
  • 1671 Fur Trade - First auctioning of furs from Hudson Bay at Garroway’s Coffee House; leads to founding of the Hudson’s Bay Company. London, England
  • 1754 Anthony Henday sights Rocky Mountains near present day Red Deer; First European; winters with Archithinue; makes round trip of 3200 km from York Fort; First account of Blackfoot nation. Innisfail, Alberta
  • 1771 Benjamin Green appointed Administrator of Nova Scotia; serves until June 1, 1772. Halifax, Nova Scotia
  • 1777 American Revolutionary War - British General John Burgoyne, defeated at the Battle of Bemis Heights in New York October 7, 1777, and surrounded on October 13, 1777 by 16,000 Americans, surrenders over 5,000 British and Hessian troops to General Horatio Gates at the Battle of Saratoga; battle marks the reversal of British fortunes in the war. Saratoga, New York
  • 1813 War of 1812 - US General William Henry Harrison issues proclamation allowing civil servants in the Western District of Upper Canada to remain in office if they take an oath of allegiance to the United States; after American victory over Henry Procter at the Battle of Moraviantown on October 5, 1813. Detroit, Michigan
  • 1818 Ojibways (Chippewas) cede 600,000 hectares in Simcoe, Grey and Dufferin counties to the Crown, in return for reserves and support. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1839 Charles Poulett Thomson, Lord Sydenham, arrives at Québec and is sworn in as Governor General of British North America; dies in Kingston, Ontario at age 42 in 1841. Québec, Québec
  • 1840 Religion - Reverend Robert Rundle arrives at Edmonton House to serve as the local Methodist missionary; for the next 8 years, he sets up missions in Hudson’s Bay Company posts north to Lesser Slave Lake, east to Fort Carlton and Fort Pitt in Saskatchewan, south to the lands of the Blackfoot, and west to the Rockies; in 1848 he is forced to return to England to seek medical care for an injured arm. Edmonton, Alberta
  • 1850 Industry - Opening of the First Montréal Industrial Exhibition. Montréal, Québec
  • 1854 Religion - John A. Macdonald introduces bill to secularize the clergy reserves, land set aside for the established church; proceeds of sale divided among cities and counties in proportion to population. Kingston, Ontario
  • 1855 Treaty - Judith River Treaty (aka the Lame Bull Treaty, or Fort Benton Treaty is negotiated between the United States (as represented by Washington governor Isaac I. Stevens and A. Cummings) and the tribes of the Blackfoot, Gros Ventre, Nez Percé, and Salish; assigns territories to the Nations. Montana
  • 1873 Royal Commission on the Canadian Pacific Railway reports to Parliament; deals with Pacific Scandal. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1875 Immigration - Icelanders set out in scows down the Red River from the wharf at Notre Dame Avenue East toward Gimli, Manitoba. Winnipeg, Manitoba See: The Gimli Saga - The Emigration from Iceland to North America
  • 1877 Aboriginal - Major James Walsh of the North West Mounted Police hosts a meeting between Brigadier General Alfred Terry, commander of US troops on the western plains, and Lakota Sioux leader Sitting Bull, who had crossed into Canada 11 months earlier after defeating George Custer and his US Seventh Cavalry at Little Big Horn June 26, 1876; the Sioux joined their Assiniboine cousins at Wood Mountain, and Walsh met them in December to warn them about raiding into the US; because the Sioux were US treaty Indians, they were not eligible for Canadian provisions and reserves; Sitting Bull will eventually lead them back to Dakota after several hard winters, surrendering to the US government at Fort Buford on July 19, 1881. Fort Walsh, Saskatchewan
  • 1878 John A. Macdonald sworn in as Prime Minister of Canada for the second time (formerly served July 1, 1867 to November 5, 1873); holds office to June 6, 1891; also sworn in as Minister of the Interior. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1883 Duncan Macpherson sworn in as Minister of the Interior.
  • 1892 Thomas Daly sworn in as Minister of the Interior and Superintendent General of Indian Affairs.
  • 1893 Thomas Daly sworn in as Minister of the Interior and Superintendent General of Indian Affairs.
  • 1906 Energy - Albert LeRoy Ellsworth founds the British-American Oil Company, to distribute kerosene and lubricating oils in Toronto. B-A soon built a refinery and expanded into Quebec, and later the prairies, after acquiring the Winnipeg Oil Company. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1907 Communications - Transatlantic wireless service opens to Britain; Toronto Stock Exchange quotations among the First cabled to London and published regularly. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1910 Military - HMS Niobe arrives in Halifax to become the First cruiser of the Royal Canadian Navy. Halifax, Nova Scotia
  • 1912 Auto - English journalist Thomas Wilby and REO mechanic Jack Haney’s Diary - Halifax to Vancouver
  • 1917 Rail - First National Transcontinental Railway (CNR) train crosses the Québec Bridge over the St. Lawrence River; cantilever bridge collapsed twice during construction. Québec, Québec
  • 1917 First World War - National Conscription Act comes into effect. Canada
  • 1920 Aviation - Air Commodore A. K. Tylee and three other pilots arrive in Vancouver from Winnipeg after two-stage flight of 5,488 km across Canada in a total elapsed time of 45 hours, 20 minutes; Wing Commander Robert Leckie took the initial flight from Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, October 4, 1920, arriving in Winnipeg, Manitoba October 11, 1920. Vancouver, BC
  • 1926 Religion - Canadian-born St. Andre Grasset de Saint-Sauveur and 190 contemporaries are canonized by the Pope. Rome, Italy
  • 1946 Archeology - Old well dating back to the earliest days of Montréal found on the Place d’Armes. Montréal, Québec
  • 1949 Raymond Dupuis acquires la Librairie Beauchemin. Montréal, Québec
  • 1953 Music - Conductor Leopold Stokowski hosts the First US concert of works by contemporary Canadian composers, at Carnegie Hall. New York, New York
  • 1954 Education - Official opening of the new Université de Sherbrooke. Sherbrooke, Québec
  • 1961 Diplomacy - Government announces founding of 24 Canadian trade missions abroad over next year. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1962 Taxation - Government cuts 5% surcharge on most imported industrial machinery; other steps to strengthen economy and protect dollar. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1964 Education - Opening of Trent University in Peterborough. Peterborough, Ontario
  • 1966 Transport - Official opening of the new Montréal subway, le Métro. Montréal, Québec
  • 1966 Education - Opening of Centennial College of Applied Arts and Technology in Scarborough; Ontario’s First community college. Scarborough, Ontario
  • 1967 Ontario Election - John Robarts leads Ontario Progressive Conservative Party to a seventh consecutive majority in the provincial election. Ontario
  • 1967 James Renwick and Margaret Renwick the First husband-wife team elected to the Ontario Legislature; NDP Members. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1967 Music - Montreal composer Galt MacDermot opens his rock musical Hair to rave reviews off-Broadway at the Public Theatre; will move to the Anspacher Theater on Broadway the following spring; runs for 1,758 performances; inspires a movie and four top 40 hits: Oliver’s Good Morning Starshine, Three Dog Night’s Easy to Be Hard, Fifth Dimension’s Aquarius and the Cowsills’ Hair, which begins, Gimme a head with hair. Long, beautiful hair… New York, New York
  • 1968 Diplomacy - External Affairs Minister Mitchell Sharp cancels all Canadian ministerial exchanges and visits ‘of a political content’ with the Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact allies; after Soviet tanks invade Czechoslovakia to end the ‘Prague Spring’. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1969 Pierre Trudeau introduces the Official Languages Act in Parliament; legislation will require all federal departments, commissions and agencies to offer both English and French languages in dealings with the public. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1970 October Crisis continues. Chronology of the day: 6:18 pm - Front de libération du Québec Chénier cell members Paul Rose and Francis Simard murder their captive, Québec Labour Minister Pierre Laporte; 7:30 pm - FLQ announce the ‘execution’ of Laporte; 10:00 pm - Québec government issue communiqué deploring the action; 10:30 pm - St-Hubert Airport security reports suspicious Chevrolet sedan parked beside a hangar; 11:15 pm - police arrive at St-Hubert Airport and start checking the car for signs of a bomb; 12;15 am - police open the trunk and discover a body, apparently Laporte’s, strangled with the chain of a religious medal; 2:45 am - Laporte’s body positively identified; Pierre Laporte 1921-1970 was kidnapped by the FLQ October 10, 1970. St-Hubert, Québec
  • 1971 State Visit - Alexei Kosygin Soviet Premier starts nine-day visit; First head of USSR to visit Canada. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1972 Turk Broda dies; hockey goaltender, played fourteen NHL seasons from 1936-1952. Brandon, Manitoba
  • 1973 Energy - OPEC dramatically raises the price of petroleum; a boon to Alberta but costly to central Canada. Canada
  • 1974 Mark Kent, age 17, arrives in St. John’s, the First person to run the 6,529 km [4,057 miles] across Canada; started in Victoria, BC 102 days earlier. St. John’s, Newfoundland
  • 1977 Media - Parliament begins regular live TV coverage of the debates and Question Period in the House of Commons. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1980 Richard Reid dies; farmer and politician, Premier of Alberta from 1934-1935. Alberta
  • 1983 Toronto Sun Publishing Corporation acquires Houston Post for $100 million; 17th largest US newspaper. Houston, Texas
  • 1986 Media - CKND-TV the First television station in Manitoba to broadcast in stereo. Winnipeg, Manitoba
  • 1987 Strike - Huge labour demonstration held at the Manoir Richelieu hotel. La Malbaie, Québec
  • 1989 Strike - Canada Post employees return to work. Canada
  • 1990 Hockey - Calgary Flames tie NHL record by scoring two goals, both shorthanded, in four seconds, as well as three goals in a 27-second span during the 3rd period to salvage an 8-8 tie with the Québec Nordiques; with a player in the penalty box, Calgary pulls their goalie; Doug Gilmour scores at 19:45, then gets the puck to Paul Ranheim in the ensuing face-off for the tying goal at 19:49. Calgary, Alberta
  • 1991 Richard Taylor wins the Nobel Prize for Physics with Friedman and Kendall; for work on quarks; born in Medicine Hat, Alberta; Professor Stanford University. Stockholm, Sweden
  • 1992 British Columbia Election - Michael Harcourt and the NDP win BC provincial election with 51 of 75 seats, against Gordon Wilson of the Liberals, who take 17 seats, becoming the new official opposition; Rita Johnston’s Socreds win 7; Harcourt a former Mayor of Vancouver. BC
  • 1992 Baseball - Atlanta Braves beat the Toronto Blue Jays 3-to-1 in game 1 of the World Series; Atlanta pitcher Tom Glavine goes the distance; First World Series game with a non-US team. Atlanta, Georgia
  • 1992 Hockey - Los Angeles Kings Jari Kurri scores his 500th NHL goal, tallying an empty-net marker in an 8-6 win over the Boston Bruins, playing with his old linemate Wayne Gretzky; only one of 13 to reach that total to date. Los Angeles, California
  • 1993 Winnipeg actress Anna Paquin stars in the film The Piano, opening on this day at the New York Film Festival; also starring Holly Hunter and Harvey Keitel. New York, New York
  • 1993 Baseball - Philadelphia Phillies defeat the Toronto Blue Jays, 6-4, in Game 2, evening the World Series at one game each; Phillies’ Mitch ‘Wild Thing’ Williams earns his only save of the Series. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1995 Hockey - Montréal Canadiens fire General Manager Serge Savard and Head Coach Jacques Demers after poor opening season results. Montreal, Québec
  • 1996 Statistics Canada releases study showing that children of single mothers appear to be more likely to suffer from developmental problems. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 2000 Goalie Patrick Roy of the Colorado Avalanche wins his 448th NHL game, surpassing Terry Sawchuck’s record for most career wins.
  • 2004 Media - CBC announces the ten finalists in its The Greatest Canadian series: Frederick Banting, Alexander Graham Bell, Tommy Douglas, Terry Fox, Wayne Gretzky, John A. Macdonald, Lester Pearson, David Suzuki, Pierre Trudeau and Don Cherry. Toronto, Ontario See: The CBC’s Greatest Canadians
  • 2007 Politics - Floyd Roland selected as the new Premier of the Northwest Territories. Yellowknife, NWT
  • 2009 Politics - Greg Selinger is chosen as the new leader of the Manitoba New Democratic Party and the new Premier of Manitoba. Winnipeg, Manitoba
  • 2009 Politics - Danielle Smith chosen as the new leader of the Wildrose Alliance Party of Alberta. Calgary, Alberta