Highlights of the day

  • 1789 Governor Carleton grants every son of a loyalist 200 acres, every daughter 200 acres when married.
  • 1942 German U-Boat drops German secret agent Werner von Janowski at Gaspé.
  • 1965 Faulty Queenston relay switch causes Great Northeastern Blackout
  • 1972 NASA launches Canada’s Anik A1 Geostationery Comsat; with serve northern communities.

List of Facts for November 9

  • 1775 American Revolutionary War - Benedict Arnold arrives at Point-Lévis across from Québec; leading American invasion army; awaits Richard Montgomery coming downriver from Montréal. Lévis, Québec
  • 1789 Loyalists - Order-in-Council gives every son of a loyalist 200 acres, every daughter 200 acres when married; descendants of loyalists can put letters U.E. (United Empire) after their names. Québec
  • 1812 War of 1812 - US Commodore Isaac Chauncey and his fleet attack the 22-gun corvette HMS Royal George, the largest war ship on the Lake, commanded by Commodore Hugh Earle of the Provincial Marine. That afternoon, he chases the Royal George through a gap between Amherst Island and the eastern tip of Prince Edward County into the Bay of Quinte’s north channel. Chauncey loses sight of her as the darkness falls. Bath, Ontario
  • 1835 Law - 21-year-old George-Étienne Cartier called to the Bar of Lower Canada; two years later, he will be caught up in the Lower Canada Rebellion and be forced to flee to Vermont. Montréal, Québec
  • 1838 Lower Canada Rebellon - Robert Nelson mounts another raid on Lacolle, Québec from Vermont with Cyrille Côté; the Republican Hunters Lodges (Frères Chasseurs) are again dispersed at Odelltown after a two hour battle when 5,000 British troops and Iroquois led by Charles Taylor arrive, and Nelson and his rebels flee to the US, leaving behind more than 50 dead. Odelltown, Québec
  • 1849 Communications - Nova Scotia Government Telegraph completed. Halifax, Nova Scotia
  • 1860 Politics - John A. Macdonald starts speaking tour in western Ontario; a First in Canadian politics. Brantford, Ontario
  • 1861 Football - First documented Canadian rugby football game played, at the University of Toronto. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1864 Trade - First export of lumber goods from Burrard Inlet to a foreign country, with a shipment to Australia. Vancouver, BC
  • 1872 First Intercolonial Railway train reaches Halifax from Saint John, New Brunswick; remainder of line completed in 1876, connecting Truro, Nova Scotia, with Rivière du Loup, Québec, giving Québec and central access to ice-free Canadian east coast ports; became part of Canadian National Railways in 1923. Halifax, Nova Scotia
  • 1872 Media - First edition of the Manitoba Free Press is published; later the Winnipeg Free Press. Winnipeg, Manitoba
  • 1876 Sport - Manitoba Curling Club is established. Winnipeg, Manitoba
  • 1877 Communications - Alexander Graham Bell’s Bell Telephone Company leases First phones to Prime Minister Alexander Mackenzie; but backdates lease to September 21, 1877. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1883 Royal Winnipeg Rifles 90th Battalion organized. Winnipeg, Manitoba
  • 1885 North West Rebellion - Medical commission, created to examine Louis Riel’s mental condition, submits its report to the Prime Minister. The Commission is divided on question of Riel’s sanity. Cabinet decides to proceed with death penalty; carried out on November 16, 1885. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1892 Edgar Dewdney installed as Lieutenant-Governor of British Columbia. Victoria, BC
  • 1902 Rail - The Vancouver, Victoria & Eastern Railway crosses the Kettle River Valley Railway: KRVR retaliates by parking an old locomotive on the crossing. Grand Forks, BC
  • 1905 Alberta Election - Alexander Rutherford elected First Premier of Alberta, winning 22 of 25 seats for the Liberal Party; campaign bitterly fought on issues such as religious schools and control over the province’s natural resources. Alberta
  • 1907 Football - Edmonton Rugby Foot-ball Club plays its First game, losing to Calgary City Rugby Foot-ball Club 26-5 at Exhibition Grounds. Edmonton, Alberta
  • 1909 Rail - Vancouver, Victoria & Eastern Railway completes its crossing of Similkameen River just east of Princeton, BC.
  • 1912 First Nations - Memorial is unveiled at Fort Qu’Appelle marking the site of the signing of Treaty No. 4. Fort Qu’Appelle, Saskatchewan
  • 1913 Dsaster - Height of the storm known as Freshwater Fury, as three storms converge on the Great Lakes; winds of 100 km/h whip up 10 metre waves and dump 45 centimetres of snow, sinking 32 ships, including 8 ore-carriers; 200 people die over a four day period during the worst storm in the history of the Great Lakes. Ontario USA
  • 1924 Cinema - Montréal born actress Norma Shearer stars in MGM’s First release, He Who Gets Slapped, premiering at the Capitol, with Lon Chaney and John Gilbert. Hollywood, California
  • 1928 Mining - Judicial Committee of the Privy Council rules that gold and silver mineral rights on Hudson’s Bay Company lands belong to the Crown, not the HBC. London, England
  • 1937 Human Rights - Québec Police undertake First action to uphold Québec Premier Maurice Duplessis’ Padlock Law (Act Respecting Communistic Propaganda) against subversive organizations, locking the doors of the Communist Party newspaper Clarté. Statute let attorney general close any building used for propagating ‘communism or bolshevism’; Act will be declared unconstitutional, as an invasion of the federal field of criminal law, by the Supreme Court of Canada in 1957. Montréal, Québec
  • 1939 Adélard Godbout sworn in as Premier of Québec for the second time, replacing Maurice Duplessis. Québec, Québec
  • 1942 Second World War - Frederick Peters a Canadian serving with the Royal Navy, leads HMS Walney into Oran Harbour under heavy fire during Operation Torch, the Allied landings on the North African Coast; both Walney and her sister ship HMS Hartland are sunk by enemy shells; the only man on the bridge to survive, Capt. Peters will be awarded the Victoria Cross. Oran, Algeria
  • 1942 German secret agent Werner von Janowski, dropped ashore at Gaspé town of New Carlisle by submarine U-518 is arrested by the RCMP; becomes a double agent. New Carlisle, Québec
  • 1942 Second World War - Canada cuts all diplomatic ties with Nazi puppet state of Vichy France. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1943 Foreign Aid - Canada signs the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Agreement (UNRRA). Washington, DC
  • 1953 Hockey - Montréal Canadiens’ Maurice Richard scores his 325th NHL career goal, setting a National Hockey League record; sends the puck to Queen Elizabeth II. Montréal, Québec
  • 1956 Pro Wrestling - Lou Thesz beats Toronto’s Whipper Billy Watson in St Louis, to become NWA champ. St. Louis, Missouri
  • 1961 John Diefenbaker announces construction of a Canadian Museum of History; to be completed by July 1, 1967; later evolves into the Canadian Museum of Civilization. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1965 Energy - A faulty relay switch fails at 5:16 pm at Ontario Hydro’s Queenston generating station, causing a power outage that plunges New York City into darkness at the height of rush hour, and trapping 800,000 people in subways, elevators and skyscrapers. Over 30 million people in Ontario, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Vermont and New Hampshire lose power for most of the night. Niagara Falls, Ontario
  • 1965 Space - Canadian satellite Alouette II launched by NASA. Vandenberg AFB, California
  • 1967 Religion - Cardinal Paul-Émile Léger resigns post to work as missionary with lepers in Africa. Montréal, Québec
  • 1971 Shipping - Canadian Pacific withdraws liner Empress of Canada from transatlantic route; end of regular passenger service due to cheaper airline flights. Montréal, Québec
  • 1972 Space - NASA launches Canada’s Anik A1 domestic communications satellite; first nation to launch such a bird for domestic use. Cape Canaveral, Florida
  • 1972 Edmonton, Alberta born Johnny Bucyk of the Bruins scores his 1,000th NHL point with a goal in an 8-3 triumph over the Detroit Red Wings. Boston, Massachusetts
  • 1974 Gordon Lightfoot’s single, Carefree Highway, peaks at #10 on the Billboard pop chart. New York, New York
  • 1974 Winnipeg group Bachman-Turner Overdrive’s single, You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet, peaks at #1 on the Billboard pop chart. New York, New York
  • 1982 Terrorism - Yves Langlois returns to Québec from exile in Cuba; former FLQ leader. New York, New York
  • 1984 Space - NASA Shuttle Discovery flight STS-51A deploys Canada’s Anik-D2 comsat into geosynchronous orbit (mass 1,100 kg). Space
  • 1985 Bryan Adams’ single, One Night Love Affair, peaks at #13 on the Billboard pop chart. New York, New York
  • 1986 Jean Doré elected Mayor of Montréal with 68% of the votes counted. New York, New York
  • 1989 Constitution - Conference of First ministers fails to resolve opposition to the Meech Lake Accord raised by Manitoba and Newfoundland, where former Pierre Trudeau adviser Clyde Wells has led the Liberals back to power, threatens to rescind his province’s ratification unless the accord is altered to protect Newfoundland’s ability to get transfer payments. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1997 Politics - The scandal-racked Saskatchewan Conservative Party is mothballed; most members join the new Saskatchewan Paarty. Saskatchewan
  • 2009 Four by-elections are held to fill vacancies in the House of Commons. Conservative Party of Canada candidate, Scott Armstrong, was elected in Cumberland–Colchester–Musquodoboit Valley; Bloc Québécois candidate, Daniel Paillé, was elected in Hochelaga; the Conservative Party of Canada candidate, Bernard Généreux, was elected in Montmagny–L’Islet–Kamouraska–Rivière-du-Loup; New Democratic Party candidate, Fin Donnelly, was elected in New Westminster–Coquitlam.