Highlights of the day

  • 1812 Battle of Kingston Harbour - Capt. Chauncey chases Royal George into Kingston, duels with shore batteries.
  • 1979 CP freight #54 with chlorine and propane cars derails in Mississauga; 240,000 residents evacuate.

List of Facts for November 10

  • 1678 Robert de La Salle leaves for Fort Frontenac; the following spring he will build a ship, the Griffon, to take the fur trade to the upper lakes. Québec, Québec
  • 1727 Trade - France orders all foreign commerce excluded from New France and other French colonies. Paris, France
  • 1808 Guy Carleton, Lord Dorchester dies; army officer, administrator; born September 3, 1724 at Strabane, Ireland. Carleton was a Colonel in James Wolfe’s army at Québec in 1759; 1766 appointed Lieutenant Governor; 1768 succeeded James Murray as Governor, to 1778; repelled American invasion of 1775-76; British commander in chief at New York, 1782-83, in charge of evacuating loyalists to Nova Scotia and Québec; also Governor of Québec 1785-95. Maidenhead, England
  • 1812 War of 1812 - US Navy Capt. Isaac Chauncey chases the Royal George into Kingston Harbour, bombards the town and exchanges gunfire with Fort Henry before leaving at dusk. Kingston, Ontario
  • 1812 War of 1812 - Local militia and Americans skirmish at Odelltown. Odelltown, Québec - See November 20 -November 10 - War of 1812 - American prisoners of war captured at Queenston Heights arrive in Quebec; the US flag taken at the battle is put on display at the Governor’s Chateau. Quebec, Quebec
  • 1824 Education - Opening of the Montréal Medical Institute; Canada’s first medical school. Montréal, Québec
  • 1837 Lower Canada Rebellion - Patriotes fire on a troop of militia led by Commander Malo, and harass the soldiers with pikes; asks for reinforcements to be sent from Montréal. St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Québec
  • 1838 Lower Canada Rebellion - Lord Colborne arrives at Napierville with 8,000 soldiers to disperse the rebellion of Dr. Robert Nelson and his Frères Chasseurs (Hunters Lodges); they go on to burn the town of Beauharnois, Québec, and the houses of known rebels in the area. Napierville, Québec
  • 1842 Boundary - Ashburton-Webster Treaty proclaimed; establishes the north-west corner of Lake of the Woods as latitude 49 degrees 23’55 north and in longitude 95 degrees 14’38 west, determines that the Boundary runs south from that point to the 49th degree of parallel and and re-iterates that it runs westward along said parallel to the apex of the Rocky Mountains. Washington, DC
  • 1852 Finance - Co-Premier Francis Hincks creates the Municipal Loan Fund or Canada West, to let municipalities borrow on Upper Canada’s credit to invest in works such as railways; the fund itself to be created by municipal repayments; by 1855, 47 municipalities had borrowed heavily, and could not repay, and the deficits had to be merged with the Canadian public debt. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1852 Education - Bishop’s College in Lennoxville chartered as a university; today’s Bishop’s University. Lennoxville, Québec
  • 1852 Rail - Grand Trunk Railway gets charter; with consent to amalgamate with other lines: the St. Lawrence & Atlantic, Toronto & Guelph, Québec & Richmond. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1852 Shipping - Hugh Allan founds the Montreal Ocean Steamship Company (Allan Line) with brother Andrew Allan; subsidized by a weekly postal contract from the government. Montréal, Québec
  • 1853 Rail - Great Western Railway reaches Niagara from Hamilton, Ontario. Niagara Falls, Ontario
  • 1856 Communications - Cyrus Field opens a telegraph line from New York to Newfoundland. Newfoundland
  • 1868 Banking - Failure of the Commercial Bank of New Brunswick. Saint John, New Brunswick
  • 1876 Fort Livingstone becomes the temporary seat of the government of the Northwest Territories and and headquarters for the North West Mounted Police. Pelly, Saskatchewan
  • 1883 Football - Toronto Argonauts defeat Ottawa Football Club 9-7, in the First Ontario Rugby Football Union (ORFU) championship game. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1892 Football - Osgoode Hall defeats Montréal 45-5 in the First Canadian Rugby Union (CRU) championship game; forerunner of Grey Cup. Montréal, Québec
  • 1893 Shipping - Steamboat State of Idaho grounded and damaged at Ainsworth; purchased, rebuilt and renamed Alberta by the Alberta and British Columbia Exploration Company; at work by May, 1895; sank and scrapped in 1905. Ainsworth, BC
  • 1900 Politics - Charles Tupper steps down as leader of the federal Conservative Party. Ottawa, Ontario.
  • 1907 Mining - Three die in Hosmer mine cave-in. Hosmer, BC
  • 1911 Rail - Vancouver, Victoria & Eastern Railway reaches Coalmont, BC.
  • 1912 Louis Cyr dies of Bright’s disease; born October 10, 1863 at St-Cyprien-de-Napierville, Québec; the Montréal policeman turned P. T. Barnum weightlifter was billed as The World’s Strongest Man; in 1895 in Boston he lifted a stage holding 18 men weighing 1967 kg with his back - considered the heaviest weight ever lifted by a man; on retirement he opened a tavern in Montréal. St-Jean-de-Matha, Québec
  • 1912 Religion - Dedication of Fernie’s Holy Family Roman Catholic Church. Fernie, BC
  • 1913 Calgary Symphony Orchestra gives its First performance. Calgary, Alberta
  • 1917 First World War - End of the Third Battle of Ypres (Battle of Passchendaele); started July 31, 1917. Passchendaele, Belgium
  • 1917 First World War - 27th City of Winnipeg Battalion celebrate the end of the 2nd Battle of Passchendaele; they fought from October 26-November 10. Passchendaele, Belgium
  • 1926 Diplomacy - Vincent Massey takes up his position as Canada’s First Ambassador to the United States. Washington, DC
  • 1931 Cobourg, Ontario actress Marie Dressler wins the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in Min and Bill; Best Actor: Lionel Barrymore, A Free Soul; Best Director: Norman Taurog, Skippy; Best Picture: Cimarron. Hollywood, California
  • 1931 Henrietta Edwards dies; women’s rights activist; born Henrietta Louise Muir at Montréal December 18, 1849. Edwards founded the Working Girls’ Association in Montréal in 1875, to provide vocational training; edited a journal, Women’s Work in Canada; 1893 helped Lady Aberdeen found the National Council of Women; also the Victorian Order of Nurses; 1920 was one of Alberta’s Famous Five in The Persons Case; 1921 wrote The Legal Status of Women in Alberta. Fort Macleod, Alberta
  • 1932 Media - Foster Hewitt calls the play by play as the Toronto Maple Leafs play to a 1-1 tie against Boston; his First Hockey Night in Canada broadcast. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1933 Weather - The Black Blizzard, a snowstorm-duststorm, rages from Saskatchewan and South Dakota to the Atlantic, with winds driving parched prairie soil into the skies to fall as dirty snow. North America
  • 1940 Second World War - Canada and Britain start Trans-Atlantic Ferry Service to move planes, men and supplies; to Britain from Goose Bay and Gander, Newfoundland. Goose Bay, Newfoundland
  • 1942 Second World War - Werner Janowski, German secret agent, captured by the RCMP after being dropped on Canadian soil by submarine U-518; becomes a double agent. New Carlisle, Québec
  • 1942 Second World War - Winston Churchill delivers a speech at Westminster in which he says, “I have not become the King’s First Minister to preside over the liquidation of the British Empire”. London, England
  • 1950 Military - U.S. Air Force B-50 bomber accidentally detonates an unarmed Mark IV atomic weapon over St-Alexandre-de-Kamouraska, just before 4 pm; the bomb lacked its plutonium-uranium core, but a 2,200-kg chemical charge exploded, pushing a cloud of yellow smoke spiralling up 1,000 m above the St. Lawrence, with a low rumble the shook houses for 40 km around. The plane had run into trouble during a flight from Goose Bay, Labrador. St-Alexandre-de-Kamouraska,, Québec
  • 1953 Military - Canada opens NATO base in Soest, West Germany. Soest, Germany
  • 1960 Foreign Aid - Canada announces contribution of $1 million to United Nations fund for the Congo. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1962 Nova Scotia born Hank Snow’s single I’ve Been Everywhere, reaches #1 on the Billboard country chart for the First of two weeks. New York, New York
  • 1963 Hockey - Red Wings’ Gordie Howe takes over NHL career goal lead, scoring his 545th in a 3-0 victory over the Montréal Canadiens. Detroit, Michigan
  • 1969 Heritage - Ottawa to restore historic properties in Yukon Territory. Dawson City, Yukon
  • 1972 British Columbia Election - Dave Barrett’s New Democratic Party take 38 of 55 seats in the provincial election; upsets 20 years of Social Credit rule in BC. BC
  • 1972 Welfare - Senate Committee on Poverty recommends guaranteed annual income of $3,500 for Canadian family of 4. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1973 The DeFranco Family, from St Catherines, Ontario, have a #1 Billboard pop hit with their single, Heartbeat - It’s a Lovebeat. New York, New York
  • 1974 Hockey - Montréal Canadiens shut out NHL Washington Capitals 11-0. Montréal, Québec
  • 1974 Jean Drapeau elected to a 6th term of office as Mayor of Montréal. Montréal, Québec
  • 1974 Winnipeg’s Bachman-Turner Overdrive have a #1 Billboard pop hit with their single, You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet. New York, New York
  • 1975 Disaster - Great Lakes ship Edmund Fitzgerald, a 222 m long iron ore carrier out of Superior, Wisconsin, breaks in two and sinks off Whitefish Point west of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, after battling 7.5 m waves and record 125 km/h winds during a November gale on Lake Superior; 29 crew members drown; commemorated in a haunting 1976 ballad by Gordon Lightfoot, The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.. Whitefish Bay, Ontario
  • 1979 Rail - Canadian Pacific freight #54 suffers a hot axle box and derails en route from Windsor, Ontario to Agincourt, Ontario; 19 of 24 CP Rail tanker cars contain dangerous propane, soda and chlorine, and after an explosion and fire the following day, they start leaking chlorine gas; Mississauga’s mayor orders an official evacuation of the city; 240,000 residents leave, some for six days. The Grange Commission report on the accident is published in December, 1980. Mississauga, Ontario
  • 1983 Crime - Amway Canada and US parent Amway Corporation fined $25 million for defrauding government of over $28 million in import duties; largest fine in Canadian history. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1986 Hockey - King Clancy dies; born in Ottawa February 25, 1903; NHL coach and manager for over 60 years. In 1921, 18 year old Clancy was signed by the Ottawa Senators; 1930 acquired by the Toronto Maple Leafs for the unheard of sum of $35,000 plus two players; 1932 led Leafs to their First ever Stanley Cup victory; also served as an NHL referee, was Coach of the Leafs from 1953-56, and VP of Maple Leaf Gardens 1956 until retirement. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1987 Politics - Pierre-Marc Johnson quits politics; successor to René Lévesque as Parti Québecois Premier of Québec is the son of ex-Premier Daniel Johnson and brother of Daniel Johnson Jr.; replaced as interim leader by Guy Chevrette. Québec, Québec
  • 1989 Constitution - Brian Mulroney convenes first ministers conference; fails to resolve constitutional differences; the Meech Lake Accord results. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1991 Robert McClure dies at age 90; raised in China by missionary parents; MD 1922; practiced in Third World; First lay moderator of the United Church of Canada in 1968. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1992 RCMP Commissioner Norman Inkster elected to a four year term as President of Interpol, the international police organization; he continues his RCMP duties. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1995 Newmarket, Ontario, comedian Jim Carrey premieres his film Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls; best non-summer opening in Hollywood history, collecting $37.8 million in its debut weekend, the sixth largest ever. Los Angeles, California
  • 1995 Crime - Sniper shoots and wounds an abortion clinic a doctor at his Ancaster home. Ancaster, Ontario
  • 1997 Baseball - Toronto Blue Jays’ right-hander Roger Clemens wins the American League Cy Young Award for an unprecedented fourth time; First season with the Jays. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1997 Mel Lastman elected Mayor of Toronto’s new megacity; appliance dealer the former Mayor of North York. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1997 Strike - Classes resumed in Ontario following settlement of the teacher’s strike.
  • 2003 David Miller is elected Mayor of Toronto. Toronto, Ontario
  • 2008 Finance - Stephen Harper and the provincial premiers agree spending on infrastructure best way to battle a looming recession. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 2009 Politics - Gilles Taillon resigns as head of the Action démocratique du Québec (ADQ) after serving 23 days as leader; cites caucus infighting and alleges irregularities in the party’s financial records; calls on the Sûreté du Québec to investigate. Quebec City
  • 2010 Three days of floods in Southwestern Nova Scotia cause millions of dollars in damage; province declares a state of emergency. Halifax, Nova Scotia