Highlights of the day

  • 1883 North American railways adopt Sanford Fleming’s Standard Time system of one-hour time zones.
  • 1926 Balfour Declaration ends imperial status for the Dominions, and creates a Commonwealth of Nations.

List of Facts for November 18

  • 1837 Lower Canada Rebellion - Col. George Wetherall and a detachment of 350 British troops leaves Montréal and sets out for Chambly, Québec. Montréal, Québec
  • 1837 Lower Canada Rebellion - Thomas Storrow Brown, the General of the Sons of Liberty (Les Fils de la Liberté), seizes the manor of seigneur Pierre-Dominique Debartzch, south of the village of Saint-Charles, and establishes a camp with 100 rebels. St-Charles, Québec
  • 1837 Upper Canada Rebellion - William Lyon Mackenzie decides on a coup d’etat for December 7, 1837; to create a republican government in Upper Canada that would petition for union with the United States. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1865 Transport - Steamboat Forty Nine launched onto the Columbia River at Colville Landing, about 50 km below Boundary. Colville Landing, BC
  • 1883 Rail - North American railways adopt Sanford Fleming’s system of one-hour time zones that remains in force today. His Standard Time scheme begins at midnight Atlantic Time in Nova Scotia and the eastern Seaboard of the US; Canada and the US agreed to divide the continent into four time zones, primarily to manage the nightmare of local times clashing with railway timetables; other world nations will endorse the Canadian engineer’s idea at a 1884 Washington conference; Fleming first proposed global time zones at a meeting in Toronto in 1879. Canada
  • 1893 Rail - The Nelson and Fort Sheppard Railway reaches the site of Mountain Station. Nelson, BC
  • 1897 T. R. McInnes installed as Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia. Victoria, BC
  • 1897 Transport - CPR launches the steamboat Rossland (884 tons); the vessel sinks in 1917, is raised and salvaged. Nakusp, BC
  • 1898 Transport - CPR launches steamboat Minto (829 tons); refabricated in Toronto for service on the Stikine River in northern BC; retired April, 1954; burned near Galena Bay on Upper Arrow August 1, 1968. Nakusp, BC
  • 1899 Media - St. Paul Globe publishes a fanciful story describing Medicine Hat, Alberta as the coldest, snowiest place on Earth. St. Paul, Minnesota
  • 1904 Disaster - Fourteen miners die in a methane out-burst in Morrissey No.1 mine. Fernie, BC
  • 1909 Environment - Saskatchewan Legislature passes new Public Health Act; deals with drainage and contamination of streams. Regina, Saskatchewan
  • 1911 Cinema - Majestic releases its First film, The Coming of Mary, starring Toronto born Mary Pickford. New York, New York
  • 1911 Bull River Electric Power becomes the Bull River Hydro Electric Power Company. Bull River, BC
  • 1912 Shipbuilding - The Duke of Connaught dedicates floating steel dry dock in Montréal. Montréal, Québec
  • 1916 First World War - Battle of the Somme - Canadian Fourth Division again attacks the Germans on the Somme; the other three Canadian divisions had been transferred to Artois mid-October; Haig is winding down the massive Allied offensive, started on July 1, 1916, after a total gain of just 125 square miles along the Western Front, and the loss of over 600,000 soldiers killed, wounded, or missing in action. German casualties were over 650,000. Artois, France
  • 1926 Commonwealth - Delegates to the Imperial Conference adopt the December 11, 1931 will finally grant full independence to the Commonwealth Dominions and bring an end to the British Empire. London, England
  • 1929 Disaster - Tsunami caused by an earthquake on the Grand Banks hits the Burin Peninsula of Newfoundland; the 15.2 metre tidal wave does $2 million damage, kills 27 in Newfoundland, and drowns one in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia). Newfoundland See: Grand Banks Earthquake and Tsunami Kills 27
  • 1931 Weather - Record - Gale force winds reach 200 kph (125 mph) at Cape Hopes Advance; highest wind speed ever recorded in Canada. Cape Hopes Advance, Québec
  • 1936 Media - George McCullagh acquires The Mail & Empire newspaper and amalgamates it with his Toronto Globe to form The Globe and Mail; Thomson Newspapers will acquire the daily in 1980. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1942 Second World War - Espionage - Guy Bieler parachutes inside France to act as secret agent; First Canadian Army secret agent inside France . France
  • 1943 Second World War - Bomber Command sends 444 bombers in a raid on Berlin. Britain
  • 1943 Diplomacy - Ray Atherton nominated the First US Ambassador to Canada. Washington, DC
  • 1959 Media - CanCon rules introduced for television as the Board of Broadcast Governors rules Canada’s TV stations must have 45% Canadian content from April 1, 1961; 55% Canadian content after April 1, 1962 . Ottawa, Ontario (#crtc CBC Archives)
  • 1961 Medicare - Saskatchewan legislature passes law giving citizens of that province Canada’s First prepaid medical care plan. Regina, Saskatchewan
  • 1963 Education - Human Rights - Nova Scotia government closes last segregated school for blacks in the province. Halifax, Nova Scotia
  • 1963 Hockey - Ottawa awards National Fitness Grant of $25,000 to Canada’s 1964 Olympic hockey team; First grant to Canadian hockey team travelling abroad. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1964 Mining - Cominco ships First lead-zinc ore rail from Pine Point to smelters in Trail, BC and Kimberley, BC; over recently completed Great Slave Lake Railway. Pine Point, NWT
  • 1973 The DeFranco Family, from St. Catherines, Ontario, have a #1 Billboard hit with their pop single, Heartbeat - It’s a Lovebeat. New York, New York
  • 1975 Safety - Queen’s Park passes law to lower the speed limit on highways and to make the wearing of auto seat belts mandatory. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1980 Hockey - Conn Smythe dies at 85; builder of Maple Leaf Gardens and founder of the NHL Toronto Maple Leafs. Caledon, Ontario
  • 1981 Retail - Hudson’s Bay Company announces closure of its 65 Ontario catalogue stores. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1982 Westar Timber closes its last saw mill on the waterfront at Nelson. Nelson, BC
  • 1984 Football - Winnipeg Blue Bombers beat Hamilton Tiger Cats 47-17 to win the 72nd CFL Grey Cup. Edmonton, Alberta
  • 1992 Crime - RCMP seize record 4,323 kilos of cocaine with a street value of $2.7 billion. The Canadian military, with the help of the US DEA, track the plane from South America, then chase it with jet fighters and military helicopters over New Brunswick, forcing it to land at a remote Québec airstrip; on November 20, 1992 they close a processing lab in Laval, Québec and arrest 4 Québeckers and 3 Columbian nationals. Casey, Québec
  • 1994 Energy - Québec government officially shelves Hydro Québec’s $13.3-billion Great Whale River power dam project after lobbying by James Bay Crees and a softening of the US power market. Québec, Québec
  • 1996 Prince Edward Island Election - Pat Binns leads Progressive Conservative Party to victory in provincial election; former farmer. PEI
  • 1996 Auto racing - Jacques Villeneuve, from Berthierville, Québec, comes second to Damon Hill in overall Formula One motor racing standings; with victories this year in Portuguese, Hungarian, British and European Grand Prix races. Global
  • 1997 Education - Parliament votes to amend the 1982 Constitution Act to permit Québec to replace its religion-based school system with one drawn along linguistic lines. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 2003 Health - Federal government offers Ontario $330 million to help pay costs of the past summer’s epidemic of the SARS virus. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 2004 Media - Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission approves application by the American FOX News channel for a digital television licence. Gatineau, Québec
  • 2004 Politics - Prime Minister Paul Martin expels Mississauga—Erindale Member of Parliament Carolyn Parrish from the Liberal Party caucus, after she told the Canadian Press she felt no loyalty to the party or the PM. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 2005 Health - Officials confirm a strain of H5 bird flu was found in a duck on a commercial farm in British Columbia’s Fraser Valley, but tests confirmed the strain was nonlethal. BC
  • 2005 Crime - US and Canadian police arrest 291 people in a drug bust with cooperation by Vietnamese agents pver two years; ecstasy shipped into Canada in powder form, turned into pills and smuggled across the US border with marijuana. BC
  • 2008 Eva Aariak selected as new Premier of Nunavut at the Nunavut Leadership Forum. Iqaluit, Nunavut
  • 2010 Energy - Premiers of Newfoundland & Labrador and Nova Scotia sign $6.2 billion deal to develop the Lower Churchill hydroelectric megaproject. Halifax, Nova Scotia December