Highlights of the day

  • 1837 Upper Canada Rebellion Breaks Out as Mackenzie leads 800 rebels to Toronto.
  • 1893 Dickson Carriage Works in Toronto builds Canada’s first electric car for Fred Fetherstonhaugh.
  • 1902 Marconi transmits 1st readable wireless radio signals 3,200 km across the Atlantic
  • 2003 Reform Party and Progressive Conservatives vote 95% to found the Conservative Party of Canada.

List of Facts for December 5

  • 1560 King Charles IX starts reign as ruler of France; to 1574; on death of King François II. Paris, France
  • 1700 Health - Severe influenza epidemic hits the people of Montréal. Montréal, Québec
  • 1749 Fur Trade - Pierre de La Vérendrye dies at Montréal; soldier, farmer, fur trader, explorer, born at Trois-Rivières, Québec November 17, 1685; he and his sons were the First to bring the French fur trade from Lake Superior to the lower Saskatchewan River and Missouri River. Montréal, Québec
  • 1775 American Revolutionary War - Richard Montgomery begins American siege of Québec with aid of Benedict Arnold; will try to capture fortress before onset of winter. Québec, Québec
  • 1807 Religion - Complaints are made that the fur trade is corrupting the morals of the people. Québec
  • 1812 War of 1812 - HMS Plumper, a 12-gun gun-brig launched in 1807, wrecked en route for Saint John from Halifax, after striking a ledge off Dipper Harbour near Point Lepreau in the Bay of Fundy; she sinks immediately with the loss of 50 of her 60-man crew and passengers, along with £70,000 in gold and silver coinage to pay the troops in New Brunswick. New Brunswick
  • 1837 Lower Canada Rebellion - Lord Gosford proclaims martial law in Lower Canada. Montréal, Québec
  • December 5 - Upper Canada Rebellion - William Lyon Mackenzie leads 800 rebels 8 km down Yonge Street from Montgomery’s Tavern to Toronto, where they are met by Dr. John Rolph and Robert Baldwin at Gallow’s Hill below present day St. Clair Ave.; they discuss a truce, telling Mackenzie that Bond Head has promised to pardon all who laid down their weapons; Mackenzie refuses. At 6 pm, a group of 700 rebels led by Samuel Lount gather at the Bloor St. tollgate and march south; at present day College St. they are ambushed by Sheriff Jarvis and 27 men hiding in Mrs. Sharpe’s vegetable garden; the rebels flee in disorder, leaving one dead; two days later they are routed by the militia. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1869 Red River Rebellion - English and French Red River settlers publish the Métis Bill of Rights, with 15 demands, including the right to elect their own legislature, the use of French and English in the legislature, representation in the Canadian Parliament, and free land grants. Winnipeg, Manitoba
  • 1878 Rail - Last spike driven on the Pembina Branch rail line built for Ottawa between St. Boniface and Emerson, Manitoba, by contractor Joseph Whitehead. St. Boniface, Manitoba
  • 1884 Education - School district of the town of Moose Jaw, Protestant Public School District No. 1 of the NWT, is established. Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan
  • 1890 Weightlifting - Québec strongman Louis Cyr lifts 490 lbs with one finger; working with the P.T. Barnum circus. USA
  • 1892 John Thompson sworn in as fourth Prime Minister of Canada, succeeding John Abbott; former Nova Scotia Premier and Justice, Supreme Court of Nova Scotia ; serves until his death at Windsor Castle, December 12, 1894. Ottawa, Ontario
  • December 5 - Mackenzie Bowell appointed to the Senate; later Canada’s 5th Prime Minister, succeding John Thompson. Ottawa, Ontario
  • December 5 - Military - James Colebrooke Patterson is sworn in as Minister of Militia and Defence.
  • 1893 Auto - Frederick Barnard Fetherstonhaugh, a Toronto patent attorney commissions the Dickson Carriage Works, builder of horse drawn buggies, to make wood and leather bodies for his “Still” electric car; it could go 15 miles between charges. The Still car was the first built in Toronto, and the second car produced in Canada, as an earlier steamer car was built in Quebec in 1867. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1902 Communications - Italian engineer Guglielmo Marconi transmits the First readable wireless radio signals 3,200 km across the Atlantic from his station at Glace Bay, Nova Scotia on Cape Breton to Poldhu in Cornwall, England. Two years earlier, he had sent a message across the English Channel; on December 12, 1901, he had sent the First transatlantic wireless test signal - the letter ‘S’ repeated over and over - from Poldhu to his assistant Percy Paget flying a box kite trailing a 121 metre long copper wire antenna on Signal Hill at St. John’s, Newfoundland. The Canadian government gave Marconi $80 000 to set up wireless operations at Glace Bay, after nervous Newfoundland undersea cable companies, claiming a monopoly on transatlantic messages, got a court order booting him off the island. The Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of Canada Ltd. - today’s Canadian Marconi company - was chartered in 1902. Marconi was simply sending sparks through the air. Canadian physicist physicist and inventor Reginald Fessenden was far in advance of Marconi. While working for the US Weather Service, Fessenden broadcast the world’s First voice communications by AM (amplitude modulation) radio wave on December 23, 1900. Glace Bay, Nova Scotia
  • 1903 Energy - Start of electricity generation in Hedley, BC.
  • 1912 Military - Robert Borden proposes a gift of $35 million to Britain to assist with rearmament, in advance of First World War. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1914 F. S. Bernard installed as Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia. Victoria, BC
  • December 5 - Football - Toronto Argonauts beat the University of Toronto, 14-2, in the 6th Grey Cup game. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1924 Hockey - NHL Hamilton Tigers Red Green scores 5 goals as his hockey team beats the Toronto Maple Leafs 10-5. Toronto, Ontario
  • December 5 - Crime - Calgary Police Chief Ritchie says his police cannot stop the Ku Klux Klan from recruiting in Calgary, if no laws are broken. Calgary, Alberta
  • 1925 Hockey - Ottawa Senators beat Winnipeg Tammany Tigers, 24-1, in the 13th Grey Cup game. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1930 Rail - Kettle Valley Railway closes its Copper Mountain spur. BC
  • 1931 Football - Montréal AAA beats Regina Roughriders 22-0 to win the 20th Grey Cup. Montréal, Quebec
  • 1933 Prohibition - Volstead Act repealed, allowing alcohol to be produced and consumed in the US; ruins market for Canadian exportes like Sam Bronfman, who sets up shop in the US. USA
  • 1936 Football - Sarnia Imperials beat Ottawa Rough Riders, 26-20 in the 24th Grey Cup game. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1939 Second World War - Wartime Prices and Trade Board given more control over prices and supply; investigative, price-fixing and licensing powers. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1940 Second World War - First Royal Canadian Navy corvettes join the Battle of the Atlantic. Atlantic Ocean
  • December 5 - Second World War - Torpedoed Canadian destroyer HMCS Saguenay limps into British port after taking a hit from a German torpedo; First Canadian warship torpedoed; Battle of the Atlantic. Britain
  • 1942 Football - Toronto Argonauts beat Winnipeg RCAF 8 -5 in the 30th Grey Cup game. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1944 Second World War - 1st Canadian Infantry Division launches an attack on San Leonardo, but are driven back by a German counter-attack; an attack on the December 7, 1944 will be successful and San Leonardo will fall on December 9, 1944. San Leonardo, Italy
  • 1947 Opening of a new session of the 20th Parliament of Canada. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1950 Music - Nova Scotia’s Hank Snow has a #1 Billboard country & western hit with his single, I’m Moving On. Nashville, Tennessee
  • 1954 Korean War - Second-Lieutenant Andy MacKenzie, a fighter pilot of the Royal Canadian Air Force, is released from imprisonment in China a year and a half after the Korean War armistice.
  • 1955 Labour - Founding of the AFL-CIO labour organization by the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations; the AFL-CIO is a federation of autonomous trade unions in the US, Canada, and Mexico; AFL president George Meany elected president of the new federation. Cleveland, Ohio
  • 1959 Roberta MacAdams Price dies in Calgary; First and only woman to be elected by the Armed Services vote to any legislature. Calgary, Alberta
  • 1960 Charlotte Whitton re-elected Mayor of Ottawa. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1962 Marie-Claire Casgrain appointed Minister Without Portfolio; First woman given Quebec Cabinet post. Québec, Québec
  • 1967 Language - The Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism releases First Report. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1970 Terrorism - October Crisis - British diplomat James Cross looks back at his ordeal in a CBC interview after eight weeks of confinement by the Front de libération du Québec (FLQ). Cross’s abductors released him to police two days earlier, on December 3, 1970, He expresses condolences to the Laporte family: “Why Pierre Laporte is dead and I am free, I do not know.” Montréal, Québec See: *CBC Archives - British diplomat James Cross looks back at his ordeal
  • December 5 - October Crisis - British Trade Commissioner James Cross returns to London after two days of debriefing following his release by FLQ terrorists. Montréal, Québec
  • December 5 - Hockey - The Stanley Cup, Conn Smythe Trophy and Bill Masterson Trophy are all stolen from the NHL Hall of Fame; later recovered. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1973 Media - Official opening of Maison Radio-Canada office building in Montréal. Montréal, Québec
  • December 5 - Baseball - Montréal Expos trade relief pitcher Mike Marshall to Brooklyn Dodgers for Willie Davis. Montréal, Québec
  • 1976 Education - The First 4 Canadian women Rhodes Scholars are chosen. Oxford, England
  • 1979 Chris Haney and Scott Abbott conceive the Trivial Pursuit board game in a bar in Montreal; it will hit the market in 1982, and by the mid-1990s Trivial Pursuit had sold more than 60 million copies, making it by far the most popular board game in the world. Today, there are over 100 version of the game, and it’s sold in more than 30 countries outside North America and in 16 languages. Montréal, Québec
  • 1980 Finance - Opening of the Bank of Canada Currency Museum. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1983 Space - Roberta Bondar, Marc Garneau, Steven Maclean, Kenneth Money, Robert Thirsk and Bjarni Tryggvason chosen as Canada’s First six astronauts for Space Shuttle work. Ottawa, Ontario
  • December 5 - Crime - Hells Angels motorcycle gang invade Québec to do battle with the Rock Machine. Québec
  • 1987 Energy - Hydro-Québec signs a long-term $7.2 billion supply contract with the state of Vermont. Montréal, Québec
  • 1990 Baseball - Toronto Blue Jays trade Fred McGriff & Tony Fernandez to San Diego for Roberto Alomar & Joe Carter. Toronto, Ontario
  • December 5 - Labour - Canadian Broadcasting Corporation/Radio-Canada announce layoff of 1,100 employees. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1991 Justice - Gun control legislation given royal assent on the eve of the second anniversary of the Montréal massacre; bill bans imports of automatic assault weapons, and imposes safe-storage rules and a waiting period to buy guns; passed in the House of Commons only after Prime Minister Brian Mulroney moved to quell dissent in his caucus. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1992 Klein elected leader of the Alberta Progressive Conservative Party, replacing Don Getty; he will be sworn in as Premier of Alberta on December 14. Edmonton, Alberta
  • 1996 Music - Québec singer Robert Charlebois receives the Grande médaille de la chanson. Paris, France
  • 1997 Crime - Hell’s Angels motorcycle gang chief Mom Boucher arrested by Québec police on suspicion of the murder of two prison guards; the Crown fails to get a conviction one year later. Montréal, Québec
  • 2003 Politics - Caucus members of the Canadian Reform Conservative Alliance Party of Canada vote 95% in favour of uniting their party with the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada to form the Conservative Party of Canada. Ottawa, Ontario