Highlights of the day

  • 1891 James Naismith Referees His First Basketball Game
  • 1894 Mackenzie Bowell sworn in as 5th Prime Minister after death of John Thompson
  • 1914 Marie Dressler stars in Tilley’s Punctured Romance; world’s first feature-length silent film comedy.
  • 1943 2nd Canadian Infantry Brigade starts house-to-house fighting in the town of Ortona, Italy

List of Facts for December 21

  • 1708 Queen Anne’s War - French troops based in Placentia, Newfoundland capture and destroy the English settlement at St. John’s, bringing the eastern coastline of North America under French control. St. John’s, Newfoundland
  • 1825 Theatre - Opening of the Theatre Royal in Montréal. Montréal, Québec
  • 1837 Lower Canada Rebellion - Governor Lord Gosford delegates to certain officials the power to swear oaths of allegiance; those who refuse are arrested under martial law; Rebellion of 1837. Quebec, Quebec
  • 1838 Lower Canada Rebellion - Execution of republican rebels Joseph Cardinal and Joseph Duquet. Montréal, Québec
  • 1859 Building - John Rose, Commissioner of Public Works breaks the sod to start construction of the Province of Canada’s Parliament Buildings. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1882 Rail - Captains John Ainsworth and George Ainsworth, and Geo. Hearst apply to charter the Columbia and Kootenay Railway and Transportation Company. Victoria, BC
  • 1883 Military - George Denison organizes Canada’s First infantry and cavalry schools. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1884 Nile Expedition - General Herbert Kitchener leads British troops into Khartoum; find General Charles Gordon’s garrison was wiped out three days earlier; the expedition was transported up the Nile by Canadian voyageurs and Caughnawaga Mohawks recruited by Col. Garnet Wolseley, who had previously employed them during the Red River Expedition in 1870. Khartoum, Sudan
  • 1889 Shipping - Founding of the Columbia and Kootenay Steam Navigation Company by Captain Robert Sanderson, J. F. Hume and William Cowan of the Columbia Transportation Company, and Captain John Irving, F.S. Bernard, and J. A. Mara. Victoria, BC
  • 1891 Basketball - James Naismith, a YMCA trainer from Almonte, Ontario, gets a janitor to nail two peach baskets up on opposite ends of the Springfield YMCA College gym and instructs his students to toss soccer balls into them, thus inventing the game of basketball. He had been asked by the YMCA to devise a good indoor phys-ed activity for the winter season, and was inspired by a childhood game called Duck-on-a-Rock. He had originally wanted to call it “Boxball”, but a janitor came up with peach baskets instead. In that first game, the baskets didn’t have holes in the bottom so the janitor had to stand on a ladder to remove the balls. A week earlier, on December 15, 1891, he had come up with a set of thirteen rules of basketball; they were published in the YMCA newsletter on January 15, 1892, and the game became a runaway success. Springfield, Massachusetts
  • 1891 Charles Boucher de Boucherville sworn in as Conservative Premier of Québec; replacing Honoré Mercier, who was removed from office on corruption charges; Boucherville dissolves the Assembly and calls an election for December 23, 1891. Québec, Québec
  • 1894 Politics - Mackenzie Bowell sworn in as Prime Minister of Canada after news arrives of the death of John Thompson; owner and editor of the Belleville Intelligencer newspaper, and a Senator, Bowell is Canada’s 5th Prime Minister; he serves to April 27, 1896, when dissatisfaction with his leadership over the Manitoba Schools Question forces his resignation. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1895 Rail - F. A. Heinze declares that he would seek a provincial charter to extend his Trail Creek Tramway westward to the Okanagan. Trail, BC
  • 1902 Communications - First wireless telegraph message exchanged between Canada and England; via Newfoundland. Sydney, Nova Scotia
  • 1907 Media - First issue of L’Action Sociale newspaper. Montréal, Québec
  • 1910 Police - Francis Fitzgerald and his Mounted Police patrol leave Fort McPherson on their 800 km mid-winter patrol to Dawson, in the Yukon Territory, to deliver mail and to confirm the presence of the Canadian police; will meet unusually heavy snow cover and -46 C temperatures; on January 18, 1911, they turn back for Fort McPherson, but lose their way and run out of food after eating their dogs; by mid February the Lost Patrol members perish to a man; their bodies recovered and buried in Fort McPherson March 28, 1911. Fort McPherson, NWT
  • 1910 Rail - Nelson halts the operation of its electric tramway. Nelson, BC
  • 1914 Cinema - Cobourg, Ontario, actress Marie Dressler stars in Tilley’s Punctured Romance with Charlie Chaplin, Mabel Normand and Mack Swain; the world’s First six-reel, feature-length silent film comedy; directed by fellow Canadian Mack Sennett, it is based on her vaudeville act. New York, New York
  • 1920 Religion - St. Paul’s Anglican Church opens in Princeton, BC.
  • 1925 Politics - Racist Ku Klux Klan group advertises for members in an Edmonton newspaper. Edmonton, Alberta
  • 1933 Government - The Dominion of Newfoundland reverts to being a crown colony after its bankruptcy. St. John’s, Newfoundland
  • 1936 Hayter Reed dies in Montréal; Deputy Superintendent of Indian Affairs. Montréal, Québec
  • 1942 Second World War - Wartime Prices and Trade Board brings in butter rationing in Canada; gasoline rationed since April 1, 1942. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1943 Second World War - 2nd Canadian Infantry Brigade attacks the town of Ortona, starting a week-long battle; a savage house to house fight against heavily barricaded ‘mouseholed’ German infantry; 1,372 Canadian soldiers will die during the week of fighting, one quarter of all casualties in the Mediterranean theatre. Ortona, Italy
  • 1956 immigration - First party of Hungarian refugees, fleeing Soviet oppression in their homeland, arrive in Regina. Regina, Saskatchewan
  • 1959 Media - First broadcast from Radio-Canada’s CBAFT-Moncton TV station. Moncton, New Brunswick
  • 1963 Weather - Canadian Weather Service gets First automatic picture transmission via satellite. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1964 Military - Paul Hellyer Defence Minister announces $1.5 billion defence purchase plan; for 200 ground-support aircraft, 4 destroyers, 155 mm howitzers. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1965 Cinema - Canadian-born film producer Harry Saltzman and his partner Cubby Broccoli host the US premiere of their new James Bond movie, Thunderball, starring Sean Connery, at the Premier Showcase and Paramount theaters, where it plays around the clock; the picture will gross $141.2 million worldwide. New York, New York
  • 1966 Health - Parliament passes national Medicare Act; effective July 1, 1968. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1969 Military - U.S. draft dodgers gather for a holiday dinner in Montreal; many had come to Canada to avoid serving in the Vietnam War. Montréal, Québec
  • 1975 Hockey - Buffalo Sabres set NHL record of 40 points beating the Washington Capitals 14-2; score 5 goals in 4:57. Buffalo, New York
  • 1979 Hockey - St. Louis Blues Garry Unger plays in his record 914th consecutive NHL game; the Calgary born centreman played with Detroit Red Wings, later Atlanta Flames, Los Angeles Kings, Edmonton Oilers. St. Louis, Missouri
  • 1983 Aviation - Ottawa files formal claims for $2.1 million in damages from USSR on behalf of Canadian victims of Korean Air Lines flight 007, downed by a Soviet military missile. Moscow, Russia
  • 1983 Rod Cameron dies; TV/movie actor, stunt man, born Nathan Cox at Calgary, Alberta, December 7, 1910; played in over 75 B films from the 1940s, and starred on TV in City Detective, Coronado 9, and as State Trooper’s Trooper Rod Blake (1957). Internet Movie Database Gainesville, Florida
  • 1987 Politics - Jacques Parizeau accepts presidency of Parti québécois on the understanding that his First role will be to promote the sovereignty of Québec. Montréal, Québec
  • 1988 Constitution - Robert Bourassa government passes Bill 178; reinstates the language laws regarding outside signage and advertising using Section 33 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the notwithstanding clause. Québec, Québec - See also: December 18, 1988
  • 1988 Shipping - CP releases Interior Lake Services’ tug Iris G and service on Slocan Lake ends. Slocan, BC
  • 1990 Justice - Frank Iacobucci appointed to Supreme Court of Canada replacing Bertha Wilson; Chief Justice of the Federal Court since 1988; Vancouver native ex-Dean of Law at the University of Toronto. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1990 Politics - Liberal party Leader Jean Chrétien becomes Leader of the Opposition. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1990 Football - Montreal Machine football team play First CFL game. Montreal, Quebec
  • 1992 External Affairs - Minister Barbara McDougall says Canada will recognize the new Czech and Slovak republics; Czechoslovakia federation to be dissolved January 1 after 74 years. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1992 Fishery - Minister John Crosbie says European Community will stop overfishing on high seas outside Canada’s 200 mile limit; quotas ignored since 1986 on the Grand Banks. St. John’s, Newfoundland
  • 1995 Health - Justice Horace Krever ends public sessions of the Krever Commission into Canada’s tainted blood scandal; will report two years later with over 300 allegations of misconduct by administrators and regulators of the blood system; from 1980-85, over 2,000 recipients of tainted blood and blood products contracted HIV; from 1980 and 1990 another 30,000 transfusion patients were infected with Hepatitis C, of whom 8,000 were extected to die of the disease. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1995 Justice Horace Krever sends out Section 13 notices to various agencies, including the Red Cross, containing over 300 allegations of misconduct; charges will be laid in 2002; the Krever Commission’s findings will result in creation of a new Canadian Blood Agency to take over management of the system from the Red Cross. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1999 Aviation - Cabinet and federal government competition bureau approve Air Canada’s plan to take over Canadian Airlines International. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 2001 Mining - Teck Cominco shuts down the Sullivan Mine. Kimberley, BC
  • 2004 Justice - Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador legalizes same-sex marriage in the province. St. John’s, Newfoundland
  • 2005 Justice - Supreme Court of Canada ends a ban on swingers’ clubs, ruling that group sex among consenting adults is neither prostitution nor a threat to society. Ottawa, Ontario