Highlights of the day

  • 1836 Delivery of Canada’s first railway locomotive, the Iron Kitten, for use on the Champlain & St. Lawrence Railway.
  • 1839 Samuel Cunard of Halifax founds the British and North American Royal Mail Steam Packet Company.
  • 1892 Ottawa inventor Carbide Willson develops first manufacturing process to create acetylene gas.
  • 1910 Royal Assent given to Laurier’s Naval Service Bill creating a Canadian Naval Service, later the RCN.

List of Facts for May 4

  • 1493 Pope Alexandre VI, by his Bull Inter Caetera, divides up the New World between Spain and Portugal and forbids further exploration; France respects the ban, but England sends off John Cabot to stake claims in defiance of the order. Rome, Italy
  • 1639 Barthelémy Vimont, new Superior of the Jesuits in Canada, arrives with Joseph de La Rivière and Pierre-Joseph-Marie Chaumonot. Québec, Québec
  • 1639 Marie-Madeleine de La Peltrie brings three Ursuline nuns to New France, including Marie Guyart (Marie de I’lncarnation). Quebec, Quebec
  • 1752 Peregrine Hopson appointed Governor of Nova Scotia; serves from August 3 to January 7, 1756. London, England
  • 1783 First United Empire Loyalists settle in the Maritimes. Nova Scotia
  • 1836 Media - William Lyon Mackenzie defines a patriot, in his Colonial Advocate newspaper, as “none of your raving, railing, ranting, accusing radicals - nor is he one of your idle, stall-fed, greasy, good for nothing sinecurists or pluralists; he is in deed and in truth a friend to his country.” Toronto, Ontario
  • 1836 Delivery of Canada’s First railway locomotive, the Iron Kitten, built by Stephenson for use on the Champlain & St. Lawrence Railway; renamed the Dorchester, it carried its first paying passengers on July 21. Montréal, Québec
  • 1836 Hudson’s Bay Company acquires the Red River Colony from the sixth Lord Selkirk for £15,000. London, England
  • 1839 Samuel Cunard of Halifax, Nova Scotia, founds the British and North American Royal Mail Steam Packet Company; won a British government bid for carrying mail to and from Liverpool, Halifax, and Boston; places four ships in operation, establishing the First regular steamship service between the continents. London, England
  • 1852 William Walsh appointed First Roman Catholic Archbishop of Halifax. Halifax, Nova Scotia
  • 1859 Royal Bank of Canada, Bank of Western Canada and La Banque nationale incorporated. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1880 Edward Blake chosen as party leader by the Liberal Party, replacing Alexander Mackenzie; serves as leader to June 2, 1887. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1891 Founding of the Ontario Bureau of Mines. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1892 Canadian inventor Carbide Willson develops First manufacturing process to create acetylene gas; already developed on a laboratory scale; sells process to Union Carbide; builds a calcium carbide plant on Victoria Island in the Ottawa River in 1896, a mansion in Ottawa with a lab in the basement, and a summer home and hydro dam on Meech Lake. Spray, North Carolina
  • 1898 British Columbia Mining and Smelting Company re-registered in British Columbia under the British Columbia Companies’ Act, 1897. Victoria, BC
  • 1900 Sandon’s CBD burns. BC
  • 1904 Daly Reduction Company begins testing Nickel Plate’s 200 ton-per-day concentration mill.
  • 1905 City of Kelowna incorporated. Kelowna, BC
  • 1907 Ottawa hit by 19.1 cm snowfall; city’s greatest one day May snowfall. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1909 Canadian Pacific Railway completes the Upper Spiral Tunnel and Lower Spiral Tunnel (992 m and 891 m long respectively) on the CPR’s mainline in the Kicking Horse Pass; cuts maximum grade to 2.3 percent; costs CPR $1.5 million; five workers killed during construction. Kicking Horse Pass, Alberta/BC
  • 1910 Royal Assent given to Laurier’s Naval Service Bill creating a Canadian Naval Service, later the Royal Canadian Navy. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1910 Canadian Currency Act of 1910 receives Royal Assent. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1910 MacKenzie and Mann get a federal charter for the Canadian Northern Alberta Railway, acquiring the assets of the Edmonton, Yukon and Pacific Railway (EY&PR) and the Edmonton and Calgary Railway; the line to run from St. Albert to the British Columbia border at the Yellowhead Pass or the Peace River Pass. The line from Edmonton will eventually reach Vancouver. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1924 Canada joins 43 other nations and a total of 3,092 competitors at the opening of the eighth Olympic Games; to July 27. Paris, France
  • 1927 Founding of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences; Canadian Mary Pickford is one of the First board members, and her husband Douglas Fairbanks is first President. Los Angeles, California
  • 1938 Justice Turgeon presents Report of Royal Grain Enquiry; prospects and future policy. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1944 Second World War - RCAF kills three German U-boats in under a month. Atlantic Ocean
  • 1945 Second World War - Fighting stops in the Canadian sector near Wilhelmshaven, Aurich, and Emden; German forces in the Netherlands, Denmark and northwest Germany agreed to surrender to Canadian commanders. Europe
  • 1949 Leslie Frost becomes Progressive Conservative Premier of Ontario, succeeding Thomas Kennedy. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1951 Military - National Defence forms 27th Canadian Infantry Brigade Group for service in West Germany with NATO forces; created by volunteers from the militia who would enlist for three years in their specific units; composed of three infantry battalions - the 1 Canadian Infantry Battalion (formed on this day in Valcartier, Québec), the 1 Canadian Rifle Battalion and the 1 Canadian Highland Battalion; posted near Hanover and provided contingents for the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. Ottawa, Ontario See October 14, 1953
  • 1958 Canadian comedians Johnny Wayne and Frank Shuster make their First of a record 67 appearances on TV’s Ed Sullivan Show. New York, New York
  • 1959 Canadian comic Mort Sahl hosts the first Grammy Awards ceremony in Los Angeles; Domenico Modugno’s Volare (Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu) wins Record of the Year. The Music from Peter Gunn wins Album of the Year. Los Angeles, California
  • 1961 Launch of Federal Maple; First of two passenger-cargo ships presented to Federation of West Indies under Canada-West Indies Aid Program. Halifax, Nova Scotia
  • 1965 Great Northern incorporates the Kootenay and Elk Railway Company in British Columbia.
  • 1966 Jean Boggs appointed First woman Director of the National Art Gallery of Canada; First woman to head an agency with the status of deputy minister. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1967 Steven Truscott’s appeal rejected by Supreme Court of Canada; eventually paroled in 1969. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1969 Montreal Canadiens sweep St Louis Blues in four games for the Stanley Cup. St. Louis, Missouri
  • 1969 Ottawa bans fishing in Placentia Bay because of pollution. Placentia Bay, Newfoundland
  • 1970 First coal vessel, the Snow White, leaves for Japan with First shipment from Roberts Bank. Vancouver, BC
  • 1971 Leda Clay Landslide opens sinkhole after rainstorm, and the resulting slide buries part of St. Jean Vianney, killing 31 people; $1 million damage. St-Jean Vianney, Québec
  • 1971 Ottawa sets up 37 bilingual districts; government services now available in both official languages. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1973 Anglican Church of Canada decides to allow women to become ordained ministers. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1976 Malcolm Fraser Australian Prime Minister says that Waltzing Matilda will be his country’s national anthem at the upcoming Montréal Summer Olympic Games. Canberra, Australia
  • 1976 Ontario to raise fees for foreign students at Ontario universities from $585 to $1,500. Toronto, Ontario May 4, 1977 -House of Commons approves the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement. Ottawa, Ontario
  • May 4 - Toronto singer/songwriter Jesse Winchester makes his American debut at the Bottom Line nightclub after an amnesty for US draft evaders is declared; came to Canada in 1967 as a draft dodger; became a Canadian citizen in 1973. New York, New York
  • 1979 Saskatchewan Human Rights Code is passed. Regina, Saskatchewan
  • 1982 Harry Hays dies in Ottawa; Alberta Senator, Calgary mayor 1959-1963. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1985 Chicago Blackhawks 2, Edmonton Oilers 11.
  • 1986 Toronto-based acapella group, The Nylons, perform on the Tonight Show; guest host Gerry Shandling quips that the group left their instruments with their lost luggage. New York, New York
  • 1989 Junior Felix of Toronto Blue Jays becomes 53rd major league baseball player to hit a home run at his First at bat. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1990 Hockey - Chicago Blackhawks 4, Edmonton Oilers 3
  • 1992 Hudson’s Bay Company buys 5 Robinsons stores in Ottawa and Southern Ontario; will switch them to Bay or Zellers outlets. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1992 Hundreds riot for four hours on Yonge Street strip after peaceful rally to protest the recent police shooting of black man. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1992 Residents of the Northwest Territories vote to partition the territories into two sections. Canada’s new Inuit territory - an area over 5 times the size of Alberta - to be called Nunavut. NWT/Nunavut See April 1
  • 1997 Paul Vincent found dead in his Montréal apartment; the 46 year old was manager for pop star Roch Voisine. Montréal, Québec
  • 1997 Strathcona Mineral Services says Bre-X core samples from Busang, Indonesia had been tampered with, perpetrating a fraud without precedent in the history of Canada’s mining industry. Toronto, Ontario
  • 2001 Jean Pelletier appointed the head of VIA Rail; Jean Chrétien’s longtime Chief of Staff. Montréal, Québec
  • 2004 Canadian businessman Naji al-Kuwaiti released by insurgents; taken hostage in Iraq on April 28, 2004.