Highlights of the day

  • 1922 Birth of the Nickel - Governor General Julian Byng strikes first two 5¢ nickel coins at the Royal Canadian Mint.
  • 1947 Chief Justice Thibaudeau Rinfret holds the first Canadian citizenship ceremony. Mackenzie King is Citizen #001.

List of Facts for January 3

  • 1578 Troilus de Mesgouez, Marquis de La Roche c1540-1606 named Viceroy of New France by Henri III; given monopoly of trade in return for colonization.1 Paris, France
  • 1621 Henri, Duc de Montmorency gives 11 year trading monopoly to Guillaume & Emery de Caen in return for settling 6 families a year in Québec; plus keeping 6 Recollet priests and not selling arms to Indians; names Guillaume de Caen general of the fleet of his new company; also known as La Compagnie de Caen. France
  • 1624 Founding of New France’s First seigneuries at Cap Tourmente and Ile-d’Orleans. Québec
  • 1802 300 Scottish Highlanders arrive in Sydney to settle. Sydney, Nova Scotia
  • 1825 John Hogson is attacked and almost killed at Cumberland House by a drunken trapper; Metis son of the governor of Rupert’s Land. Cumberland House, Saskatchewan
  • 1849 Opening of Royal Lyceum Theatre; seats 700. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1862 The Rifle Brigade lands at Saint John. Saint John, New Brunswick
  • 1863 Canada’s First covered skating rink opens in Halifax; up to this time, skating was all done out of doors; First articifial ice rinks started by Lester and Frank Patrick in 1912 in Victoria and Vancouver. Halifax, Nova Scotia
  • 1867 Nine dentists meet in Toronto to form the Ontario Dental Association. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1871 Henry J. Clarke becomes Manitoba’s First attorney general. Winnipeg, Manitoba
  • 1881 Barque “Happy Home” lost off Trinity Ledge, Yarmouth County. Nova Scotia
  • 1895 Funeral of Sir John Thompson, Canada’s Prime Minister, who died an hour after being sworn in as a member of the Imperial Privy Council by Queen Victoria at Windsor Castle; his body was brought hom on a British warship. Halifax, Nova Scotia
  • 1901 Winston Spencer Churchill speaks at Massey Hall during book tour of Canada; talks about his adventures and exploits in the Boer War. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1910 Happiness and contentment are found from one end of Canada to the other - headline in London Times (page 5)
  • 1912 Canadian Pacific leases the Dominion Atlantic Railway Company in Nova Scotia. Montréal, Québec
  • 1912 Les Patrick’s New Westminster Royals beat Frank Patrick’s Victoria Aristocrats 8-3 in First Canadian hockey game played on artificial ice. Victoria, BC
  • 1919 South Okanagan Lands Project (SOLP) begins work on McIntyre Intake Dam near Oliver on Okanagan River.
  • 1922 Governor General Julian Byng strikes the first two nickel 5¢ coins of Canada, at the Royal Canadian Mint. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1923 Mabel Bell dies at Baddeck; her husband Alexander Graham Bell died there Aug. 02, 1922. Baddeck, Nova Scotia
  • 1924 First session of the British Columbia Older Boys’ Parliament (now the British Columbia Youth Parliament) held in Victoria, British Columbia.
  • 1931 Nels Stewart of the Montreal Maroons scores two goals four seconds apart in the third period of a 5-3 victory over the Boston Bruins. Montreal, Quebec
  • 1935 Wildlife conservation officials express concern that the beaver is in danger of following the musk-ox and the buffalo to extinction; suggests beaver farms to augment the shrinking population of wild creatures. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1941 Second World War - Canada and the US acquire air bases at Gander and Goose Bay on a 99 year lease. St. John’s, Newfoundland
  • 1943 Second World War - Canadian Army troops arrive in North Africa. Algeria
  • 1943 Religion - Kateri Tekakwitha declared Venerable by Pope Pius XII; will be beatified June 22, 1980 by Pope John Paul II.
  • 1945 Second World War - First of the Canadian conscripted soldiers leave for overseas duty in England. Halifax, Nova Scotia
  • 1947 Chief Justice Thibaudeau Rinfret holds the first Canadian citizenship ceremony in the Supreme Court of Canada. Prime Minister Mackenzie King receives certificate 0001. Photographer Yousuf Karsh, born in Armenia, also receives his citizenship. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1959 Adam Basaraba of White Fox, Saskatchewan, kidnapped by Cuban rebels, is released after a plea to Fidel Castro. Cuba
  • 1969 Regional Municipality of Ottawa-Carleton set up by Ontario. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1985 Justice Samuel Grange releases 224 page report on baby deaths at the Hospital for Sick Children; says 8 of 36 babies who died between June 1980 and March 1981 were given deliberate overdoses of digoxin, a heart drug; recommends province pay legal fees of Belleville nurse Susan Nelles, charged with four of the deaths, whose case was thrown out for lack of evidence. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1986 Skytrain starts operations to New Westminster. Vancouver, BC
  • 1990 Merrill Lynch Canada sells retail arm to Wood Gundy Inc. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1991 Wayne Gretzky gets his 700th career NHL goal while playing for the Los Angeles Kings. Los Angeles, California
  • 1992 Miss Canada Pageant is scrapped after 45 years, due to changing tastes and politics; Nicole Dunsdon, crowned Oct 1991, is the last Miss Canada until a new pageant, Miss Canada International, is established in the late 1990s. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1993 Gasworks Tavern closes after 25 years of presenting hard rock and heavy metal; inspired the hit movie comedy Wayne’s World, and Toronto-based acts such as Rush, Max Webster, Goddo and Triumph; after benefit show a week later, the club announces plans to renovate and reopen. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1996 Denis Lortie freed on special parole after treatment for mental illness; former Canadian Forces Corporal shot up the Québec National Assembly. Québec, Québec
  • 1997 Librairie Garneau de Quebec closes its doors after 153 years as a bookstore in the Upper Town. Quebec, Quebec
  • 2008 False bomb threat forces closing of Montreal’s Victoria Bridge for four and a half hours. Montreal, Quebec