Highlights of the day

  • 1968 Silver Maple that Inspired Alexander Muir’s “The Maple Leaf Forever” is damaged in an ice storm

List of Facts for January 14

  • 1588 Jacques Noel awarded a 12 year fur trade monopoly in the St. Lawrence and Canada. Paris, France
  • 1645 Company of 100 Associates sells its trading rights to New France to the Communauté des Habitants, a colonizing-trading group. Paris, France
  • 1790 Joseph Quesnel premieres his opera Colas et Colinette ou le Bailli Dupe in Montreal; First opera performed in Canada; likely the First operatic work with original music written in Canada, and may be the First in North America. Montreal, Quebec
  • 1814 Disaster - Privateer schooner Rolla of Liverpool sinks with all hands in a storm off Cape Cod. Massachusetts
  • 1830 The Rapids, a settlement on St. Clair River, given the name of Sarnia. Sarnia, Ontario
  • 1838 William Lyon Mackenzie 1795-1861 disgusted by a lack of support for the Upper Canada rebellion, leaves Buffalo and settles in New York City. Buffalo, New York
  • 1848 Montreal businesses get First telegraph service; later extended to Toronto and New York. Montreal, Quebec
  • 1861 Census - Province of Canada census taken on this day. Ontario and Québec
  • 1868 Isaac Cowie of the Hudson’s Bay Company spends a night at Moose Jaw Creek in the Hotel Desnomie, the First shelter in Saskatchewan to be called a hotel. Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan
  • 1875 First issue of the Halifax Herald newspaper published. Halifax, Nova Scotia
  • 1875 Start of 2-week riot in Caraquet over Act for non-sectarian public schools in New Brunswick; militia called in to restore order. Caraquet, New Brunswick
  • 1887 Edward Bray, J.E. Humphries, William Fernie and F.W. Aylmer apply to the British Columbia government for a permit to prospect for coal in the Elk River valley.
  • 1896 Kaslo and Slocan Railway’s four mile long branch from Sandon to Cody opened for business.
  • 1897 Preliminary agreement on Crow’s Nest Pass railroad announced.
  • 1899 Fernie Free Press begins publication.
  • 1902 Canadian Mounted Rifles sail out of Halifax bound for Boer War in South Africa. Halifax, Nova Scotia
  • 1902 Granby Consolidated activated new converter to refine 98.5% pure copper blister from 50% pure copper matte.
  • 1904 Last train to Kuskonook over the B&N.
  • 1911 Murderer Wasyl Chobator becomes the First (and only) man to be hanged in Lethbridge. Lethbridge, Alberta
  • 1913 French actress Sarah Bernhardt (the ‘Divine Sarah’) recites tragedy of Lucretia Borgia in French at the Sherman Grand Theatre; she is 70 years old. Edmonton, Alberta
  • 1914 Swift Current, Saskatchewan incorporates as a city.
  • 1915 1st Canadian Division arrives in France from England, en route to Belgium. Calais, France
  • 1916 CPR brings in First direct intercity service between Montréal and Vancouver. Montréal, Québec
  • 1930 Canada signs agreement with Germany settling German property seized in Canada during First World War. Ontario
  • 1932 Women property owners given the right to vote in Montréal civic elections. Montréal, Québec
  • 1935 Montreal Symphony Orchestra gives First concert under the baton of Wilfrid Pelletier; he died at the age of 85 in 1982. Montreal, Quebec
  • 1936 American explorer Lincoln Ellsworth and Canadian pilot Herbert Hollick-Kenyon were rescued by the research ship Discovery II. The pair had made the first flight across Antarctica, 2,300 miles from the Weddell Sea to the Ross Sea, landed when their plane’s engine faltered, and waited in the previously constructed shelter at Little America for a month to be picked up. After his earlier attempts to cross Antarctica failed, Ellsworth set out with Hollick-Kenyon in the monoplane Polar Star and succeeded. Part of the area that Ellsworth and Hollick-Kenyon flew over in 1935 has been named the Ellsworth Highlands.
  • 1936 Thane Campbell sworn in as Premier of Prince Edward Island, replacing Walter Lea Charlottetown, PEI
  • 1941 Opening of wartime Dominion-Provincial Conference; held in the Parliament Buildings. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1942 Canadian government orders Japanese Canadians to register with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police; a month later they will be moved out of the British Columbia coastal region; now defined as a ‘protected area ‘. Vancouver, BC
  • 1943 Canadiens rookie Alex Smart scores three goals in his First NHL game to lead the Habs to a 5-1 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks; First NHLer to score hat trick in his First game. Montréal, Québec
  • 1944 Guy Bieler captured by the Gestapo in France; Canadian secret agent. France
  • 1946 Osoyoos, BC, incorporates as a Village.
  • 1949 First non-stop trans-Canada flight arrives from Vancouver. Halifax, Nova Scotia
  • 1952 Underground gas explosion at McGregor coal mine kills 19 men; another accident in the Pictou County coal field, whose thick seams are prone to venting explosive coal gas. Stellarton, Nova Scotia
  • 1954 CBC/Radio Canada broadcasts Puccini’s opera La Traviata. Montréal, Québec
  • 1954 Québec government presents bill to bring in a provincial sales tax. Québec, Québec
  • 1963 Canada and South Korea establish diplomatic relations. Seoul, Korea
  • 1967 Catholic elementary and secondary teachers strike, closing hundreds of schools in Montréal and Trois-Rivieres; ends Feb. 17 when Québec passes Bill 25. Montréal, Québec
  • 1968 Ice storm damages the silver maple at 62 Laing Street that inspired CBC Archives)
  • 1971 Pierre Elliott Trudeau 1919-2000 attends week-long Commonwealth Heads of Government conference in Singapore; suggests study of arms embargo of South Africa. Singapore
  • 1973 Defenseman Larry Robinson plays his First NHL games as a Montréal Canadien. Montréal, Québec
  • 1973 Unite-Québec party changes its name back to l’Union Nationale. Montréal, Québec
  • 1974 Jules Leger sworn in as Canada’s 21st Governor General. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1975 Canadian Egg Marketing Agency notes 40 million egg surplus, increasing about 15 million a week. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1976 The T. Eaton Company winds up its catalogue sales operation after over 10 years of heavy losses; stops publishing catalogue, issued since 1884. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1977 Northern Thunderbird Airlines aircraft crashes at Terrace, killing 12 people. Terrace, BC
  • 1977 Toronto Police set up special ethnic squad to deal with Asian community problems; after racial attacks. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1979 FLQ terrorist Jean-Pierre Charette returns to Canada after 10 years in Cuba; sentenced to a jail term in March on charges of planting three bombs in 1968. Montréal, Québec
  • 1982 Clifford Robert Olson, from Coquitlam, is sentenced to life in prison for First degree murder of 11 children, 3 boys and 8 girls, aged nine to 18, from Nov 1980 to Aug 1981; RCMP agreed to give Olson’s family $100, 000 if he told them where he had buried the bodies. Vancouver, BC
  • 1983 Paton thread factory in Sherbrooke closes its doors. Sherbrooke, Québec
  • 1986 Nova Scotian country singer Hank Snow refuses to perform on the CBS TV tribute to the Grand Ole Opry after the producers only let him sing one verse of a song. Nashville, Tennessee
  • 1987 Fire breaks out in the Soviet Consulate in Montréal; diplomats wanting to save secret papers impede firefighters. Montréal, Québec
  • 1988 New York Islanders defenseman Denis Potvin gets his 300th NHL goal. New York, New York
  • 1990 Laurence J. Peter dies at age 70; author of The Peter Principle, where employees rise to their level of incompetence. California
  • 1990 Via Rail’s flagship transcontinental passenger train, the Canadian, starts its final trip across Canada to Vancouver; victim of massive cuts to Via Rail service. Montréal, Québec
  • 1991 Manitoba Nurses Union breaks off negotiations with the government; 10,500 members on strike since January 1. Winnipeg, Manitoba
  • 1993 MLA Mike Cardinal becomes Alberta’s First Status Indian to serve as a cabinet minister. Edmonton, Alberta
  • 1994 Six CUM Policemen charged in the Barnabé affair. Montréal, Québec
  • 1996 Second Genie Awards movie gala takes place in Montréal. Montréal, Québec
  • 1996 Canada signs a free trade agreement with Israel.
  • 2002 Industry Minister and Liberal leadership hopeful Brian Tobin announces that he is leaving politics.
  • 2004 Freight train traveling over a bridge east of Toronto derails, sending massive containers plummeting onto the road, killing two women in a van who were driving by. Ajax, Ontario
  • 2005 Politics - Judy Sgro, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, resigns from her cabinet post following damaging allegations that her staff gave foreign strippers preferential access to Canada; she is being investigated for illegal immigration practices.
  • 2010 Foreign Aid - Government of Canada sends two Canadian Forces Maritime Command ships (Athabaskan and Halifax) with emergency supplies and aid for further assistance in Haiti.