Highlights of the day

  • 1894 Lady Aberdeen Watches a Hockey Game at Rideau Hall
  • 1936 King Edward VIII starts reign on death of father King George V; owns a ranch SW of Calgary.

List of Facts for January 20

  • 1616 Military - French explorer Samuel de Champlain arrives to winter in a Huron village after being wounded in a battle with Iroquois south of Lake Ontario. Midland, Ontario
  • 1700 Charles Le Moyne appointed baron; First nobility in New France. Paris, France
  • 1715 Samuel Vetch appointed Governor of Nova Scotia; serves to August 17, 1717. Nova Scotia
  • 1892 Basketball - James Naismith an Almonte, Ontario native, hosts his First organized basketball game, the world’s First, at the Springfield YMCA college. Springfield, Massachusetts
  • 1894 Hockey - Lady Aberdeen, wife of the Governor General, witnesses a brutal hockey match played on the ice at Rideau Hall. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1899 Immigration - Advance group of about 2,000 Russian Doukhobors lands in Halifax en route to the west; 5,400 follow shortly after; these First members of the mystical Christian sect (the name means ‘spirit wrestlers,’) are sponsored by Count Leo Tolstoy, the novelist and author of War and Peace. Halifax, Nova Scotia
  • 1901 Transport - CP completes wharfs and docks at Sunshine Bay near Procter, BC.
  • 1902 Smelting - Granby Consolidated sends First shipment of blister to market. BC
  • 1904 Immigration - Canadian government disallows a British Columbia Act that aims to restrict Chinese immigration. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1910 Hockey - Ottawa Senators sweep Edmonton in 2 games for the Stanley Cup (2nd of 1910). Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1923 Rail - Canadian Government Railways becomes the CNR; takes over the Intercolonial Railway, National Transcontinental Railway & Hudson Bay Railway lines. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1925 Rail - Last Vancouver, Victoria & Eastern Railway ice train leaves Otter Lake, BC.
  • 1936 King George V dies of lung cancer; succeeded by his son King Edward VIII. London, England
  • 1936 King Edward VIII starts reign on the death of his father King George V; he will abdicate eleven months later, on December 11, 1936, to marry ‘the woman I love,’ Wallis Simpson. The stamp shows him four years earlier when he was Prince of Wales, and first visited Canada. The new King has a ranch south west of Calgary. London, England
  • 1945 Second World War - First conscripted Canadian soldiers arrive overseas. Britain
  • 1948 Politics - Prime Minister Mackenzie King announces his retirement from political life. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1953 Media - CBS Television production of Studio One transmitted to CBLT-TV and rebroadcast in Canada; First transmission of a TV show from the United States to Canada. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1953 Disaster - Methane gas bump leaves three dead in the McGillivray mine. Coleman, Alberta
  • 1955 The Guinness family sells the Lions Gate Bridge to and from Stanley Park and North Vancouver to the British Columbia for $5,959,060. The bridge was officially opened on November 14, 1938 after one and a half years construction at a cost of $5.8 million. In 1963, the 25¢ per car toll is dropped. Vancouver, BC
  • 1961 Media - CFCF-TV starts broadcasting. Montréal, Québec
  • 1965 Crime - Yvon Dupuis resigns on 1964 charges of accepting $10, 000 bribe in 1961; Minister Without Portfolio. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1968 Military - Robert Shankland dies; won the Victoria Cross at the First World War Battle of Passchendaele in 1917; one of three VC winners who lived on Winnipeg’s Valour Road. Winnipeg, Manitoba
  • 1971 Media - Radio Tuktoyaktuk starts broadcasting in English and Inuktutuk. Tuktoyaktuk, NWT
  • 1985 Québec Election - Robert Bourassa leads Québec Liberals to victory over the Parti Québecois; loses his own seat of Mercier, but wins a by-election January 20, 1986. Québec
  • 1989 Hockey - Mario Lemieux of the Pittsburgh Penguins scores his 50th goal of the season against the Winnipeg Jets. Winnipeg, Manitoba
  • 1994 Beatrice Lillie dies at age 94; born Constance Sylvia Gladys Munston in Toronto on May 29, 1894. Lillie was a comic movie/stage actor that Noel Coward billed as the funniest woman in the world. She appeared in such films as Auntie Mame (1958), Around the World in 80 Days (1956) and Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967). Henley-on-Thames, England
  • 1994 Communications - Telesat Canada’s Anik E-1 satellite spins out of control; newspapers, radio and TV broadcasters scramble to get news feed. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1995 Hockey - 1994-95 NHL Season starts after a three-month pro hockey strike and lockout. North America
  • 1995 Justice - Roger Warren convicted of second-degree murder for killing 9 men during the 1992 strike-related bombing of the Yellowknife Giant gold mine. Yellowknife, NWT
  • 2003 Disaster - Avalanche kills 7 members of a ski party near Durrand Glacier outside of Banff National Park. BC
  • 2005 Norman Kwong installed as Lieutenant Governor of Alberta, following the death in office of Lois Hole; a former Edmonton Eskimos football star. Edmonton, Alberta
  • 2006 Cinema - Film Karla released; controversial movie about the murder by Paul Bernardo and Karla Homulka of two Canadian teens, Leslie Mahaffy and Kristen French. Toronto, Ontario
  • 2008 Opening of 2008 BMO Canadian Figure Skating Championships in Vancouver, BC. The Men’s medalists: Patrick Chan, Gold; Jeffrey Buttle, Silver; Shawn Sawyer, Bronze. The Women’s medalists: Joannie Rochette, Gold; Mira Leung, Silver; Cynthia Phaneuf, Bronze. Pairs’ medalists: Anabelle Langlois / Cody Hay, Gold; Jessica Dubé / Bryce Davison, Silver; Meagan Duhamel / Craig Buntin, Bronze. Dance medalists:Tessa Virtue / Scott Moir, Gold; Kaitlyn Weaver / Andrew Poje, Silver; Allie Hann-McCurdy / Michael Coreno, Bronze.