Highlights of the day

  • 1916 Centre Block of the Parliament Buildings Destroyed by Fire
  • 1947 Thermometers at the airstrip at Snag, Yukon, register -64C (-83F), the lowest temperature ever recorded in Canada.

List of Facts for February 3

  • 1831 Matthew Whitworth-Aylmer, Lord Aylmer 1775-1850 appointed Governor-General of British North America. Montréal, Québec
  • 1865 Canadian legislature resolves in an Address to the Queen to ask for Union of the Provinces of British North America. Québec, Québec
  • 1870 Louis Riel’s Provisional Government adopts its List of Rights. Winnipeg, Manitoba
  • 1901 Dominion Iron and Steel Company starts up First of four new blast furnaces at Sydney. Sydney, Nova Scotia
  • 1902 Granby Consolidated blows in No.3 furnace at Grand Forks smelter.
  • 1916 Fire breaks out in the Centre Block of the Parliament Buildings at 8: 50 pm during a debate; by midnight, the main tower is ablaze, yet the clock is still able to strike 12. The gothic Parliamentary Library is saved by a quick thinking clerk, who closes the iron doors. Seven people die in the blaze: Nova Scotia MP B. B. Law, caught in a telephone booth; Assistant Clerk J. B. LaPlante, who refused to slide down a rope to safety; Mme. Bray and Mme. Morin, guests of the Speaker’s wife, Mme. Sevigny, who went back to fetch their furs and were overcome by smoke; Dominion policeman Alphonse Desjardins, who went back into the inferno after rescuing one MP - he and his nephew and Randolph Fanning were buried when a floor collapsed. The tragedy is widely blamed on German wartime saboteurs; 1, 200 soldiers are sent to guard Parliament Hill, and police arrest a 28 year old Belgian musician, but nothing is proven. Parliament moves to the Victoria Memorial Museum at the foot of Metcalfe Street, the Commons holding its sessions in the lecture hall, and the Senate, according to a report, is accommodated in the apartment set apart for fossils and extinct leviathans, which has not escaped the notice of certain humourists . The Centre Block is rebuilt in the Gothic revival style, and completed in 1920. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1916 French-speaking teachers protest pay freeze, imposed after they refuse language restrictions; strike by 122 teachers closes 17 bilingual schools in Ontario. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1917 U.S. severs diplomatic relations with Germany.
  • 1927 William Phillips appointed First United States Ambassador to Canada. Washington, DC
  • 1930 First hockey game broadcast on the radio from the Toronto Arena; hosted by Norman Albert. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1932 Arthur Meighen 1874-1960 appointed to the Senate by Bennett; made Government Leader in the Senate. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1932 School house at Burmis, Alberta, burns. Replaced.
  • 1941 Government extends compulsory military training from one month to four. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1942 Military - The RCAF renames the Canadian Women’s Auxiliary Air Force as the Royal Canadian Air Force Women’s Division. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1947 Thermometers at the airstrip at Snag register -64C (-83F), the lowest temperature recorded in Canada; likely the lowest temperature on record in North America; an estimate, since thermometers in use were only graduated to 80 degrees below zero, and the gauges registered below the lowest mark. According to Environment Canada, Gordon Toole, the weather observer at Snag who checked the thermometer that day, said his breath hissed as he was breathing and formed a vapour trail behind him. Snag, Yukon
  • 1950 Music - Herman Geiger-Torel launches the first full season “Opera Festival” of the Royal Conservatory Opera Company with an opening night at the Royal Alexandra Theatre, Nicholas Goldschmidt conducting. Geiger-Torel became the COC’s artistic director in 1956 and its general director in 1960. The company was renamed the Canadian Opera Association in 1960, and the Canadian Opera Company in 1977. Toronto, Ontario -
  • 1953 Elizabeth II officially named as Queen of Canada after her coronation. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1956 Imperial Bank of Canada permitted to merge with Barclays Bank (Canada). Toronto, Ontario
  • 1959 Gold bullion is traded on the floor of the Toronto Stock Exchange for the First time; today the TSE provides a market for gold futures. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1960 Ottawa grants $25 million to help subsidize the Commonwealth Transpacific Cable. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1961 Canadian Bank of Commerce merges with Imperial Bank of Canada; to form Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC). Toronto, Ontario
  • 1966 Lester B. Pearson 1897-1972 bans all imports of Rhodesian goods, and all exports of Canadian goods to Rhodesia; with limited exceptions. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1968 Violet McNaughton dies; journalist and feminist leader; awarded the Order of the British Empire in 1934 for her service to the welfare of rural women. Saskatchewan
  • 1972 Canadian team attends opening of Winter Olympic Games in Sapporo, the First held in Asia; with total 35 nations and 1, 231 competitors; to Feb. 13. Sapporo, Japan
  • 1973 Joni Mitchell’s You Turn Me On, I’m A Radio peaks at #25 on the Billboard pop singles chart. New York, New York
  • 1975 New Syncrude partnership agreement saves tar sands project - Alberta in for 10%, Ontario 5%, Ottawa 15%. Winnipeg, Manitoba
  • 1976 Foreign Affairs - Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau drops in to visit Cuban dictator Fidel Castro on his 12-day tour of Latin America. Havana, Cuba
  • 1977 Ottawa makes First allocations of $200 million Canada Works program to cut unemployment. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1981 Manitoba Court of Appeal rules as legal Ottawa’s constitutional proposals and amendments. Winnipeg, Manitoba
  • 1981 Petro-Canada offers to acquire control of Petrofina Canada Ltd. from foreign owners, at $120 a share, or $1.46 billion. Montréal, Québec
  • 1985 Radio station CFWE, The Native Perspective, is launched by Aboriginal Multi-Media Society of Alberta (AMMSA). Alberta
  • 1990 French Canadian heartthrob Roch Voisine wins the best international French-language album award for his album Helene, #1 in France. Paris, France
  • 1992 End of labour strike at Royal Canadian Mint. Ottawa/Winnipeg, Ontario/Manitoba
  • 1994 Labour - Federal Court of Canada upholds human rights tribunal ruling on mandatory retirement in the Canadian Forces; recommends developing fitness standard instead of relying on an arbitrary age rule. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 2001 Roger Grimes alected leader of the Liberal Party of Newfoundland and Labrador after winning the second ballot at the party’s leadership convention. St. John’s, Newfoundland
  • 2001 Speed Skating - Catriona LeMay Doan wins gold in the 500m and 1000m races at Heerenveen, Netherlands.
  • 2007 Hockey - Cree singer Akina Shirt sings “O Canada” in Cree at a Calgary Flames game; first time the anthem has been sung in an Aboriginal language at a major league sporting event. Calgary, Alberta