Highlights of the day

  • 1931 Earl of Bessborough appointed Governor-General of Canada; George V’s tennis partner.
  • 1945 Ten RCAF airmen from 404 Coastal Fighter Squadron killed in naval raid on Fordefjord, Norway.

List of Facts for February 9

  • 1760 Captain John Byron 1723-1786, grandfather of poet Lord Byron, begins tearing down the fortifications of Louisbourg on orders from British PM William Pitt. Louisbourg, Nova Scotia
  • 1870 Metis establish a provisional government at Red River; Louis Riel 1844-1885 elected President. Winnipeg, Manitoba
  • 1879 North Shore Railroad opens from Montréal to Québec. Québec, Québec
  • 1883 Ontario’s First free public library opens at Guelph. Guelph, Ontario
  • 1891 Canadian Pacific Railway opens its $200,000 Vancouver Opera House on Granville Street with a performance of Wagner’s Lohengrin by the Emma Juch English Opera company. Vancouver, BC
  • 1891 Father C.J.-B.F. Pandosy (OMI) dies.
  • 1901 Mrs. Nicholas Flood Davin organizes the Imperial Order of the Daughters of the Empire at Regina, for the purpose of erecting a monument of the late Queen Victoria. Regina, Saskatchewan
  • 1909 St. Michael’s Roman Catholic Separate School District No. 18 founded in southern Alberta.
  • 1926 Québec Lieutenant Governor Narcisse Perodeau inaugurates the Sun Life Building. Montréal, Québec
  • 1931 Vere Brabazan Ponsonby, Earl of Bessborough 1880-1956 appointed Governor-General of Canada, serving from April 4, 1931 to September 29, 1935. London, England
  • 1941 Second World War - Canadian Army converts the Fifth Canadian Motorcycle Regiment, CASF, redesignating it as The British Columbia Dragoons. Vancouver, BC
  • 1944 George Kerby dies; Reverend, founder of Mount Royal College, aka the Calgary Dynamo. Calgary, Alberta
  • 1945 Second World War - Ten RCAF airmen from 404 Coastal Fighter Squadron, flying Bristol Beaufighter aircraft, are killed in action during a raid on German naval and transport shipping in Fordefjord, Norway. Black Friday for the squadron.
  • 1956 Gaspe prospector Wilbert Coffin, age 41, hanged at Bordeaux prison for the murder of an American hunter, Richard Lindsay, in the summer of 1953; charges that Coffin had not received a fair trial because of concern over loss of American tourism led to a special reference to the Supreme Court of Canada, which upheld Coffin’s conviction. Montréal, Québec
  • 1964 Ninth Winter Olympic games close at Innsbruck. Brothers Vic and John Emery, with Douglas Anakin and Peter Kirby, take home Canada’s only Gold Medal, in Four-Man Bobsledding. The quartet set a world record in their First run, and repeat their victory at the 1965 World Championship. In other medals, Petra Burka wins the Bronze in Figure Skating and Debbi Wilkes & Guy Revell take home the Bronze in Pairs Figure Skating. Innsbruck, Austria
  • 1966 National Hockey League announces it is doubling in size with a new West Division and six new teams - the California Seals, Los Angeles Kings, Minnesota North Stars, Philadelphia Flyers, Pittsburgh Penguins and St. Louis Blues. The original teams - Toronto, Montréal, New York, Detroit, Chicago and Boston - will make up the NHL East Division. Montréal, Québec
  • 1969 Creation of Information-Canada as the federal government’s printing and publicity centre; later scrapped. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1969 FLQ terrorists explode a bomb inside a federal government building in Montréal. Montréal, Québec
  • 1974 Gordon Sinclair’s recording of his radio commentary, The Americans (A Canadian’s Opinion) peaks at #24 on the Billboard pop singles chart. USA
  • 1976 Conductor arranger Percy Faith dies at age 67; Toronto native’s hits include Delicado (1952), Song From Moulin Rouge (1953) and Theme From a Summer Place (1960, Grammy Award as Record of the Year); recorded 45 albums with Columbia; arranger for Guy Mitchell, Tony Bennett and others. Los Angeles, California
  • 1978 Ottawa orders 11 Soviet embassy officials deported for allegedly trying to infiltrate the RCMP Security Service. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1983 Erik Neilsen chosen as interim party leader by Progressive Conservative Party; to June 11, 1983; replacing Joe Clark. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1991 Donald Cameron chosen as Leader of the Progressive Conservative Party and new Premier of Nova Scotia, replacing John Buchanan, who resigned Sept 1990 to take a Senate seat Halifax, Nova Scotia
  • 1991 Nurses at hospitals in Thompson and Churchill, on strike since New Year’s Day, vote to return to work. Manitoba
  • 1996 Canada’s Donovan Bailey sets world record for the 50-metre dash with a time of 5.56 seconds at the Reno Air Games; old record of 5.61 set by Manfred Kokot of East Germany in 1973 and American James Sanford in 1981. Reno, Nevada
  • 1999 Premier Brian Tobin wins re-election; his Newfoundland Liberal Party returns with a reduced majority. Newfoundland
  • 1991 Donald Cameron becomes premier of Nova Scotia, replacing Roger Bacon
  • 2004 Canadian Clara Hughes wins bronze in the world speed skating championship