Highlights of the day

  • 1834 Papineau and Morin Draft Ninety-Two Resolutions Demanding Responsible Government
  • 1919 Wilfrid Laurier dies of a stroke at age 77.

List of Facts for February 17

  • 1764 William Gregory appointed First Chief Justice of Québec. Québec
  • 1830 Disaster - Starvation in the Madawaska region, after two years of failure of the wheat crop due to cold and fungus (rust). New Brunswick
  • 1834 Augustin-Norbert Morin & Louis-Joseph Papineau draft the February 28; will be adopted 56 to 32. Québec, Québec
  • 1839 Military - New Brunswick militia called up due to outbreak of he Aroostook War with Maine. Fredericton, New Brunswick
  • 1869 Founding of the Canadian Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals; today’s Humane Society. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1870 Red River Rebellion - Louis Riel’s provisional government guards arrest 48 armed “Canadians”. A Métis court martial tries Captain Charles Boulton, leader of the Portage Party, for defying the government; finds him guilty and condemns him to death. Winnipeg, Manitoba
  • 1875 Crime - NWMP put J. D. Weatherwax, last whiskey trader in Blackfoot country, out of business. Alberta
  • 1884 Police - William Armstrong, NWMP Reg No 843, dies at Depot; one of the first members of the force buried at the cemetery at Depot in Regina, Saskatchewan.
  • 1894 Arthur Fenwick registers a 144-acre pre-emption which become the townsite of Wardner, BC.
  • 1900 International Navigation and Trading Company launches Argenta (206 tons) at Mirror Lake Yards near Kaslo, BC.
  • 1910 Hockey - Georges Vézina of the the Chicoutimi Hockey Club makes over 60 saves in game against the superior Montreal Canadiens; Montreal hires him the following season, and he makes his professional debut n December 31, 1910; will serve as Canadiens goalie for next 15 years; Montreal donates the Vezina Trophy to the NHL in 1927 as an award to the goalie who let the fewest goals during the season. Montreal, Quebec
  • 1911 Health - Provincial Anti-Tuberculosis League is organized. Regina, Saskatchewan
  • 1914 Justice - Murderer William Collins is the last man to be hanged at Calgary’s Royal North-West Mounted Police barracks. Calgary, Alberta
  • 1919 George Brown dies; second Lieutenant-Governor of Saskatchewan. Saskatchewan
  • 1919 Wilfrid Laurier dies of a stroke at age 77; Canada’s First Prime Minister of French ancestry; spent 45 uninterrupted years in the House of Commons; Canada’s 7th PM 1896 to 1911, longest unbroken tenure in Canadian history. Ottawa, Ontario (CBC Archives - Gratton O’Leary on Laurier)
  • 1920 British Columbia and Alberta Power Company incorporated to buy up the assets of the Bull River Hydro Electric Power Company: A.E. Appleyard of Minneapolis, president; J.C. Donald of New York City, general manager.
  • 1923 Hockey - Ottawa Senator Cy Dennehy becomes the NHL’s all time leading scorer to date with 143 goals. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1927 Hockey - Toronto plays first game after changing their name from the “Arenas” to the “Maple Leafs”; beat the New York Americans. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1932 Police - Albert Johnson aka Arthur Nelson, ‘the Mad Trapper of Rat River,’ cornered and killed by RCMP in shoot-out after 48-day 240 km manhunt in 40 below weather; charged with killing one Mountie, Constable Edgar Millen and wounding two others. The Mounties enlisted First World War air ace/bush pilot Wop May and the Royal Canadian Corps of Signals to help them track Johnson. Rat River, Yukon
  • 1937 Newfoundland sets up a commission to examine future; Dominion on the verge of financial collapse. St. John’s, Newfoundland
  • 1939 Second World War - RCAF acquires first of new Hawker Hurricane fighters to replace aging biplanes. Rockcliffe, Ontario
  • 1960 John George Diefenbaker 1895-1979 opens new National Gallery of Canada on Confederation Square. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1965 Lester B. Pearson 1897-1972 reduces age at which Old Age Pensions will be paid to 65 instead of 70; change to be phased in over five years. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1967 Parliament founds Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation; supporting all federally incorporated trust & loan companies; pays out $4 billion from 1967-1988, with the collapse of 20 institutions. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1967 Québec passes Bill 25, ordering Catholic elementary and secondary teachers in Montréal and Trois-Rivières to return to classrooms within 48 hours; right to strike suspended until May 30, 1968. Québec, Québec
  • 1968 Opening of the James Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, to honour the Almonte, Ontario, born inventor of the game. Springfield, Massachusetts
  • 1970 Environment - Government bans the use of phosphates in laundry detergent, to prevent damage to lakes and rivers by excessive weed growth. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1970 Joni Mitchell plays her final concert, in the Royal Albert Hall. London, England
  • 1973 Hockey - Ex-Leaf Frank Mahovlich, playing for the Montreal Canadiens, scores his 1,000th NHL point against Philadelphia Flyers.
  • 1973 Temperatures on the island hit record low of -51 degrees Celsius. Newfoundland
  • 1981 Start of final round of constitutional debates in the House of Commons. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1982 British Parliament gives approval in principle to proposed Canadian Constitution. London, England
  • 1982 Gordon Kessler wins Alberta provincial by-election for separatist Western Canada Concept party. Alberta
  • 1983 Newfoundland Supreme Court rules the province owns offshore resources as far as the territorial limit, but not to the edge of the continental shelf. St. John’s, Newfoundland
  • 1986 Canadian and Québec delegations attend the First Francophone Summit - la francophonie. Versailles, France
  • 1989 Ottawa temporarily blocks import of Salman Rushdie’s novel, The Satanic Verses; the Ayatollahs of Iran considers the novel to be blasphemous to the Koran, and demand that Rushdie be assassinated. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1994 Mike Ricci of the Québec Nordiques scores 5 goals against San Jose Sharks.
  • 1996 Glen Clark wins the leadership of the British Columbia NDP; the former Employment and Investment Minister will be sworn in as BC Premier, replacing Mike Harcourt, on Feb. 22. Victoria, BC
  • 1996 Michel Gauthier elected interim Leader of the Bloc Québecois; replacing BQ founder Lucien Bouchard, who moves to provincial and PQ politics. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1998 Canadian women’s hockey team loses 3-1 to the USA in the gold medal game at the Winter Olympics; First time women’s hockey has been a medal sport. Nagano, Japan
  • 1998 Statistics Canada releases results of its census question on race; of non-aboriginal and non-white Canadians identifying themselves as visible minorities, 27% are Chinese, 21% South Asians and 18% Blacks. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 2004 Politics - Liberal MP John Bryden resigns from the party due to the sponsorship scandal revelations. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 2004 Canada donates $800,000 to the World Food Program and $350,000 to the International Red Cross, to help with the current food and medical needs in Haiti, following the recent coup there.
  • 2006 Chantal duPont, video artist, wins the 2005 Bell Canada Award in Video Art
  • 2006 Olympics - Dominique Maltais wins bronze in ladies’ snowboard cross. Turin, Italy
  • 2006 Olympics - Jeff Pain wins silver in men’s skeleton. Turin, Italy
  • 2006 Olympics - Canadians Duff Gibson and Jeff Pain win gold and silver respectively in men’s skeleton. Turin, Italy 2010, February 17 - Olympics - Marianne St-Gelais wins a silver medal in the Women’s 500 metres Short track speed skating at the 2010 Winter Olympics. Vancouver, BC