Highlights of the day

  • 1966 - Bobby Hull the first NHL player to score more than 50 goals in a season, with his 51st goal against New York, beating Maurice Richard’s record.
  • 1857 - Collapse of Great Western Railway bridge between Toronto and Hamilton kills 79 people.

List of Facts for March 12

  • 1613 Rene Le Coq de La Saussaye leaves for Acadia; sent by Antoinette de Pons, Marquise de Guercheville; to get Biard and Masse from Port Royal. Honfleur, France
  • 1658 Governor forbids inhabitants of New France to leave colony without permission. Québec, Québec
  • 1664 King Charles II grants territory between the St. Croix and Kennebec Rivers to his brother James, Duke of York, later James II. London, England
  • 1672 Francois Dollier de Casson 1636-1701 lays out Montréal’s main street, names it Rue Notre-Dame. Montréal, Québec
  • 1813 War of 1812 - Royal Navy puts Captain James Yeo in command of Britain’s Lake Ontario squadron based at Kingston, with 400 seamen and some other Navy officers. Kingston, Ontario
  • 1820 Alexander Mackenzie dies; explorer, North West Company partner; First person to cross the North American continent and reach the Pacific over land. Dunkeld, Scotland
  • 1851 Media - Former slave Henry Bibb publishes the first issue of Voice of the Fugitive, Canada’s first black newspaper.
  • 1857 Disaster - Great Western Railway bridge between Toronto and Hamilton collapses; 79 people killed, 18 injured as train falls 12 metres to the frozen Desjardins Canal below; the builder/financier of the railway, US promoter Samuel Zimmerman, is one of those killed. Burlington Heights, Ontario
  • 1868 Opening of second part of First session of First Dominion Parliament; meets until May 22; free entry of US raw materials. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1883 First steel for construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway arrives in British Columbia. Port Moody, BC
  • 1892 Great Northern steel arrives in Bonner’s Ferry. First train arrives May 18.
  • 1900 Labour - Western Federation of Miners locked out of the Le Roi mine in a dispute over contact mining.
  • 1903 Third session of ninth Parliament meets until October 24; raises head tax on Chinese immigrants to $500. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1906 Curling - Edmonton Thistles defeat Strathcona and win the Calgary Brewing Cup in the Thistle Rink. Edmonton, Alberta
  • 1908 Hockey - Montreal Wanderers sweep Winnipeg Maple Leafs for Stanley Cup; 2nd game of 1908. Montreal, Quebec
  • 1908 Toronto native Frederick W. ‘Casey’Baldwin the First Canadian and First British subject to fly an airplane; crashes into Lake Keuka near Glen Curtiss’s workshop; he stops flying three years later and joins Alexander Graham Bell in designing hydrofoil boats at Baddeck. Hammondsport, New York
  • 1910 Hockey - Montreal Wanderers beat Berlin (Kitchener) 7-3 for the Stanley Cup. Montreal, Quebec
  • 1921 Stephen Leacock 1869-1944 founding president of the Canadian Authors Association. Montréal, Québec
  • 1925 Saskatchewan Engineering Laboratory destroyed by a fire; First university building to be built in Saskatoon. Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
  • 1926 Labour - Coal miners accept wage deal recommended by Royal Commission; including l0% wage cut.
  • 1930 First World War air ace Billy Barker killed in a plane crash at Rockcliffe air base; shot down 53 enemy planes during the war, won Victoria Cross for a single-handed combat against some 60 German aircraft. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1941 James Garfield Gardiner 1897-1972 cuts wartime wheat quotas to 65% of 1940 acreage; no price increase; $4/acre subsidy for land diverted to summer fallow; $2 for hay. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1961 Hockey - The Trail Smoke Eaters, under coach Bobby Kromm, defeat the Russian team 5-1 in the final game, to win the World Amateur Hockey Championship. The team got the name in the 1928-29 season, when Trail was playing the Vancouver Monarchs, when an angry fan threw his pipe onto the ice, and a Trail defenceman picked it up and smoked it while killing off a penalty. A local reporter dubbed the team the “smoke eaters” (although the name could also relate to the smoke from the Trail smelter). Geneva, Switzerland
  • 1966 Hockey - Bobby Hull scores his last goal of season and his career 51st against New York Rangers; First NHL player to score more than 50 goals in a season, beating Maurice Richard’s record. Chicago, Illinois
  • 1971 Québec to compensate those arrested during the October Crisis and not charged; will destroy files and fingerprints. Québec, Québec
  • 1972 Gordie Howe retires from the NHL after 26 seasons, to take a front office job with the Red Wings organization. A year later, at age 45, a bored Howe leaves Detroit and joins his sons Mark and Marty with the World Hockey Association Houston Aeros, followed by the Hartford Whalers. When the WHA folds, Howe finds himself back in the NHL at age 51. Detroit, Michigan
  • 1975 RCMP charges 13 companies and 14 people with conspiring to defraud Ottawa and Ontario of $4 million; Liberal Party members cleared in Hamilton Harbour dredging scandal. Hamilton, Ontario
  • 1976 Energy - Come By Chance oil refinery declared bankrupt; established in 1973 by John Shaheen with Premier Joey Smallwood’s support. Come By Chance, Newfoundland
  • 1980 Hockey - Marcel Dionne of the Los Angeles Kings scores his 50th goal of the season against Pittsburgh Penguins.
  • 1983 Hockey - Mike Bossy of the New York Islanders scores his 50th goal of the season against Washington Capitals.
  • 1984 King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia of Spain arrive in Canada for a 6-day state visit. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1985 Terrorism - Security guard Claude Brunelle killed as three heavily armed Armenian terrorists raid the Turkish Embassy in Ottawa and hold a dozen people hostage for four hours. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1987 Brian Orser of Penetanguishene, Ontario beats defending champion Brian Boitano to became the men’s World Figure Skating Champion; First Canadian to win the title since Stratford’s Don McPherson in 1963. Cincinnati, Ohio
  • 1987 Hockey - Mario Lemieux of the Pittsburgh Penguins scores his 50th goal of the season against Quebec Nordiques.
  • 1990 Politics - Gallup poll shows PC support dropping to 17%; Liberals rise to 50%, NDP stall at 25%.
  • 1993 Huge blizzard batters east coast of the US and Canada; wind piles snowdrifts ran as high as four metres; over 110 deaths. North America
  • 1996 Vancouver city council votes to ban smoking in restaurants. Vancouver, BC
  • 1998 Energy - Quebec and Newfoundland resolve the long running Churchill Falls hydro dispute.
  • 2001 Alberta Election - Ralph Klein leads Alberta Conservatives to ninth consecutive majority in the provincial election, winning 74 of 83 seats in the provincial legislature, an increase of ten seats from the last election; Liberals fall to 7, NDP win 2. Alberta
  • 2001 Sponsorship Scandal - Gomery investigation leads to firing of Michel Vennat, President of the Business Development Bank of Canada. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 2001 Military - Canadian Forces begin deployment to Haiti to support United Nations peacekeeping force.
  • 2001 Military - CFB Gagetown Colonel Barry McLeod named Chief of Staff of the United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC); will arrive there in July. Gagetown, New Brunswick