Highlights of the day

  • 1918 Red Baron shot down during a dogfight with Canadian Ace Roy Brown.
  • 1926 Princess Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor born to the Duke and Duchess of York.

List of Facts for April 21

  • 1664 Governor of New France bans the littering of streets with ‘straw, manure or anything else’; First hygiene regulations in New France. Québec, Québec
  • 1785 Trial by jury begins in Canada with the adoption of British common law. Québec, Québec
  • 1806 Marie-Anne Gaboury marries Jean-Baptiste Lagimodière; the First white woman to live in Western Canada, Gaboury is Louis Riel’s grandmother. St-Boniface, Manitoba
  • 1821 Bank of Upper Canada incorporated; Family Compact stalwart William Allan the first president. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1863 Farmer’s Bank of Rustico opens for business; the smallest bank ever chartered in Canada. Rustico, PEI
  • 1866 Fenian Raids - Fenians on board the hired schooner “Two Friends” out of Lubec, Maine, capture the schooner “Winthrop” near Campobello Island - “in the name of the Irish Republic”. On the arrival of British warships, the raiders sink the “Two Friends” and return to Eastport, Maine. New Brunswick
  • 1873 Oaths Act gives CPR select committee power to question witnesses under oath; declared unconstitutional that July. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1886 Mary Victoria Greenhow launched on Lake Okanagan. Screw steamer built by Pringle & Hamill of Lansdowne for Capt. T.D. Shorts and Thomas Greenhow.
  • 1896 CPR announces that it will not, after all, build into Rossland, BC.
  • 1908 Frederick Cook claims to have reached the North Pole on this date, ahead of US Admiral Peary; First man to do so; claim rejected in 1909; still a controversy, although in actual fact neither reached the Pole at all. Nunavut
  • 1915 Kettle Valley Railway into Princeton, BC: track-laying supervisor Charles Taylor drives the last spike of the Kettle Valley Railway’s Penticton - Merritt section.
  • 1918 German air ace Baron Manfred von Richthofen, while chasing novice Canadian pilot Roy Brown of Carleton Place, Ontario, a flight leader in the 209th Squadron of the Royal Flying Corps. Either Brown or Australian ground fire struck the Red Baron, victor over 80 Allied planes. The tail of von Richthofen’s plane is on display at Toronto’s Royal Canadian Military Institute. Bertangles, France
  • 1921 Hockey - Ottawa Senators beat the Vancouver Millionaires 3 games to 2 for the Stanley Cup. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1921 Vancouver holds a memorial service for victims of the Titanic. Vancouver, BC
  • 1926 Monarchy - Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor born at her grandparents’ home; daughter of the Duke and Duchess of York; Elizabeth II, Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from 1952. London, England
  • 1927 Establishment of the New Brunswick Provincial Police Force. Fredericton, New Brunswick
  • 1933 Hockey - Huge crowds greet Moncton Hawks at CN station; first Maritime hockey team to win the Allan Cup, Canadian amateur hockey’s highest award; the Hawks will repeat as Canadian champions in 1934. Moncton, New Brunswick
  • 1946 Military - No. 168 (Heavy Transport) Squadron, Royal Canadian Air Force, disbanded at Rockcliffe RCAF base, after carrying over two million pounds of mail on trans-Atlantic flights during Second World War. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1946 Hockey - Toronto Maple Leafs’ Bill Barilko scores his last goal before disappearing. Toronto, Ontario -
  • 1947 Teddy Yellow Fly, a Blackfoot from Gleichen, Alberta, becomes the First Indian to address a parliamentary committee. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1948 Mackenzie King sets record 20 years, 10 months and 10 days of service as a Commonwealth prime minister. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1950 Flood of 1950 claims its first lives in the United States and Canada. Manitoba
  • 1950 The Guy Lombardo Orchestra has a #1 Billboard hit with Dearie (vocal: Kenny Gardner & Trio). New York, New York
  • 1951 Hockey - Toronto Maple Leafs’s Bill Barilko scores the Stanley Cup-winning goal at 2:53 of overtime to defeat Montreal Canadiens 3-2; win 4 games to 1 for the Stanley Cup; the only Stanley Cup series in NHL history in which every game ended in overtime. Barilko will disappear in a plane crash that summer; the Leafs will not win another Cup until his body is discovered 11 years later. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1953 Korean War - Royal 22e Régiment’s 3rd Battalion relieves the 1st Battalion in Korea.
  • 1953 Military - Brigadier J.V. Allard relieves Brigadier M.P. Bogert as Commander of the 25th Canadian Infantry Brigade.
  • 1956 Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) formed from a merger of the Canadian Congress of Labour and the Trades and Labour Congress. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1960 John Diefenbaker leaves for Mexico City for talks with President Lopez Mateos. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1961 Premier Jean Lesage institutes the Parent Commission on education in Québec; influenced by Les Insolences du frère Untel by Jean-Paul Desbiens, a critique of religious control over education in the province. Québec, Québec
  • 1970 Transportation - Canadian Pacific Rail unveils Canada’s first double-deck passenger train; the CP train has 9 air-conditioned cars costing $2.8 million. Montreal, Quebec
  • 1972 Human Rights - Fair Employment Practices Act is amended to eliminate discrimination on the basis of sex, nationality, ancestry or place of origin. Regina, Saskatchewan
  • 1972 Labour 0 Over 200,000 Québec public service workers end their ten day strike. Québec, Québec
  • 1977 Baseball - Billy Martin’s Yankees beat the Toronto Blue Jays 8-6; Martin pulled the Yankee line-up out of a hat. New York City
  • 1978 Hockey - WHA Hartford Whalers’ Gordie Howe scores on the Edmonton Oilers on his first shift, minutes after finding out that his son Mark’s wife Ginger had given birth to their first child; Gordie the first grandfather in pro hockey history. Edmonton, Alberta
  • 1984 Baseball - Montreal Expos David Palmer is pitching a perfect game against the St. Louis Cardinals when the home plate umpire calls the game in five innings on account of rain. Palmer had made 57 pitches and was leading the Cards 4-0; the fourth shortened, perfect game in major-league baseball history. Montreal, Quebec
  • 1986 Joe Ghiz leads Prince Edward Island’s Liberal Party to win 21 of 32 seats in the provincial election, ending the 7-year government of the Conservatives. PEI
  • 1987 Hockey - Winnipeg Jets 2, Edmonton Oilers 3 (OT)
  • 1988 Hockey - Edmonton Oilers 5, Calgary Flames 4 (OT)
  • 1991 Canadian Football League’s Toronto Argonauts sign Heisman Trophy winner and expected number one pick of the Dallas Cowboys, Rocket Ismail, to a $26 million contract. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1991 Jean Chrétien urges a referendum in early 1992; suggests giving veto to four regions - Atlantic Canada, Quebec, Ontario and the West - and the allocation of power to the government that can handle it best. Montreal, Quebec
  • 1995 Garde Gardom appointed Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia.
  • 2005 Prime Minister Paul Martin and the leaders of the opposition address the nation separately on television on the subject of the sponsorship scandal and the possibility of a general election being called this spring.