Today’sFeatures:

  • 1885 Gabriel Dumont’s Métis maul Crozier at Battle at Battle of Fish Creek in NW Rebellion.
  • 1915 Two Canadians win Victoria Crosses at Ypres.
  • 1928 Famous FIve to take “Persons Case” to British Privy Council after Supreme Court of Canada Ruling.

List of Facts for April 24

  • 1615 Samuel de Champlain leaves Honfleur for New France. Honfleur, France
  • 1626 Samuel de Champlain sails on his 11th voyage to Canada. Dieppe, France
  • 1629 France and England sign Treaty of Susa; all territory captured after signing to be returned; David Kirke’s capture of Québec later that year is therefore nullified. Savoy, France
  • 1779 Founding of the North West Company as a formal company; begun in 1776 as a cooperative by a group of independent Scottish traders who wanted to take on and break the Hudson’s Bay Company monopoly over the fur trade in the west. Montréal, Québec
  • 1866 Victoria connected to British Columbia mainland via cable and telegraph. Victoria, BC
  • 1885 North West Rebellion - Frederick Middleton engages the Métis troops of Gabriel Dumont at Battle of Fish Creek; battle a stalemate; Middleton badly mauled and his advance to Batoche slowed; loses 11 killed and 48 wounded. Fish Creek, Saskatchewan
  • 1885 William Otter relieves NWMP garrison at Battleford. Battleford, Saskatchewan
  • 1890 British Columbia passes the Constitution Amendment Act; divides the Kootenay District into the East Kootenay and West Kootenay Districts.
  • 1895 Joshua Slocum, from Briar Island, Nova Scotia, leaves Boston to begin his solo around-the-world voyage on an 11 metre oystercatcher called Spray; First sails to Yarmouth to refit; will return from his epic circumnavigation July 3, 1898. Boston, Massachusetts
  • 1895 Parliament decides not to bring in prohibition after reading Report of Royal Commission. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1896 Donald Smith, Lord Strathcona appointed High Commissioner to Britain, replacing Sir Charles Tupper. London, England
  • 1897 Halifax Symphony Orchestra gives its inaugural concert at the Academy of Music, playing a Schubert memorial, including the Unfinished Symphony; this First Halifax Symphony lasts until 1908; a second Halifax Symphony Orchestra is founded in 1949, and will become part of the Atlantic Symphony in 1968. Halifax, Nova Scotia
  • 1901 CNP Coal receives a British Columbia charter for the Crows Nest Southern Railway Company.
  • 1911 CPR launches steamship Bonnington (1700 tons) at Nakusp, BC. Retired 1931, dismantled 1948.
  • 1915 First World War - Germans pour shells and mustard gas against Canadian Army troops in the Ypres salient, but their First poison gas attack is repelled. Canadians win two Victoria Crosses during this day in Flanders: At St-Julien, Company Sergeant-Major William Hall (1885-1915) of the 8th Battalion, 90th Winnipeg Rifles, makes a second attempt to help a wounded man lying 15 yards from the trench, in the face of very heavy enfilade fire by the enemy, when he is killed by a bullet in the head [awarded posthumously 23 June . Near Kerselaere, Lieutenant Edward Bellew (1892-1961) of the 7th Battalion, British Columbia Regiment, is in action as battalion machine-gun officer, with two guns in action on high ground, when the enemy’s attack breaks in full force. With no reinforcements in sight, Lt. Bellew and his Sergeant Peerless decide to fight it out; Peerless is killed and Bellew wounded, yet he keeps up his fire until his ammunition fails, and he is taken prisoner. [awarded on his release from POW camp, May 15 1919 . Ypres, Belgium
  • 1915 Sergeant-Major Frederick Hall wins a posthumous Victoria Cross at the 2nd Battle of Ypres; one of three VC winners who lived on Winnipeg’s Valour Road. Ypres, Belgium
  • 1920 Founding of the Association of Professional Engineers of New Brunswick. Fredericton, New Brunswick
  • 1928 Persons Case - Supreme Court of Canada rules that the words ‘qualified persons’ in Section 24 of the BNA Act do not apply to women, that ‘by the Common Law of England, women were under a legal incapacity to hold public office’. Five prominent Alberta women - the Famous Five of Emily Murphy, Henrietta Edwards, Nellie McClung, Louise McKinney and Irene Parlby - initiated the case in law by asking the Supreme Court to rule on whether or not a woman, as a qualified person, could be appointed to the Canadian Senate. Edmonton magistrate Murphy and Calgary Magistrate Jamieson had faced challenges to their rulings because some lawyers claimed that, as women, they held their positions illegally. The Famous Five decide to appeal the decision to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council at Westminster. Ottawa, Ontario See October 19.
  • 1929 Fire destroys two blocks of buildings at Carbonear. Carbonear, Newfoundland
  • 1929 Two members of the Calgary Aero Club are seriously injured when their new Moth plane crashes from a height of about 150 feet. Calgary, Alberta
  • 1951 Korean War - Canadian troops, including the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry (PPCLI), successfully defend the Kap’yong Valley in Korea against a two-day Chinese attack; suffer 10 dead, 23 wounded. The Australians bore the brunt of the original attack and had to retreat. Kapyong, Korea
  • 1952 Military - Royal Canadian Navy launches HMCS Comox, a Bay class minesweeper. Victoria. BC
  • 1952 Vancouver actor Raymond Burr makes his TV acting debut on the Gruen Guild Playhouse in an episode titled, The Tiger; later stars in Perry Mason and Ironside series. Los Angeles, California
  • 1952 Energy - First shipment of oil from Alberta arrives in Ontario by pipeline and lake freighter. Sarnia, Ontario
  • 1957 Moyie begins her final run. On Kootenay Lake, BC
  • 1964 Creditiste MPs Gérard Girouard and Gérard Ouellet defect to the Progressive Conservative Party. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1971 David Lewis chosen party leader on 4th ballot by New Democratic Party, replacing Tommy Douglas; gets 1046 votes, to James Laxer’s 612. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1972 Government bans fishing off New Brunswick and Port aux Basque, Newfoundland, to conserve fish stocks. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1981 Parliament passes amendments to constitutional proposals; eight Liberals abstain from voting. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1983 Canadian Cliff Thornburn wins the World Professional Snooker Championships; First person to record a maximum 147 break. Sheffield, England
  • 1984 Hockey - Minnesota North Stars 1, Edmonton Oilers 7
  • 1984 Hockey - Edmonton Oilers Wayne Gretzky the third person to score on a Stanley Cup penalty shot. Edmonton, Alberta
  • 1985 The Supreme Court rules the Lord’s Day Act violates Canadians’ freedom of religion; ruling allows Sunday shopping in most provinces. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1990 Hockey - Edmonton Oilers 6, Los Angeles Kings 5 (OT); Won Division Finals 4 games to 0.
  • 1990 Violence erupts on Akwesasne Mohawk reserve, over gambling on the New York portion of the reserve; bomb damages dozens of cars and a Canadian police station. Cornwall, Ontario
  • 1992 Hughes report confirms assertions of former Mount Cashel residents that they suffered physical and sexual abuse at the Newfoundland orphanage run by the Christian Brothers. St. John’s, Newfoundland
  • 1993 Toronto rocker Neil Young joins Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp, Travis Tritt, Lyle Lovett, Dwight Yoakam, Bruce Hornsby and Ringo Starr at Farm Aid Six concert. Ames, Iowa
  • 1996 Hockey - Pittsburgh Penguins need four overtime periods to win 3-2 over the Washington Capitals; their victory ties the Stanley Cup series 2-2; longest NHL game in 60 years. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
  • 1996 Shania Twain from Timmins, Ontario wins the top album trophy for The Woman in Me at the annual Academy of Country Music Awards; also named Best New Female singer; The Woman in Me had earlier won the country album Grammy. Nashville, Tennessee
  • 2004 Canada wins the Women’s World Curling Championship.