Highlights of the day

  • 1877 First game played in Labatt Park in London; world’s oldest continually operating baseball grounds.
  • 1912 First Titanic victims buried in Halifax.
  • 1915 John McCrae Writes “In Flanders Fields” near grave of fellow officer at Ypres.

List of Facts for May 3

  • 1536 Jacques Cartier discovers threat of Iroquois rebellion; captures chief Donnacona as hostage during a religious ceremony; promises to bring him back from France in ten moons. Québec, Québec
  • 1699 Pierre d’Iberville leaves Louisiana for France, puts colonists under command of Jean-Baptiste de Bienville and Ensign Sauvole. Biloxi, Mississippi
  • 1744 Joseph Duvivier appointed by Duquesnel, Commandant of Louisbourg, to capture British fishing station at Canseau; closest British settlement to Louisbourg. Canso, Nova Scotia
  • 1811 Lord Selkirk purchases 300,000 sq km of Manitoba from the Hudson’s Bay Company for a Red River colony named to be named Assiniboia. London, England
  • 1835 Joseph Howe, editor of The Novascotian, acquitted of charges of libel against a group of Halifax magistrates. Halifax, Nova Scotia
  • 1845 Benjamin Tibbetts launches his revolutionary steamboat Reindeer near the mouth of the Nashwaak River; the inventor equips the boat with the world’s First practical marine compound steam engine. Fredericton, New Brunswick
  • 1850 Horatio Austin sails with fleet of four ships to search Wellington Channel for signs of the Franklin expedition. London, England
  • 1860 Woodstock Journal alerts readers to its discovery that local politician and postmaster Charles Connell is replacing Queen Victoria’s head on the province’s proposed new five cent stamp with his own face; the stamp is released and Connell resigns in disgrace. Woodstock, New Brunswick
  • 1867 Hudson’s Bay Company gives up all claims to Vancouver Island. Victoria, BC
  • 1871 Collège St-Boniface gets provincial charter. St. Boniface, Manitoba
  • 1873 Royal Assent given to An Act to establish The Department of the Interior in Canada, to oversee the evolution of the Northwest Territories. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1877 Baseball - First game played in new Tecumseh Park in London, between the London Tecumsehs and their junior team, the London Atlantics. The Tecumsehs won 5-1. The park, renamed Labatt Memorial Park in 1936, is the oldest continually operating baseball grounds in the world. London, Ontario
  • 1886 M.A. Maclean elected First Mayor of Vancouver, British Columbia. Vancouver, BC
  • 1887 Coal mine explosion at Nanaimo kills 150. Nanaimo, BC
  • 1895 K&S No.1 scow launched at Mirror Lake near Kaslo, BC.
  • 1912 First Titanic victims buried in Halifax. The White Star Line had chartered two Halifax-based cableships, the MacKay-Bennett and the Minia, a Canadian government vessel Montmagny and a St. John’s-based Bowring vessel, Algerine; the ships recovered 328 bodies; those too badly damaged or deteriorated were buried at sea, and 209 brought to Halifax; a temporary morgue was set up in the Mayflower Curling Rink, and 59 identified bodies were shipped out to families, while 150 were interred in Halifax; burials continue to June 12, 1912; 19 victims were laid to rest in the Mount Olivet Catholic Cemetery, 10 in the Baron de Hirsch Jewish Cemetery, and 121 in the Fairview Lawn Cemetery; 42 remain unidentified. Halifax, Nova Scotia
  • 1915 First World War - 1st Canadian Division withdraws from the Ypres Salient, ending its part in the bloody 2nd Battle of Ypres. Ypres, Belgium
  • 1915 First World War - Lt.-Col. John McCrae composes his poem ‘In Flanders Fields’ in 20 minutes, after he witnessed the death of his friend, 22 year old Lieutenant Alexis Helmer, the day before. First published in Dec. 1915 in Punch magazine, his elegy is the most famous English poem written during WWI; MD from Guelph, Ontario. Ypres, Belgium
  • 1917 First World War - Lieutenant Robert Combe of the 27th Battalion, Manitoba Regiment, takes 80 German prisoners with a platoon of only 5 men; killed by a sniper while leading his bombers against another objective; awarded the Victoria Cross posthumously June 27, 1917; First Saskatchewan resident to be awarded the VC. Acheville, France
  • 1919 New Dominion Copper Company, Limited, head office moved to that of the Canada Copper Corporation in Allenby, BC.
  • 1919 Yukon women win the right to vote. Yukon
  • 1920 Canada Copper Corporation moves the New Dominion Copper Company’s headquarters from Greenwood. BC to Allenby, BC.
  • 1922 Creation of radio station CKAC, the First in Québec; starts broadcasting officially in October. Montréal, Québec
  • 1922 Women in Prince Edward Island win the right to vote. Charlottetown, PEI
  • 1923 Richard Squires’ Liberal Reform Party government voted back into power in Newfoundland; he will resign July 23 over corruption charges and be succeeded by William Warren as Prime Minister of Newfoundland; in 1928 he will come back to power, but be blamed for the deepening depression, and lose the election of June, 1932. Newfoundland
  • 1935 James Dunn becomes Chairman and President of Algoma Steel; from Bathurst, New Brunswick. Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario
  • 1942 Music - Opera Guild of Montréal mounts its First production, Cavelleria Rusticana, with scenes from Carmen and The Barber of Seville, at His Majesty’s Theatre; founded by soprano Pauline Donalda, the Guild lasts for 28 seasons, until 1969. Montréal, Québec
  • 1945 Second World War - First Canadian Army takes Oldenburg, Germany, and Canadian paratroopers link up with Russians in Wismar. Wismar, Germany
  • 1945 Town of Rothesay incorporated. Rothesay, New Brunswick
  • 1958 Trust company at Brockville robbed of $3.3 million dollars in bonds and securities. Brockville, Ontario
  • 1959 Beatification of Mother Marie-Marguerite d’Youville, founder of the Sisters of Charity of the Hospital General of Montréal (Grey Nuns); First Canadian to be beatified; canonized by Pope John Paul December 9, 1990. Vatican City, Italy
  • 1960 John Diefenbaker attends Commonwealth Prime Ministers Conference; proposes Colombo Plan for aid to Africa. London, England
  • 1961 Canada sells $362 million of grain to People’s Republic of China. China
  • 1963 Lester Pearson visits London for talks with British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan; received by Queen Elizabeth II and appointed to the Privy Council. London, England
  • 1963 Over 1,600 residents of Hay River and Fort Simpson, NWT airlifted to safety after towns struck by flooding; the townsites will be moved to higher ground. Hay River, NWT
  • 1969 Rock star Jimi Hendrix arrested for heroin possession at Toronto International Airport; released on $10,000 bail. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1971 Queen Elizabeth II starts one-week visit to British Columbia for the province’s centennial, with Prince Philip and Princess Anne. Victoria, BC
  • 1975 Music - Soprano Sarah Fischer dies at age 79; made stage debut in Montréal in 1918, as Micaela in Carmen; 1923 sang in the First opera broadcast from Covent Garden, in the role of Pamina in The Magic Flute; 1934 sang in the BBC’s First opera telecast, a half hour of excerpts from Carmen. Montréal, Québec
  • 1979 Yukon River flood submerges Dawson under more than two metres of water; downtown declared a disaster area. Dawson City, Yukon
  • 1979 Angus MacLean becomes Premier of Prince Edward Island, replacing Bennett Campbell. Charlottetown, PEI
  • 1980 Ferguson Jenkins leads his Texas Rangers in a 3-2 win over the Baltimore Orioles; fourth pitcher in major league history to win 100 or more games in both the AL and NL leagues, joining Cy Young, Jim Bunning, and Gaylord Perry. In 1991, Jenkins, from Chatham, Ontario, was the First Canadian elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Anaheim, California
  • 1980 Baseball - Giants first baseman Willie McCovey hits his 521st and final career home run off Montréal Expos’ Scott Sanderson, tying him with Ted Williams on the all-time HR list; McCovey will retire June 6. Montréal, Québec
  • 1987 Sweden defeats Canada 9-0 to win World Hockey Championship; First in 25 years. Europe
  • 1988 Detroit Red Wings 1, Edmonton Oilers 4
  • 1989 John Turner announces resignation as Liberal leader as soon as a leadership convention date is set. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1990 Supreme Court of Canada unanimously rules that Angelique Lavallee of Winnipeg was acting in self defence when she shot her husband to death after years of beatings; women can use battered wife syndrome as defence against murder charge. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1991 Brian Mulroney promises 500-job GST processing centre for Summerside, PEI to help community hard hit by closing of Canadian Forces Base. Charlottetown, PEI
  • 2001 Saskatchewan provincial authorities say contaminated drinking water in North Battleford, caused illness of over 100 people and deaths of 3. North Battleford, Saskatchewan
  • 2004 Canadian businessman Naji al-Kuwaiti reportedly kidnapped in Iraq on April 28; released May 4. Iraq
  • 2007 Harper government introduces fixed election dates; ministry needs to be defeated on a non-confidence motion before the Governor General can call an earlier election. Ottawa, Ontario