Highlights of the day

  • 1806 Philemon Wright starts first raft of pine and oak staves down the Ottawa River.
  • 1943 Thirteen Canadians die in Dambusters raid on Mohne and Eder dams in the Ruhr; only 8 of the 17 Lancasters return.
  • 1961 Camelot comes to Canada: John F. Kennedy starts three-day visit to Ottawa.
  • 2006 Statistics Canada holds Canada 2006 Census Day (results below).

List of Facts for May 16

  • 1613 Rene Le Coq de La Saussaye reaches Acadia to get Biard and Masse to make peace with Poutrincourt; sent by Antoinette de Pons, Marquise de Guercheville. Port Royal, Nova Scotia
  • 1619 Jens Munk sets sail to find North West Passage; commissioned by the King of Denmark, he will make the First European discovery of the Missinipi River or Churchill River, a gateway into northern Manitoba. Copenhagen, Denmark
  • 1646 Isaac Jogues leaves Trois-Rivières on a successful peace mission to Mohawks with another Jesuit, Jean de La Lande. Trois-Rivières, Québec
  • 1760 François, Duc de Lévis abandons siege of Québec when a British fleet commanded by Robert Swanton approaches up the St. Lawrence River. Québec, Québec
  • 1762 Captain Francis Peabody sails with Massachusetts settlers to establish a township on the Saint John River. At Pointe Ste-Anne (Fredericton, New Brunswick) they encounter Maliseet warriors, then move downriver to establish Maugerville, New Brunswick; First permanent British settlers from Massachusetts to New Brunswick. Newburyport, Massachusetts
  • 1763 Pontiac sends warriors to take Sandusky during his rising against the British. Sandusky, Ohio
  • 1775 American Revolutionary War - Benedict Arnold captures Fort St. John from the British during the American invasion. St-Jean, Québec
  • 1785 Jonathan Bliss arrives from England to assume his duties as the First Attorney General of New Brunswick. Saint John, New Brunswick
  • 1796 Fifth session of First Parliament of Upper Canada meets until June 3, 1796 at Niagara. Niagara-on-the Lake, Ontario
  • 1806 Philemon Wright starts First raft of pine and oak staves down the Ottawa River; reaches Québec two months later; opens up new timber trade in the Ottawa, Valley, with huge rafts of squared white pine being floated down to Québec, where they are broken up and loaded into ships bound for Britain. Gatineau, Québec
  • 1807 Incorporation of the Québec Benevolent Society. Québec, Québec
  • 1835 Incorporation of Erie & Ontario Railway and Hamilton & Port Dover Railway. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1851 James Douglas appointed Governor of British Columbia and Vancouver Island; serves from September, 1851 to September, 1863. Victoria, BC
  • 1853 First train in Ontario runs from Toronto to Aurora on the Ontario Simcoe and Huron Railroad Union Company; name changed to The Northern Railway of Canada on August 16, 1858; became part of the Northern and Northwestern Railway June 6, 1879, now part of CN. Aurora, Ontario
  • 1854 Reciprocity Treaty between Canada and the US takes effect; US agrees to admit most Canadian products duty free; US fishermen can catch within the three-mile limit, land to cure their fish, and navigate the St. Lawrence River freely.
  • 1863 Antoine-Aimé Dorion replaces Louis Sicotte as Attorney-General for Canada East; forms new Liberal Macdonald-Dorion Ministry with John Sandfield Macdonald. Québec
  • 1871 Imperial Order-in-Council lets British Columbia join the Dominion as Canada’s sixth province. London, England
  • 1879 Tornado strikes near Saddle Lake, leaving one person dead. Saddle Lake, Alberta
  • 1885 CPR drives last spike in North Shore Section of Canadian Pacific Railway main line; completion of Lake Superior segment to Fort William. Noslo, Ontario
  • 1888 William Van Horne opens the Canadian Pacific Railway’s new Hotel Vancouver; still a CPR owned and managed hotel. Vancouver, BC
  • 1890 James Ross, Herbert Holt, William Mackenzie and Donald Mann authorized to construct rail line from Calgary to Edmonton, and from Calgary to the Boundary; becomes part of Canadian Northern Railway. Edmonton, Alberta
  • 1897 Foremost Man dies; leader of the last band of Plains aboriginal people to settle on a reserve in Canada. Saskatchewan
  • 1899 Granby Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company, Limited, announces its intent to build its smelter at Grand Forks, BC.
  • 1911 James Palmer becomes Premier of Prince Edward Island, replacing F. L. Haszard.
  • 1919 US Navy Lieutenant Commander A. C. Read, in his Curtiss NC-4 flying boat, leaves Trepassey Harbour and will complete the First successful Transatlantic flight reaching Plymouth, England two weeks later via the Azores and Lisbon. A month later, on June 14, 1919 British Army Captain John Alcock and Lt. Arthur Brown will make the First nonstop transatlantic flight from St. John’s, Newfoundland; their 3,100 km flight ends 16 hours later with a nose-down landing at Clifden, County Galway, Ireland. Trepassey, Newfoundland
  • 1922 Newfoundland railway workers start general strike. Newfoundland
  • 1930 Energy - Prospector Gilbert Labine starts building a pitchblende mine on Great Bear Lake; later will open a uranium refinery at Port Hope, Ontario to produce the fuel for the atom bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during WW II. Port Radium, NWT
  • 1937 CP re-opens the Kettle Valley Railway’s old Copper Mountain spur. BC
  • 1940 Opening of First session of 19th Parliament; until November 5, 1940. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1943 Second World War - British and Canadian Lancaster pilots of the Dambusters Squadron succeed in breaching the Mohne dam and the Eder dam in Germany’s industrial Ruhr basin using a bouncing bomb dropped at low level; only 8 of the 17 planes return; 13 of the 53 dead are Canadians. Mohne, Germany
  • 1951 Newly-formed Canadian League of Composers hosts an introductory concert at the Royal Conservatory of Music Concert Hall; string orchestra and solists perform music by John Weinzweig, the League’s president. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1955 CBC Symphony Orchestra makes its public debut at Massey Hall; founded in 1952, it performed only on radio until 1955; a victim of cutbacks in 1964. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1958 Thomas Sugg of Bonavista dies at the advanced age of 111. Bonavista, Newfoundland
  • 1961 John F. Kennedy starts three-day visit to Ottawa. Ottawa, Ontario See: (CBC Archives: Camelot comes to Canada)
  • 1961 BC born actor Raymond Burr wins the award for best TV actor at the 13rd Emmy Awards; Barbara Stanwyck and the Jack Benny Show win for best woman actor and best program. Los Angeles, California
  • 1963 Opening of First session of 26th Parliament; meets until December 21, 1963. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1964 E.P. Taylor’s Northern Dancer, ridden by Bill Hartack, wins the 90th Preakness Stakes in 1:56.8, by 2 1/2 lengths over The Scoundrel. Baltimore, Maryland
  • 1966 Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company officially adopts the name COMINCO. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1967 Ottawa starts $1 million program to help native Canadians buy or build homes off reserves and closer to jobs. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1968 Women’s Christian Temperance Union presented its documents to the Manitoba Archives at its eighty-third WCTU annual meeting. Winnipeg, Manitoba
  • 1970 Randy Bachman leaves the Guess Who; will found Bachman-Turner Overdrive. Winnipeg, Manitoba
  • 1973 Zambian troops kill two Canadian women at Rhodesian (Zimbabwe) border; believed they were saboteurs. Zimbabwe
  • 1976 Montréal Canadiens win their 19th Stanley Cup with a 5-3 victory over Philadelphia Flyers, to sweep the series 4-0. Montréal, Québec
  • 1977 Justice Emmet Hall issues his Report on Grain Handling and Transportation; recommends formation of Prairie rail authority; also construction of Arctic Railway. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1977 Montréal Canadiens win their 20th Stanley Cup, downing Boston 2-1, to sweep the series 4-0. Boston, Massachusetts
  • 1982 New York Islanders cap a four game sweep, beating the Vancouver Canucks 3-1 in game 4 to take their third Stanley Cup in a row; First American NHL team to do so; will make it four in a row in 1983. Vancouver, BC
  • 1985 Edmonton Oilers 8. Chicago Blackhawks 2; Oilers win Conference Finals 4 games to 2.
  • 1990 Fire breaks out at Québec’s largest tire dump (3 million tires) near Montréal; rages for four days before being put out. St-Amable, Québec
  • 1991 Steve Yzerman scores at 1:15 into the second overtime as the Red Wings advance to the Western Conference finals with a 1-0 victory over the St. Louis Blues in Game 7; second time in NHL history that a Game 7 was scoreless heading into overtime; First in 1950, when Red Wings beat Toronto Maple Leafs 1-0 in the semifinals. Detroit, Michigan
  • 2001 British Columbia election - Gordon Campbell and BC Liberal win a landslide victory over Ujjal Dosanjh’s NDP, wiping them off the political map in British Columbia. BC
  • 2006 Statistics Canada holds Canada 2006 Census Day. Results: Population=31,612,897; Median age=39.5; Total visible minority population=5,068,090; Total private dwellings=13,576,855; Median earnings in 2005 (full-year, full-time earners)=$41,401; Total number of farms=229,373.