Highlights of the day

  • 1920 Canadian Marconi’s Montreal radio station CFCF broadcasts the world’s first scheduled radio show.
  • 1948 Second World War ace Buzz Beurling killed in a crash in Rome at age 26.
  • 1979 Winnipeg Jets beat the Edmonton Oilers 7-3 to win the last WHA Championship AVCO Cup.
  • 1980 Québec votes No by 59.56% to René Lévesque’s referendum on sovereignty-association.

List of Facts for May 20

  • 1497 John Cabot departs Bristol on the Matthew with a crew of about 20; his second voyage to the new world; Italian merchant and explorer Giovanni Caboto Montecataluna Bristol, England
  • 1604 Pierre de Monts relocates his large ships to St. Mary’s Bay (la Baie française); it is here that a priest, Nicolas Aubry, is lost for 17 days. St. Mary’s Bay, Nova Scotia
  • 1616 Samuel de Champlain leaves Huronia to visit the Nipissing tribe after wintering with the Hurons. Midland, Ontario
  • 1668 Jacques Marquette starts upriver to join Father Claude Dablon and open a mission at Sault Ste-Marie that will serve 2,000 Algonkians. Québec, Québec
  • 1750 Fur trader Pierre de Portneuf completes a post he calls Fort Toronto near the Mississauga village of Teiaiagon on the orders of the Marquis de La Jonquière, Governor of New France; the post is situated on the east bank of the Humber River up from Lake Ontario. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1751 Pierre de Portneuf orders trader Joseph Dufeaux to build a larger post, Fort Rouillé, to the east of Fort Toronto; on the site of the CNE. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1760 Duc de Lévis sets out from Montréal with his 7,000 strong army to retake Québec from the British. Montréal, Québec
  • 1774 British Parliament passes the Québec Act, extending the boundaries of the province northwards to Labrador and Hudson Bay and as far south as the junction of the Ohio River and Mississippi River. London, England
  • 1776 American Revolutionary War - British defeat American invasion force in skirmish at Vaudreuil. Vaudreuil, Québec
  • 1776 Mariot Arbuthnot appointed Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia; serves from May 13, 1776 to August 17, 1778. London, England
  • 1786 St. John Island separates from Nova Scotia; later named Prince Edward Island. PEI
  • 1803 Chief Justice William Osgoode declares slavery to be inconsistent with the laws of Canada. Montréal, Québec
  • 1806 John Stuart journeys up the Peace River with Simon Fraser; Stuart the uncle of HBC trader Donald A. Smith, later Lord Strathcona. BC
  • 1814 War of 1812 - James Yeo starts three-week blockade of Sackett’s Harbour. Sackett’s Harbour, New York
  • 1836 City of Toronto & Lake Huron Railway Company incorporated. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1851 Opening of fourth session of third Parliament of Canada; meets until August 30, 1851; normal schools in Canada East; medical schools in Montréal and Toronto. Kingston, Ontario
  • 1851 Province of Canada issues its First postage stamps. Kingston, Ontario
  • 1859 George Barstow elected Mayor of Nanaimo with only one vote cast. Nanaimo, BC
  • 1862 George-Etienne Cartier sees his Militia Bill defeated 61-54 in the House; Cartier-Macdonald government resigns the following day. Kingston, Ontario
  • 1870 Adams Archibald appointed First Lieutenant-Governor of Manitoba and the North West Territory; serves until December 1, 1872. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1879 Charles Tupper First head of the new Department of Railways and Canals; a Minister will now have jurisdiction over all railways pertaining to the Dominion Government; previously under the Department of Public Works. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1882 Brandon incorporated as a city. Brandon, Manitoba
  • 1887 NWMP Commissioner Herchmer orders Colonel Samuel Steele at Fort Macleod to take D Division into Ktunaxa territory in the Rocky Mountain Trench. Regina, Saskatchewan
  • 1890 D.C. Corbin pushes his Spokane Falls and Northern Railway to Marcus, BC on the Columbia River.
  • 1898 British Columbia passes the Redistribution Act which divides the East Kootenay Electoral District into North and South Ridings, and redivides the West Kootenay Electoral District into Revelstoke, Slocan, Nelson, and Rossland Ridings. Victoria, BC
  • 1900 Opening of the second modern Olympic games in Paris, with 22 nations and 1330 competitors; will last five months, until October 28, 1900. Canada does not send an official team to the Paris Olympic Games, but Canadian George Orton, running for the US, will take the gold medal in the 2500m steeplechase. Paris, France
  • 1905 Montréal and Boston Consolidated Mining and Smelting defaults and suspends all operations in the Boundary Creek region. BC
  • 1908 Anglican Church organized in Fruitvale, BC, the Rev. M. Graham of Nelson officiating.
  • 1911 War Eagle Consolidated Mining and Development Company dissolved. BC
  • 1913 B&N begins removing its hardware between Kuskonook and Creston Junction (Wynndel). BC
  • 1920 Canadian Marconi Company’s experimental radio station XWA hosts the First scheduled radio show in North America, and possibly in the world, broadcasting a music program from Montréal to a meeting of the Royal Society of Canada in Ottawa; became station CFCF on November 4, 1920, and is reputed to be the oldest radio station in the world. Montréal, Québec
  • 1923 New Brunswick-born British Prime Minister Bonar Law resigns due to ill health; replaced by Stanley Baldwin. London, England
  • 1927 CPR opens the Canadian Folk Song and Handicraft Festival in Québec City; First of the CPR Festivals, a series of music and folk arts events held across Canada until 1931; organized by the Canadian Pacific Railway’s publicity agent, John Murray Gibbon; CPR followed this up with $3,000 in prize money for compositions based on French-Canadian folksongs. Québec, Québec
  • 1930 Walter Lea becomes Premier of Prince Edward Island, replacing Albert Saunders. PEI
  • 1932 Amelia Earhart takes off from Newfoundland for Ireland; will became the First woman to make a solo plane flight across the Atlantic Ocean. St. John’s, Newfoundland
  • 1938 Group of 500 unemployed members of Relief Project Worker’s Union start sit-down strike in Hotel Georgia; paid $500 to leave; strikers stay in Vancouver Art Gallery. Vancouver, BC
  • 1945 Second World War - Four Japanese balloon bombs fall on Alberta. Alberta
  • 1948 Buzz Beurling killed at age 26 when the Norseman plane he is piloting for the Israeli underground army Haganah blows up at Urbe airport. Canada’s top Second World War air ace with 31 1/2 kills, Beurling was born on the Miramachi, and brought up in Verdun, Québec; a high school dropout, he hung around airports until he learned to fly, failed to join the RCAF, but got into the RAF; shot down 27 German planes over Malta in a two week period, earning him the DFC, DSO, DFM and Bar He was buried in Rome’s English cemetery between the graves of Keats and Shelley, but two years later the grateful state of Israel exhumed his body, laid him in state in Haifa, and buried him at the base of Mount Carmel, near the cave of Elijah the Prophet. Rome, Italy
  • 1963 RCMP arrest 20 young FLQ members for terrorist acts; Mario Bachand later sentenced to four years in jail for planting post box bombs in Westmount, including the one that maimed Canadian Army engineer Sergeant-Major Walter Leja. Montréal, Québec
  • 1967 Air Canada DC-8 crashes near Ottawa on training flight, killing three veteran pilots. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1970 The Guess Who’s American Woman/No Sugar Tonight stays at #1 on the Billboard pop chart; Winnipeg-based group. New York, New York
  • 1971 Francis Simard sentenced to life imprisonment for the October 17, 1970 murder of Québec Labour Minister Pierre Laporte. Montréal, Québec
  • 1975 Ottawa approves 840 km Inter-provincial Pipeline extension from Sarnia to Montréal. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1975 Supreme Court of Canada upholds right of citizens to challenge provincial movie censorship laws. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1977 Pearce Bunting replaces Jack Kimber as President and CEO of the Toronto Stock Exchange. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1978 Willie Stargell hits 535-foot home run off Wayne Twitchell to lead the Pirates’ to a 6-0 win over the Montréal Expos; longest home run ever in the Olympic Stadium. Montréal, Québec
  • 1979 Winnipeg Jets defeat the Edmonton Oilers 7-3 to win the last WHA Championship AVCO Cup. Winnipeg, Manitoba
  • 1980 Québec votes No by 59.56% to René Lévesque’s referendum to get a mandate to negotiate Québec’s sovereignty-association with the rest of Canada; the No forces were led by Claude Ryan; First live coverage of a Canadian referendum; Lévesque says to his supporters: ‘If I understand you correctly, what you are telling me is, Next Time!’ Pierre Trudeau promises ‘renewed federalism’ even if it means patriating the constitution over the Québec government’s objections. Québec
  • 1984 Robert Skelly elected leader of the British Columbia New Democratic Party. Victoria, BC
  • 1986 Sharon Wood and Dwayne Congdon of Canmore, Alberta, reach the summit of Mount Everest; Wood the First North American woman to climb the world’s highest peak. Nepal
  • 1987 Hockey - Philadelphia Flyers 2, Edmonton Oilers 3 (OT)
  • 1988 Hockey - Boston Bruins 2, Edmonton Oilers 4
  • 1990 Lucien Bouchard sends telegram of support to the Parti Québécois National Council meeting at Alma, Québec praising those who fought for the Yes side during the 1980 Referendum; many of his fellow Progressive Conservative caucus members are outraged; leads to his resignation from the Party and the Commons May 22, 1990. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1990 Parti Québécois National Council issues 46 page pamphlet outlining proposals on achieving Québec independence; discusses army, passports, common currency with Canada. Alma, Québec
  • 1990 Hockey - Boston Bruins 2, Edmonton Oilers 1
  • 1996 Toronto director David Cronenberg’s film Crash wins the Prix Spécial du Jury at the Cannes Film festival, for daring, originality and audacity; after scandalous reception in France, the film will win two Genie Awards, for best adapted screenplay and best director, in November, 1996. Cannes, France
  • 1999 Supreme Court of Canada rules unanimously to open aboriginal band elections to off-reserve natives; states that excluding them violates the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1999 Supreme Court of Canada expands gay spousal rights, strikes down definition of term spouse in Ontario law under which homosexuals were denied the right to sue for spousal support. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 2003 Case of Mad Cow Disease or BSE - (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) - is reported in a cow slaughtered into the dog food stream; discovered on a northern Alberta farm; a threat to Canada’s $7.6 billion beef industry; US Dept. of Agriculture will close the Boundary to import of Canadian beef, as do 34 other countries, including Japan and Mexico.
  • 2005 Six Alberta oil workers die and another two dozen are injured when their bus is T-boned by a tractor-trailer. Alberta