Highlights of the day

  • 1913 First Gopher Day in Saskatchewan is held; school children awarded medals for the most groundhogs eliminated.
  • 1915 Second Battle of Ypres ends with 105,000 casualties, including hundreds of Canadians, many killed by gas attacks.
  • 2000 Remains of an unidentified Canadian soldier, who died at Vimy Ridge, are brought back to Canada and buried in the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier beside the National War Memorial.

List of Facts for May 25

  • 1615 Religion - Samuel de Champlain arrives at Tadoussac with Recollet missionaries Denis Jamet, Joseph Le Caron, Jean Dolbeau and Pacifique Duplessis; first Christian priests in the colony; learns of new Iroquois aggression. Tadoussac, Québec
  • 1660 Parisian lawyer/accountant Jean Dumesnil examines all fur-trading transactions of the bankrupt Company of New France since 1645. Québec, Québec
  • 1717 John Doucelte appointed Lieutenant-Governor of Annapolis Royal and administrator of Nova Scotia; serves until 1726. Annapolis, Nova Scotia
  • 1858 First shipload of gold rush prospectors from California arrives in British Columbia. Victoria, BC
  • 1868 Capital of the United Colony of British Columbia moved from New Westminster, BC to Victoria. Victoria, BC
  • 1870 Fenian Raids - Canadian militia commander Osborne Smith disperses an Irish Fenian Brotherhood raiding party led by O’Neill and Spier back across the border; has no casualties; the Fenian leaders will be arrested in the US; their last raid into Canada. Eccles Hill, Québec
  • 1882 Lord Lorne hosts First meeting of Royal Society of Canada; RSC founded to promote a national science and literature. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1885 Frederick Denison and his Nile Voyageurs arrive back in Canada. Québec, Québec
  • 1900 Ottawa Electric Railway Company starts operating a line to the Britannia Beach amusement park. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1904 First automobiles arrive in Edmonton. Edmonton, Alberta
  • 1905 Peterborough incorporated as a city. Peterborough, Ontario
  • 1913 First Gopher Day in Saskatchewan is held; medals awarded to school children who killed the most groundhogs. Saskatchewan
  • 1914 Québec Archbishop Louis-Nazaire Bégin elected a Cardinal. Rome, Italy
  • 1915 First World War - The Second Battle of Ypres ends with 105,000 casualties, including hundreds of Canadians; the Germans used poison gas for the First time. Ypres, Belgium See April 22
  • 1923 Boating accident kills 8 on Christina Lake, BC.
  • 1927 Canadian government cuts trade ties with the new Soviet Union. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1944 Second World War - Canadian Army Major J. K. Mahony wins VC for holding bridgehead over Melfa River. Melfa River, Italy
  • 1950 Operation Rainbow begins; cleanup of Winnipeg following the flood of 1950. Winnipeg, Manitoba
  • 1952 Korean War - Canadian troops dispatched to the troubled Koje-Do POW facility. South Korea
  • 1953 Alexander Matheson new Liberal Premier of Prince Edward Island, replacing Walter Jones. Charlottetown, PEI
  • 1953 Canadian orchestra leader Percy Faith’s The Percy Faith Orchestra has a number one dance hit with Song from Moulin Rouge. New York, New York
  • 1954 Noontime: the Man Rock on Turtle Mountain falls. Frank, Alberta
  • 1958 Toronto gets Canada’s First direct distance dialing (DDD) telephone system. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1967 US President Lyndon Johnson unveils the United States’ Centennial gift to Canada at Expo ‘67, a crystal and steel sculpture called The Great Ring of Canada. Montréal, Québec
  • 1967 Midway, BC becomes a Village.
  • 1971 Paul Hellyer launches his Action Canada political movement to pressure Ottawa on tax cuts, unemployment and wage and price controls; former Liberal MP, Cabinet Minister. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1978 Montréal Canadiens beat the Boston Bruins 4-1 in the sixth game to win the Stanley Cup, 4 games to 2. Montréal, Québec
  • 1979 Cinema - Mary Pickford dies in Hollywood at the age of 88; born Gladys Smith in Toronto, the movie actress and producer was known as America’s Sweetheart for her roles in the silent films of the 1920s; she was married to Douglas Fairbanks, and with him and Charlie Chaplin was co-founder of the United Artists studio and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science. Hollywood, Callifornia
  • 1980 CBC Archives:Marathon of Hope: Day 44)
  • 1982 Baseball - Chatham, Ontario’s Ferguson Jenkins strikes out his 3,000th batter; Fergie becomes only the seventh major league pitcher to accomplish that feat. Detroit, Michigan
  • 1983 Baseball - Jorge Orta of the Toronto Blue Jays and Kirk Gibson of the Detroit Tigers both hit inside the park home runs during a game. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1985 Hockey - Philadelphia Flyers 3, Edmonton Oilers 4
  • 1986 Terrorists try to assassinate Malkiat Singh Sidhu, a cabinet minister in the Indian state of Punjab. Vancouver, BC
  • 1987 New Brunswick jockey Herve Filion drives Commander Bond to victory in the third race at Yonkers Raceway, becoming the First harness racing driver to win 10,000 races. Yonkers, New York
  • 1989 Hockey - Calgary Flames beat the Montréal Canadiens 4-2 in Game 6 to win their First Stanley Cup, four games to two. Montréal, Québec
  • 1989 Dr. Jamie Astaphan takes the stand at the Dubin Inquiry into drug use in amateur sport. Ben Johnson’s personal physician admits he gave steroids to Johnson. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1989 Baseball - Montréal Expos trade pitcher Randy Johnson to the Seattle Mariners for Mark Langston. Montréal, Québec
  • 1990 Brian Mulroney begins meeting Premiers individually over three days to lobby for passage of the Meech Lake Accord. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1990 Retired restaurant owner Imre Finta acquitted on all counts of confinement, kidnapping, robbery and manslaughter in the 1944 deportation of 8,617 Jews while in the Hungarian police; Canada’s First war crimes trial under 1987 law. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1991 Hockey - Pittsburgh Penguins beat Minnesota North Stars 4 games to 2 for the Stanley Cup. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
  • 1993 Nova Scotia Election - Dr. John Savage wins a majority for the Liberals in the provincial election, ending 15 years of Tory rule. Nova Scotia
  • 1993 Nova Scotia Election - Wayne Adams elected the province’s first black MLA in the NS provincial election. Nova Scotia
  • 1995 Prime Minister Jean Chrétien affirms that he would not recognize any referendum result of 50.1%, saying ‘That’s not reasonable.’ Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1995 Egan v. Canada - Supreme Court of Canada rules that sexual orientation is a prohibited grounds of discrimination under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
  • 1997 Supreme Court of Canada rules that the Charter of Rights protects rights of homosexuals against discrimination; sexual orientation not specifically mentioned in Charter. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 2000 Remains of an unidentified Canadian soldier, who died at Vimy Ridge in France during First World War, are brought back to Canada and buried in the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier beside the National War Memorial. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 2010 Foreign Affairs - Canada suspends diplomatic relations with North Korea after the sinking of a South Korean naval vessel in March. Ottawa , Ontario