June 9

Highlights of the day

1534 Jacques Cartier sails into the river he names the St. Lawrence, on the Saint’s feast day.
1775 Guy Carleton proclaims martial law; calls out troops to meet invasion by American revolutionaries.
1973 Ron Turcotte rides Secretariat to victory in the 105th Belmont Stakes in a world record time; takes horse racing’s Triple Crown; first winner in 25 years.

List of Facts for June 9

1534 Jacques Cartier sails into the mouth of the St. Lawrence River, looking for gold and a northwest passage to the Orient; names the river for St. Lawrence on his feast day. Québec
1537 Pope Paul III declares in his encyclical Veros homines that Indians are human beings, with the qualities and faults of human beings. Rome, Italy
1643 Iroquois ambush and kill five farmers and inhabitants of Montréal. Montréal, Québec
1775 American Revolutionary War - Guy Carleton proclaims martial law and calls out militia to augment 800 British regular troops; suspends administration of the Québec Act to meet the American invasion. Québec, Québec
1789 Spanish captain Estebán José Martínez captures trader John Meares’ schooner Northwest America near Vancouver Island. Nootka Sound, BC
1790 David Thompson leaves Cumberland House to survey the Saskatchewan River. Cumberland House, Manitoba
1793 Upper Canada Assembly passes law prohibiting the importation of slaves into Upper Canada. Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario
1818 Founding of the Bank of Québec, with £75,000 in capital. Québec, Québec
1829 Thirty Montréalers ‘take the pledge’ to abstain from alcohol at First temperance meeting in Canada. Montréal, Québec
1841 Lord Sydenham appoints Legislative Council of Canada with 24 members; holds its First meeting on June 11, 1841. Kingston, Ontario
1846 Fire destroys the wharves and most of the houses in St. John’s, leaving nearly 120,000 people homeless. St. John’s, Newfoundland
1846 A.C. Anderson arrives at Fort Kamloops, tasked by the Hudson’s Bay Company with finding a new Brigade Trail to Kamloops, BC.
1846 Hamilton gets city charter. Hamilton, Ontario
1853 Alessandro Gavazzi, a former Italian priest, foments another riot in Montréal after June 6 riot in Quebec City. When a band of Roman Catholic Irish try to force their way into Zion Church where he is speaking, and do not disperse when ordered to do so, Montreal mayor Charles Wilson reads the Riot Act, then orders troops to fire on crowd, leaving five dead and many wounded. Montréal, Québec
1866 British Army soldier Timothy O’Hea enters a burning Grand Trunk Railway boxcar, rips the lids from munition boxes, and douses the flames with buckets of water; the Irish Private will become the only person to earn the Victoria Cross for an incident In Canada. Sherbrooke, Québec
1897 Davidson & Russell’s townsite plan for Fairview, BC filed; see March 18, 1897.
1900 BC Election - James Dunsmuir elected Conservative Premier of British Columbia. BC
1900 Prince Edward Island First province to bring in prohibition; not repealed until 1948. Charlottetown, PEI
1915 First World War - Start of internment of German and Austrian nationals in the curling rink in Fernie, BC.
1919 Saskatchewan’s Minimum Wage Board holds its First session at Prince Albert. Prince Albert, Saskatchewan
1919 Winnipeg City Council dismisses Police Force during Winnipeg General Strike. Winnipeg, Manitoba
1920 Manitoba Election - Edith Rogers becomes Manitoba’s First woman MLA. Manitoba
1921 Saskatchewan Election - William M. Martin’s Liberals win a fifth consecutive majority. Saskatchewan
1935 First observations made at the University of Toronto’s David Dunlap Observatory. Richmond Hill, Ontario
1941 Second World War - HMCS Saskatoon is commissioned. Esquimalt, BC
1942 Second World War - Buzz Beurling reaches Malta; starts rise to top rank of Canadian fighter pilots; the Montréaler will shoot down 15 enemy aircraft while with the Royal Air Force. Valetta, Malta
1944 Second World War -D-Day +3; Kurt Meyer withdraws his defeated 12th SS Hitlerjugend Panzer Grenadiers to Rots, then throws his last fresh Panther tank company in broad daylight against the Regina Rifles position at Norrey; but the Sherman Firefly tanks of the 1st Hussars drive him back, killing 8 tanks with their 17-pounders. Later in the day, the Queens Own Rifles and 1st Hussars capture the village of Le Mesnil-Patry, France, seven miles forward of Norrey; attacked by 88s, they lose 19 of the Hussar Shermans in fifteen minutes; the Queen’s Own Rifles have 87 casualties, the 1st Hussars 60. Later in the day, the SS executes 18 more Canadian POWs at Abbey d’Ardenne, Kurt Meyer’s HQ, on his orders. Norrey, France
1947 Government ends wartime control and rationing of dairy products. Ottawa, Ontario
1950 R.C. Thomas dies; Calgary businessman. Calgary, Alberta
1953 BC Election - W.A.C. Bennett leads Social Credit to victory in British Columbia. BC
1955 Ontario Election - Leslie Frost’s PCs win a fourth consecutive majority. Ontario
1964 Max Aitken, Lord Beaverbrook dies in London; New Brunswick-born financier, politician and newspaper owner.
1968 Canadian political party leaders Pierre Trudeau, Robert Stanfleld, Tommy Douglas and Réal Caouette hold first policy debate on television. Toronto, Ontario
1969 BC Premier W. A. C. Bennett dedicates the Keenleyside Dam on the Columbia River. BC
1971 Ottawa founds Canada Development Corporation; to help develop Canadian-owned and managed companies. Ottawa, Ontario
1973 New Brunswick jockey Ron Turcotte rides Secretariat to victory in the 105th Belmont Stakes in a world record time for a 1 1/2 mile course (2:24) and a record for the largest margin of victory in the Belmont (31 lengths); also takes horse racing’s Triple Crown, the First winner in 25 years. Belmont, New York
1977 Ontario Election - Bill Davis’s PCs win a second consecutive minority. Ontario
1979 Joey Smallwood resigns from the House of Assembly; Newfoundland Premier 1949-72; brought the province into Confederation in 1949. St. John’s, Newfoundland
1980 Cyclone Taylor dies; born at Tara, Ontario June 23, 1885; played for the Ottawa Senators (1908), the Renfrew Millionaires (1909-11) and the Vancouver Millionaires (1913-21), scoring 194 goals in 186 games; elected First living member of the Hockey Hall of Fame at the charter meeting in 1947. Vancouver, BC
1983 Bill 101, protecting the French language in Québec is ruled unconstitutional. Québec
1984 Fleet of tall ships arrives at Halifax; celebrating the 450th anniversary of Jacques Cartier’s discovery of Québec; will visit several Canadian cities before arriving at Québec. Halifax, Nova Scotia
1984 Patrick Roy is picked by the Montréal Canadiens in the NHL Entry draft. Montréal, Québec
1984 Pittsburgh Penguins pick Mario Lemieux as their number one draft choice in the NHL Entry draft. Montréal, Québec
1988 Supreme Court of Canada denies Newfoundland’s 12-year quest for a better contract with Hydro Québec for power from the Churchill Falls Hydro project. Ottawa, Ontario
1989 Jane Foster and Deanna Brasseur pass course to become Canada’s First two female fighter pilots available for combat roles in the Canadian Armed forces. Cold Lake, Alberta
1990 Brian Mulroney reaches compromise with 10 provincial Premiers over the Meech Lake Accord; series of agreements and add-ons. Gatineau, Québec
1992 Vancouver, BC music producer and composer David Foster hits and critically injures entertainer Ben Vereen after running into him with his car near Malibu Beach while Vereen was walking along the Pacific Coast Highway; no charges are filed against Foster; six hours earlier, Vereen had crashed his car into a tree, and police said he passed a sobriety test. Malibu, California
1993 Alexis Smith dies; born Gladys Smith at Penticton, BC in 1921; Smith was a leading film actress in the 1940 and 1950s; also won a Tony for her performance in the Sondheim musical Follies (1971); played J. R. Ewing’s enemy Lady Jessica Montford on the TV show Dallas from 1984 to 1990. Los Angeles, California
1993 Hockey - Montréal Canadiens beat the Los Angeles Kings 4-1 to clinch their 24th Stanley Cup title in the 100th anniversary season; goalie Patrick Roy wins Conn Smythe Trophy as NHL playoff MVP. Montréal, Québec
1995 Floods in Medicine Hat force over 5,000 people from their homes. Medicine Hat, Alberta
1995 Inco pays $700 million to buy 30% of Diamond Fields Resources’s metal deposit at Voisey Bay, Labrador; will eventually acquire control. Toronto, Ontario
1997 Stanley Knowles dies in Ottawa, Ontario; minister, politician, born at Los Angeles, California June 18, 1908 to Canadian parents; 1926 came to Canada for theological studies at United College, Winnipeg; served as United Church minister; joined the CCF during the Depression; November 30, 1942 sworn in as CCF MP for Winnipeg North Centre, J.S. Woodsworth’s old seat; CCF/NDP Member of Parliament for 4 decades, a total of 37 years, 4 months, 21 days; to 31 March 1958 when he was defeated in the John Diefenbaker sweep; then back to Parliament from June 18, 1962, to July 9, 1984, when he was forced to retire due to a stroke and Multiple Sclerosis; a respected master of parliamentary procedure, the Trudeau government made him an honorary officer of the House of Commons for life, and a chair was kept for him at the Clerk’s Table where he could sit in on all the debates. Ottawa, Ontario
1998 Three are killed in a gas explosion in Montréal, Québec.
2000 Canada and United States sign new border security agreement; two countries to establish joint enforcement team to bolster security along the eastern border. Washington, DC
2003 New Brunswick Election - Bernard Lord’s NB Conservatives lose seats but are re-elected to a majority government. New Brunswick
2005 Chaoulli Case - Supreme Court of Canada strikes down a Québec law banning private insurance for services covered by medicare; rules 4-3 against the Quebec Health Insurance Act and Quebec Hospital Insurance Act sections that ban private insurance for medically necessary services; says province violating the right of patients to seek private care when faced with long waiting lists in the public system; Quebec and Ottawa ask for 18-month delay in implementing the judgment; in August, the Supreme Court announces it will suspend the judgment for 12 months. Ottawa, Ontario