Highlights of the day

  • 1745 William Pepperell & 4,000 New England troops capture Louisbourg from Louis de Vergor.
  • 1845 Toronto artist Paul Kane leaves on a painting expedition to the west; backed by HBC.
  • 1871 Barnum Giants Anna Swan of Nova Scotia, at 2.27 metres (7’5”) and Martin Buren of Kentucky, at 2.19 metres (7’2”) get married.
  • 1919 J. S. Woodsworth jailed along with 9 other leaders of the Winnipeg Central Strike Committee.

List of Facts for June 17

  • 1605 Samuel de Champlain leaves with Pierre de Monts to hunt for a better site for the colony; will sail 650 km south to Cape Cod, Massachusetts; draws First charts of New England coastline. - Annapolis, Nova Scotia -
  • 1616 Colonizer William Vaughan acquires the Avalon Peninsula in Newfoundland’s southeast corner from the London and Bristol Company; will start a Welsh colony at Renews and Trepassey Harbour. - London, England
  • 1673 French missionary explorers Marquette and Joliet reach the Mississippi River. - Indiana
  • 1687 Jacques-René de Denonville sets out on an expedition against the Iroquois with Pierre de Troyes. - Québec, Québec
  • 1745 William Pepperell and his 4,000 Colonial New England troops, accompanied by Massachusetts Governor William Shirley and with naval support from Commodore Peter Warren, capture Louisbourg from Louis de Vergor; most civilians sent to Rochefort, France; Louisbourg returned to France in 1748. - Louisbourg, Nova Scotia
  • 1753 Governor-in-Chief Edward Cornwallis settles second flotilla of Germans in Lunenburg, a town named after King George II of England, originally the Duke of Braunschweig-Luneburg; all were loyal Protestants from present-day Germany, Switzerland and the Montbéliard region of France; the British promised them supplies and building materials, but they had to pay back their transport costs with labour on public works. - Lunenburg, Nova Scotia
  • 1755 Robert Monckton takes Fort Gaspereau without firing a shot; French abandon garrison at mouth of Saint John River; last French forts in Acadia gone. - Saint John, New Brunswick
  • 1776 American Revolutionary War - End of the American invasion of Québec as the last troops of the Army of the Continental Congress start leaving the province. - Québec
  • 1777 American Revolutionary War - John Burgoyne leaves Fort St. John and marches south with a force of 7,700 British and German regulars, plus Canadians and Indians and 138 artillery pieces. - St-Jean, Quebec
  • 1779 Francis McLean builds fort at Castine, Maine, with 650 men, to serve as a Halifax outpost, provide refuge for loyalists and to block any attacks from New England. - Castine, Maine
  • 1845 Paul Kane leaves on a painting expedition to the west; spends summer sketching around Lake Huron and Lake Michigan. - Toronto, Ontario
  • 1864 George Brown meets with Macdonald, Galt and Cartier to discuss possibility of forming coalition government; with federation as part of the program. - Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1868 Anthony Musgrave former governor of Newfoundland, appointed Governor of British Columbia. - London, England
  • 1871 P.T. Barnum Circus giants Anna Swan of Nova Scotia, at 2.27 metres (7’5”) marries Martin Buren of Kentucky, at 2.19 metres (7’2”); the couple got engaged during a translatlantic voyage; wedding takes place in St. Martins-in-the Fields Church, and Barnum’s publicist told the press that Queen Victoria provided the wedding dress; world’s tallest married couple . - London, England
  • 1871 New Brunswick Assembly passes Common Schools Act establishing separate schools. - Fredericton, New Brunswick
  • 1882 Government completes CPR from Fort William, Ontario to Selkirk. - Selkirk, Manitoba
  • 1903 Roald Amundsen starts Arctic voyage on his ship Gjoa; First east to west navigation of the Northwest Passage. - Nunavut
  • 1917 Alberta Election - Arthur Sifton and the Liberals re-elected in Alberta. CBC Archives)
  • 1919 Winnipeg General Strike - J. S. Woodsworth jailed along with 9 other leaders of the Central Strike Committee. - Winnipeg, Manitoba
  • 1925 Canada signs League of Nations protocol prohibiting the use of poisonous gases and bacteria in warfare. - Geneva, Switzerland
  • 1928 Amelia Earhart embarks on transatlantic flight to Wales as a passenger/copilot in a plane piloted by Wilmer Stultz; in 1932, she will be the First woman to fly across the Atlantic solo. - Newfoundland
  • 1936 Opening of Petawawa military airport; called the Silver Dart Aerodrome, to mark the flight of the Silver Dart there in 1909. - Pembroke, Ontario
  • 1946 Tornado hits Windsor, killing 16 and injuring hundreds. - Windsor, Ontario
  • 1953 Oil is discovered in the Drayton Valley. - Drayton, Alberta
  • 1958 Collapse of new Second Narrows Bridge across Burrard Inlet while under construction; with weight of 30 ton train; 19 workmen killed, 20 injured, $23 million damage due to poor engineering. - Vancouver, BC
  • 1962 Rioting prisoners do $3 million damage at St. Vincent de Paul Penitentiary. - Montréal, Québec
  • 1963 Alberta Election - Ernest Manning leads Alberta Social Credit Party to an eighth consecutive majority. Alberta
  • 1973 Jocelyne Bourassa wins the First du Maurier Golf Classic at La Canadienne course. - Montreal, Quebec
  • 1975 French court orders France to compensate Canadian environmental activist David McTaggart; his ship Greenpeace III was rammed and boarded by a French naval vessel in the South Pacific in June, 1973 as McTaggart was protesting French nuclear testing. - Paris, France
  • 1980 Jean Chrétien and Saskatchewan Attorney-General Roy Romanow co-chair Constitutional talks in Ottawa; break off August 29, 1980 with no agreement on 12 items of change. - Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1982 Québec doctors start 5-day strike to press for 38.5% increase in fees. - Québec
  • 1988 Prime Minister Brian Mulroney welcomes the G-7 leaders of the world’s seven biggest industrial democracies to Toronto for their annual economic summit; forecasts progress on dismantling farm subsidies and alleviating Third World debt. - Toronto, Ontario
  • 1988 Cassiar Mines’ Similco division acquires Newmont Mining Corporation of Canada for $15 million. - Cassiar, BC
  • 1990 South African leader Nelson Mandela and wife, Winnie, arrive in Canada; later will take an 11 day tour of the U.S. - Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1991 Ontario Hydro Chairman Mark Eliesen extends contract with Rio Algom Ltd to end of 1993; will purchase higher-priced uranium, and help community. - Elliot Lake, Ontario
  • 1995 Wrestler and football player Bob Molle is inducted into the Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame; won a silver medal for wrestling at the 1984 Summer Olympics. - Saskatchewan
  • 1996 Sheila Copps re-elected to the House of Commons in a by-election; had resigned over decision to keep the Goods and Services Tax (GST); wins back her Hamilton–Wentworth seat; will regain her assignment as Deputy Prime Minister. - Hamilton, Ontario
  • 1997 Hockey - NHL approves expansion to 4 more cities: Nashville, Tennessee, Predators (1998-99), Atlanta, Georgia, Thrashers (1999-2000), Columbus, Ohio, Bluejackets and St Paul, Minnesota, Wild (2000-01). - New York, New York
  • 1999 Canadian citizen Stanley Faulder executed in Huntsville despite diplomatic complaints by the Canadian government; First Canadian executed in the US since 1952. - Huntsville, Texas
  • 2000 Seagram agrees to merge with France’s Vivendi, to form a global media giant and compete with US Internet/media company AOL; end of the Montréal Bronfman family’s control over the company. - New York, New York
  • 2004 Michael Briere pleads guilty to the murder of Holly Jones, admits to viewing child pornography immediately before the murder of the girl. Toronto, Ontario