Highlights of the day

  • 1611 Mutineers force Henry Hudson, son John, and seven crew into a boat adrift on Hudson Bay.
  • 1774 British Parliament passes the Québec Act; backs Catholic religion, French civil code.
  • 1813 Laura Secord Warns British of an American Attack
  • 1976 House of Commons votes to abolish the death penalty with a six-vote majority.
  • 1990 Elijah Harper kills Meech Lake Accord, by refusing more debate on the Accord in the Manitoba legislature.

List of Facts for June 22

  • 1603 Samuel de Champlain lands at site of Québec for the first time; finds no sign of Jacques Cartier’s Iroquois village of Stadacona; names Montmorency Falls after the Duc de Montmorency. - Québec, Québec
  • 1611 Twelve mutineers force Henry Hudson, son John, and seven of his weaker crew into a boat and cast them adrift on Hudson Bay; after winter of hardship, Discovery’s crew were convinced he intended to continue his search for a north west passage and not return to England, and that he had hidden a large supply of food in his quarters. Nine mutineers make it back to England; four are tried for murder, but acquitted. - Hudson Bay, NWT
  • 1661 Sénéchal de Lauzon killed in battle against the Iroquois. - Rivière Maheu, Québec
  • 1706 Agriculture - Sovereign Council of New France passes ordinance forbidding citizens from keeping pigs in their houses; also orders home owners to repair roads and build sidewalks at street corners. Montréal, Québec Québec Act; guarantees Roman Catholic religious freedom; le Coûtume de Paris remains as the French civil code, with English law for criminal offenses; government by appointed council; trial by jury; also enlarges boundaries of the Province of Québec to include Newfoundland and territory south of the Great Lakes, into the Ohio Valley, which enrages American land dealers and helps spark the American Revolution which will break out two years later. The law to go into effect May 1, 1775; replaced by the Constitutional Act in 1791. - London, England
  • 1807 David Thompson reaches Howse Pass with wife and family; finds small branch of Columbia River called the Blaeberry River; names the upper waters of the Columbia the Kootenay River. - Howse Pass, BC
  • 1812 War of 1812 - British schooner Duke of Gloucester and another brig battle the US schooner Julia in a St. Lawrence River naval engagement; Julia limps back to Ogdensburg, NY ; British ships to Kingston. - Brockville, Ontario
  • 1813 War of 1812 - Laura Secord, overhearing American plans from soldiers billeted in her house, about a surprise attack on the British post at Beaver Dams, steals away at 4 am to warn the British; she makes her way west through swamps and woods, avoiding any main roads for fear of American sentries, then climbs the heights at Twelve-Mile Creek to St. Davids; after passing three American sentries, late in the day, she is captured by Iroquois, who lead her to Fitzgibbon’s headquarters, where she passes on her message. After a 30 km trek, the heroine of Upper Canada will collapse from exhaustion. Queenston, Ontario
  • 1816 Pemmican War - Red River settlers flee Métis and Norwester violence, take refuge at Norway House, Hudson’s Bay Company post at north end of Lake Winnipeg. - Norway House, Manitoba
  • 1825 Parliament passes the Canada Trades and Tenures Act, abolishing feudal and seigniorial rights in British North America. - London, England
  • 1826 John Franklin sets out for Mackenzie Delta; west with Back toward Bering Strait to meet the Blossom and Beechey; Richardson and Kendall explore eastward to mouth of Coppermine River. - NWT
  • 1827 Norwegian Expedition from Spitsbergen leaves for North Pole; reaches farthest northern point - 82∫45’ - in July; record stands for 48 years. - Spitsbergen, Norway
  • 1838 Short Hills Raid - James Morrow, Samuel Chandler and a group of 49 rebels attack a group of 13 Queen’s Lancers led by Sgt. Robert Bailey recently sent to Queenston to patrol the Niagara River. They surround the house where the Lancers are lodged, and get them to surrender by threatening to burn them out; while some patriots want to hang the captured men, they are formally paroled and released on their word to not bear arms again . On news of the arrival of the militia, the patriots flee west towards Sloat’s tavern near Hamilton, Ontaro. - Pelham, Ontario
  • 1854 Colin McKinnon founds St. Francis Xavier University in Halifax; St. FX moves to present location in Antigonish, Nova Scotia in 1856. - Halifax, Nova Scotia
  • 1857 Company of Royal Canadian Rifles sent to Red River to police trade, train local militia and counter American influence. - Red River, Manitoba
  • 1864 George Brown decides to join the Great Coalition Ministry with Cartier and Macdonald to work toward Confederation, with Liberals Oliver Mowat and William McDougall already in cabinet; Taché holds nominal post of Prime Minister. - Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1869 Parliament passes An Act for the Temporary Government of Rupert’s Land and the North-Western Territories when united with Canada 32-33 Victoria, c. 3 (Canada); Canada agrees to pay Hudson’s Bay Company £300,000 plus 1/20 of the fertile belt for Rupert’s Land, which included much of the Prairies. - Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1873 Prince Edward Island Assembly agrees to petition Britain to allow the province to join Confederation; date later set as July 1, 1873. - Charlottetown, PEI
  • 1891 Le Roi Mining and Smelting Company incorporated in British Columbia, $2.5 million in capital, headquarters at Trail Creek Landing, BC: president, G.M. Forster. Victoria, BC
  • 1909 First train across Lethbridge Viaduct. - Lethbridge, Alberta
  • 1914 Diving operations start to sunken Empress of Ireland to recover bodies and valuables from the wreck; on August 20, 1914, the Purser’s safe will be raised. - Ste-Luce-sur-Mer, Québec
  • 1918 First World War - Government holds second compulsory National Registration of men and women over age 16; except for cloistered nuns, persons in active service, prison or an asylum.
  • 1923 Manitoba ends prohibition, and adopts government control of the sale of alcohol instead. - Winnipeg, Manitoba
  • 1931 Ruth Nicholas crash lands her plane while attempting to become the First female to fly across the Atlantic alone. - Newfoundland
  • 1935 R. B. Bennett meets some leaders of the 2,000 unemployed On to Ottawa trekkers; the meeting is not a success. - Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1939 St. Paul’s United Church building dedicated in Fruitvale, BC. June 21. St. Jean de Luz, France
  • 1941 Second World War - Germany invades USSR; Canada now finds itself allied with Josef Stalin’s Soviet Union. - Russia
  • 1943 Pioneer nurse Mary Birtles dies; a nurse at Medicine Hat, Alberta from 1890-1892, and matron of Calgary General Hospital from 1894-1896. - Calgary, Alberta
  • 1950 Mackenzie King dies at Moorside at age 83; Canada’s 10th Prime Minister. - Old Chelsea, Québec
  • 1952 Robert Menzies Prime Minister of Australia, starts four-day visit to Canada. - Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1955 Cable ships start laying new transatlantic cable for telephone service. - Clarenville, Newfoundland
  • 1956 Village of Montrose incorporated. - Montrose, BC
  • 1960 Québec Election - Jean Lesage and his Liberal Party defeat Maurice Duplessis’ Union Nationale Party to win their First election in 16 years; beginning of the Quiet Revolution. - Québec
  • 1967 Fort Steele dedicated as a Provincial Heritage Park under the auspices of the Ministry of Lands, Parks and Housing. Fort Steele, BC
  • 1968 Strike by 3,700 Metropolitan Toronto outside workers, including garbage collectors. - Toronto, Ontario
  • 1969 Toronto Pop Festival at Varsity Stadium attracts 50,000 people; headliners at Toronto’s First rock festival include The Band, Blood, Sweat and Tears, Chuck Berry and Procul Harum. - Toronto, Ontario
  • 1970 William Martin dies; lawyer and politician; Saskatchewan’s second Premier from 1916-1922, and Chief Justice from 1941-1961. - Saskatchewan CBC Archives)
  • 1979 World Hockey Association folds; four WHA teams - the Edmonton Oilers, Winnipeg Jets, Québec Nordiques and Hartford Whalers - join the NHL. January 3, 1943.
  • 1983 Remote manipulator Canadarm, built by Spar Aerospace in Toronto, used by NASA shuttle crew during flight STS-7 to release and retrieve the SPAS-01 satellite. The 15.2m arm is capable of accurately maneuvering payloads of 30,000 kg in the weightlessness of space. Its weight on Earth is 410 kg. - Space
  • 1983 Hockey - NHL governors agree to institute a 5 minute sudden death overtime period. - Montréal, Québec
  • 1990 Meech Lake Accord - Elijah Harper effectively kills the Meech Lake Constitutional Accord, by refusing to extend the debate on the Accord in the Manitoba legislature. - Winnipeg, Manitoba
  • 1990 Meech Lake Accord - Lowell Murray says he will ask the Supreme Court of Canada to push back deadline on Meech Lake Accord to accommodate Manitoba hearings; but only if Newfoundland votes for accord later in the day. In Winnipeg, MLA Elijah Harper refuses the unanimous agreement Manitoba needs to extend its own debate. - Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1990 Meech Lake Accord - Newfoundland Premier Clyde Wells decides not to call a vote on Meech Lake Accord after Elijah Harper’s refusal to agree in Manitoba; says he is angry at Lowell Murray’s ultimatum of earlier in the day; which he calls ‘the final manipulation’; final death of Meech Lake accord. - St. John’s, Newfoundland
  • 1990 Meech Lake Accord - Robert Bourassa tells the Québec National Assembly, ‘Le Canada anglais doit comprendre de façon très claire que, quoi qu’on dise et qui qu’on fasse, le Québec est, aujourd’hui et pour toujours, une société distincte, libre et capable d’assumer son destin et son développement.’ - Québec, Québec
  • 1990 The New York Yankees beat the Toronto Blue Jays 8-7 in 15 innings; the longest game to date in Toronto. - Toronto, Ontario
  • 1991 Governor General Ray Hnatyshyn presents Gulf Medal and Kuwait Medal to 42 Persian Gulf War veterans; 3,600 others also to get medals. - Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1991 Québec Nordiques pick Eric Lindros as their #1 choice at the NHL entry draft; he will refuse to sign with the small-market team, and is traded to Philadelphia. Montréal, Québec -
  • 1995 Saskatchewan Election - Roy Romanow wins second term in Saskatchewan election for the NDP. - Saskatchewan
  • 1995 The US based Country Music Television network acquires a 20% minority stake in Calgary-based cable channel New Country Network, owned by Rogers Communications and Rawlco Communications; end of bitter cultural battle, after the US service was removed from Canadian cable systems when the Canadian video channel began operations the previous January. - Calgary, Alberta
  • 1996 Canadian Space Agency astronaut and NASA Payload Specialist Dr. Robert Thirsk, with three other crew - Dr. Jean-Jacques Favier, Dr. Charles Brady and Dr. Richard Linnehan - start First-ever, comprehensive study of sleep, 24-hour circadian rhythms and task performance in the microgravity environment of space; on Shuttle Columbia Mission STS-78. - Space
  • 2004 Conrad Black’s Hollinger International sells Telegraph Group Ltd., including Britain’s Daily Telegraph newspaper, to the twin Barclay tycoons in a $1.3-billion US deal. London, England