Highlights of the day

  • 1613 Samuel Argall burns and destroys St-Sauveur, then Port Royal; First English expedition from Massachusetts against Acadia.
  • 1885 Big Bear surrenders to General Strange after his men run out of food and ammunition; end of North West Rebellion.

List of Facts for July 2

  • 1578 Martin Frobisher sights Baffin Island; driven south by storm into what he calls ‘Mistaken Strait’; likely Hudson Strait. Hudson Strait, NWT
  • 1613 Samuel Argall burns and destroys St-Sauveur, then Port Royal settlement; First English expedition from Massachusetts against Acadia. Annapolis, Nova Scotia
  • 1654 Simon Le Moyne leaves Ville-Marie and journeys up the St. Lawrence River to Iroquois country as an ambassador of peace; travels along the southern shore of Lake Ontario and inland as far as present-day Syracuse, New York, where he finds a salt water spring on August 16, 1654; he wrote: “We arrive at the entrance to a little lake in a great basin that is half dried up, and taste the water from a spring … upon tasting it I find it to be a spring of salt water; and indeed we made some salt from it, as natural as that which comes from the sea, and are carrying a sample of it to Québec.” He leaves promising to send missionaries the following year and arrives back at Ville-Marie on September 11, 1654. Montréal, Québec
  • 1679 Daniel de Du Luth makes treaty with local tribes; plants Arms of France at Sioux village of Izatys on Lake Michigan; First European to visit Minnesota and see headwaters of Mississippi River. Minnesota
  • 1685 Pierre d’Iberville captures the HBC’s Fort Rupert from the English traders. Moosonee, Ontario
  • 1743 François de La Vérendrye returns to Fort La Reine with brother Louis-Joseph de La Vérendrye. Manitoba
  • 1808 Simon Fraser reaches Pacific Ocean at the mouth of the Fraser River near New Westminster; thinks he has traveled down the Columbia River. Musqueam, BC
  • 1821 Act for Regulation of the Fur Trade ; Westminster extends Hudson’s Bay Company monopoly over fur trade in Rupert’s Land by 21 years. London, England
  • 1821 Lower Canada takes over Lachine Canal building from private company. Lachine, Quebec
  • 1864 Act of the U.S. Congress creates the Northern Pacific Railroad Company; president Jay Cooke is determined to tap the trade of the Prairies, but he will be blocked by J. J. Hill’s Great Northern Railroad, Canadian cross-border regulations and his own banruptcy. Washington, DC
  • 1872 John Sanderson is the First man to take a homestead in the West, five miles from Portage La Prairie. Portage La Prairie, Manitoba
  • 1885 North West Rebellion - Big Bear surrenders to General Strange after his men run out of food and ammunition; end of rebellion; sentenced with Poundmaker to three years in Stony Mountain Penitentiary. Fort Carlton, Saskatchewan
  • 1885 First issue of the daily, Calgary Herald, is published. Calgary, Alberta
  • 1887 Premier John Norquay takes part in a ceremonial sod-turning for the Red River Valley Railroad. Manitoba
  • 1887 US seizes Canadian sealer Anna Bick in the Bering Sea. Pacific Ocean
  • 1890 Joe Moris and Joe Bourgeois stake claims on Red Mountain at what is now Rossland, BC.
  • 1892 Theodore Davie replaces the deceased John Robson as Conservative Premier of British Columbia; serves to March 2, 1895. Victoria, BC
  • 1897 Sternwheeler Fairview, launched in 1894, burns at Okanagan Landing. BC
  • 1903 Federal government passes bill guaranteeing repayment of bonds issued by the Canadian Northern Railway to build its mainline. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1924 Record - Edmonton’s temperature soars to 36.7C; highest on record in over 100 years. Edmonton, Alberta
  • 1926 Arthur Meighen defeated by one vote on non-confidence motion; calls election for September 14, 1926; PM since June 29, 1926. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1940 Second World War - German U-Boat torpedos liner Arandora Star while transporting German and Italian prisoners to Canada; over 750 prisoners and crew die; survivors rescued by destroyer HMCS St. Laurent. Atlantic Ocean
  • 1941 Second World War - RCAF authorized to enlist women; followed by Canadian Army, Royal Canadian Navy. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1960 Wayside Chapel dedicated; erected by recent immigrants from the Netherlands with the assistance of the Dutch Reformed Church. Passburg, Alberta
  • 1962 Volunteer doctors provide emergency services in the province when most doctors go on strike to protest the NDP government’s compulsory Medicare plan. Saskatchewan
  • 1962 World premiere of the musical Foxy at the Palace Grand Theatre in Dawson City during the Gold Rush Festival; based on Ben Johnson’s Elizabethan play, Volpone, but set in the Klondike; music by Canadian expatriate Robert Emmett Dolan; will mount a two-month run on Broadway in 1964. Dawson City, Yukon
  • 1963 Canada sends 50,000 doses of polio vaccine to Barbados. Barbados
  • 1968 Work commences on Westshore Terminals coal-loading project at Roberts Bank, BC.
  • 1969 Canadian National abandons Newfoundland passenger trains to Port aux Basques, Newfoundland; end of CN’s Newfie Bullet; replaced by buses. St. John’s, Newfoundland
  • 1969 University of Saskatchewan opens First college of veterinary medicine in western Canada. Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
  • 1970 Queen Elizabeth II starts two-week visit to Manitoba to join Centennial celebrations with Prince Philip, Prince Charles, and Princess Anne; they will also visit the NWT. Winnipeg, Manitoba
  • 1971 China Premier Chou En-lai receives First Canadian ministerial mission to the People’s Republic of China. Beijing, China
  • 1974 Chief Justice Bora Laskin sworn in as administrator of Canada during the illness of Governor General Jules Léger. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1974 Ralph Steinhauer sworn in as Lieutenant Governor of Alberta; serves to October 18th, 1979; Canada’s First aboriginal lieutenant governor. Edmonton, Alberta
  • 1976 Queen Elizabeth II opens the Montréal Summer Olympics; most expensive in Olympics history, costing $1.5 billion, much for massive anti-terrorist security and lavish facilities. Montréal, Québec
  • 1986 Roger Clemens of the Boston Red Sox falls short of record-tying 15th consecutive victory when Toronto Blue Jays score three runs in the eighth inning for a 4-2 decision. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1991 Ontario Court of Appeal rules psychiatrists cannot give medication against wishes of patients; challenged by professionals and relatives of mentally ill. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1992 John Crosbie orders $700 million northern cod fishery shut down for two years to conserve stocks; Fisheries Minister puts 19,000 fishermen and plant workers out of work; in total, 40,000 Atlantic Canadians lose their jobs, in the single largest mass layoff in Canadian history. At its peak in the late 1960s, the northern cod fishery hauled in up to 800,000 tonnes a year. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1992 Toronto Symphony Orchestra members take pay cut to prevent the TSO’s bankruptcy; from minimum $57,000 to $48,300. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1996 Canadian Space Agency astronaut and NASA Payload Specialist Dr. Robert Thirsk, on Shuttle Columbia Mission STS-78 joins second 72-hour periods of the Sleep and Circadian Rhythms Study; First-ever comprehensive study of sleep, 24-hour circadian rhythms and task performance in a microgravity environment. Space
  • 1997 Commission of Inquiry into the Somalia Affair disbanded prematurely, with release of final report; criticizes the Canadian Armed Forces for poor leadership and a military cover-up. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 2003 International Olympic Committee awards Vancouver, BC the 2010 Winter Olympics. Geneva, Switzerland
  • 2003 The World Health Organization says Toronto, Ontario is no longer SARS infected, leaving Taiwan as the only place in the world where the disease is not yet fully under control.