Highlights of the day

  • 1608 Samuel de Champlain starts building his Habitation at the foot of Cape Diamond.

List of Facts for July 3

  • 1603 Samuel de Champlain reaches Sault Saint-Louis or the Lachine Rapids; finds no sign of Jacques Cartier’s Hochelaga; hears of great freshwater lakes to the west; calls rapids La Chine being convinced that the way to Asia lies westward. Lachine, Québec
  • 1608 Samuel de Champlain starts building his Habitation at the foot of Cape Diamond on the site of Place Royale; a fortified trading post with trenches, cellars and a palisade on the bank of the St. Lawrence River; July 3 may also be Champlain’s birthdate in 1567. Québec, Québec
  • 1756 French and Indian war - John Bradstreet defeats Pierre de Jumonville at Fort Ontario. Oswego, New York
  • 1770 Bruin Comingo ordained minister of Dutch Calvinist church in Lunenburg; First Presbyterian ordination in Canada. Lunenburg, Nova Scotia
  • 1778 American Revolutionary War - John Butler leads Butler’s Rangers and native allies in savage raid on Wyoming; can’t prevent massacre of 360 men, women & children. Wyoming, Pennsylvania
  • 1797 Law Society of Upper Canada established. Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario
  • 1811 David Thompson travels down Columbia River to junction of Snake River and Columbia; raises British flag and claims territory for Britain. Washington
  • 1812 War of 1812 - Frederic Rolette captures US General William Hull’s schooner Cayahoga and finds Hull’s battle plans. Windsor, Ontario
  • 1814 War of 1812 - Major General Jacob Brown crosses Niagara River and captures poorly defended Fort Erie from the British. Fort Erie, Ontario
  • 1838 Francis Hincks founds the Toronto Examiner newspaper. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1839 Simpson & Dease set off to explore eastward with opening of ice. NWT
  • 1876 Intercolonial railway opens from Québec City to [[Halifax, Nova Scotia. Québec, Québec
  • 1884 Lieutenant-Governor of the NWT says reports of Indian difficulties are exaggerated. Regina, Saskatchewan
  • 1890 Idaho, a state abutting Alberta, admitted to Union as 43rd state. Washington, DC
  • 1890 Steamboat Lytton undertakes her First revenue earning voyage. BC
  • 1890 US Congress enacts Sherman Silver Purchase Act; require US Mint to buy 4.5 million ounces of silver per month; leads to boom in Canadian claims.
  • 1893 Kamloops incorporated as a city. Kamloops, BC
  • 1893 Pioneer Alberta photographer Hanson Boorne takes a famous photo of a Blood Indian Sun Dance. Alberta
  • 1897 G. A. Lancaster files claim on Eldorado Creek, later known as Gold Hill. Dawson City, Yukon
  • 1901 Billy Cochrane drives First automobile in Calgary; a steam-powered Locomobile, steered by a tiller rather than a wheel. Calgary, Alberta
  • 1904 First run of The Ocean passenger train between Montréal and Halifax; longest running train in Canada, operating continuously over same 1400 km route. Montréal, Québec
  • 1909 Forest fire in Porcupine District leaves one-third of Cobalt’s 6,000 residents homeless. Cobalt, Ontario
  • 1910 Grand Trunk Pacific Railway inagurates a daily passenger service from Winnipeg to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan and Edmonton, Alberta. Winnipeg, Manitoba
  • 1914 CPR’s Natural Resources Branch officially closes its Hosmer operations. Hosmer, BC
  • 1922 British extend Anglo-Soviet Trade Agreement of 1921 to include Canada. London, England
  • 1924 Canada signs trade agreement with Belgium. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1924 Original Chateau Lake Louise burns down. Lake Louise, Alberta
  • 1926 Arthur Meighen’s government falls on a vote of non-confidence. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1928 Fire originating in the new coal drier consumes the tipple at Coal Mountain, BC.
  • 1934 Bank of Canada founded. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1940 Second World War - King George VI declines to send his two princesses to Canada for protection in wartime. Windsor, England
  • 1942 Second World War - Canada and the United States form joint military, naval, and air office in Washington. Washington, DC
  • 1944 Record - Temperature hits 37.8 C; Labrador’s hottest day on record. Goose Bay, Newfoundland
  • 1946 Strike at Kelowna Exploration Company’s Nickel Plate operation; until December 11, 1946. Kelowna, BC
  • 1957 Cyrus Eaton founds annual Pugwash Conference; week-long meeting on world affairs and science; bringing together west and east. Pugwash, Nova Scotia
  • 1964 Terrorism - Four FLQ terrorists given 8-year sentences for stealing weapons from two Québec armouries; FLQ splinter group. Montréal, Québec
  • 1968 Queen’s Park legalizes Sunday horse racing in Ontario; responsibility given to the municipalities. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1974 Canadian Environment Minister Jack Davis demands that its territorial waters be extended to 200 nautical miles (370.4 km); wants deep-sea salmon fishing restricted; at Law of the Sea Conference. Caracas, Venezuela
  • 1987 Quebec City becomes the first city in North America to become a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Québec, Québec
  • 1990 Crowd of 50,000 attend Toronto Blue Jays 44th home game; Record crowd boosts seasonal attendance past the 2,000,000 mark faster than any team in major league baseball history. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1991 Brian Mulroney government starts process leading to the privatization of Petro-Canada. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1991 Ontario judge sentences youth to 16 months detention for setting $30 million tire fire in Hagersville, February, 1990; 3 others also found guilty and got shorter sentences. Hagersville, Ontario
  • 1991 Ontario Court of Appeal rejects Air Canada bid to stop $8 million sale of Air Toronto to PWA Corp.; two airlines struggling for ownership for 14 months. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1991 Brian Mulroney government starts process leading to the privatization of Petro-Canada; first shares of Petro-Canada are sold to the public in an initial public offering. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1991 Ontario judge sentences youth to 16 months detention for setting $30 million tire fire in Hagersville, February, 1990; 3 others also found guilty and got shorter sentences. Hagersville, Ontario
  • 1991 Ontario Court of Appeal rejects Air Canada bid to stop $8 million sale of Air Toronto to PWA Corp.; two airlines struggling for ownership for 14 months. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1992 Jury acquits 34 Mohawks for their part in the 77 day armed standoff at Oka, Québec in 1990. Montreal, Quebec
  • 1996 Canadian Space Agency astronaut and NASA Payload Specialist Dr. Robert Thirsk, on Shuttle Columbia Mission STS-78 continues second of two integrated 72-hour Sleep and Circadian Rhythms Studies; answers questions from students at three different schools in Canada; performs left leg muscle strength, power and endurance tests in the Spacelab using the Torque Velocity Dynamometer. French Payload Specialist Dr. Jean-Jacques Favier puts on head and torso sensors and resumes the Torso Rotation Experiment designed by Dr. Douglas Watt of McGill University in Montréal, to help identify the causes of motion sickness during space flight, and develop countermeasures. Space
  • 1997 Somali Commission - The commission established to review the actions of peacekeeping troops in Somalia between 1992-93 concluded that the troops were unprepared and that they were victimized by commanders who ignored their problems; this state of affairs escalated to torture and the killing of a Somali teenager. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 2001 Mordecai Richler dies at age 70; the social critic and novelist’s work included the novel The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (1959).