Highlights of the day

  • 1755 French and Indians Ambush British at Battle of the Monongahela.
  • 1793 John Graves Simcoe passes Act Against Slavery; import of slaves into Upper Canada prohibited.

List of Facts for July 9

  • 1536 French navigator Jacques Cartier returns to Saint-Malo from Canada. St-Malo, France
  • 1615 Samuel de Champlain travels up Ottawa River to Lake Nipissing, and down French River into Lake Huron; explores and maps; First discovered by Étienne Brulé and father Caron. Huronia, Ontario -
  • 1749 Edward Cornwallis founds new settlement of Halifax as a naval settlement to counter Louisbourg. Halifax, Nova Scotia -
  • 1755 Daniel de Beaujeu, with French regulars, New France militia and Indian allies, attacks a force of 1200 British regulars and American militia under General Edward Braddock in the bush near Fort Duquesne; 600 British and Americans killed in the fire fight; both Braddock and de Beaujeu are mortally wounded in the Battle of the Monongahela. One survivor is an aide to Braddock - Col. George Washington - who writes to his brother, But by the all-powerful dispensations of Providence, I have been protected beyond all human probability or expectation; for I had four bullets through my coat, and two horses shot under me, yet escaped unhurt, although death was leveling my companions on every side of me! Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
  • 1793 Slavery - Importation of slaves into Lower Canada prohibited; bill to abolish slavery failed until 1804. Québec, Québec
  • 1793 Slavery - Lieutenant-Governor John Graves Simcoe passes Act Against Slavery, banning the further import of slaves into Upper Canada, and limiting the contract of those remaining; Act declares that slaves’ children should be free at age 25; all slaves entering the province from this date were henceforth automatically free. Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario
  • 1793 Religion - Jacob Mountain appointed First Anglican Bishop of Canada. Montréal, Québec -
  • 1811 North West Company trader David Thompson raises the Union Jack at the junction of the Snake River and the Columbia River, and claims the area for Britain; territory stays British until the Oregon Treaty of 1846 awards it to the United States. Washington -
  • 1827 Group of 150 destitute and homeless immigrant settlers arrive in Ontario via New York; after emigrating from England to Venezuela where they found the climate, soil and political conditions inhospitable. Guelph, Ontario -
  • 1832 HBC’s Northern Council resolves to establish a post on the Bow River in Piikani (Piegan) country. Alberta -
  • 1837 Thomas Simpson reaches Mackenzie River with Peter Dease. Hay River, NWT -
  • 1843 Launch of the SS Prince Albert; First iron steamship built in Canada. Montréal, Québec -
  • 1847 Joseph-Bruno Guigues appointed First Roman Catholic Bishop of Bytown. Ottawa, Ontario -
  • 1852 Fire destroys 1,100 construction sites in Montréal; no one killed in the blaze. Montréal, Québec -
  • 1864 J. C. Haynes appointed Stipendiary Magistrate and Justice of the Peace and posted to Wild Horse as Gold Commissioner and Customs Officer to the East Kootenays. BC -
  • 1874 First North West Mounted Police (NWMP) force of 318 men heads west from Fort Dufferin to the American whisky post called Fort Whoop Up at the junction of the Oldman River and St. Mary River near present-day Lethbridge, Alberta; abandoned with the arrived of the police, Fort Whoop-Up will serve as an outpost for the force; forerunners of RCMP. Pembina, Manitoba -
  • 1886 Crown grants general amnesty to those involved in Northwest Rebellion of 1885; except for murderers. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1898 British Columbia Election - Eighth BC election brings conservative C. A. Semlin to power. East Kootenay North Riding, W.G. Neilson (January, 1899); East Kootenay South Riding, Jas. Baker; West Kootenay Nelson Riding, J.F. Hume; West Kootenay Rossland Riding, J.M. Martin; West Kootenay Revelstoke Riding, J.M. Kellie; West Kootenay Slocan Riding, R.F. Green. BC
  • 1902 Kootenai River Transportation Company disincorporated. Victoria, BC
  • 1904 Opening of the world’s highest hydraulic liftlock on the Trent-Severn Waterway, with the capacity to raise or lower a water vessel 19.8 metres ; steamboat Stoney Lake First through lock from Rice Lake up the Otonabee River to the Kawartha Lakes. Peterborough, Ontario
  • 1920 Louis-Alexandre Taschereau sworn in as Liberal Premier of Québec, replacing Lomer Gouin. Québec, Québec
  • 1922 CKCK Regina begins to broadcast; Saskatchewan’s First commercial radio station. Saskatchewan
  • 1923 Guy Weadick holds First Chuckwagon Race at the Calgary Stampede, a contest he boasts will be the greatest race since that guy Ben Hur run his cart races’; persuades 6 local ranchers to risk their wagons and horses in what will be billed as ‘the half mile of hell’. Calgary, Alberta
  • 1944 Second World War - Canadians and British capture Caen after massive bombardment by 467 planes from Bomber Command; urban area north of Orne River secured by nightfall by two British Divisions and the 3rd Canadian Division; the Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry Highlanders and the Sherbrooke Fusilier tanks are the First into the ruined city, although the famous Abbaye-aux-Hommes, 1000 years old, is untouched; 1,194 Canadian casualties after a month of fighting, 334 are fatal. Caen, France
  • 1947 Buckingham Palace announces the engagement of Princess Elizabeth to Royal Navy Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten, a member of the Greek royal family. London, England
  • 1955 Festival Singers of Toronto give their First concert, at the Stratford Festival; formed in 1954 by Elmer Iseler, the choir turn professional in 1968, as the Festival Singers of Canada. Stratford, Ontario
  • 1960 Roger Woodward survives 162 foot plunge over the Horseshoe Falls because he is wearing a lifejacket; his First word when rescued is gosh; the 7-year-old is the First person to go over Niagara Falls by accident and live. Niagara Falls, Ontario
  • 1965 The Hope Slide, the largest landslide ever recorded in Canada, kills four people. Hope, BC
  • 1969 Parliament passes the Official Languages Act, making English and French the official languages of federal administration in Canada. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1974 Springhill, Nova Scotia’s Anne Murray has a #1 Billboard hit with ‘He Thinks I Still Care.’ New York, New York
  • 1975 Canada and Iran sign trade agreements worth up to $2 billion. Teheran, Iran
  • 1976 Houston Astros pitcher Larry Dierker hurls a no-hitter, fanning eight and walking four as the Astros beat the Montréal Expos 6-0. Montréal, Québec
  • 1984 John Turner calls federal general election for September 4, 1984, saying Canadians needed a renewal of confidence and certainty in this country. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1988 Bryan Adams holds concert before record 30,000 person crowd in Lisbon; joined by British singer Bonnie Tyler singing ‘Straight From the Heart’ and No Way to Treat a Lady,’ two of her hits which he had written. Lisbon, Portugal
  • 1991 Emergency - 400 residents of St. Lazare flee homes when train carrying highly corrosive acetic anhydride derails; emergency evacuation ends after six days. St. Lazare, Manitoba
  • 1991 Brian Mulroney meets US President George Bush at the SkyDome for talks on common approach to aid for Soviet Union; American League beat National League 4-2 in the First All-Star game held in Toronto. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1991 International Human Rights Federation releases report citing human rights violations in the Oka crisis of 1990; Amnesty International report also cites mistreatment of natives by Québec Police. Montréal, Québec
  • 1991 Joe Clark says he will release the federal position on unity by September; cites divisions over issues between English and French ministers. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1994 Bill Mosienko dies; hockey forward; played eighteen professional seasons from 1940-1959. Winnipeg , Manitoba
  • 1995 French commandos board the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior II in the South Pacific; the ship is protesting continued French nuclear testing at the Mururoa test site; ten years earlier a Greenpeace member was killed when French agents placed underwater bombs on the flagship Rainbow Warrior I in Auckland, New Zealand. South Pacific
  • 1997 Danielle House forced to give up her Miss Canada International title after pleading guilty of assault against her boyfriend’s former girl friend. St. John’s, Newfoundland
  • 1999 Supreme Court of Canada rules children cannot sue their mothers for injuries suffered while in the womb; ruling on 1993 case brought by Gerald Price on behalf of his grandson, injured in a car crash. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1999 Supreme Court of Canada unanimously rules that Canada’s immigration officers must consider children’s best interests before deporting their illegal immigrant parents. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 2001 Bombardier announces $2.6 billion contract to supply 75 regional jets to Northwest Airlines in the US. Montréal, Québec
  • 2010 Politics - Stephen Harper appoints legal scholar David Johnston next governor general. Ottawa, Ontario