Highlights of the day

  • 1896 Canada’s first motion picture (Edison Vitascope) showing at Ottawa Electric Railway Company’s West End Park.

List of Facts for July 21

  • 1576 Martin Frobisher sails north into Frobisher Bay; thinks it is a passage to Asia; takes possession for England; names bay after himself. Baffin Island, Nunavut
  • 1663 Claude Allouez appointed Vicar-General of the Québec diocese by Bishop Laval, with responsibility for mission work around Great Lakes, and the central region of what is now the USA. Québec, Québec
  • 1730 Census - New France population estimated at 33,682 French inhabitants. Québec, Québec
  • 1793 Alexander Mackenzie arrives at the head of Dean Channel of Bentinck Arm on the Pacific Ocean after descending the Bella Coola River. Dean Channel, BC
  • 1797 David McLane American spy publicly hanged, beheaded and disembowelled; First execution of its kind in Canada. Montréal, Québec
  • 1822 First Nations - Henry Budd is baptized at Norway House; First native Anglican minister. Norway House, Manitoba
  • 1836 Governor Lord Gosford rides on the First train of the Champlain & St. Lawrence Railway with 300 other guests, pulled by the locomotive Dorchester over wooden rails; the 23 km portage road running from La Prairie opposite Montréal to St-Jean, Québec on the Richelieu River is Canada’s First public railway line; became part of the Montréal and Champlain Railway in 1857; leased to the Grand Trunk Railway in 1864; now part of the CN system. La Prairie, Québec
  • 1885 Trial of Louis Riel is delayed for two weeks to allow the defence to prepare its case. Regina, Saskatchewan
  • 1890 Crowd of 2,500 attend sod-turning ceremony for Calgary and Edmonton Railway; last spike will be driven at Strathcona, Alberta on July 27, 1891; the line will cut the five-day stagecoach journey to a three hour train trip; C & E line taken over by Canadian Pacific Railway in 1903. Calgary, Alberta
  • 1896 John Green shows the First display of Thomas Edison’s Vitascope at the Ottawa Electric Railway Company’s West End Park near the intersection of Holland Avenue and Carling Avenue in Ottawa; Canada’s First motion picture showing. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1899 Opening of new suspension bridge over Niagara River to Lewiston, New York. Queenston, Ontario
  • 1904 Completion of the First grain elevator in the port of Montréal. Montréal, Québec
  • 1911 Olivier-Elzéar Mathieu appointed First Roman Catholic Bishop of Regina. Regina, Saskatchewan
  • 1915 Alberta holds prohibition plebiscite: 61% pro. Alberta
  • 1928 Four surveyors discover the bodies of English trapper Jack Hornby, his young cousin Edgar Christian, and their friend Adlard in a cabin on the Thelon River; inside the stove is Christian’s diary detailing how they slowly starved to death over the winter and spring; Hornby died April 16, 1928, after weeks of suffering, Adlard died May 4, 1928, and Christian continued his diary until his final entry June 1, 1928, noting he is too weak to walk and cannot fetch wood for the stove. He then crawls into his bunk and dies. Thelon River, NWT
  • 1932 First Imperial Economic Conference opens in Ottawa; until August 20, 1932. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1935 Prohibition - US government apologizes to Canada, pays $50,000 to compensate for sinking of the rum runner I’m Alone in 1929. Washington, DC
  • 1943 Second World War - HMCS The Pas is badly damaged in a collision with the SS Medina in the Western Atlantic. Atlantic Ocean
  • 1944 Second World War - SS veterans of the 1st Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler attack the Essex Scottish Regiment and Les Fusiliers Mont Royal in heavy rain; Montréal’s Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) of Canada, helped by heavy artillery bombardment and support of two tank regiments, beats the Germans back, but they keep Verrières Ridge; the South Saskatchewan Regiment and Essex Scottish suffer over 450 casualties in two days, and the 2nd Canadian Corps loses 1,149 men over four days of fighting. Guy Simonds blames Charles Foulkes and tries to get him fired, but Henry Crerar protects him. Pressure from US General Bradley, ready to launch Operation Cobra, had forced Montgomery to pressure the Canadians for action. Fleury, Normandy, France
  • 1961 John Diefenbaker opens government built Arctic town of Inuvik, North West Territories; to replace Aklavik, NWT as the central town of the district. Inuvik, NWT
  • 1963 Disaster - British freighter and Bermudan ore carrier collide in St. Lawrence River; 18 dead, 15 missing and presumed dead. Québec
  • 1967 Gardiner Dam on the South Saskatchewan River dedicated in honour of Jimmy Gardiner, former Saskatchewan Premier and federal Minister of Agriculture. Saskatchewan
  • 1972 CRTC approves creation of a Global TV network; licensed to serve five Ontario cities; Canada’s third TV network starts broadcasting on this day; today part of CanWest Global. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1973 Canada decides to end all cease-fire monitoring activities as part of the International Control Commission in Vietnam. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1975 Ottawa sets up Canadian Human Rights Commission; to stop discrimination by federal ministries and crown corporations. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1976 National Defence - Canada signs $1 billion contract with Lockheed Aircraft for 18 long-range Orion patrol aircraft. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1985 Playgirl magazine picks Canadian comedian John Candy as one of the 10 sexiest men in America; others include New York Governor Mario Cuomo and Representative Jack Kemp. New York, New York
  • 1986 Premier John Buchanan hosts banquet with over 500 people to honour 72-year-old country singer Hank Snow, who was born in Liverpool, Nova Scotia, but moved to Nashville in the mid-1940’s; proclaims Hank Snow Week in Nova Scotia. Halifax, Nova Scotia
  • 1988 New Emergencies Act receives Royal Assent; War Measures Act of 1914 set aside; two other bills designed to weed out bogus refugee claimants also get royal assent. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1989 Toronto based The Kids In The Hall variety/comedy show debuts on HBO. New York, New York
  • 1990 Canadian performers Bryan Adams and Joni Mitchell join former Pink Floyd member Roger Waters, Sinead O’Connor, Cyndi Lauper, and Phil Collins in Waters’ production of his rock opera, The Wall, at a site in East Berlin where the Berlin Wall once stood; crowd of 200,000 people gather for the benefit concert, which ended with the crashing down of a mock Berlin Wall made of plastic foam. Proceeds went to an international fund for disaster relief. Berlin, Germany July 21 - Robert Thomas Allen dies at age 79; won Leacock Medal twice: for The Grass is Never Greener; and Children, Wives and Other Wildlife. San Bernardino, California July 21 - Weird Al’ Yankovic performs live at the Théâtre St-Denis for the Just For Laughs comedy festival; taping for Showtime pay TV network. Montréal, Québec
  • 1991 Chatham, Ontario born baseball pitcher Ferguson Jenkins admitted to the Baseball Hall of Fame, with Gaylord Perry, Rod Carew, Tony Lazzeri & Bill Veeck; First Canadian; won 284 games during 12 seasons; won 1971 Cy Young award as top National League pitcher. Cooperstown, New York
  • 1994 Dorothy Collins, singer, actor, dies of a heart attack at age 67; born Marjorie Chandler in Windsor, Ontario November 18, 1926; began performing on TV’s Your Hit Parade in the 1950’s, singing Be happy, go Lucky for the sponsor, Lucky Strike cigarettes; later sang weekly top hits; in the 1960’s, helped set up gags on unwitting victims for Allen Funt’s Candid Camera; married to Raymond Scott 1952-55. Watervliet, New York
  • 1996 Calgary, Alberta’s Curtis Myden swims to a Canadian and Commonwealth record winning the bronze medal in the 400-metre individual medley at the 1996 Olympic Games; finishes in 4:16:28 seconds, about .7 of a second better than his previous personal best. Tom Dolan of the US takes gold, teammate Eric Namesnik silver. Atlanta, Georgia July 21 - Disaster - End of 72 hours of torrential rain in Chicoutimi/Charlevoix Region; flooding and landslides kill 10, leave 10,000 homeless, with estimated $365 million in damage; inquiry later reports the region’s system of dams was poorly maintained. Chicoutimi, Québec July 21 - Hamilton, Ontario cyclist Clara Hughes wins Canada’s First medal at the 1996 Summer Olympics, taking the bronze in the women’s road race in a time of 2:36.44; Jeannie Longo of France wins gold, Italian Imelda Chiappa silver, just holding off Hughes; First ever medal for Canada in Olympic women’s cycling, which made its debut in 1984. Hughes, 23, born and raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Atlanta, Georgia July 21 - NHL star Wayne Gretzky inks a 2 year deal with the New York Rangers after an unsuccessful stint with the St Louis Blues; his third team in a year; joins former Edmonton Oilers teammate Mark Messier. New York, New York
  • 1997 BC fishermen release the Malaspina ferry, a blocked Alaska-bound ship at Prince Rupert. They were protesting US fishing of sockeye salmon heading for spawning in British Columbia. Prince Rupert, BC
  • 2003 Ranch Bar and Grill in downtown Cranbrook burns. Cranbrook, BC
  • 2004 Colville Confederated Tribes of Washington state launch a lawsuit against Teck-Cominco to force company to clean up a century’s worth of pollution in Columbia River system downstream from Trail, BC.
  • 2005 Smuggling - US and Canadian authorities reported the shutdown of a newly completed 100-yard border crossing tunnel outside Lynden, intended for smuggling marijuana. Lynden, Washington