Highlights of the day

  • 1871 James Morris signs Stone Fort Treaty #1 with Saulteaux, Swampy Crees, Chippewas.
  • 1931 Royal Canadian Mint Act gets Royal Assent; makes it a branch of the Dept of Finance.
  • 1961 CCF party changes name to the New Democratic Party (NDP); chooses Tommy Douglas as leader.
  • 2000 RCMP arrests 16-year-old Montréal hacker Mafiaboy for attacks on major websites, including CNN.

List of Facts for August 3

  • 1527 Captain John Rut reports to King Henry VIII about conditions in Newfoundland and Labrador; the First recorded letter from the New World to the Old. St. John’s, Newfoundland
  • 1583 Humphrey Gilbert arrives off Newfoundland with his ships Delight, Golden Hind, Swallow and Squirrel; will enter St. John’s Harbour two days later to claim Newfoundland for Queen Elizabeth I of England. Newfoundland
  • 1610 Henry Hudson enters Hudson Bay; will sail south along east coast likely as far as James Bay; decides to winter on shore; ship frozen in by November. NWT
  • 1615 Étienne Brulé guides Samuel de Champlain to Huron village of Carhagonha, about 16 km west of Penetang; they meet Joseph Le Caron; Champlain then leaves for village of Cahiague, on Lake Simcoe. Penetanguishene, Ontario
  • 1701 State funeral held in Notre Dame Church for Huron Grand Chief Kondiaronk (The Rat), who died while attending Louis de Callières’ peace conference with 38 Iroquois and Huron chiefs; attended by settlers of Ville-Marie, the governor of Montréal, Phillippe de Vaudreuil and staff officers, and 60 soldiers commanded by Pierre de Saint-Ours. Six warrior chiefs carry the coffin which holds flowers, a plumed hat and a sword. Sixteen Huron warriors in long beaver robes, their faces painted and with rifles under their arms, also escort the coffin. Huron and Outaouais warriors form a long line outside the church where Kondiaronk is buried, and after the ceremony all the armed men fire their muskets in the air. The following day, the Montréal peace treaty is signed, ending 14 years of fighting. Montréal, Québec
  • 1751 Bartholemew Green builds the First printing press in Canada; to print the Halifax Gazette. Halifax, Nova Scotia
  • 1751 Comte de Raymond arrives at Louisbourg to serve as Governor of Île Royale (Cape Breton Island); serves until October 1753. Louisbourg, Nova Scotia
  • 1757 French and Indian War - Marquis de Montcalm besieges Fort William Henry on Lake George with 6,200 troops and 1,800 Indians; defended by 2,500 British under George Munro. Lake George, New York
  • 1777 American Revolutionary War - Barry St. Leger besieges Fort Stanwix on the Mohawk River, held by Col. Peter Gansevoort and 750 Americans. Fort Stanwix, New York
  • 1847 Montréal Telegraph Company opens telegraph line into Toronto; three years after Samuel Morse invents telegraph; connection from there to Buffalo and US cities. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1847 Opening of New Brunswick Normal School (teacher’s college) in Fredericton. Fredericton, New Brunswick
  • 1858 Palliser Expedition - Lieutenant Thomas Blakiston, a magnetic observer, severs his association with John Palliser and sets off to explore southward along the eastern slopes of the Rockies. Alberta
  • 1860 Joseph Howe sworn in as Premier of Nova Scotia, succeeding William Young. Halifax, Nova Scotia
  • 1871 James Morris signs Treaty No. 1 (Stone Fort Treaty) at Lower Fort Garry on behalf of Queen Victoria with the Saulteaux, Swampy Crees (Red River) and Chippewas. Selkirk, Manitoba
  • 1876 Alexander Graham Bell holds the world’s First definitive telephone tests, and makes the First intelligible telephone call from building to building, at Mount Pleasant, near Brantford; in a one-way transmission, he hears his uncle David Bell recite Hamlet’s ‘to be or not to be…’ Brantford, Ontario
  • 1888 Edgar Dewdney elected Member of Parliament for Assiniboia East; returned in 1891 and resigned October, 1892. Saksatchewan
  • 1888 Hayter Reed succeeds Edgar Dewdney as Commissioner of Indian Affairs. Amédée Forget appointed as his Assistant. Regina, Saskatchewan
  • 1896 Philip Abbot dies while climbing Mount Lefroy; First sporting mountaineer to die in a climbing accident in North America. Alberta
  • 1898 Cabinet authorizes the CPR’s lease of the C&W Railway in perpetuity. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1899 Fire destroys downtown core of Greenwood, BC.
  • 1911 The CPR opens Hotel Kootenay Lake at Balfour, BC.
  • 1914 First World War - The BC government, fearful of German raids and Canadian government inaction, buys two submarines from a US shipbuilder for its own private navy; the subs are purchased by the federal government two days later for the Canadian naval force. Victoria, BC
  • 1914 First World War - To manage wartime finances and conserve the gold supply, the Government suspends coined money payments; bank notes are to be considered legal tender, instead of being redeemable for gold. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1918 First World War - Billy Bishop awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC); Canadian flying ace recently downed 25 German planes in 12 days, bringing his total to 72. London, England
  • 1923 Co-operative marketing expert Aaron Sapiro speaks in Edmonton; his speeches inspire the creation of the Alberta Wheat Pool. Edmonton, Alberta
  • 1931 Coinage - Royal Canadian Mint Act gets Royal Assent, making the Royal Canadian Mint a branch of the Department of Finance. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1931 Edward Partridge dies; farmer, farm leader, author; founded The Grain Growers’ Grain Company. Saskatchewan
  • 1932 Henri Bourassa leaves newspaper Le Devoir as Editor. Montréal, Québec
  • 1942 Second World War - RCN Corvette ‘HMCS Sackville’ sinks U-boat in Atlantic; one of four Royal Canadian Navy kills in five weeks. North Atlantic
  • 1944 Second World War - British General Bernard Montgomery orders Canadian General Harry Crerar to launch an attack towards Falaise, France to try and link up with the Americans, and trap retreating German armour pouring through the Falaise Gap; the Canadian Army was still stalled on low ground below Verrières Ridge; General Guy Simonds launches Operation Totalize and uses artificial moonlight and armoured personnel carriers against the Panzers; until August 9, 1944. Normany, France
  • 1946 Canada helps Britain during post-war shartages by agreeing to supply large amounts of Canadian wheat at below world prices. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1952 Olympics - Closing of the 15th Olympic Games in Helsinki; George Genereux won Canada’s only gold medal, in shooting at the Helsinki Summer Olympics. Helsinki, Finland
  • 1954 Alcan opens its Kitimat hydroelectric plant and aluminum smelter, the world’s largest; Aluminum Company of Canada started construction in 1951. Kitimat, BC
  • 1954 The Crewcuts hit song, Sh-Boom, stays at #1 on the Billboard pop music list; the Toronto group are pioneers of rock and roll. New York, New York
  • 1958 US Navy Commander William Anderson sails the US nuclear-powered submarine Nautilus across the North Pole under water at 11:15 pm, saluting his crew with the toast: For the world, Our Country, and the Navy - the North Pole; the First vessel to make the passage, Nautilus left Pearl Harbor on July 23, 1958 on Operation Sunshine, a top-secret voyage not publicized until later in the month; the mission leads to discussions about using submarines for Arctic supply in the Canadian north. Arctic Ocean
  • 1961 Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) changes name to the New Democratic Party (NDP); chooses Tommy Douglas as party leader on first ballot, replacing Hazen Argue, winning 1391 votes, to Argue’s 380. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1961 BC government approves takeover of British Columbia Electric as a Crown corporation. Victoria, BC
  • 1965 Canadian old-time fiddler Ward Allen dies in Hull at age 41; best known for his 1957 hit, Maple Sugar; inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville earlier this year. Gatineau, Québec
  • 1978 Opening of week-long 11th Commonwealth Games in Edmonton; Canada wins total of 109 medals (45 gold, 31 silver, 33 bronze) in eleven sports; attended by over 1,500 athletes from 46 countries. Edmonton, Alberta August 3 - Arthur Fiedler conducts the Boston Pops Orchestra in an outdoor concert before over 30,000 people on an island in the Grand River; First Canadian appearance by the Pops in 20 years; a benefit concert to raise money for renovation of the Capitol Theatre, home of the Brantford Symphony Orchestra. Brantford, Ontario
  • 1981 Canadian dollar settles at US 80.53¢, after dropping as low as US 80.43¢; lowest rate of exchange since December, 1931 low of US 80.08¢.
  • 1989 Wilbert Keon leads the Ottawa Civic Hospital team that implants the heart from an 18 month old donor into an 11 day old Ontario boy; Canada’s First Infant heart transplant operation. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1996 Olympics - Robert Esmie, Glenroy Gilbert, Bruny Surin and Donovan Bailey [running in that order win the gold medal in the 4 X 100 m relay race to crown Canada’s performance at the Atlanta Summer Olympics. Atlanta, Georgia
  • 1997 Colleen Walker wins 25th du Maurier Golf Classic.
  • 2000 Justice - RCMP files charges against Michael Calce, a 16-year-old Montréal hacker using the handle Mafiaboy; arrested for bringing down several major commercial websites, including CNN.com, Amazon.com, eBay and Yahoo, using denial-of-service attacks which cost the companies more than a billion dollars. He pleads guilty on January 18, 2001. Montréal, Québec See *CBC Interview with George Stromboulopoulos
  • August 3 - Canadian Navy sailors drop from helicopters and take over the GTS Katie, a private American freighter, that held 3 Canadian soldiers and $250 million in military equipment that was being returned from Kosovo. The freighter had refused to dock over a payment dispute. Halifax, Nova Scotia
  • 2005 Paul Martin announces that Radio Canada journalist Michaëlle Jean will be appointed the next Governor General of Canada. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 2005 Major Alberta train derailment as 43 of 140 train cars leave the CN tracks at Wabamun; a car full of lubricating oil and 15 cars carrying bunker fuel oil, used in liquid asphalt and to power barges and ships start leaking into Wabamun lake. Wabamun, Alberta