Highlights of the day

[1679 - Robert de La Salle leaves on his trading ship Griffon for Fort Michilimackinac and Green Bay.]

  • 1758 Col John Bradstreet captures Fort Frontenac and nine French vessels with 100 guns.
  • 1819 GG Duke of Richmond dies from the bite of a rabid fox while touring Upper Canada.
  • 1912 Thomas Wilby & Jack Haney leave Halifax on first cross-Canada motor trip in REO Special.
  • 1973 Largest hailstone ever found in Canada falls at Cedoux, Sask; three times bigger than a golf ball.

List of Facts for August 27

  • 1612 Captain Thomas Button lands in his ship ‘Discovery’; becomes the First European to winter in Manitoba. Churchill, Manitoba
  • 1618 Samuel de Champlain arrives back in Honfleur from Tadoussac, Québec; left July 30, 1618. Honfleur, France
  • 1679 Robert de La Salle leaves on his newly built trading ship the Griffon for Fort Michilimackinac and Green Bay, then will return east. On La Salle-Griffon Project
  • 1725 Guillaume de Chazel drowns in wreck of payship ‘Le Chameau,’ which sinks 25 km from Louisbourg; found by 3 divers in May 1966, with gold and silver coins worth $700,000; Chazel the newly appointed Intendant. Louisbourg, Nova Scotia
  • 1747 Marie-Marguerite Youville becomes temporary head of l’Hôpital generale de Montréal; founder of the Grey Nuns mothered 6 children; 2 entered the priesthood. Montréal, Québec
  • 1758 French and Indian War - Colonel John Bradstreet captures Fort Frontenac and its rich storehouses, as well as nine armed vessels with 100 guns, the total French naval force on Lake Ontario; British have only two wounded and not a single man killed; Commandant Pierre de Noyan capitulates in face of the British artillery after a token resistance of two days; has only 120 French Regulars, 40 Acadians and Indians, with their women and children. British load their bateaux and the two largest French vessels with 60 French cannon and as many of the 10,000 barrels of food, trade goods, and bales of furs they can carry, and sail off to Oswego, after burning and destroying the fort with the rest of the provisions, magazines, stores, artillery and ships. Bradstreet refuses his share of the £1 million French in booty, dividing his portion among his troops; he sends de Noyan and the prisoners to Montréal on parole, in exchange of an equal number of British captives to be forwarded to Albany. Kingston, Ontario
  • 1760 French and Indian War - James Murray arrives before Montréal with about 4,000 troops. Montréal, Québec
  • 1764 Pontiac’s Rebellion - Colonel John Bradstreet holds more peace negotiations at Fort Detroit, without permission from his superiors. To show the assembled tribes that the absent Pontiac was no longer important, he chops up a peace belt of wampum sent to the meeting by the Ottawa leader, which shocks and offends the gathering. Detroit, Michigan
  • 1793 John Graves Simcoe names the capital of the new Province of Upper Canada York, after the Duke of York; renamed Toronto, an Iroquoian word meaning place of fishing weirs, in 1834, when the city of 9,000 is incorporated. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1807 James Craig appointed Governor of Lower Canada; serves from October 24, 1807 to October 21, 1811. London, England
  • 1819 Governor General Charles Lennox, Duke of Richmond dies from the bite of a rabid fox while on a tour of Upper Canada; gives his name to the military settlement of Richmond SW of Ottawa. Perth, Ontario
  • 1841 Egerton Ryerson appointed the First President of the newly incorporated Victoria College, a Methodist institution formerly called Upper Canada Academy; a degree-granting institution. Cobourg, Ontario
  • 1851 Legislative Council of Vancouver Island created. Victoria, BC
  • 1860 Prince of Wales hosts a ball with 6,000 people attending; later King Edward VII. Montréal, Québec
  • 1878 Trial - First jury case in Saskatchewan is tried at Battleford. Battleford, Saskatchewan
  • 1881 Lord Lorne and his wife, Princess Louise, tour Canada’s West; First Governor General to travel through Saskatchewan. Saskatchewan
  • 1908 Football - Calgary City Rugby Foot-ball Club re-organizes as the Calgary Tigers. Calgary, Alberta
  • 1910 Aviation - Canadian Pilot J.A.D. (Douglas) McCurdy makes the world’s first air-ground radio messages, sending and receiving radio messages between his Curtiss biplane and a ground station in Sheepshead Bay. Brooklyn, New York
  • 1912 Thomas Wilby & Jack Haney start First cross-Canada motor trip in REO Special; to establish the All Red Route; their trip takes 52 days to Victoria, BC; Wilby is an English journalist, Haney an REO Motor Car Company mechanic/driver. Halifax, Nova Scotia See: Jack Haney’s Diary - Halifax to Vancouver.
  • 1928 Diplomacy - Canada joins 61 other nations in signing the Kellogg-Briand Peace Pact, condemning the use of war as an instrument of national unity. Geneva, Switzerland
  • 1936 Camilien Houde resigns as Mayor of Montréal. Montréal, Québec
  • 1937 Strike ends at 9 Dominion Textile plants. Sherbrooke, Québec
  • 1942 Second World War - German U-Boat sinks two freighters off Newfoundland. Atlantic Ocean August 27 - Second World War - Royal Canadian Navy corvette HMCS Oakville sinks U-Boat in Caribbean; fight to keep Venezuelan oil moving to Britain. Caribbean
  • 1942 Second World War - German U-Boat sinks two freighters off Newfoundland. Atlantic Ocean August 27 - Second World War - Royal Canadian Navy corvette HMCS Oakville sinks U-Boat in Caribbean; fight to keep Venezuelan oil moving to Britain. Caribbean
  • 1952 UFO - At 4:45 p.m. a rotating, shiny, disc-shaped objected is reported hovering over the Winnipeg airport. Winnipeg, Manitoba
  • 1954 Music - Two Canadian artists make it to the top of the Billboard charts at the same time - Sh-Boom, by The Crew-Cuts (4th week #1) and I Don’t Hurt Anymore, by Nova Scotia country singer Hank Snow. New York, New York
  • 1962 Kenneth Carter appointed to chair the Royal Commission on Taxation (Carter Commission); famous for saying, A Buck is a Buck. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1966 Terrorism - FLQ terrorists bungle holdup at the Cinéma Jean-Talon in Montréal; six arrested, aged between 19 and 22. Montréal, Québec
  • 1973 Supreme Court of Canada upholds legality of the Indian Act; rules that aboriginal women marrying non-Indians must lose Indian status; a bill reversing this loss of status given Royal Assent June 1985. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1973 Record - Largest hailstone ever found in Canada falls at Cedoux; weight 290 grams, diameter 114 mm (almost three times bigger than a golf ball). Cedoux, Saskatchewan
  • 1975 Hockey broadcaster and Canadian Sports Hall of Fame member Jack Dennett dies; started career at age 15 sweeping floors at Calgary radio station CFCA; a year later he had his own show; 1935 started to do between period broadcasts for Regina Senior Hockey League; 1943 joined Toronto’s CFRB radio station and did NHL hockey broadcasts for next 30 years; original member of Hot Stove Lounge with Wes McKnight, Bobby Hewitson, Elmer Ferguson and Court Benson; 1952 he joined CBC TV’s Hockey Night in Canada; only Foster Hewitt had worked longer as a hockey broadcaster. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1978 Record - Saskatchewan Roughrider Bob Macoritti kicks a record-setting seven field goals against CFL Toronto Argonauts. Regina, Saskatchewan
  • 1980 Media - Thomson Corporation-owned Ottawa Journal stops publication on the same day as Southam-owned Winnipeg Tribune; low advertising revenues blamed; Journal 94 years old; critics said this was collusion with Southam to cut competition and boost ad revenue. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1980 Media - Southam-owned Winnipeg Tribune stops publication on the same day as the Thomson Corporation-owned Ottawa Journal; low advertising revenues blamed; Tribune 90 years old; critics said this was collusion with Thomson to cut competition and boost ad revenue. Winnipeg, Manitoba
  • 1983 Ted Reeve dies; football, lacrosse star; 1924 organized the Balmy Beach Football Club and played with them until 1934, helping them win the ORFU title in 1927 and the Grey Cup in 1930; coached Balmy Beach, then Queen’s University where his team took the college championship in 1934 and 1935; also played pro lacrosse, winning the Mann Cup with Brampton (1926) Oshawa (1928) and Brampton (1930); ended career as sportswriter for the Toronto Telegram. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1990 Oka Crisis - Canadian Army ordered to use whatever force necessary to end standoff between Kanasetake Mohawk people and Québec police at Oka. Oka, Québec
  • 1990 Toronto Blue Jays-Brewers game is delayed 35 minutes due to a plague of gnats in Milwaukee stadium. Milwaukee, Wisconsin
  • 1991 Brian Mulroney announces Royal Commission on Native Issues, co-chaired by George Erasmus and Judge René Dussault; also Blakeney, Chartrand, Robinson, Sillett, Wilson. Kelowna, BC
  • 1991 Premiers Conference - Provincial premiers, minus Québec, urge Mulroney to hold conference on the economy. Whistler, BC
  • 1992 Toronto Blue Jays trade Jeff Kent and Ryan Thompson to the New York Mets for pitcher David Cone. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1992 CFL revokes BC Lions franchise; later restored after reforms and refinancing. Vancouver, BC
  • 1992 Sylvie Fréchette retires from swimming competition; signs 3 year promotional contract with la Banque nationale. Montréal, Québec
  • 1995 Golf - Jenny Lidback wins the 23rd du Maurier Golf Classic.
  • 2004 Fire - Governments of Canada and BC announced a $13.5 million project to rebuild the Kettle Valley Railway trestles destroyed by fire in August, 2003. Victoria, BC
  • 2006 Canadians Kiefer Sutherland and Jon Cassar win Emmy Awards, Sutherland for outstanding lead actor in a drama series, for his performance as agent Jack Bauer in 24, and Ottawa Algonquin College graduate Cassar for best directing, for 24’s season opener. Cassar started out directing episodes of La Femme Nikita in Toronto in the late 1990s. He thanked “the hardest working, most creative crew working in television today, as well as my friend Kiefer…We’re working in the new golden age of television, he said. Let’s enjoy it”. Los Angeles, California