Highlights of the day

  • 1755 John Winslow starts rounding up 5,000 Acadians for refusing oath of allegiance.
  • 1945 Soviet Cipher clerk Igor Gouzenko defects from the USSR Embassy with more than 100 secret documents.

List of Facts for September 5

  • 1534 Jacques Cartier returns to St. Malo with Iroquois youths Domagaya and Taignoagny; after harrowing 137 day voyage, his First to Canada. St-Malo, France
  • 1602 George Weymouth arrives back in England after Arctic exploration. Ratcliffe, England
  • 1604 Samuel de Champlain sets out to explore coast of ‘Norumbega’, passes Grand Manan, New Brunswick, Mount Desert, and Isle Haulte; stops at George’s Island near the Kennebec River. Kennebec, Maine
  • 1606 Jean de Poutrincourt & Samuel de Champlain explore south as far as Martha’s Vineyard. Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts
  • 1609 Samuel de Champlain sails back to France from Tadoussac. Tadoussac, Québec
  • 1619 Danish mariner Jens Munk sails into Hudson Bay; forced to winter in estuary of Churchill River; Munk and two others survive; 61 crewmen die, either of trichinosis, from raw polar bear meat, or Vitamin A poisoning from eating toxic bear liver. Churchill, Manitoba
  • 1684 Joseph de La Barre meets Iroquois, and gets them to keep peace with Miamis in the Ohio Valley. Ontario
  • 1697 Pierre d’Iberville, on the ‘Pélican’, attacks and defeats 3 Hudson’s Bay Company ships, sinking 2, in pitched naval battle near York Factory on Hudson Bay; Pierre, the third son of New France merchant Pierre Le Moyne, had been attacking HBC posts for a decade. Churchill, Manitoba
  • 1714 James Knight, Governor of the Hudson’s Bay Company, accepts the surrender of Fort Bourbon (York Factory) from the French. Churchill, Manitoba
  • 1755 Acadian Expulsion - John Winslow, military commander at Annapolis, starts rounding up 5,000 Acadians from Grand Pre, Annapolis & Fundy coast for refusing to take an oath of allegiance; their land and farms are forfeited to the Crown; most are relocated to Louisiana. Annapolis, Nova Scotia
  • 1774 American Revolutionary War - First Continental Congress meets in Philadelphia; condemns ‘Intolerable Acts’ passed by British over past decade. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
  • 1814 War of 1812 - Lieutenant Miller Worsley, flying captured American colours in the ‘Tigress’, takes the ‘Scorpion’ at anchor; sails both ships west to Fort Michilimackinac. Manitoulin Island, Ontario
  • 1815 New group of Selkirk settlers arrive at Holland Landing en route to Assiniboia. Holland Landing, Ontario
  • 1837 Rebellion of 1837 - Thomas Storrow Brown, André Ouimet and Louis-Joseph Papineau’s son Amédée Papineau, together with 500 other young Montréalers, found a new political Society called l’Association des Fils de la Liberté (the Sons of Liberty) at a meeting in the Hotel Nelson on Jacques-Cartier Square; the gathering chooses the maple leaf as their emblem, and sing George-Étienne Cartier’s patriotic song, ‘Avant Tout Je Suis Canadien’. Montréal, Québec
  • 1849 Governor General Lord Elgin starts a visit to Upper Canada. Kingston, Ontario
  • 1854 Opening of 1st part of 1st session of 5th Parliament of Canada; meets until December 18, 1854. Kingston, Ontario
  • 1864 Confederation - Charlottetown Conference - The Canadian case continues with a presentation by Canada West’s George Brown, followed by luncheon at the residence of George Coles, Leader of the Opposition. Charlottetown, PEI
  • 1870 Finance - Canada’s national debt amounts to $18,587,520; Québec’s provincial debt is $9,808,728. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1881 Fire - Forest fires in Ontario and Michigan kill an estimated 500 people in 20 villages near Lake Huron; the region is cloaked with a yellowish-green fog. Sarnia, Ontario
  • 1883 Methodist Church in Canada is formed; Methodist groups in Canada since 1824; part of today’s United Church of Canada Toronto, Ontario
  • 1887 Trial - Col. Sam Steele conducts the trial of Kapula and Little Isidore: released for lack of evidence. Saskatchewan
  • 1896 Hall Mines blows in its second, 275-300 ton-per-day furnace in its Nelson smelter. Nelson, BC
  • 1897 Klondike Gold Rush - Steamboat ‘Alice’ reaches the Klondike with men from Fortymile; Yukon River craft owned by the Alaska Commercial Company. Dawson City, Yukon
  • 1897 Hall Mines blows in what is the biggest copper blast furnace in the world at its Nelson smelter. Nelson, BC
  • 1905 Lieutenant-Governor Amédée Forget chooses and swears in Walter Scott as the First Premier of Saskatchewan. Regina, Saskatchewan
  • 1912 First Calgary Stampede closes. Calgary, Alberta
  • 1914 Baseball - Babe Ruth hits his First professional home run at Hanlan’s Point on Toronto Island, knocking in three runs; the budding southpaw pitcher also tosses a one-hitter that day as his Providence club blanks Toronto 9-0. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1921 Diplomacy - Charles Doherty represents Canada at second meeting of the League of Nations; until October 5, 1921. Geneva, Switzerland
  • 1923 James D. Stewart sworn in as Premier of Prince Edward Island, replacing J.H. Bell. Charlottetown, PEI
  • 1925 Dissolution of the 14th Parliament of Canada. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1929 Hudson Bay Railway reaches its northern terminus at Churchill; originally operated by Canadian National Railways on behalf of the Government, will become part of the CNR system on September 5, 1951. Churchill, Manitoba
  • 1932 Angus Macdonald sworn in as Premier of Nova Scotia, replacing Gordon Harrington.
  • 1944 Earthquake does serious damage to the city of Cornwall. Cornwall, Ontario
  • 1945 Espionage - Cipher clerk Igor Gouzenko defects from the USSR Embassy with more than 100 secret documents under his coat, detailing the workings of a major Soviet spy ring in Canada, with tentacles reaching into the Department of External Affairs code room, the British High Commission Office and the Chalk River nuclear facility. The RCMP give Gouzenko asylum and a new identity, and he will die in hiding in 1982. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1945 See: Alan Nunn May Unmasked by Igor Gouzenko
  • 1945 Energy - Canada’s First nuclear reactor, the ZEEP or Zero Energy Experimental Pile, goes into operation at Chalk River. Chalk River, Ontario
  • 1945 Welfare - Québec Premier Maurice Duplessis announces that his government is bringing in provincial family allowances. Québec, Québec
  • 1954 Icebreaker completes First passage of McClure Strait, the North West Passage. McClure Strait, Nunavut
  • 1957 Louis St-Laurent resigns as Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1962 Centennial - Canada Council grants $20,000 to Humanities Research Council of Canada for a Centennial history series; edited by Donald Creighton and W. L. Morton and published by McClelland & Stewart. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1962 Jean-Louis Gagnon editor in chief of new newspaper, Le Nouveau Journal. Montreal, Quebec
  • 1962 Canada pledges $5 million in cash and commodities to kick off Canada-U.S. sponsored World Food Bank. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1967 Disaster - Czechoslovakian airliner crashes near Gander, killing 35 passengers. Gander, Newfoundland
  • 1968 Gene Mauch appointed First Head Coach of Montréal’s new baseball team, to be called The Montréal Expos. Montréal, Québec
  • 1971 Media - TVA network opens stations in Montréal, Québec City and Chicoutimi; Canada’s First private French-language television network. Québec
  • 1972 Immigration - Ottawa starts 2-month program to let aliens apply for landed immigrant status; those who entered Canada as visitors and stayed. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1978 Judge Robert Cliche died; headed Cliche Commission on Labour relations in Québec. Montréal, Québec
  • 1979 Currency - Canadian gold Maple Leaf coin goes on sale in Canada, the US and Europe; Canada’s First gold bullion coin a runaway success for the Royal Canadian Mint because of its purity. A proclamation in 1914 had prohibited the Canadian mint, then a branch of the Royal Mint, from issuing gold coins. Winnipeg, Manitoba
  • 1979 Strike - Striking Air Canada pilots call off walkout. Montréal, Québec
  • 1982 Finance - World Bank and International Monetary Fund start 5-day meeting in Toronto to discuss global economy. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1983 Canadian Alan Thicke hosts new syndicated TV talk show, Thicke Of The Night. Hollywood, California
  • 1983 Nova Scotian Robert MacNeil and colleague Jim Lehrer see their PBS show expanded to America’s First hour-long network news show - The MacNeil-Lehrer Newshour. New York, New York
  • 1985 Free Trade - Macdonald Royal Commission on Canada’s Economic Prospects recommends free trade with the United States; led by former Pierre Trudeau Cabinet minister Donald Macdonald. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1986 Claude Brochu named President of the Montréal Expos baseball club. Montréal, Québec
  • 1988 Football player Earl Winfield of the CFL Hamilton Tiger Cats scores touchdowns on a 101 yard punt return, a 100 yard kickoff return and a 58 yard pass reception. Hamilton, Ontario
  • 1989 Health - Sixteen children get lead poisoning in St-Jean. St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Québec
  • 1990 Donald Cormie charged with stock manipulation by Alberta Securities Commission; for driving up shares in Matrix Investments Ltd., controlled by his Principal Group. Calgary, Alberta
  • 1990 Mercier Bridge through the Kanawake reserve opens after 55-day Mohawk standoff. Montreal, Quebec
  • 1990 Québec National Assembly sets up the Bélanger-Campeau Commission on Quebec’s political and constitutional future; with representatives from government, the official opposition, unions, associations and other groups. Quebec, Quebec
  • 1995 Jean-Luc Pépin dies at age 71; federal Liberal politician; co-chair of Task Force on Canadian Unity with former Ontario Premier John Robarts. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 2002 Media - Canadian government said it will spend C$105 million ($66.9 million) in the first stage of a plan to connect the country’s rural residents to high-speed Internet service by 2005.
  • 2003 Labour - Statistics Canada said the nation’s unemployment rate rose to 8.0% in August, an 18-month high.
  • 2005 Justice - Coalition of groups unite against binding use of ‘Sharia’ or Islamic arbitration in Ontario, as recommended by commissioner Marion Boyd. Toronto, Ontario