Highlights of the day

  • 1980 Terry Fox invested as a Companion of the Order of Canada.

List of Facts for September 19

  • 1535 Jacques Cartier leaves Québec and sails upriver in ‘L’Emerillon’; reaches lake he calls Lac Angoulème on September 28, 1535, then the Iroquois town of Hochelaga (Montréal) on October 2, 1535. Lac St-Pierre, Québec
  • 1648 Jacques Boisdon opens Québec’s First licensed tavern; forbidden to open when church services being held. Québec, Québec
  • 1654 Jean Aubuchon, age 20, marries 11 year old Marguerite Sédilot; first New France and first Canadian marriage on record; the couple will have 16 children. Trois-Rivières, Québec
  • 1655 Jesuit Fathers Pierre Chaumonot & Claude Dablon leave Québec to establish mission in Onondaga territory; will narrowly escape with their lives in a massacre in 1657. Québec, Québec
  • 1665 Germain Morin the First Roman Catholic priest to be ordained in Québec. Québec, Québec
  • 1747 Roland de La Galissonière appointed temporary Governor of New France after the Marquis de Jonquière’s capture at the Battle of Cape Finisterre in April; serves to August 14, 1749. Québec, Québec
  • 1770 Walter Patterson appointed First Governor of St. John Island (PEI); serves to May, 1784. London, England
  • 1772 Mathurin Bourg the First Acadian to be ordained a Roman Catholic priest. New Brunswick
  • 1838 Lord Durham learns that he is being recalled to London. Montreal, Quebec
  • 1839 Rail - General Mining Association officially opens the first 4 km of the Albion Mines Railway to the Albion Coal Mines in Pictou County; the second steam railway in Canada and the first to use standard gauge. Operations began in December, 1838 using the Timothy Hackwork steam locomotives Samson, Hercules and John Buddle imported from England and designed by Peter Crerar; the line was fully operational by May of 1840, with an almost 10 km line to a deep-water terminus at Dunbar’s Point (Abercrombie). The line was declared redundant in 1886 and torn up in 1889; a 1.5 km section was used for hauling coal until June, 1961. Stellarton, Nova Scotia
  • 1841 Governor General Charles Poulett Thomson, Lord Sydenham dies of tetanus, caused by a fall from his horse two days earlier. Kingston, Ontario
  • 1842 Louis-Hippolyte La Fontaine appointed Attorney-General for Canada East. Kingston, Ontario
  • 1849 Two days after the Stony Monday Riot of September 17, in Bytown (now Ottawa), between the Tories and the Reformers, the two sides met on the Sappers Bridge over the Rideau Canal, with cannons, muskets and pistols, but the militia arrived in time to defuse the situation. ottawa, Ontario
  • 1856 Abbé Chiniquy suspended from the Roman Catholic priesthood for his liberal ideas. Montréal, Québec
  • 1876 Founding of the Ottawa Football Club, to compete in rugby football, at a meeting at the Russell Hotel; the Ottawa Amateur Athletic Association agrees to run the club, and it will play its first game on September 23, 1876; in 1898, the rugby football club will re-organize itself as the Ottawa Rough Riders. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1889 Disaster - Rock slide into the Champlain Street/Cap Diamant area of Québec City’s lower town kills 45-47 people. Québec, Québec
  • 1891 Grand Trunk Railway opens the single track St. Clair Tunnel under the St. Clair River to Port Huron, connecting the GTR to lines in Michigan; construction began in 1888. Sarnia, Ontario
  • 1903 Henri Bourassa proposes a free trade treaty with the United States. Montréal, Québec
  • 1903 Townsite of Coleman, NWT, dedicated. Coleman, Alberta
  • 1907 Trade - Canada signs commercial treaty with France; near reciprocity on farm, forestry, fur and leather products; ratified February 1, 1910. Paris, France
  • 1911 Henri Bourassa hosts a large ‘autonomiste’ meeting in Montréal; to promote Canadian self-reliance in manufacturing. Montréal, Québec
  • 1911 Religion - Work begins on Edmonton’s First Jewish synagogue. Edmonton, Alberta
  • 1916 First World War - 6th Montréal Field Battery embarks for service in France. Montréal, Québec
  • 1918 First World War - Canadian YMCA sets up the Khaki University of Canada to give vocational training to Canadian troops stationed in Britain and on the continent. London, England
  • 1926 Explosion in the Hillcrest Mine kills two miners. Hillcrest, Alberta
  • 1932 Camilien Houde resigns after four years as leader of the Québec Conservative Party; MLA for Ste-Marie 1923-27; Mayor of Montréal 1928, but went back to the Assembly in a by-election; lost his seat when his party was defeated in the 1931 general election; succeeded by Maurice Duplessis. Québec, Québec
  • 1939 Norman McLarty becomes Minister of Labour, responsible for Wartime Prices and Trade Board; moved from Postmaster General. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1941 Second World War - German U-Boat U-74 torpedoes and sinks Royal Canadian Navy Flower Class corvette HMCS Lévis 200 km off Cape Farewell, Greenland; 18 lives are lost. Atlantic Ocean
  • 1947 Briercrest Bible Institute acquires the Caron Aerodrome and coverts it from an airport to a college. Caron, Saskatchewan
  • 1950 Lester Pearson chairs Canadian delegation at fifth regular session of United Nations General Assembly; until December 15, 1950. Flushing Meadows, New York
  • 1953 Winnipeg singer Gisele MacKenzie takes over as host on NBC-TV’s Your Hit Parade; her biggest hit song during this period (1953-57) is Hard to Get, in June, 1955 (First sung in an episode of the NBC-TV show, Justice; it became a big hit and she performed it again on Your Hit Parade. New York, New York
  • 1954 Founding of Canadian Actors Equity, the association of professional stage, radio and TV performers; forerunner of ACTRA. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1956 British Columbia Election - W. A. C. Bennett leads Social Credit to re-election victory in provincial election. BC
  • 1956 Energy - Ontario Premier Leslie Frost turns sod for Canada’s First nuclear power station at Des Joachims on the Ottawa River. Des Joachims, Ontario
  • 1960 University of Alberta opens new 130 hectare campus on western outskirts of Calgary; Arts & Education and Science & Engineering buildings the First to open; becomes fully autonomous as the University of Calgary in 1966. Calgary, Alberta
  • 1962 John Diefenbaker opposes entry of Britain into European Economic Community; at Commonwealth Prime Ministers’ Conference. London, England
  • 1963 Government starts redeveloping Confederation Square and Union Station area of Ottawa; at cost of $100 million; railway station becomes the Government Conference Centre. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1966 Leopold Senghor, President of Senegal, arrives in Canada for 10-day visit. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1969 Military - Ottawa to reorganize Canadian Armed Forces; 50% cut in NATO manpower; retirement of RCN aircraft carrier HMCS Bonaventure. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1970 Saskatchewan singer Buffy Ste. Marie appears on Rolling Stones new Performance soundtrack LP, with Ry Cooder and Randy Newman. New York, New York
  • 1977 King Beaudoin of Belgium starts official visit to Canada. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1977 Politics - Ontario Legislature recognizes Northern Ontario Heritage Party as Ontario’s newest political party. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1977 Space - USSR launches 4,500 kg Cosmos 954 satellite; will re-enter the atmosphere 4 months later and crash over Northwest Territories, spreading radioactive debris from its power cell. Tyuratam, Kazakhstan
  • 1978 Nova Scotia Election - John Buchanan leads Progressive Conservatives to victory in provincial election; defeating Liberals under Gerald Regan. Nova Scotia
  • 1980 Governor General Ed Schreyer invests Terry Fox as a Companion of the Order of Canada. The one-legged cancer victim whose marathon run across Canada raised millions of dollars for cancer research is the youngest so honoured. Port Coquitlam, BC
  • 1980 Canadian actor Donald Sutherland stars in the film Ordinary People, with Mary Tyler Moore, Judd Hirsch, and Timothy Hutton, opening in movie houses on this day. Hollywood, California
  • 1984 Pope John Paul II arrives in Ottawa/Hull; meets with the Canadian bishops, holds a mass on LeBreton Flats; and returns to Rome September 20, 1984. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1985 Tunagate - Fisheries Minister John Fraser reverses himself, and orders a recall of 1,000,000 cans of rancid tuna after media reports that some cans contained rotting fish. Fraser will resign September 23, 1985 because his Ministry at First refused to recall the Star-Kist product. He is later elected Speaker of the House of Commons. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1987 Ralph Steinhaur dies; Alberta’s tenth lieutenant-governor; served from 1974-1979. Alberta
  • 1988 Trade - US Senate ratifies the Canada-US Free Trade Agreement by a vote of 83-9. The vote marked the last step in the American legislative approval process. The FTA, aimed at eliminating trade barriers, began taking effect the following January. Washington, DC
  • 1991 Kim Campbell announces $236 million in federal support toward building $700 million KAON particle accelerator in Vancouver. Vancouver, BC
  • 1993 Politics - Québec labour group FTQ (Fédération des travailleurs québécois) announces it will support the Bloc Québecois in the federal election. Québec
  • 1996 CBC/Radio Canada President Perrin Beatty announces 2,500 job cuts must be made in the coming months. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1999 Saskatchewan Election - Roy Romanow and the NDP win only a minority but stay in power with Liberal support. Saksatchewan
  • 2001 Teck Cominco Limited officially named. Vancouver, BC
  • 2005 Sponsorship Scandal - Advertising agency owner Paul Coffin is sentenced to two years less a day as a conditional sentence for his involvement in sponsorship kickbacks. Montréal, Québec
  • 2005 Conservation - World Wildlife Federation says severely depleted cod stocks in the Grand Banks off Canada’s east coast face being totally wiped out by illegal fishing. Toronto, Ontario
  • 2005 Aid - Canadian warships head home from Hurricane Katrina relief mission. New Orleans, Louisiana
  • 2005 Diplomacy - Canada and Denmark agree to a negotiating process dealing with Hans Island, a disputed territory in the Baffin Sea between Canada and Greenland.