Highlights of the day

  • 1692 Madeleine de Verchères, age 14, starts defending her family’s fort against Iroquois siege.
  • 1881 McGill University and University of Toronto play Canada’s first college football game on the U of T lawn.
  • 1944 Private Smokey Smith wins VC for holding Savio River crossing against German counter-attack.

List of Facts for October 22

  • 1642 Religion - Father Charles Raimbault dies at Québec; First Jesuit in New France. Québec, Québec
  • 1670 Shipbuilding - Jean Langlois starts construction of another barquentine. Québec, Québec
  • 1692 Madeleine de Verchères gathers about 20 local habitant farmers into her family’s fortified home, Fort Dangerous, when some Iroquois appear; fires cannon to warn other families; with her father François de Verchères, a militia colonel, away in Montreal, the 14 year old will defend the fort against Iroquois siege for the next 8 days, with only 2 militia and her young brother; when help arrives, she says: ‘I surrender my arms to you’, then collapses; Jarret seigneury about 32 km east of Montreal on the St. Lawrence River opposite Repentigny, Québec. Verchères, Québec
  • 1837 Rebellion of 1837 - About a thousand young Patriotes, es Fils de la Liberté (Sons of Liberty), go on manoeuvres in the outskirts of Montréal, in preparation for a great meeting the following day at St-Charles - the Grande Assemblée des Six-Comtés. Verchères, Québec
  • 1846 Communication - Founding of Toronto, Hamilton, Niagara, & St. Catharines Telegraph Company; Canada’s First telegraph company opens the Hamilton line December 19, 1846. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1854 Dr. John Rae arrives in England after a treacherous Atlantic crossing to claim the £10,000 British Admiralty prize for discovery of the fate of the Franklin Expedition; the Hudson’s Bay Company explorer, fur trader and surgeon made four expeditions to the Arctic before meeting an Inuit man who told him of a group of white men who died of starvation four years earlier, and sold him some marked silverware and a medal which confirmed they were remains of the Franklin expedition. Rae will not be awarded the prize until July, 1856, since his report quotes Inuit statements that the last survivors had resorted to cannibalism, and many Britons, including Lady Franklin, insisted that sailors of the Royal Navy would never do such a thing; therefore Rae was not to be believed. London, England
  • 1867 Banking - Failure of the Commercial Bank. Montréal, Québec
  • 1878 Simon Holmes sworn in as Conservative Premier of Nova Scotia, replacing Liberal Philip Hill; modernized municipal government, but failed in attempt to abolish the Legislative Council (provincial equivalent of the federal Senate; May 23, 1882 retired and replaced temporarily by John Thompson; last Conservative Premier of Nova Scotia for 43 years. Halifax, Nova Scotia
  • 1881 Football - McGill University and the University of Toronto play Canada’s First college football game on the U of T lawn; the two teams try to play annually after that; the First football games under the Canadian Intercollegiate Athletic Union (CIAU) will be played in 1898. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1885 North West Rebellion - Judicial Committee of the Privy Council rules against the appeal of Louis Riel’s sentence, and he will be hanged in Regina, Saskatchewan Nov. 16, 1885. London, England
  • 1887 James Miller marries Mary Agnes Sexton, in the First wedding in St. Cyrians Anglican Church on the on Piikani reserve. Alberta
  • 1895 Crime - Almighty Voice escapes from jail in Duck Lake; the Cree was imprisoned for killing cattle. Duck Lake, Saskatchewan
  • 1895 Rail - First K&S railway work train reaches Sandon, BC.
  • 1898 CPR launches steamboat Moyie (835 tons) at Nelson; prefabricated in Toronto for Yukon service on the Stikine River in northern British Columbia; retired April, 1957, survives as museum at Kaslo, BC. Nelson, BC
  • 1900 Boundary Creek Mining Company reorganizes itself into the Montreal and Boston Copper Company. BC
  • 1908 Education - Laying of the cornerstone of the École des Hautes Études Commerciales building. Montreal, Québec
  • 1917 First World War - Patriotic celebration takes place at the National Monument, to celebrate the mobilization of the 24th Battalion of Montréal Infantry for service in France. Montréal, Québec
  • 1917 Town of Alma incorporated. Alma, Québec
  • 1936 Diplomacy - Canada signed its First trade treaty with Germany. Berlin, Germany
  • 1940 Second World War - RCN River Class Destroyer HMCS Margaree lost in the North Atlantic, after collision with the freighter Port Fairy, while escorting the five ship convoy OL.8; lost are 142 of her ship’s company, many of whom were survivors of the sinking of HMCS Fraser on June 25, 1940. Atlantic Ocean
  • 1943 Second World War - HMCS Portage is commissioned. Esquimalt, BC
  • 1943 Second World War - A German U-boat lands on the coast of Labrador, 32 km south of Cape Chidley, to set up an automatic weather station; it transmits data to the German Navy for three months before shutting down. The station will be discovered and identified in July, 1981. Martin Bay, Labrador
  • 1944 Second World War - Seaforth Highlanders Private Smokey Smith shows conspicuous heroism, holding the Savio River crossing against German counter-attacks and destroying at least two enemy tanks; awarded the Victoria Cross. Savio River, Italy
  • 1945 Mackenzie King Government brings in Canadian Citizenship Act to the House of Commons; becomes law in January, 1947; abolishes ‘Canadian national’ or ‘British subject’ as the legal terms for non-aliens in Canada.. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1945 Football - Calgary Stampeders play their First game at Mewata Stadium, defeating the Regina Roughriders 12-0. Calgary, Alberta
  • 1947 Price Control - Government removes wartime price controls on meat. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1958 Diplomacy - Blanche Meagher appointed Canadian Ambassador to Israel, Halifax-born Meagher Canada’s First woman ambassador; later serves as ambassador to Austria and Sweden. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1964 Commons Flag Committee makes its final selection of the design that will become the national flag. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1968 Finance - Edgar Benson brings down budget; proposes serious changes to tax savings plans and capital gains; the so-called Benson Budget. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1970 New Brunswick Election - Richard Hatfield leads Progressive Conservatives to victory in provincial election, defeating Liberals under Louis Robichaud. New Brunswick
  • 1970 Lester Pearson named First chairman of the Board of Governors of the International Development Research Centre (IDRC); former Prime Minister. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1976 English rock group the Who wrap up their North American tour with a concert in Maple Leaf Gardens; last show Keith Moon will play in North America. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1986 British Columbia Election - Bill Vander Zalm leads Social Credit to re-election landslide in the provincial election. BC
  • 1986 Dominion Textile announces it is withdrawing from South Africa in support of Canada’s anti-apartheid policies. Montréal, Québec
  • 1987 Queen Elizabeth II makes a speech in which she praises the distinct character of Québec. Montréal, Québec
  • 1990 Labour - Senate passes Brian Mulroney government bill overhauling the Unemployment Insurance Fund; employers and workers to shoulder the entire cost. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1990 Retail - Zellers acquires 51 Towers-Bonimart discount stores in Eastern Canada for estimated $150 million; division of Hudson’s Bay Company. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1990 Labour - Senate passes Brian Mulroney government bill overhauling the Unemployment Insurance Fund; employers and workers to shoulder the entire cost. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1990 Retail - Zellers acquires 51 Towers-Bonimart discount stores in Eastern Canada for estimated $150 million; division of Hudson’s Bay Company. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1992 Space - Canadian Space Agency astronaut Steve MacLean blasts off from Kennedy Space Center at 12:09 pm CDT, a mission specialist aboard Space Shuttle flight STS-52, with CANEX-II and responsibility for the First test of the CSA’s Space Vision System (SVS), designed to help operators of the RMS Canadarm or Mobile Servicing System (MSS) of the future berth or deploy satellites. Maclean will also perform a series of seven Canadian experiments on material science, fluid physics, atmosphere characterization, and the human body’s ability to adapt to space flight. On the First day, he activates the Queens University Experiment in Liquid Metal Diffusion (QUELD), a high temperature furnace that operates in the mid-deck of the Shuttle and examines the diffusion of bismuth and tin into each other. Cape Canaveral, Florida
  • 1992 Baseball - Lonnie Smith hits a grand slam as Atlanta Braves beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 7-2, in Game 5 of the World Series; solid pitching by John Smoltz takes the series back to Atlanta; Braves First American team to win a World Series game outside the US. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1995 Diplomacy - Prime Minister Jean Chrétien joins 200 other world leaders in New York for three days of festivities marking the 50th anniversary of the United Nations organization. New York, New York
  • 1996 Strike - End of General Motors strike at Oshawa and Boisbriand, as GM and the CAW settle three-week strike that idled over 46,000 workers across North America. Oshawa, Ontario Boisbriand, Québec
  • 1996 Godfrey-Milliken bill introduced in the House of Commons by MPs John Godfrey and Peter Milliken in response to the US Helms-Burton bill; said that 3 million Canadian descendants of 80,000 uprooted loyalists from the time of the American Revolution have a right to compensation for their confiscated property. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1997 Trade - US meat inspectors discover E. coli bacteria in imported Canadian beef, halting shipments of 34,000 pounds. North Dakota
  • 2000 Prime Minister Jean Chrétien calls an election; to increase his parliamentary majority. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 2001 West Kootenay Power becomes UtiliCorp Networks Canada. BC
  • 2002 Literature - Yann Martel wins the Booker Prize for his novel Life of Pi, the story of a boy’s survival after a shipwreck. London, England
  • 2008 Finance - The Canadian dollar drops below $.80US for the first time since mid-2005.