Highlights of the day

  • 1830 Josiah Henson and family arrive in Upper Canada on the Underground Railway.
  • 1864 Québec Conference adjourns with a celebratory banquet after forging the Seventy-Two Resolutions.
  • 1914 War Cabinet orders the registration of all ‘alien enemies,’ especially Germans and Ukrainians.

List of Facts for October 28

  • 1666 François de La Mothe-Fénélon founds mission for the Seneca and Cayuga at Kenté on the Bay of Quinte, Lake Ontario; with Father Claude Trouvé. Belleville, Ontario
  • 1688 Medicine - Charon brothers receive land at Montréal for a hospital. Montréal, Québec
  • 1741 Manufacturing - Fish glue First made in Québec. Québec, Québec
  • 1790 Diplomacy - Nootka Sound Convention signed in Madrid; Spain surrenders exclusive rights on Pacific coast. Madrid, Spain
  • 1795 Diplomacy - The February 29, 1796. The Treaty will not be renewed by Thomas Jefferson. Washington, DC
  • 1813 Crime - Sancho Byers hanged for stealing a loaf of bread and a pound of butter; poor Charlottetown black. Charlottetown, PEI
  • 1818 Treaty - Mississaugas cede rights to 263,000 hectares in Wellington, Dufferin, Peel and Halton Counties to the Crown; 650,000 acres. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1824 Education - First classes begin at the Montréal Medical Institute, Canada’s First medical school. Montréal, Québec
  • 1830 Josiah Henson arrives in Upper Canada from Maryland with his wife Nancy and four children on the Underground Railway. The escaped American slave becomes pastor of a local church and starts a technical school, and founds the Dawn Settlement. He is the model for the hero of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s famous novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin, the book that Abraham Lincoln said ignited the US Civil War. Dresden, Ontario
  • 1843 Religion - Founding of the order of the Soeurs des SS Noms de Jésus et Marie. Montréal, Québec
  • 1851 Hincks-Morin Ministry takes office; Francis Hincks Inspector-General of Canada West (Ontario); Augustin-Norbert Morin Provincial Secretary of Canada East (Québec). Kingston, Ontario
  • 1864 Québec Conference adjourns with a celebratory banquet after weeks of discussion and debate. The delegates from Canada, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and PEI summarize proceedings in a blueprint for Confederation called The Seventy-Two Resolutions (The Québec Resolutions), which are sent to the British Parliament and the provincial legislatures for approval; it will take two more years before the Confederation proposal is approved. Québec, Québec
  • 1887 Premiers Conference - Québec Premier Honoré Mercier closes the First Interprovincial Premiers Conference: the five premiers adopt 21 resolutions for free trade with the US and other reforms; John A. Macdonald refused to attend. Québec, Québec
  • 1888 Crime - Nellie Webb shoots and wounds a drunken Mountie who had tried to force his way into her brothel in Edmonton. Edmonton, Alberta
  • 1889 Stanley Park dedicated in Vancouver; named after the Governor General Lord Stanley. Vancouver, BC
  • 1891 Manitoba Schools Crisis - Supreme Court of Canada rules that the Manitoba Separate Schools Act is unconstitutional; abolished separate schools. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1894 Rail - Nakusp and Slocan Railway tracks reach Three Forks, above New Denver, BC.
  • 1900 Olympics - Paris Olympic Games closes after 5 months; Canada did not send an official team, but George Orton, from Strathroy, Ontario, brings home a Gold Medal in the Steeplechase. Paris, France
  • 1903 Police - Mounted Police halt Doukhobor group, migrating from their settlements in Saskatchewan to proposed new homes in Mexico. Saskatchewan
  • 1910 Football - Bob Simpson of the Hamilton Tigers kicks a record 11 singles in a Canadian rugby football game. Hamilton, Ontario
  • 1911 Football - Bill Dobbie of the Calgary Tigers kicks 10 singles in a Canadian rugby football game. Calgary, Alberta
  • 1914 First World War - Under the War Measures Act, the War Cabinet orders the registration of all ‘alien enemies,’ specifically Germans and Austro-Hungarians, including Ukrainians; provides for establishment of ‘concentration camps’ to house internees and their families in exchange for work such as clearing bush and cutting lumber in the national parks. Ottawa, Ontario See: Ukrainian Canadians Interned Under War Measures Act
  • 1916 First World War - Troops from Manitoba fight in the Battle of the Somme. France
  • 1918 First World War - Second Victory Loan for $300 million raises $660 million. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1942 Second World War - Canadian Health Minister Ian Mackenzie and Alaska Secretary E.L. Bartlett cut a ribbon to open the Alcan Military Highway, today known as the Alaska Highway. The 2575 km road, from Dawson Creek, BC to Fairbanks Alaska, was built to move supplies and munitions rapidly north in case of Japanese invasion. Kluane Lake, Yukon
  • 1953 Football - Winnipeg Blue Bombers Bud Grant intercepts 5 passes for a CFL record. Winnipeg, Manitoba
  • 1954 Henry Larsen arrives in Vancouver on the last voyage of the RCMP patrol vessel St. Roch; the ship that circumnavigated North America will be put in a museum. Vancouver, BC
  • 1955 Fire destroys shipyards at Lauzon. Lauzon, Québec
  • 1957 Sarto Fournier elected Mayor of Montréal. Montréal, Québec
  • 1958 State Visit - John Diefenbaker starts tour of European and Commonwealth countries until December 19, 1958. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1960 Garfield Weston donates $1 million to the Banting and Best Department of Medical Research, University of Toronto; grocery magnate, head of Loblaws. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1966 Conference - Start of federal-provincial Premiers’ conference on fiscal matters. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1968 Olympics - Jim Day, Jim Elder and Tom Gayford of the Canadian Equestrian Team win Canada’s only gold medal at the Mexico Olympic Games. Mexico City, Mexico
  • 1968 Keremeos Co-operative Growers Association opens packing house. Keremeos, BC
  • 1969 Winnipeg, Manitoba rock group Guess Who’s single, Laughing, certified Gold. New York, New York
  • 1970 Nova Scotia Election - Gerald Regan leads Liberals to victory in provincial election over Ike Smith’s Conservatives; serves as Premier to October 5, 1978; later a federal cabinet minister. Nova Scotia
  • 1971 Newfoundland Election - Frank Moores leads Progressive Conservatives to victory in provincial election; won 21 seats to 20 for Joey Smallwood’s Liberals; New Labrador Party wins 1 seat. Newfoundland
  • 1973 Horse Racing - Secretariat wins his final race by 6 1/2 lengths in the Canadian International Stakes at Toronto’s Woodbine. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1975 Jean-Luc Pepin chairs First Anti-Inflation Board meeting in Ottawa. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1977 Pierre Trudeau confirms to the House of Commons that the RCMP entered a Montréal office in 1973 without a warrant to copy the membership lists of the Parti Québécois. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1977 Toronto rocker Neil Young releases his Decade album. New York, New York
  • 1980 Energy - Newly re-elected Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau ushers in the National Energy Program in the new federal budget; intended to provide oil self-sufficiency and greater Canadian ownership; grants to encourage drilling in remote areas, new PIP, PGRT and export taxes, expanded role for Petro-Canada. Ottawa and Alberta had failed to come to an agreement over the price of oil or over how the two governments would share the profits; the NEP was an attempt by Ottawa to tap into growing oil revenues, and make Canada’s source of oil more secure at a time in which the price of oil had just jumped 160%. The NEP removed the world crude oil price from the first 45,000 barrels per day of oil sands production. It was met with vehement opposition and mistrust from Albertans, for imposing new taxes on the oil industry and expanding Petro-Canada’s role. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1983 Coleman Collieries Limited shuts down the last of its operations: the coal cleaning plant at Coleman. Alberta.
  • 1987 Baseball - Tim Wallach of the Montréal Expos named National League Player of the Year. Montréal, Québec
  • 1992 Statistics Canada reports more children studying the French language; 2 million anglophones; plus 300,000 in immersion courses. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1993 Hockey - Ron Francis scores a goal to become only the 38th player to achieve 1,000 career points, but his Pittsburgh Penguins fall to the Québec Nordiques, 7-3. Québec, Québec
  • 1995 Canadian acrobat Jay Cochrane crosses 636 metres of steel wire, 411 metres above the Yangtze River at Three Gorges, in 53 minutes. China
  • 1997 Shania Twain’s single ‘Love Gets Me Every Time’ certified Gold. Nashville, Tennessee
  • 2004 Justice - Minister of Justice Irwin Cotler sends Steven Truscott’s case to the Ontario Court of Appeal, 45 years after he was sentenced to hang. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 2004 Supreme Court of Canada rules Newfoundland and Labrador was justified in deferring pay equity to women during a financial crisis. Ottawa, Ontario