Highlights of the day

  • 1813 War of 1812 - Americans Beaten Back at Battle of Crysler’s Farm.
  • 1918 Armistice Day: at 1100 hours the guns of First World War fall silent.

List of Facts for November 11

  • 1775 American Revolutionary War - Guy Carleton, Lord Dorchester evacuates Montréal for Québec as the American invaders land at Île St-Paul, then the following day at Pointe St-Charles, capturing the city on the November 13, 1775. Montréal, Québec
  • 1778 American Revolutionary War - Walter Butler raids Cherry Valley, New York, with Rangers and Iroquois allies; John Butler’s son; 40 settlers killed in the Cherry Valley Massacre. Cherry Valley, New York
  • 1813 War of 1812 - Colonel Joseph Morrison and Royal Navy Captain William Mulcaster defeat an American invasion force of over 7,000 led by General James Wilkinson at the Battle of Crysler’s Farm 30 km west of Cornwall. Wilkinson’s flotilla left Sackett’s Harbor in late October and landed on the Canadian side of the Long Sault Rapids. With only 800 British regulars of the 49th Regiment and 89th Regiment, plus some Canadian militia and Indians, Morrison moves to attack 1,800 Americans of the 25th Infantry Regiment under Brown at Crysler’s Farm; at the same time, Captain William Mulcaster’s gunboats fire shrapnel and grapeshot on General John Park Boyd’s flotilla of 4,000 American troops trying to descend the rapids toward Montréal, which helps Morrison land his troops at Crysler’s Farm. In the first skirmish, the Americans take 400 casualties to the British 200. Morrisburg, Ontario
  • 1838 Upper Canada Rebellion - Battle of the Windmill - Republican Colonel Nils von Schoultz, a Swedish soldier of fortune, crosses the St. Lawrence River in two schooners and a steamer at night with 200 Canadian exiles and US sympathizers; Von Schoultz runs his schooner Charlotte aground below Prescott, and before attacking Fort Wellington takes up position in a 6-storey stone windmill and several stone houses nearby (the main structure of the mill still exists, later rebuilt into a light house). Prescott, Ontario
  • 1838 Lower Canada Rebellion - Authorities start arresting Patriotes; Louis-Joseph Papineau goes into hiding, escapes from Montréal on the 13th; prelude to outbreak of rebellion. Prescott, Ontario
  • 1838 Religion - Fathers François Blanchet and Modeste Demers arrive in Oregon via the Columbia River after leaving Montréal, Québec in May with the annual Hudson’s Bay Company “express”; thy reach Walla Walla on November 18, 1838 and Fort Vancouver on November 24, 1838; first Roman Catholic priests to arrive in the future Washington state.
  • 1839 Governor Lord Sydenham calls the Special Council to meet at Montréal. Montréal, Québec
  • 1840 Governor Sir John Colborne forms a Special Council of eleven members. Québec, Québec
  • 1871 Media - Founding of the institution of La Tribune de la presse du Parlement de Québec; possibly the oldest press ombudsman in the world. Québec, Québec
  • 1871 Military - Royal Canadian Rifles depart Québec for Britain; last British troops in Canada, except for a small naval garrison at Halifax; some RCRs stay to train Canadian militia. Québec, Québec
  • 1889 Boundary - Washington State, bordering BC, is admitted to the Union as the 42nd state.
  • 1897 Transport - BC Southern tote road reaches Swansea on Moyie Lake. Swansea, BC
  • 1903 Media - John Macpherson, John Cunningham and Arthur Moore, all from Portage La Prairie, Manitoba, produce the first issue of the Edmonton Evening Journal, 1000 copies done on a hand-fed press; in 1908 J.P. McConnell, publisher of the Vancouver Sunset and founding editor of the Vancouver Sun, acquires an option on the Journal; 1909 sells Journal to J. H. Woods, owner of The Lethbridge News, who hires Milton Jennings as manager/editor; 1912 William Southam and Sons acquire a controlling interest in the Edmonton Journal. Edmonton, Alberta
  • 1914 First World War - Arrival of First Canadian Stationary Hospital , Unit #2 in France. France
  • 1916 Military - Sam Hughes asked to resign as Minister of Militia and Defence; an Irish Protestant Orangeman, Hughes alienated Catholics and French Canada from military service and refused to build French-speaking regiments; Albert Kemp succeeds Sam Hughes. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1918 First World War - French Field Marshal Foch and the members of the German Armistice Commission sign a formal surrender to end First World War at 5 am in Marshal Foch’s railway car in the Forest of Compiègne, to take effect at 11 am, as Sir Arthur Currie’s Canadian troops chase the last Germans out of Mons, Belgium. Over 750,000 Canadians served in the four years of the Great War; 424,589 went overseas; 60,661 were killed. In all, over 10 million people died in the war, including 6 million civilians. Armistice Day will be renamed Remembrance Day and declared a legal holiday for the first time on November 11, 1931. Compiègne, France
  • 1918 First World War - Private George Price of Saskatchewan’s 28th Battalion is shot and killed by a German sniper at 10:50 am, ten minutes before the Armistice is declared and the guns fall silent; Price is the last Commonwealth casualty of the Great War. Mons, Belgium
  • 1918 Armistice Day at 1100 hours the guns of First World War fall silent. Global
  • 1919 First World War - Canadians and citizens throughout the Empire mark the first Armistice Day by observing King George V’s request that everyone in the British Empire remember the Armistice and the freedom won through the sacrifice of the soldiers. To honour them he suggested that on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, when the war had officially ended, there be complete silence for two minutes. This day, remembered every year, will become a legal holiday in 1921 called Armistice Day.
  • 1921 Armistice Day - Parliament makes a legal holiday out of King George V’s 1919 request that everyone in the British Empire remember the freedom won through the sacrifice of the soldiers, with complete silence for two minutes on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. In 1931 the name is changed to Remembrance Day. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1922 Media - Vernon McKenzie urges fighting “U.S. propaganda” with taxes on imported U.S. magazines. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1931 Armistice Day is renamed Remembrance Day and remains a legal holiday. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1934 Hockey - First penalty shot against the NHL Toronto Maple Leafs, by Pierre Mondou, of the Montréal Canadiens, is unsuccessful Montréal, Québec
  • 1938 Energy - International Joint Commission allows West Kootenay Power to raise level of Kootenay Lake to feed Corra Linn generating station. BC
  • 1939 Football - University of Western Ontario Mustangs finish the football season 6-0, the only undefeated Ontario university team, beating Queen’s University Golden Gaels 13-8 and scoring 12 points in the final 15 minutes of the game; on returning from Kingston, 3,000 people greet the Mustangs at the London train station. Kingston, Ontario
  • 1942 Second World War - Third Victory Loan campaign launched for wartime finance. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1944 Hockey - New York Rangers set NHL record of 25 games without a win (0-21-4). New York, New York
  • 1945 Football - University of Western Ontario Mustangs win their First Yates Cup football championship under coach John Metras, beating Queen’s University Golden Gaels 17-2. Kingston, Ontario
  • 1946 Football - John Metras’ University of Western Ontario Mustangs win the Yates Cup with a 6-0 record, following a 47-8 win over Queen’s University Golden Gaels. London, Ontario
  • 1949 Medicine - Fernie Memorial Hospital opens; demolished in 1975. Fernie, BC
  • 1950 Hank Snow’s single, I’m Moving On, hits #1 on the Billboard country and western chart; born in Liverpool, Nova Scotia, and a star on CBC, Snow moved to Nashville five years earlier to sing at the Grand Ole Opry. New York, New York
  • 1951 Theatre - Tom Patterson approaches Stratford city council to start summer Stratford Shakespearean Festival; with Tyrone Guthrie. Stratford, Ontario
  • 1962 Politics - Media - Liberal leader Jean Lesage and UN leader Daniel Johnson Sr. hold a provincial election debate televised on Radio-Canada. Montréal, Québec
  • 1963 Hockey - Detroit Red Wings Gordie Howe ties Rocket Richard’s lifetime 544 NHL goal record. Detroit, Michigan
  • 1966 Diplomacy - Canada elected to a two-year term on the UN Security Council. United Nations, New York
  • 1967 Sport - Clinton Shaw arrives from Victoria BC, setting the world’s distance Record for roller skating, a trip of 7,885 km, started April 1, 1967. St. John’s, Newfoundland
  • 1974 Winnipeg’s Bachman-Turner Overdrive have a #1 Billboard hit single with You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet/Free Wheelin. New York, New York
  • 1975 Treaty - Ottawa and Québec sign James Bay Convention with New Québec Cree. Montréal, Québec
  • 1976 Gordon Lightfoot’s single, The Wreck of the Edmond Fitzgerald, stays at #1 on the Billboard pop chart. New York, New York
  • 1980 A. Y. Jackson’s painting Algoma Lake sells for $210,000, a new record for a Canadian work of art; Group of Seven member. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1982 Religion - Pope John Paul II announces visit to Canada in fall of 1984; First papal visit to Canada. Rome, Italy
  • 1982 Communications - US space shuttle Columbia blasts off from the Kennedy Space Center, carrying Canada’s Anik C comsat into orbit; the First commercial flight of the Shuttle. Cape Canaveral, Florida
  • 1992 Politics - Guy Chevrette becomes interim leader of the Parti Québécois on resignation of Pierre-Marc Johnson. Québec, Québec
  • 1992 Labour - Canadian Auto Workers vote to forego $15 million in wage increases over the next three years to help Canadian Airlines International keep flying. Vancouver, BC
  • 1995 Journalist Judy Steed, in a conference speech, attacks the chair of Ryerson University’s journalism program for employing gay activist Gerald Hannon as a part-time instructor. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1997 Baseball - Montréal Expos Pedro Martinez wins National League Cy Young Award over Greg Maddux and Denny Neagle. Montréal, Québec
  • 1997 Québec Gatineau Railway takes over operation of former CP Lachute subdivision between Outremont and Hull; moves traffic to Smiths Falls for the last time; end of Canadian Pacific Railway presence in Ottawa, Ontario; First line to enter Bytown in 1854. Gatineau, Québec
  • 1997 Crime - Sniper shoots and wounds a doctor of an abortion clinic at his Winnipeg home. Winnipeg, Manitoba
  • 2010 Defence - Stephen Harper announces three-year continuation of Afghanistan mission to train the fledgling Afghan army and protect gains. Ottawa, Ontario