Today’s Features

  • 1810 John Molson starts regular steamboat service to Québec on his “Accomodation”
  • 1917 Frank Calder First President of the New National Hockey League
  • 1971 Viola Léger first plays role of Antonine Maillet’s La Sagouine, an Acadian cleaning woman.

List of Facts for November 26

  • 1691 Joseph de Villebon arrives at Port-Royal, taking possession of Acadia next day; goes to Fort Jemseg to establish rule; government put under Sgt. Charles La Tourasse of the French garrison. Annapolis, Nova Scotia
  • 1807 Le Canadien publisher Pierre Bédard given a seat in the Assembly after a royal pardon issued by new Governor James Craig. Québec, Québec
  • 1810 Transport - John Molson opens First regular steamboat service to Québec. The steamship Accommodation will be commandeered during the War of 1812 to carry British troops upriver; new vessels included the Swiftsure in 1812, the Malsham in 1815 and the Lady Sherbrooke and New Swiftsure in 1816. Montréal, Québec
  • 1845 Lord Cathcart appointed Administrator of Canada; serves until May 24, 1846; also commander of British forces in North America; will serve as Governor General from April 24, 1846 to January 30, 1847. Montréal, Québec
  • 1857 First Macdonald-Cartier Ministry takes office; on retirement of E.P. Taché. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1869 Red River Rebellion - John A. Macdonald refuses to take over Rupert’s Land on December 1, 1869 as agreed, due to the Métis occupation of Fort Garry. He orders Sir John Rose, Canadian representative in London, not to pay the £300,000 owing until the HBC can guarantee peaceful possession. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1870 Rail - Opening of First railway connection with the Saguenay-Lac St-Jean region. Québec, Québec
  • 1878 Abigail Becker single-handedly rescues the captain and seven crew members of the overloaded schooner Conductor, foundered on a sandbar off Long Point on Lake Erie. The ‘Heroine of Long Point’ later rescued 6 other mariners from another wreck. Ontario
  • 1883 Farming - The Manitoba and North-West Farmers’ Union is founded in Brandon. Brandon, Manitoba
  • 1910 Football - University of Toronto beats Hamilton Tigers 16-7 to win 2nd Grey Cup game. Hamilton, Ontario
  • 1915 First World War - Mobilization of the 148th Montréal Infantry Battalion and 150th Montréal Infantry Battalion for service in the war. Montréal, Québec
  • 1915 Atlee Burpee dies at age 57; born April 5, 1858 at Sheffield, New Brunswick; botanist known for developing lima beans and many other hybrid fruits and vegetables; founder of world’s largest mail-order seed company. Doylestown, Pennsylvania
  • 1917 Frank Calder elected President of the new National Hockey League, incorporated on this day. The new League replaces the National Hockey Association, and consists of the Montréal Canadiens, Montréal Wanderers, Toronto Arenas, Ottawa Senators & Québec Bulldogs. Québec did not to operate that First season. Seven years later, the Boston Bruins became the First US club to get an NHL franchise. Montréal, Québec
  • 1918 Smelting - Canada Copper Corporation shuts down the Anaconda smelter at Greenwood, BC.
  • 1926 Diplomacy - Vincent Massey takes up duties as First Canadian Ambassador to Washington; Canada’s First official diplomatic posting to a foreign country after Balfour Report and Dominion independence. Washington, DC
  • 1927 Football - Toronto Balmy Beach beats Hamilton Tigers 9-6 to win 15th Grey Cup game. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1937 Gustave Lanctôt named Dominion Archivist. Ottawa, Ontario 1939 -
  • 1941 Ernest Lapointe dies in hospital; Justice Minister, Mackenzie King’s Québec Lieutenant. Montréal, Québec
  • 1949 Football - Montréal Alouettes beat Calgary Stampeders 28-15 to win 37th Grey Cup game. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1955 Football - Pop Ivy’s Edmonton Eskimos beat Montréal Alouettes 34-19 to win 43rd CFL Grey Cup game. Vancouver, BC
  • 1958 Hockey - Montréal Canadiens star Maurice Richard scores his 600th NHL career goal against the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden. New York, New York
  • 1960 Football - Frank Clair’s Ottawa Rough Riders beat Edmonton Eskimos 16-6 to win 48th CFL Grey Cup game. Vancouver, BC
  • 1966 Football - Eagle Keys’ Saskatchewan Roughriders beat Ottawa Rough Riders 29-14 to win 54th CFL Grey Cup game. Vancouver, BC
  • 1967 Premers Conference - Ontario Premier John Robarts opens 4-day Confederation of Tomorrow Conference; premiers agree on need to alter the Constitution. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1969 Music - Canadian country rock group The Band receive a gold record for their album, The Band. New York, New York
  • 1971 Theatre - Viola Léger puts on her First performance of Antonine Maillet’s La Sagouine, a series of 16 dramatic monologues by an illiterate but philosophic Acadian cleaning woman, for a Moncton radio station; First staged by Moncton’s Les Feux-Chalins, a troupe founded by Father Jean-Guy Gagnon and others in 1969; will be performed at the Théâtre du rideau vert in Montréal, and in 1974 on Radio-Canada; 1979 in english on CBC. Moncton, New Brunswick
  • 1973 Energy - Denison Mines sells $800 million worth of uranium oxide to Tokyo Electric Power Company; delivery from 1984 to 1993. Tokyo, Japan
  • 1975 Media - Advertising - The Canadian Radio-Television Commission orders Canadian cable TV companies to black out identical US programs available on Canadian television at the same time; CRTC rules ensure that Canadian advertisers are not subsidizing US Stations. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1978 Football - Hugh Campbell’s Edmonton Eskimos defeat Montréal Alouettes 20-13 to win 66th CFL Grey Cup game. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1980 Banking - New Bank Act sets up new operating rules for chartered banks; lets foreign banks open branches; replacing the 1967 Bank Act. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1984 Hockey - Guy Lafleur announces he will retire from hockey; after 518 goals and 14 years of service with the Montréal Canadiens. Montréal, Québec
  • 1989 Football - John Gregory’s Saskatchewan Roughriders defeat Hamilton Tiger Cats 43-40 before a record crowd of more than 54,000 at SkyDome to win 77th CFL Grey Cup; one of the highest scoring Grey Cup games ever. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1991 Cinema - Genie Awards - Bruce Beresford wins Best Director Genie for Black Robe; plus Best Picture, Best Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction; Rémy Girard wins Best Actor Genie for performance in Amoureux fou (Love Crazy); Pascale Montpetit wins Best Actress Genie for performance in H, a film about heroin addicts. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1991 Hockey - Goalie Manon Rhéaume plays one game for the QMJHL Trois-Rivières Draveurs; the First woman to play on a major Junior A hockey team; later goaltender for the Women’s Canadian National Team at the 1992 and 1994 Women’s World Championships, winning a gold medal both times; 1992 signed as free agent by the Tampa Bay Lightning and played in an exhibition game (Tampa Bay Lightning vs. St. Louis Blues) on September 23, 1992, making her the First woman to play in a professional hockey game; 1998 goalie for the Canadian Olympic Silver medal women’s team. Trois-Rivières, Québec
  • 1991 William James dies at age 96; consulting geologist; named to Canadian Mining Hall of Fame 1989; father of Bill James, President of Denison Mines. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1992 Horse Racing - Jockey Sandy Hawley notches his 6,000th victory in the second race at Greenwood Racecourse aboard Summer Commander; becomes the ninth thoroughbred rider in history to win 6,000 races. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1996 Baseball - Major league owners ratify collective bargaining agreement in a five-year contract retroactive to 1996, to run through the year 2000; creates interleague play and revenue sharing for small-market teams like the Montréal Expos. North America
  • 1997 Thelma Chalifoux takes her seat in the Senate of Canada; served until reaching the age of 75 in April, 2004 appointed by Jean Chrétien as the first Métis woman to become a senator; born in Calgary, Alberta, she received the National Aboriginal Achievement Award in 1995. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1997 Health - Health Minister Allan Rock releases the final report of the Commission of Inquiry on the Blood System in Canada, led by Justice Horace Krever. the Krever Commission’ report on its tainted-blood inquiry lays blame on the Red Cross, federal and provincial goverments; calls for government to compensate victims infected with HIV and hepatitis C by blood transfusions. Ottawa, Ontario (CBC Archives}
  • 1998 Justice - Supreme Court of Canada rules that authorities at elementary and secondary schools have the right to search a student without first obtaining a search warrant. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1998 Politics - Don Morin, Premier of the Northwest Territories, is forced out of office after conflict of interest alligations over the illegal shipment of government owned bison to a friend, Mike Mrdjenovich, in 1996; Mrdjenovich received 70 wood bison for his ranch in Alberta in exchange for building the Edjericon Bison Ranch in Fort Resolution, NWT, a community in Morin’s riding. Iqaluit, Nunavut See: Don Morin Inquiry
  • 2002 Françoise Ducros, Prime Minister Jean Chrétien’s communication director resigns over her comment, caught on tape, that U.S. President George W. Bush was a “moron”. Ottawa, Ontario