Highlights of the day

  • 1752 Halifax printer John Bushell’s 8-page bound pamphlet the 1st book published in Canada.
  • 1900 Alphonse and Dorimène Desjardins open the first credit union in North America.
  • 1907 Alexander Graham Bell Founds the Aerial Experiment Association
  • 1917 Halifax Explosion Kills Almost 2,000 People
  • 1989 Gunman Kills 14 Women Students in Montréal Massacre

List of Facts for December 6

  • 1678 François de La Mothe-Fénélon arrives at the Niagara River with Father Jacques Hennepin from Fort Frontenac; they observe Niagara Falls the next day. Niagara, Ontario
  • 1752 Media - John Bushell publishes 8-page bound pamphlet for the Nova Scotia government, “An act for the relief of debtors;” the first book published in Canada. Halifax, Nova Scotia
  • 1775 American Revolutionary War - American Generals Richard Montgomery and Benedict Arnold put Quebec under siege. Montgomery had arrived at Pointe-aux-Trembles upstream from Québec on December 3 with 300 regulars, plus 300 militia commanded by James Livingston and Jacob Brown, and he brought clothing, winter uniforms, ammunitions, provisions, and artillery seized from the British.
  • 1780 Painting - Painter Jean Créquy dies at Québec City. Québec, Québec
  • 1837 Lower Canada Rebellion - Militia Colonel Charles Kemp and 300 Canadian militia volunteers ambush a group of 80 rebels at 8 pm coming across the US border at Moore’s Corner with newly acquired weapons and 2 cannon; during the 20 minute skirmish, 4 Patriotes are captured, one killed; the rest retreat across the border when Governor John Colborne dispatches 600 British regulars and 3 cannon to St-Armand, Québec. Philipsburgh, Québec
  • December 6 - Upper Canada Rebellion - Rebel leader Dr. John Rolph, a last minute convert to the rebellion, flees Upper Canada for the US; he will live in Rochester, New York for seven years before being allowed to return. Toronto, Ontario
  • December 6 - Upper Canada Rebellion - Militia Colonel Allan MacNab and 60 soldiers arrive from Hamilton, Ontario on a steamer to help Governor Francis Bond Head deal with William Lyon Mackenzie and his rebels; Captain George Maclean also arrives from Scarborough, Ontario with 100 militiamen. Toronto, Ontario
  • December 6 - Upper Canada Rebellion - William Lyon Mackenzie and Samuel Lount hold up a stage coach 6 km west of Toronto; they seize money and letters from Governor Francis Bond Head about the planned defenses of Toronto. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1838 Lower Canada Rebellion - Military court martial begins for Lower Canada rebels accused of high treason; 9 are acquitted and 99 condemned to death; by May 1, 1839, 12 will be executed, 58 deported to Australia and 27 freed under a caution. Montréal, Quebec
  • 1866 Confederation - Alexander Galt pushes through the adoption of draft Article 93, guaranteeing minority education rights in Ontario and Québec; at the Confederation Conference in the Westminster Palace Hotel. London, England
  • 1869 Red River Rebellion - Governor General John Young, Lord Lisgar proclaims a pardon for the Red River Métis if they disperse peacefully. Ottawa, Ontario
  • December 6 - Aboriginal - General Alfred Sully, Indian Commissioner of Montana Territory, grants a permit the John Healy and Alfred Hamilton for a scientific expedition of exploration into Niitsi-tapi (Blackfoot Confederacy) lands north of the International Boundary. Montana
  • 1880 Media - First issue of the Edmonton Bulletin newspaper published. Edmonton, Alberta
  • 1882 Police - The NWMP is ordered to transfer headquarters from Fort Walsh, Saskatchewan to Regina. Regina, Saskatchewan
  • 1888 Curling - Manitoba branch of the Royal Caledonia Curling Club is formed. Winnipeg, Manitoba
  • 1896 Rail - Trail Creek Tramway begins passenger service between Trail Creek Landing and Rossland. Rossland, BC
  • 1897 Rail - First train travels the C&K Railway’s Slocan branch to Nelson and Slocan City. Nelson, BC
  • 1900 Banking - Québec parliamentary reporter Alphonse Desjardins and his wife Dorimène Desjardins open the First credit union in North America; goals of the Mouvement Desjardins are to fight usury, improve the living conditions of workers, let French Canadians build savings and slow the exodus to US mill towns; the First branch is what is today les Caisses populaires Desjardins and Desjardins Inc.; Desjardins will help establish 205 other caisses in Québec and other French speaking parts of Canada and New England. Lévis, Québec
  • December 6 - Rail - C&K Railway opens Procter branch line. BC
  • 1906 Labour - End of Galt Coal Mine strike. Lethbridge, Alberta
  • December 6 - Fire burns up much of Macleod’s downtown Main Street. Fort Macleod, Alberta
  • 1907 Aviation - US Army Lt. Thomas Selfridge flies on board Alexander Graham Bell’s giant tetrahedral kite, the “Cygnet I”, made of 3,393 winged cells; it takes him 51 metres in the air above Bras d’Or Lake for over seven minutes before crashing, but Selfridge is not seriously injured. This is Canada’s the first recorded flight carrying a passenger of any heavier-than-air-craft. Selfridge is secretary of Bell’s Aerial Experimentation Association; he designed Red Wing, the AEA’s first powered aircraft, and also flew the Silver Dart, built by Canadian engineer Casey Baldwin. Selfridge will be killed in a 1908 crash with Orville Wright, becoming the world’s first aircraft fatality. Orville himself suffered serious injuries and was haunted by his role in Selfridge’s death. Baddeck, Nova Scotia
  • 1908 Aviation - Alexander Graham Bell and the Aerial Experimentation Association test the original Silver Dart airplane, made of steel tube, bamboo, friction tape, wire, wood, and covered with rubberized silk balloon-cloth; designer Douglas McCurdy will make the First controlled powered flight in Canada February 23, 1909 from the ice at Baddeck. Baddeck, Nova Scotia
  • 1911 Justice - Calgary judge convicts two dairy delivery men for theft after they removed a rival firm’s milk bottles from doorsteps and milk chutes, to get annoyed customers to switch companies. Calgary, Alberta
  • 1914 Calgary’s first public Christmas tree erected in Central Park. Calgary, Alberta
  • 1916 Rail - Engineering - CPR completes the Connaught Tunnel 8 km through Macdonald Mountain in the Selkirk Range; opens for traffic December 9, 1916; Canada’s longest rail tunnel took two years to blast, and cost $2 million; built to avoid the climb over Rogers’ Pass, and eliminate 8 km of snowsheds that protected the main line from frequent avalanches. BC
  • 1917 Disaster - Downtown Halifax is blown to pieces after a French munitions freighter, the Mont Blanc, coming through the Narrows carrying 2,300 tons of picric acid, 200 tons of TNT, 35 tons of high octane gasoline, and 10 tons of gun cotton, collides with the Belgium steamship Imo, outbound to New York City, at 8:45 am. The Mont Blanc is propelled towards the shore by the collision, its picric acid ablaze, and the crew abandon ship, after failing to alert the harbour of the peril. Minutes later the blazing ship brushes by a pier, setting it ablaze, while spectators gather along the waterfront to witness the spectacle. The Halifax Fire Department respond quickly, and are just positioning their engine up to the nearest hydrant when the Mont Blanc explodes at 9:05 am in a blinding white flash. The blast levels downtown Halifax, killing 2,000, injuring over 8,000, leaving 10,000 homeless, and doing $50 million damage. The shock wave shatters windows at Truro, 100 km away, and the sound can be heard in Charlottetown. A recent theory suggests that this, the most devastating man-made explosion before the atomic bomb, may have been due to enemy sabotage. Halifax, Nova Scotia
  • 1920 1920 - Québec Bulldogs hockey team sold to a Hamilton, Ontario, businessman. Québec, Québec
  • 1921 Federal Election - Mackenzie King wins a minority in the Dominion election with 40.7% of popular vote; gets 116 seats to 50 for Arthur Meighen’s Conservatives, 64 for the Progressives, 5 others; Meighen loses his own seat in Portage La Prairie, Manitoba; CCF member J. S. Woodsworth is the First socialist elected to the House of Commons. Canada
  • December 6 - Federal Election - Women - Agnes Macphail is elected to the House of Commons for the United Farmers of Ontario in the First election in which all Canadian women exercise their right to vote (wives of soldiers could vote during First World War); a country schoolteacher, she is Canada’s First female MP. Ontario
  • December 6 - Federal Election - Eleven Progressive Party Members of Parliament are elected by Alberta in the federal election. Alberta
  • 1927 Road - Ottawa city council approves installation of Canada’s First automatic traffic light control system. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1928 Media - John Aird appointed by Mackenzie King to chair the Royal Commission on Radio Broadcasting, and to discuss the merits of public broadcasting; need to stop privately owned Canadian stations falling into American hands; also need to provide alternative to US programming flooding across the border; assisted by Charles Bowman, editor of the Ottawa Citizen]; submits report September 11, 1929; recommends creation of a national broadcasting company like Britain’s BBC, to develop a service capable of ‘fostering a national spirit and interpreting national citizenship’. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1930 Football - Toronto Balmy Beach defeat the Regina Roughriders, 11-6 in the 18th Grey Cup game. Toronto, Ontario
  • 1938 Disaster - Mining - Cable at Sydney Mines breaks, sending a riding rake plummeting into the mine; 16 killed. Sydney, Nova Scotia
  • 1946 Charles Stewart dies; farmer and politician; Premier of Alberta 1917-1921. Alberta
  • 1954 Urban - Charlotte Whitton reelected Mayor of Ottawa. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1956 Fire destroys much of the downtown of Hedley, BC.
  • 1967 Urban - Opening of 4.8 km of walkways under Montréal; from Place Bonaventure to Place Ville Marie; the world’s largest underground walkway. Montréal, Québec
  • 1973 Energy - Pierre Trudeau announces his government will create a national oil company, Petro-Canada, and take other steps to promote energy security: a pipeline from Sarnia to Montreal to carry Alberta oil into Quebec (then served by cheap imported crude), federal funding for oilsands research, and approval for the Mackenzie Valley pipeline to bring natural gas south. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1987 Hockey - Wayne Gretzky of the Edmonton Oilers scores 5 goals against the Minnesota North Stars. Edmonton, Alberta
  • 1989 Crime - Women - Marc Lepine, age 25, armed with a Sturm Ruger Mini-14 semi-automatic rifle, knives and bandoliers of ammunitions, kills 14 women engineering students in a classroom at the engineering school or École Polytechnique, Université de Montréal, wounds 13 others, shouting ‘You’re all a bunch of feminists’; then turns the gun on himself. Montréal, Quebec (National Film Board)
  • December 6 - Constitution - Supreme Court of Canada denies Québec’s claim to veto over constitutional amendment; says constitution unassailable. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1990 Hockey - Ottawa Engineer Bruce Firestone heads group awarded new National Hockey League franchise, the Ottawa Senators, for the 1992-93 season; an original NHL team, the Senators started operating in 1917; but moved to St. Louis as the Eagles in 1934. Tampa, Florida
  • 1992 Politics - Ralph Klein wins the leadership of the Alberta Progressive Conservative Party; a former Liberal, and ex-Mayor of Calgary. Edmonton, Alberta
  • December 6 - Hockey - NHL star Eric Lindros arrested after an altercation with a woman in a bar; charges later dropped. Oshawa, Ontario
  • 1994 Sovreignty - Québec Premier Jacques Parizeau tables a draft bill declaring Québec a sovereign country with Canadian economic association; sets terms for the referendum debate; PQ government also sets up regional commissions, invites Québec people to contribute their ideas for a new Québec society; 50,000 people will respond, but the Québec Liberal Party boycotts the hearings. Québec, Québec
  • 1995 Coinage - Royal Canadian Mint starts manufacturing new bi-metallic $2 coin with a polar bear on the face; the Toonie will go into circulation February 19, 1996, replacing the $2 bill. Winnipeg, Manitoba
  • December 6 - Peacekeeping -Canada agrees to send 1000 peacekeepers to Bosnia in support of the NATO mission. Ottawa, Ontario
  • December 6 - Hockey - Montréal Canadiens trade goaltender Patrick Roy to the Colorado Avalanche for Jocelyn Thibault and two forwards; Roy and GM Réjean Houle did not see eye to eye. Montréal, Quebec
  • December 6 - Music - Canada’s Joni Mitchell honoured with Billboard’s Century Award. Los Angeles, California
  • December 6 - Gun Control - New firearms legislation comes into force on the anniversary of the Montréal massacre; bans imports of automatic assault weapons; new rules and regulations for owning a firearm include a waiting period to buy guns, safe-storage rules, and full registration in stages. Ottawa, Ontario
  • 1996 Media - Radio-Canada International announces it will have to stop broadcasting March 31, 1997, unless a new source of funds can be found; campaign to save RCI temporarily successful; backed by Heritage Minister Sheila Copps, who said that Canada’s voice to the world must not die. Montréal, Québec
  • 1997 Marriage - Toronto born ABC Anchor Peter Jennings marries 20/20 producer Kayce Freed. New York, New York
  • 2003 Politics - Members of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada vote 90% in favour of uniting their party with the Canadian Reform Conservative Alliance Party of Canada to form a new Conservative Party of Canada. Canada
  • 2005 Interest - the Bank of Canada raises interest rates for the 3rd time in a row by a quarter point to 3.25%, its highest point in nearly 2 and a half years. Ottawa, Ontario