On This Day In Canadian History.... 

1975 - Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau opens National Historic Park at L'Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland at tip of Great Northern Peninsula; evidence of Viking landing in North America found in 1961.

On This Day In Canadian History....  

1970 - Parliament lowers voting age in federal elections from 21 to 18; revises Canada Elections Act.

On This Day In Canadian History.... 

1625 - Missionary Nicolas Viel murdered by Iroquois while paddling in a canoe; first priest reported killed by Indians.

On This Day In Canadian History....  

1774 - British Parliament passes the Quebec Act; guarantees Catholic religious  freedom; Coûtume de Paris for civil code, English law for criminal offenses; government by appointed council; trial by jury; also extends boundaries of Province of Quebec into Ohio Valley; to go into effect May 1, 1775.

On This Day In Canadian History....  

1984 - Parliament passes bill establishing the Canadian Security Intelligence Service; CSIS to replace RCMP in dealing with foreign espionage, terrorism and subversion.

On This Day In Canadian History.... 

1946 - Fred Rose sentenced to six years in prison for spying for the Soviet Union; charged after Igor Gouzenko, a cipher clerk at the Soviet embassy in Ottawa, defected and implicated Rose, Canada's only Communist Party MP.

On This Day In Canadian History....  

1644 - Jesuit priest François-Joseph Bressani tortured by Iroquois, then given to old woman to care for to replace a dead relative.

On This Day In Canadian History.... 

1784 - King George III partitions Nova Scotia to create the province of New Brunswick.

On This Day In Canadian History.... 

1919 - British Army Captain John Alcock and Lt. Arthur Brown take off,  from St. John's Nfld, in their Vickers Vimy bomber, a two-motor biplane, to make the first nonstop transatlantic flight; their 3,100 km flight ends 16 hours later with a nose-down landing in a Clifden, County Galway, Ireland peat bog; they win the £10,000 prize offered by the London Daily Mail, and are both awarded knighthoods.

On This Day In Canadian History....  

1833 - John Wilson kills Robert Lyon in the last fatal duel in Ontario; the two law students and former friends quarrelled over remarks made by Lyon about a local teacher, Elizabeth Hughes; Wilson will be acquitted of murder; later marries Hughes and becomes an MP and judge.

On This Day In Canadian History.... 

1690 - Henry Kelsey sets out from York Factory, Manitoba, with party of Stone and Assiniboine Indians on journey lasting two years; Hudson's Bay Company employee will record first European description of grizzly bears and buffalo.

On This Day In Canadian History.... 

1638 - Jesuits in Trois-Rivieres, Quebec describe first recorded earthquake in Canada; tremors for six months, from Gaspé to Montreal, but no casualties reported.

On This Day In Canadian History.... 

1685 - Jacques de Meulles uses card money to pay soldiers during a coin shortage; the playing cards are used whole, or cut into halves and quarters; redeemed in 1718, but in common use until the inflations of the 1750s.

On This Day In Canadian History.... 

1956 - Two-thirds of an Ontario Hydro power generating station collapses into the Niagara River gorge, about a kilometre below the Falls.

On This Day In Canadian History....

1944 - D-Day: 14,000 Canadian troops landed at Juno Beach, they faced some of the fiercest opposition of the attack, yet they managed to advance further inland than all the other Allied forces, combined. RCN minesweepers help clear the lanes in, and RCAF bombers and fighters help soften up the German defenses while the Canadian Army pushes through the gap between Bayeux and Caen. Canadian casualties that day are less than expected, but still heavy - 715 wounded, 359 dead.

On This Day In Canadian History.... 

1813 - John Harvey makes surprise attack with 700 British regulars of the 8th and 49th Regiments and some Canadian militia against 2,000 strong American force under Brigadiers William Winder and John Chandler at Stoney Creek, Ontario; Americans withdraw toward Forty Mile Creek after midnight; War of 1812.

On This Day In Canadian History.... 

1671 - Simon-François Daumont de Saint-Lusson  takes possession of lands around Sault Ste. Marie and claims Huron and Superior areas for France; sent by Jean Talon to do a survey of the area.

On This Day In Canadian History.... 

1927 - Government liquor stores in Ontario start selling liquor to adults with $2 permits, as prohibition ends; the province has been dry since 1921.

On This Day In Canadian History....

1990 - Premier Don Getty announces that Alberta will privatize 50% of $3 billion giant, Alberta Government Telephones (AGT); Albertans given first right to buy shares. Through a name change in 1996, a merger with BCTel in 1998, and acquisitions of telnet companies like Clearnet Communications, Telus is now Canada's second largest telcom company

On This Day In Canadian History.... 

1961 - Torrential storm drops 25 cm of rain in one hour in Buffalo Gap, Saskatchewan; one of Canada's most intense rainstorms on record.