 | Today's Canadian Headline.... |
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1976 |
SWEET KICKS FOR WORLD RECORD IN BIG O
Montreal Quebec - Montreal Alouette kicker Don Sweet notches his 17th and 18th consecutive field goals, setting a world record before 68,500 fans in the first football game played in Olympic Stadium; Sweet will run the string to 21 before missing. |
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1904 |
Also On This Day...
London England - Albert Henry George, Earl Grey 1851-1917 appointed Governor-General of Canada; serves from December 10, 1904 to October 12, 1911. An MP and former administrator of Rhodesia, Grey was a strong believer in the Empire and promoted imperial loyalty in his speeches. In 1909, he donated the Grey Cup to the championship of Canadian football. |
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1917 |
And in Today's Canadian Birthdays...
Réal Caouette 1917-1976
politician, was born on this day at Amos, Quebec in 1917; died in Ottawa Dec. 16, 1976. Caouette joined the Social Credit movement, and was elected to the Commons in 1946. He became leader of the Ralliement des Créditistes, and allied his group with Robert Thompson's federal party in 1961. In the 1962 federal election, 26 out of the 30 Social Credit seats were from Quebec, and he effectively held the balance of power in Diefenbaker's minority government. He broke with Thompson in 1963, but held his bloc together into he retired from ill health in 1976.
Also John Gray 1946- playwright, was born on this day at Ottawa in 1946. Gray was raised in Truro, Nova Scotia. He attended Mt. Allison University and UBC in Vancouver, where he helped found the Tamanhous Theatre. In 1978 he staged his two-man Musical Billy Bishop Goes to War, which toured Canada to great acclaim. It opened on Broadway in 1980 and won the Governor General's Award for Drama in 1983. His other works include the play 18 Wheels (1977), the musical Rock and Roll (1981) and the novel Dazzled (1984).
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| In Other Events.... |
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1995 |
Toronto Ontario - AT&T Canada and three Canadian banks pay $250. million to become new owners of long-distance carrier Unitel Communications Inc; two biggest shareholders, Canadian Pacific Ltd. and Rogers Communications Inc., drop out of deal. |
| 1994 | Quebec Quebec - Jacques Parizeau sworn in as Quebec's 26th Premier; after defeating Daniel Johnson in election. |
| 1993 | Niagara Falls, Ontario - Dave Munday takes his second plunge over Niagara Falls in a barrel; 53-year-old diesel mechanic from Caistor Centre, Ontario, the first person to make two trips over the Falls; previous trip in 1985. |
| 1992 | Toronto Ontario - Angus Reid/Southam News release poll saying Yes forces rapidly losing ground in referendum battle. |
| 1991 | Guiane - European Space Agency rocket launches Canada's Anik-E1 (mass 2,977 kg) comsat from Kourou, French Guyana, aboard an Ariane 44P rocket. |
| 1990 | Ottawa Ontario - Danek Mozdzenski's statue of Lester B. Pearson unveiled on Parliament Hill. |
| 1990 | Oka Quebec - Army officials take 34 men, 16 women and six children into custody from their stronghold in a drug treatment centre; most taken to military base at Farnham, Quebec; 78-day standoff ends. |
| 1988 | Seoul Korea - Canada's Ben Johnson stripped of his 100 Metre Olympic Gold Medal and world record following a positive drug test; forced by the lOC to return the medal and disqualified from the games. |
| 1984 | Toronto Ontario - Queen's Park extends $500,000 line of credit to ailing publisher McClelland & Stewart. |
| 1984 | California - Walter Pidgeon 1897-1984 dies at age 87; born Sept. 23, 1897 in Saint John, NB; TV/movie actor, singer; a major star for MGM, his movie career lasted from 1925 to 1978, best known for his performances in Madame Curie, Forbidden Planet, Mrs. Miniver. |
| 1981 | Moscow Russia - Canada signs five-year agricultural agreement with USSR; scientific cooperation, crop data exchange; Canada-Soviet Commission on agricultural issues founded. |
| 1974 | Ottawa Ontario - Canada Post opens the National Postal Museum. |
| 1972 | Moscow Russia - Canadian NHL All Stars fight back to tie series, defeating the Soviet team 4-3 in the third game in the USSR; series now tied 3-3 with one tie. |
| 1970 | New York City - Anne Murray's hit song Snowbird peaks at #8 on the Billboard pop singles chart. |
| 1969 | Manicouagan Quebec - Hydro-Quebec names Manic 5 power dam the Daniel Johnson Dam in honour of late Quebec Premier Daniel Johnson 1915-1968. |
| 1969 | Manicouagan Quebec - Daniel Johnson 1915-1968 (père) dies after visit to open Hydro Quebec's Manic 5 power dam; succeeded by Jean-Jacques Bertrand as Union Nationale Premier. |
| 1966 | New York City - Two FLQ members go on hunger strike in New York. |
| 1963 | Montreal Quebec - FLQ terrorists hold up a branch of the Royal Bank in Montreal. |
| 1960 | United Nations, New York - John George Diefenbaker 1895-1979 asks Soviet Union to resume disarmament negotiations; offers proposals for world peace; in address to UN General Assembly. |
| 1958 | Yukon - John George Diefenbaker 1895-1979 the first prime minister to visit the Yukon while in office. |
| 1950 | England - Sun turns blur over parts of the United Kingdom due to airborne sulphur particles from forest fires in Northern Alberta and BC. |
| 1939 | London England - Britain asks Canada to train Commonwealth airmen. |
| 1918 | France/Belgium - General Sir Arthur Currie's Canadians lead final offensive against the Germans on the Western Front. |
| 1896 | Toronto Ontario - Toronto Stock Exchange lists first mining stocks. |
| 1884 | Montreal Quebec - St. Lawrence and Ottawa Railway leased to the Canadian Pacific Railway for 999 years. |
| 1851 | Kingston Ontario - Louis-Hippolyte La Fontaine 1807-1864 resigns as co-Premier of the Province of Canada; will be appointed Chief Justice of Lower Canada. |
| 1842 | Montreal Quebec - Robert Baldwin & Louis-Hippolyte La Fontaine asked by Lord Elgin to form the Province of Canada's first liberal Executive Council; victory for Reformers, responsible government and French rights. |
| 1826 | Ottawa Ontario - Incorporation of Bytown; becomes City of Ottawa in 1855. |
| 1819 | Melville Island, NWT - Edward Parry anchors off Melville Island; first explorer to winter in the Arctic by choice. |
| 1813 | Amherstburg Ontario - William Henry Harrison's 4,500 US troops land near Fort Malden to move against Proctor up the Thames; beginning of American military rule in western Ontario for the remainder of the War of 1812. |
| 1766 | Quebec Quebec - Government passes regulations licensing the sale of alcohol. |
| 1751 | Halifax, Nova Scotia - 1,000 immigrants from Wurtemburg, Germany arrive. |
| 1634 | Quebec - Father Jean de Brébeuf baptizes the mother of an Indian chief. |
| 1613 | France - Samuel de Champlain tries to get support for colonization and exploration in France. |