maple leafToday's Canadian Headline....
1749 FOUNDING OF HALIFAX

Halifax Nova Scotia - Edward Cornwallis c1713-1753 arrives to found a settlement at Chebucto with two regiments and 2,576 settlers from England, Ireland and Germany; brings building supplies, a fire engine, hospital equipment and a midwife; with the help of New England builders, he starts laying out the town; later renamed in honour of Secretary of War George Dunk, the Earl of Halifax.

1813

Also On This Day...

Queenston Ontario - US Col. Charles Boerstler, moving to make a surprise attack on Lt. James Fitzgibbon's British outpost at Beaver Dams, halts at Queenston for the night; billets soldiers at the farm of Loyalist James Secord and his wife Laura Secord 1775-1868. The Secords overhear the American plans, so Laura steals away to warn the British; makes her way west through swamps, then climbs the heights at Twelve-Mile Creek to St. Davids; after passing three American sentries, she is captured by Iroquois, who lead her to Fitzgibbon [in the picture] after a 30 km trek.

1919

Also On This Day...

Winnipeg Manitoba - City police and 90 RCMP surround City Hall square as the Mayor of Winnipeg reads the Riot Act from the steps to disperse hundreds of unemployed war veterans illegally parading to support the Winnipeg General Strike; Police ordered to fire a volley into the crowd to disperse them, then charge when they do not disperse; two strikers killed, 30 injured; so-called Bloody Saturday leads Mayor to call in the army; end of strike 4 days later.

1940

And in Today's Canadian Birthdays...

Joe Flaherty 1940-
comic writer, actor, was born on this day at Toronto in 1940. Flaherty is known for his work as Second City TV Network's Guy Caballero, Count Floyd and Sammy Maudlin; also played in such films as Happy Gilmore, A Pig's Tale, Who's Harry Crumb, Back to the Future Part 2, Speed Zone, Stripes, Used Cars, Tunnelvision; also starred in the Maniac Mansion TV show.

Also Frank Shaughnessy 1911-1982
sportsman, administrator, was born on this day in 1911; dies June 12, 1982. Shaughnessy was a member of the Canadian Olympic Hockey team in 1936; he managed the Canadian national ski team for ten years 1945-55, was Chef de Mission for the Canadian Winter Olympic teams from 1956-1972, and was VP of the Canadian Olympic Association for several years.

Also Norman L. Bowen 1887-1956
petrologist, mineral chemist, was born on this day at Kingston, Ontario in 1887; dies Sept. 11, 1956, at Washington, DC. Bowen is known for his syntheses of silicate systems relating to the origin of igneous rocks.

Also Frederick Temple Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood, 1st Marquess of Dufferin and Ava 1826-1902
diplomat, statesman, was born on this day at Florence Italy in 1826; dies Feb. 12, 1902, at Clandeboye, Ireland. Lord Dufferin served the Empire as Governor General of Canada and Viceroy of India.

In Other Events....
1996 Space -Canadian Space Agency astronaut and NASA Payload Specialist Dr. Robert Thirsk starts study to determine effects of spaceflight on mental skills that are critical to performing tasks in space; on Shuttle Columbia Mission STS-78.
1991Ottawa Ontario - Victor Goldbloom appointed to replace d'Iberville Fortier as Canada's official languages commissioner; Liberal cabinet minister when Quebec introduced language laws.
1990St. John's Nfld. - Brian Mulroney flies to St. John's to address the Newfoundland Assembly, with the Meech Lake vote scheduled for the next day, but he does not extend the deadline.
1990Toronto Ontario - Ross Munro dies at age 76; former journalist, war correspondent for Canadian Press, editor and publisher of the Edmonton Journal, Winnipeg Tribune and Montreal Gazette.
1988Ottawa Ontario - Ottawa makes public the expulsion of eight Soviet diplomats for industrial espionage.
1985Hollywood California - London, Ont. native Hume Cronyn stars in Ron Howard's Cocoon, opening on this day; along with his wife Jessica Tandy, plus Don Ameche, Wilford Brimley, Brian Dennehy, Gwen Verdon, and Jack Gilford.
1985Quebec Quebec - René Lévesque resigns as Premier of Quebec; his Parti Quebecois is down in the polls and the province's constitutional hopes are now pinned more on Brian Mulroney.
1984Ottawa Ontario - Parliament passes bill establishing the Canadian Security Intelligence Service; CSIS to replace RCMP in dealing with foreign espionage, terrorism and subversion.
1977Saint John New Brunswick - Flash fire kills 21 prisoners, injures 7 more, as well as 6 police officers and a fireman, in police lockup at City Hall; starts in detention area in a padded maximum security cell; surviving prisoner, John Kenney later convicted of arson and sentenced to five years in jail.
1974Vancouver BC - Inaugural run of refurbished steam train the Royal Hudson.
1971Toronto Ontario - Ontario lends $351,000 to Toronto publishers McClelland & Stewart; part of $961,000 loan to maintain Canadian ownership.
1966Guelph Ontario - Renovated birthplace of John McCrae 1872-1918 designated a national historic site; author of the World War I poem In Flanders Fields; opens to public opened Sept. 8, 1968.
1957Ottawa Ontario - John George Diefenbaker 1895-1979 sworn in as Canada's first Conservative Prime Minister in 22 years; until April 22, 1963; Leader of the Opposition 1956-1957, and 1963-1967.
1957Ottawa Ontario - Ellen Louks Fairclough 1905- sworn in as Secretary of State; Canada's first woman Cabinet Minister; Hamilton-born accountant moves to Immigration in 1958, and becomes Postmaster General in 1962.
1954Sept-Iles Quebec - Opening of railway linking Sept-Iles with Quebec-Labrador iron ore deposits at Schefferville.
1952Provo Utah - Canadian aviation pioneer Wilfrid 'Wop' May dies while on holiday in the US; born Carberry, Manitoba in 1896, joined the 202nd City of Edmonton Battalion in 1916; transferred to Royal Flying Corps; was being chased back to base in March, 1918, by German ace, Baron Manfred von Richthofen when the Red Baron was shot down by ground fire. In 1921, after a year with Imperial Oil, he went into the air freight business; in Jan.1929, flew a two-seater Avro Avian aircraft with an open cockpit in 40-below cold to deliver diphtheria antitoxin to northern communities hit by epidemic.
1946St. John's Newfoundland - Gordon Macdonald 1894-1962 appointed Newfoundland's last Governor-General; serves until 1949.
1940Vancouver BC - Henry Asbjorn Larsen 1899-1964 sets sail from Vancouver on RCMP patrol vessel St. Roch; to reach Halifax via Arctic; makes first successful west to east navigation of Northwest Passage.
1924Los Angeles California - Toronto-born actress and producer Mary Pickford marries her business partner in United Artists, Douglas Fairbanks Sr.
1917Ottawa Ontario - William John Hanna 1862-1919 appointed Food Controller of Canada to control wartime supplies.
1912Montreal Quebec - First edition of the weekly Financial Times.
1887Windsor England - Queen Victoria celebrates her golden jubilee marking 50 years on the throne.
1856Prescott Ontario - Montreal Telegraph Company installs submarine telegraph to Ogdensburg, N.Y.; link to New York.
1844Saint-Boniface Manitoba - Four Sisters of Charity, Sisters Valade, Lagrave, Lafrance and Coutlée arrive at Red River, after 59 days of canoeing and portaging through wilderness from Lake Superior. Invited by Bishop Joseph-Norbert Provencher, the Grey Nuns are part of the first religious community to settle in the Canadian West; they start teaching in makeshift schools until their convent, the Provincial House, is completed in 1847. They also provide medical care for the settlers, and vaccinate over 3,000 people when smallpox breaks out in 1870; in 1871, they open the four-bed Saint-Boniface General Hospital; the first in the West.
1817Fort Douglas Manitoba - Thomas Douglas, Lord Selkirk 1771-1820 arrives at Fort Douglas, followed by Coltman with order to restore goods seized in Governor Alexander Macdonell's dispute with North West Company; Nor'Westers refuse and flee to avoid arrest.
1792Vancouver BC - Capt. George Vancouver 1757-1798 meets the Spanish trading ships Sutil and Mexicana off Vancouver.
1764Quebec Quebec - William Brown c l737-1789 publishes city's first newspaper, the bilingual Quebec Gazette; set up first printing shop in Quebec with Thomas Gilmore (d. 1773); province's first periodical.
1734Montreal Quebec - Marie-Joseph Angélique hanged for setting fire to her master's house; she was a black female slave protesting her condition.
1692Wells Maine - Abenaki Indians raid English settlements in Maine and new Hampshire; Durham N.H. raided two days later; backed by Frontenac; King William's War.
1686Churchill Manitoba - Pierre de Troyes d1688 renames Charles Fort (Fort Rupert) Fort St-Jacques and Fort Albany Fort Ste-Anne; returns to Quebec.
1665Quebec Quebec - First of 24 companies of the Le Régiment de Carignan-Salières start arriving in New France; the first duty of the 1300 soldiers is to invade the Iroquois territories; 400 will stay to colonize New France after their three year service.