|
|
|
This Day In History in
April
|
April 1
1734
- The
first lighthouse
in Canada was opened at Louisburg, Cape Breton.
1901 - The population of Canada was 5,371,315: consisting of
3,063,000 English-speaking and 1,649 French-speaking.
1924 - The
Royal
Canadian Air Force was created.
1927 - The United States put an immigration quota on Canadians
seeking employment.
1949 - Sir Albert J. Walsh was appointed the
first lieutenant-governor
of the Province of Newfoundland.
1951 - The
Department of Defense Production was organized.
1958 - The election results
came early morning. The Conservatives led by
Right Honourable John G. Diefenbaker,
had won 208 seats (Liberals: 49; C.C.F. -- now NDP: 8; Social Credit party:
It completely wiped out). It was by far the
biggest election victory
in Canadian history. One of Diefenbaker's first achievements after
becoming Prime Minister, was to have Parliament approve a Bill of Rights for
Canadians.
April 2
1663
- King Louis XIV issued an edict stating that Canada would be governed by
the laws of France.
1667
- King Louis XIV issued a civil code for Canada and established
courts.
1778
- Quebec merchants petitioned for the repeal of the Quebec Act.
1868
-
Victoria is
Chosen as the Capital. How this came about is quite a story.
In
November 1866, Vancouver Island and the mainland, which had been separate
British colonies, were united as a single colony of British Columbia.
Governor Kennedy, who had been unpopular, was recalled to London and
Frederick Seymour was appointed in his place.
Dr. Margaret Ormsby's book British Columbia: A
History she recounts that
an official wrote: "The Governor's family departed in a shower of tears. 'Twas
most affecting - entre nous, only an Irish family could have gotten up
such a scene. One would have thought they had been beloved and revered all
the time."
Captain Franklin, the magistrate of Nanaimo, was
supposed to make a strong speech in favour of New Westminster because
there was great jealousy between Nanaimo and Victoria. Before the Council
opened its meeting, Franklin spent some time in a bar and wasn't thinking
clearly when the time came for his speech so that he read the introduction
three times. When Franklin laid his spectacles on the table, Cox pressed
the glass from their frames and Franklin was not able to read at all.
The chairman called a recess for half an hour, but when
Franklin rose to resume his speech, there was an objection. It was that he
had already made his speech and could not be heard again. The objection
was put to a vote and upheld. Victoria was then chosen to be the new
capital.
Both Gold Commissioner Cox and Magistrate Franklin was
dismissed by Governor Seymour shortly after.
1871
- The first
Dominion census was taken. The population of 3,689,257
consisted of 2,110,000 English-speaking and 1,082,000 French-speaking
Canadians.
1873
- A charge was made in the House of Commons that Sir John A.
Macdonald and cabinet ministers had accepted campaign funds from the
promoters of C.P.R.. This led to the downfall of Macdonald's
government in November.
1887
- Canadian sealing vessels were seized by the Americans in the North
Pacific.
April
3
1834
- W. L. Mackenzie was chosen mayor of Toronto.
1875
- Assembly of the C.P.R. transcontinental began at Thunder Bay, Lake
Superior.
1940
- The Earl of Athlone was appointed Governor-General of Canada.
1965
- Parliament prorogued after its longest session: 248 days!
April 4
1629
- William Alexander and the Kirke brothers formed the Scottish
and English Company, a pirate organization, to monopolize the
fur trade in Canada.
1853
- King's College in Windsor,
Ontario, was incorporated.
1858
- Californians were singing, "British Columbia Here I Come"
on this day. A
Pacific post steamer had arrived at San Francisco the day before, bringing
the news that people in the Seattle area were rushing for the Thompson
River where gold had been found. Mills were closing down and soldiers were
deserting.
Thousands who had taken part in the California
gold rush packed their bags and headed north. Most of the Californians
took ships to Victoria. The first to arrive was a wooden paddle-wheeler.
Victorians wondered what was going to happen as the Commodore unloaded
hordes of men, wearing red flannel shirts and carrying spades and
firearms. Instead of being the "dregs of society," as expected, they
turned out to be well-behaved, with money to spend.
Although most of the newcomers crossed to the
mainland, many others stayed in Victoria to establish businesses. Six
weeks after their arrival, Victoria had 225 new building, of which 200
were stores. Building sites along the harbour front rose in value from $50
to as much as $3,000!
By June 1st, 10,000 miners had gone up the Fraser River, the total
reaching 25,000 by the end of year.
The first gold was found on a sandbar near Hope; the river was
productive from that point to Yale.
1881
- The second
Dominion Census showed Canada's population as 4,324,810: Consisting
of 2,548,000 English-speaking and 1,299,000 French-speaking.
1887
- Sir Alexander Campbell and Sandford Fleming represented Canada at the
First Imperial Conference in London.
1917
- Women were
granted the right to vote in B.C.
1949
- Canada signed the North Atlantic Treaty at Washing, D.C.
1996
- A total lunar eclipse took place, as the moon passed through the
center of the Earth's shadow.
April
5
1669
- Louis XIV inaugurated
baby bonuses.
A family with ten children received a pension of 300 livres a year, while
12 children were worth 400 livres.
There weren't
many French people who were willing to settle in Canada. Most of those who
came hoped to make some money and then return to their homeland. Louis
XIV, his First Minister Jean Colbert (1619-1683), and the great Intendant
Jean Talon (8 January 1626 – 23 November 1694) realized that the
population of Canada must be increased.
One of the first steps was to send out "King's
Girls" to marry the bachelors in Canada. They were carefully chosen,
mostly from the provinces of Normandy, Brittany and Picardy. City girls
were apt to be lazy. Thomas B. Costain in The White and the Gold says:
"The sturdy young inhabitants had no desire for wives of that type (city
girls), even though they might be prettier and trimmer than the
broad-beamed candidates from the farms."
The King's Girls arrived in shiploads of one
hundred or more, carefully chaperoned. They were displayed in halls while
the bachelors looked them over. The girls could also question the men who
were interested in them and find out about their homes, habits, and
possessions.
As soon as a lad and girl agreed to be married,
the wedding ceremony took place. They were given ox, cow, two pigs, a pair
of chickens, two barrels of salted meat and a fund of eleven crowns.
There was escape for the bachelors. Parents were
fined if their sons were not married by the time they were twenty and
their daughters when they were sixteen. They were hauled into court every
six months until their children were married!
1832
- Brockville, Ontario, was incorporated as a town.
1842
-
The Gesner
Museum, the first
public museum in Canada, opened in Saint John, New Brunswick.
1871
- Prince Edward Island authorized the building of a railway.
1891
- The third Dominion Census showed the population of 4,833,239 --
an increase of 500,000 in ten years.
1908
- Edmonton, Alberta installed one of the first dial telephone
systems in North America.
1958
- Ripple Rock
in Seymour Narrows, British Columbia, was removed by the world's
biggest non-atomic explosions.
1974:
A.Y. Jackson, a leading member of the
Group of Seven painters, dies in Kleinburg, Ont., at age 91.
April 6
1609
- Henry Hudson, an Englishman in the service of Holland, began the voyage
that took him along the coast of Newfoundland.
1808
- John Langton, first auditor general of Canada, was born at Blythe Hall
near Ormskirk, England.
1851
- Britain transferred control of post offices to Canada. A
uniform rate of postage was introduced.
1860
- The Allan Steamship Line won the contract for a weekly postal
service to Liverpool.
1885
- General Middleton set out from Qu'Appelle to attack Riel's
force at Batoche.
1886
- Vancouver was incorporated.
1908
- Robert F. Peary sailed from his base at Sydney, Cape Breton, on
his first leg of his successful voyage to the North Pole.
1968
- Trudeau elected as Prime Minister. On this night, after seven
hours of voting, Canadians learnt that their next Prime Minister would be
Pierre Elliott Trudeau. Trudeau, a perfectly bilingual bachelor playboy,
who flashed from obscurity to the most powerful position in the nation in
only one year, would become Canada's fifteenth Prime Minister on April
20th.
The nation watched on TV as he defeated seven
other strong contenders in the most incredible political spectacle in
Canadian history. One of them was Paul Martin, who had been a member of
Parliament for thirty-five years and who had often served as acting Prime
Minister.
Some of the most experienced political observers
in Ottawa knew little about this new leader of the Liberal Party's
background.
He was born in
Montreal in 1919. He was the son of wealthy solicitor Charles-Emile
Trudeau and Grace Elliott. He studied law at the University Montreal and
political economy at Harvard, with further studies in Paris and London. He
then spent several years travelling through most of the world.
Trudeau progressively became active in Quebec
politics and supported the socialist New Democratic Party in the general
election of 1963. He criticised Liberal Leader Lester Pearson for
reversing his stand on nuclear arms for Canada, saying, "Power offered
itself to Mr. Pearson; he had nothing to lose except his honour. He lost
it, and his entire party lost it with him."
However, Trudeau became Liberal M.P. for a
Montreal constituency in 1965. The Liberal Party accepted him reluctantly,
but they had to admit him in order to get the powerful Quebec Labour
Leader, Jean Marchand, to be a candidate.
The new Prime
Minister's flamboyant lifestyle and eccentric manner in conducting
government affairs soon attracted attention the world over. Many
people, for the first time, sat up and took notice of Canada becasuse of
this man who took it upon himself to ignore the convensions of
statesmanship. In 1971, at the age of 51, Trudeau became the first
prime minister to wed while in office when he married 22-year-old Magaret
Sinclair. On Christmas day of the same year, a son was born to them.
Justin Pierre Trudeau was the second child born to a prime minister during
his term of office.
APRIL 7
1623
- George Calvert (Lord Baltimore) was granted the province of Avalon,
Newfoundland.
1672 - Count Frontenac was
appointed Governor of New France for the first time.
1849 - Fire destroyed a
large part of Toronto.
1869 - A public execution
was held in P.E.I.
1885 - Troops left Toronto
for action against Riel's rebellion.
1890 - Ontario
municipalities were granted a local option in the matter of the sale of
liquor.
1914 - The Grand Trunk
Pacific Railway was completed at Nechako, British Columbia. The first
train arrived at Prince Rupert on Apil 9.
1917 - A Royal commission
was appointed to study the high cost of living.
1965 - Leon Balcer left the
Conservative party.
1968
-
Thomas D'Arcy McGee
(1825-1868) was murdered.
It was 1:30 in the morning. The first Parliament to meet since
Canada had become a nation,m had adjourned for the Easter recess.
The House of cCommons sat late in order to finish its business so
that its members could get away for the holidays. One of the members
who spoke taht night was D'Arcy McGeee, the former Irish revolutionary who
had done so much to bring about Confederation.
McGee left the House
of Commons with a friend, and they walked together to the corner of Sparks
and Metcalfe streets. McGee then strolled along Sparks street to Mrs. Mary
Ann Trotter's boarding house, where he stayed when Parliament was in
session. Tomorrow he would return to his home in Montreal and next week he
would celebrate his forty-third birthday with his wife and daughters.
As he was smoking a
cigar and searching in his pocket for his key, a man stepped from the
shadows and shot him. McGee fell back on the wooden sidewalk, mortally
wounded. He was found a few minutes later by a page boy in the House of
Commons. At first, the young boy did not know what to do, but then dashed
into the office of nearby Ottawa Times and shouted: "Mr. McGee is
lying dead in the street."
A doctor was called,
but the lad was right. D'Arcy McGee was dead. After the police had looked
over the scene of the crime, a message was sent to Sir John A. Macdonald,
who came right over. There was no trace of the murderer except for
footprints in the snow.
Parliament held a
special session later in the day and voted an annuity for McGee's family.
A reward of $2,000 was offered for the arrest of his murderer. Many
suspects were questioned and finally a charge was laid against
James Patrick
Whalen, a Fenian. The motive for the murder was supposed to be
revenge, because McGee had warned that the Fenians planned to invade
Canada. Whalen protested his innocence but was hanged in public execution
on February 11, 1869.
APRIL 8
1669
- Louis XIV approved a building of a hospital at Montreal.
1671 - Marquette founded a
mission at Sault Ste. Marie Michigan.
1785 - An ordinance
prohibited imports from the United States by sea.
1873 - A select committee
was appointed to examine charges that Sir John A. Macdonald and members of
his cabinet had accepted large sums of money from promoters of the C.P.R..
1880 - The first passenger
train of the Grand Trunk Railway went from Port Huron to Chicago.
1885
- Mowat Rides for Help.
Nearly everybody knows the story of Paul Revere's famous ride when the
American Revolution War began. Who knows the story of James Mowat and his
desperate ride from Edmomton to Calgary to get help during the Northwest
rebellion?
Louis Riel and Dumont had stirred the Indians into
going on the warpath late in March, 1885. The war drums, keeping up a
constant beat day and night were heard as far west as Edmonton. The
situation in Edmonton was critical because its only defenders were thirty
volunteers armed with muzzle-loading muskets
used in the Indian mutiny of 1857. There was no ammunition, so they had to
make their own lead balls and gunpowder.
It was essential to get the word to Calgary and ask for
help, but the telegraph line had been cut. James Mowat volunteered to ride
to Calgary on horseback, and left early on the morning of April 8.
Sneaking out of Edmonton was dangerous. The Indians were camping all
around and Mowat had to make his way so quietly that even the dogs
wouldn't bark. Somehow he managed to get through and ride the two hundred
miles to Calgary in thirty-six hours, with no sleep and little food.
Fortunately, General Strange was at Calgary with six
hundred men and their March to Edmonton began on April 20. Meanwhile,
Mowat had made his way back to Edmonton with copies of the Calgary
Herald,
containing news to April 13.
When the Indians heard that General Strange was coming
with a large body of troops, they stopped beating their drums. The
Edmonton Bulletin
reported: "Since the Indians heard that troops are on their way, their
desire to get on with their farming is marvelous." Nevertheless, it had
been a close call for Edmonton.
On another sector, General Middleton was leading a
strong force from Qu'Appelle to attack Louis Riel's centre at Batoche. It
wasn't easy going. The temperature at Qu'Appelle on April 8 was twenty
three below zero! James Mowat's ride from Edmonton to Calgary that day and
night, must have been through similar, bitterly cold weather.
APRIL 9
1682 - La Salle reached the mouth of the
Mississippi and claimed Louisiana for France.
-
Louis XIV recalled Governor Frontenac.
1917
- Vimy Under Attack. One of the most striking war memorials is at Vimy Ridge, near Arras, France. It commemorates the part played by
Canadian troops in an important battle of World War I on April 9, 1917.
The commander of the Canadian forces was General Sir Julian Byng, who
later became Lord Byng of Vimy and Governor-General of Canada.
Early in 1917, it was decided to try to dislodge the Germans from their
position in Vimy, and the assault was entrusted to the Canadian Corps, and
a British brigade; a force of 170,000 men. The battle was carefully
planned, even rehearsed. This could be done because there was a network of
underground tunnels running from Arras toward Vimy Ridge. Twenty-five
thousand men could be hidden underground and moved to the jumping off
places for the assault.
April 9 was Easter Monday and by dawn most of the Canadian force had moved
to within 100 yards of the enemy, guided through the darkness of the
tunnels by white tapes laid along the floors. The attack was preceded by a
heavy artillery barrage that had been going on for two weeks, but
intensified during the rest hours of the morning. Nevertheless, the 100
yards up the slope to the enemy trenches were 100 yards of hell. A
combination of snow and rain before the attack made the ridge muddy and
slippery.
Just as the assault began, the weather suddenly cleared. The Canadian
divisions climbed the open slope firing Lewis guns and throwing grenades.
When they reached the trenches, bayonet fighting began. Overhead the
planes of the Royal Flying Corps, manned by many Canadians, were acting as
spotters and tangling with German aircraft trying to stop them.
More than 3,000 Germans surrendered in the first assault, and after heavy
fighting, Vimy Ridge was taken. Unfortunately, the battle was not
decisive. After three years of similarly terrible casualties, the French
soldiers to the south were on the verge of revolt. Marshal Pétain took
over after 20,000 desertions, , herded by 200 mutinous men into an
artillery range and blew them up. He exiled another 100 men and shot 20
more after courts-marshal. These were harsh measures, but the morale of
the French army was restored in time to withstand a final German assault
that nearly broke through to Paris.
1961 - British Prime
Minister Macmillan arrived at Ottawa (Ontario) for discussions with the
Canadian government.
APRIL 10
1606
- James I gave large grants in North America to the Plymouth and
London Companies.
1684
- An ordinance prohibited emigration from French Canada to English
colonies in the south.
1812
- The United States called out the militia in preparation for the
war against Canada that began on June 18.
1841
- Halifax obtained its city charter.
1865
- Premier Tupper of Nova Scotia moved for Maritime Union rather than
Confederation.
1903
- British Settlers Arrive in Saint John. Canadians who have gone to
live in England have usually been welcomed. Too many Englishmen, after
coming to live in Canada, have been treated with resentment and disdain.
However, many settlers from England proved to rank with the best citizens
of Canada, although enduring terrible hardships. The journey made by the
founders of Lloydminster on the Saskatchewan-Alberta border exemplifies
their courage.
In 1903, Canada was enjoying a great immigration boom,
thanks to an almost worldwide drive for new settlers. One of the
immigration agents was the Reverend I. M. Barr, a silver-tongued orator in
England. Anxious to earn the $5 paid for every head of the family and the
$2 for every individual sent to Canada, he persuaded a large group of
people that life in western Canada was much better than in England.
Their ship, and old tub
called the Manitoba,
arrived in Saint John of April 10, 1903, after a dreadful crossing. Men,
women and children slept in the cargo holds. There was no privacy, the
most primitive of toilet facilities and the food and water were unfit to
eat or drink.
When they arrived in Saint John, they were loaded into
"colonist cars." The train was so slow it was said the people in the front
coaches could shoot a rabbit from a window, jump out, and pick it up and
get back on one of the coaches to the rear.
When they arrived at Saskatoon, they lived in tents for
two weeks before journeying on. The wagons they travelled in were
overloaded; baggage dropped into mud holes and coal oil spilled into the
food. The temperature was often below zero as blizzards gusted across the
prairies.
Many of those was ordinary city folk. Yet, they stuck
it out, encouraged by one of their members, Reverend G. E. . They
were the founders of present-day Lloydminster, which they named after
their fellow member who did so much to keep them going.
APRIL 11
1617
- Samuel
de Champlain brought Louis Hébert to Canada as the first permanent
settler.
1713
- Britain and France Sign the
Treaty of Utrecht.
The Treaty of Utrecht signed by Britain and France on April 11, 1713,
ended the war that made the Duke of Marlborough famous. Before
becoming a duke, he was
John Churchill, the most distinguished member of his family until Sir
Winston Churchill gave leadership to the free world in 1940-1945.
It
took Britain and France fifteen months to work out the details of the
Treaty of Utrecht. Both sides made concessions. France gave up
Hudson Bay and Newfoundland, although Iberville had captured them, and
also Acadia to the British. She retained Canada (New France), Cape
Breton and Prince Edward Island (called the Island of St. John) to protect
the entrance to Canada via the St. Lawrence River. France also
kept her possessions in what are now the United States and West Indies.
Nominally, there was a long period of peace between Britain and France
after the Treaty of Utrecht, but preparations were made for war.
France began building the mighty fortress at Louisburg and tried to
persuade the Acadians to move there. The land at Louisburg was
unsuitable for farming, so the Acadians stayed where they were, even
though it meant living under Brisish rule. They made it clear,
however, that they would never take up arms against France if there was a
war. This led to their expulsion.
Eventually, Britain had to develop an army and naval base at Halifax to
the French fortress at Louisburg.
One
troublesome feature of the Treaty of Utrecht was its failure to establish
a border between Nova Scotia and Massachusetts (New Brunswick and Maine
did not exist). Sometimes the border was said to be the St. Croix
River, as it is today, but there were other occasions when France claimed
the territory as far south as Boston. This resulted in a number of
raids by the British and France on each other's settlements. The
French joined the Abenaki Indians in a number of fierce sorties into
Massachusetts and massacred entire communities.
In the long run, the
Treaty of Utrecht resulted in France's losing her North American
possessions, including Canada.
1768
- Montreal,
Quebec was badly damaged by fire.
1884
- The
Amateur Athletic Association of Canada was formed.
1904
- Sydney, Nova Scotia, was incorporated as a city.
APRIL 12
1776
- Thomas Frobisher was sent to build a fort on the Churchill River.
1819
- The Earl of Dalhousie was mde governor of Canada.
1838
- Samuel Lount and PeterMathews were hanged in Toronto for taking
part in the Upper Canada rebellion.
1853
- Five small railways amagalmated into the Grand Trunk Railway.
1861
-
American
Plans for Canada Upset by Civil War. It could be argued that
Canada would not be an independent nation today if the American Civil War
had not taken place. The fight began at Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861.
In 1861, the Americans
had a big foothold in Western Canada and were looking for more. The most
important trade route was via the railway that had been built to St. Paul,
Minnesota. Six thousand Red River carts were employed in transporting
Hudson Bay Company goods between Fort Garry (now Winnipeg) and St. Paul.
They were supplying 152 shops, 3,000 traders and 100,000 Indian trappers.
Fort Garry was
growing rapidly and dividing into political factions, "The
American Party" and the "Canadian
Party." Each side had newspapers to express its views, and hotels
for headquarters. With Confederaton looming as a possibility in the East,
the States had agents working in Fort Garry to try to take over the West
before Canada did. The intension was to establish the Canadian north-south
boundary along longitude 90, at the western end of Lake Superior, just
past Fort William and Port Arthur.
The United States was
interested for several reasons. Its own good lands were being occupied
rapidly, and the Prairies provided room for expansion. Gold had been
discovered in British Columbia, and it was thought that the area might
provide a route to the goldfields. In any event, it was the United States'
policy to take over all the Pacific coast up to Alaska.
The Americans
might have pursued this policy if they had not become involved in a war
with Mexico. Rather than fight Britain too, they settled for a boundary
along the forty-ninth parallel. The Americans might also have absorbed the
Prairie Provinces, if they had not become involved in their own civil war
in 1861.
Four
years later, Sir John A. Macdonald said about the Prairies: "The
country is of no present value to Canada." Sir John's views changed
when Confederation became a reality in 1867. He and his colleagues then
saw the need for quick action to prevent the West from falling into
American hands. The action was so swift that it caused the Louis Riel
uprising in 1870.
1867
- The British Government authorized a loan of £3,000,000 for Halifax and
the St. Lawrence Railway.
1867
- The Canada Shipping Company was established by Montreal
merchants.
1917
- Women were granted the
right to
vote in Ontario.
APRIL 13
1608
- Champlain sailed to Canada for the third time.
1645
-
Charnisay Attacks rival Fort la Tour. Someone should write an
opera about the rivalry in Acadia between Charles La Tour and D'Aulnay de
Charnisay. It would have a dramatic and surprising finale.
Charles La Tour was
one of the first Europeans to settle in Acadia. He was such a diplomat or
villain (it depended on who was describing him!), that he was given a
monopoly of the fur trade along the Saint John River by the King of
France, and was made a Baronet of Nova Scotia by the King of England.
Nobody could be sure which side he was on.
D'Aulnay de
Charnisay, a close relative of Cardinal Richelieu, was given Port Roayl,
while also controlling a good deal of Nova Scotia. He used his influence
at court to try to have La Tour put out of business, but was unsuccessful.
On April 13,
1645, while La Tour was away, D'Aulnay de Charnisay attacked Fort La Tour.
Mme La Tour was responsible of the fort and organized a heroic defense.
She was described as being "an amazon of a woman" but very beautiful.
Although there were only fifty men to defend the fort, they held back the
much larger Charnisay force until a traitor let Charnisay's men into the
enclosure.
There was a fierce
battle but Mme La Tour finally surrendered on a promise by Charnisay that
the lives of the garrison would be spared. Instead, he spared only one, a
man who volunteered to act as the executioner of his comrades. Mme La Tour
was forced to stand with a halter around her neck and watched the
execution of her men, one by one. She died of a broken heart soon after.
Charnisay then had
his date with destiny. He was drowned when his canoe overturned. There is
a story (unconfirmed), that one of the Indians made sure he drowned by
holding his head under water!
Continuing with the
opera analogy, then followed the amazing finale. Charles La Tour sailed
across the bay to Port Royal and married Charnisay's widow. Of course, it
was a good business arrangement. It ended the dispute over property
rights, and, in the words of the marriage contract "served to restore the
peace and tranquility of the country, and concord and unity between the
two families."
1713 - The Iroquois were
joined by the Tuscaroras to become
Six Nations.
1859
- The University of New Brunswick was incorporated.
1870
- Donald A. Smith reported to the federal government at Ottawa on the
Negations with Louis Riel at Fort Garry (now Winnipeg).
1961
- His Excellency, Constantine Caramanalis of Greece visited Ottawa.
APRIL 14
1849
- Mount Allison University, Sackville, New Brunswick received its
charter.
1851
- Britain disallowed the currency regulations introduced by
Sir Francis Hincks.
1861
-
Montreal Flood. This is the time of the year when many parts of
Canada are menaced by spring floods. Under normal conditions, the floods
are kept under control, but occasionally there will be a combination of
unusual weather conditions and then the high spring waters run wild.
There have been desperate
conditions in the Fraser Vally of British Columbia (1948) and the Red
River, Manitoba (1950). Both situations were saved by thousands of
Citizens turning out to make restraining walls with sandbags. Even so, the
Red River flood extended over 700 square miles and caused $27 million
damage.
Until 1901, when a
stone wall was built along the river banks, Montreal had often been
damaged by spring floods. One of the first floods destroyed a cemetery
established by Maisoneuve, who founded Montreal in 1642.
The worst Montreal flood happened on
the evening of Sunday, April 14, 1861. Almost without warning, the St.
Lawrence River rose so suddenly that the water poured into the lower part
of the city, stranding many people who were attending evening services in
the churches. St. Stephen's Church on Ottawa street was completely
surrounded by water in a few minutes. The people had to stand on the pews
as it poured in at the doors. Even then, with the water six feet deep,
they could only keep their heads above it. Some people had to stay in
there all night in the freezing cold and darkness because the lights were
extinguished. Others were rescued by small boats, which were rowed into
the churches.
By morning, there
was an icy blizzard and one-quarter of Montreal was under water. Small
boats served as taxis from St. James Street to Beaver Hall Hill, at a fare
of five cents per passenger. The Grand Trunk Railway was unable to operate
as its lines were flooded as far as Lachine. Victoria Bridge, an important
link in the Grand Trunk Railway which spanned the St. Lawrence River, was
also temporarily closed. Then considered on the engineering wonders of the
world, it had just opened the previous year by Edward, prince of Wales,
representing his mother, Queen Victoria.
1871 - An act was passed, establishing the use
of uniform currency throughout Canada.
1892 - Windsor, Ontario received a city
charter.
1896 - The House of Commons deadlocked on the
Manitoba separate schools remedial bill.
1928 - The famous Russell House Hotel, in
Ottawa, Ontario, was destroyed by fire.
APRIL 15
1672
- A royal edict prohibited fur traders
from going to Indian villages. The Indians had to bring their furs
to the settlements.
1720
- Three ships left France with three
hundred settlers for the Island of St. John (Prince Edward Island).
1814
- The warships
Prince Regent and
Princess Charlotte
were launched at Kingston, Ontario.
1859
-
First Steamboat Appears on the Red River.
One of the most colourful stories in
Canadian history tells of the days when steamboats began operating on the
Red River, carrying freight and passengers between Fort Garry (now
Winnipeg) and St. Paul, Minnesota.
As explained on April 12, the building of
a railway to St. Paul created tremendous traffic to Fort Garry. The next
step of encroaching civilization was taken on April 15, 1859, when Captain
Anson Northrup brought his ship
North Star
to the Red River. St. Paul
merchants figured that if steamboats could operate on the Mississippi,
they could also navigate the Red River to fort Garry. Captain Northrup had
the North Star
on Crow Wing River, but offered to
transfer it to the Red River for $2,000. In order to do this, he had
to dismantle the North Star and have its parts freighted across the
country in winter in sleighs drawn by oxen. All the parts were there on
April 15 and a few weeks later the ship was ready for its first run to
Fort Garry. Its name had been changed to Anson Northrup.
There was a certain amount of
fear as the old paddle-wheeler thrashed her way down the river, deck
barely above water, funnel pouring out smoke and sparks, and boiler
leaking clouds of steam. Among the cargo were 100 kegs of gunpowder, with
sparks falling all around!
The first trip took eight days.
The Indians along the banks of the Red River were terrified when the
Anson Northrup came into view and especially when she blew her
whistle. On the other hand, the new settlers came rushing from their homes
cheering, tearful praying and even firing guns! The ship would stop at
frequent intervals so that the crew could go ashore and cut wood for fuel.
The Anson Northrup
arrived at Fort Garry in June, the first steamer of any size to do so. It
was a great event for the rapidly growing community. Cannons were fired in
salute and church bells rang.
Other steamers followed
the Anson Northrup and there was great rivalry among them until 1877, when
one of the ships brought a railway locomotive to Winnipeg. That was the
end of the steamers on the Red River (see December 2).
1861 -
Joseph Howe introduced a resolution
proposing union of the North American provinces.
1907
- Coal miners went on strike until
May 6 in Alberta and eastern British Columbia.
1928
- A Canadian airplane discovered
the German airship
Bremen that
had been forced down on Greely Island, Strait of Belle Isle.
1958
- The Queen Elizabeth Hotel opened
in Monteal.
|
Have any suggestions
for the site? Want to see something specific to April? Don't
hesitate to let me know what you think? Just write me at info@bitesizecanada.org
|
|
