Canada's Story: Today in History

[SignalHillHiker]

I love history, especially as it relates to politics, culture, and urban form and development.

I rarely miss a day reading Wikipedia's list of anniversaries - famous births, battles, and more.

In this thread, on any given day, share information about a special anniversary for your city, province, or country. I'll try to keep it going as best I can - but you'll all have much better insight than I for your cities.

I'll start with April 13, since today is almost over.




April 13


1645 - Saint John, New Brunswick: Françoise Marie Jacquelin de La Tour surrenders Fort La Tour to d'Aulnay after holding out for three days; she dies after being forced to watch the hanging of those men who had fought for her.

1829 - St. John's, Newfoundland: The Roman Catholic Relief Act is given royal assent by King George IV, abolishing the penal laws that prohibited Roman Catholic worship and most forms of Roman Catholic civic engagement. Newfoundland had the strictest penal laws of anywhere in the British Empire, forbidding Roman Catholics from exercising their religion, working any trade, holding public office, owning animals, buying land, voting, receiving gifts from Protestants, and more. Once the news reached St. John's, a special day of Public Thanksgiving was organized and Roman Catholics in the city and throughout Newfoundland openly worshipped and wept in the streets. However, the joy was short lived. In one of Newfoundland's very first acts of independence from London, local English Anglican authorities refused to recognize the Act's validity in Newfoundland and the penal laws were brutally re-enforced. Roman Catholics in Newfoundland would not achieve emancipation until 1832.

1859 - Fredericton, New Brunswick: The University of New Brunswick is incorporated.

1900 - Ottawa, Ontario: Ottawa becomes the first Canadian city to receive telephone service with a common battery system; no batteries needed in home telephones.

1925 - St. John's, Newfoundland: Women earn the right to vote.

[Architype]

On April 13, 1892, the municipality of South Vancouver was formed. It was amalgamated into the City of Vancouver in 1929, but you can still recognize the old boundary along 16th Avenue, where some streets (such as Burrard) run into a dead end.

Oddly, the Vancouver News-Advertiser didn’t run a story on the new municipality the day South Vancouver incorporated. Perhaps South Van was so sparsely populated the editor didn’t think it was all that important — Vancouver itself only had 23,000 residents at the time.

http://www.vancouversun.com/THIS+WEE...699/story.html

[J.OT13]

I know you started on April 13th, but I have to backtrack one day to

April 12th 1917 for Canada's victory in the Battle of Vimy Ridge

Although it didn't happen IN Canada, it was a defining moment in our history, showing the world for the first time that we could be an important player and to an extent a world super power independent of Great Britain.

[kwoldtimer]

Re April 13th - battling French governors of Acadia. Who knew?

[khabibulin]

On April 10, 1949, Nellie Yip Quong (née Towers) died. Born in Saint John, New Brunswick, on March 12, 1882, she grew up to be an important social activist and community figure for the Chinese population in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Nellie went to a private school in the eastern United States, and this education enabled her to find work teaching English in New York City. There she met Charles Yip Quong, a widowed jewellery store owner from Vancouver whom she married. At this time, interracial marriages were socially unacceptable and Nellie became isolated from her family and the Catholic Church. After spending some time in the United States and Canada, the couple moved to Christian Church Village in Toi Shan province in China and while there, Nellie learned Cantonese and four regional dialects.

Upon their return to Vancouver around 1904, Nellie established herself as an invaluable member of the city’s Chinatown. She had trained as a midwife, and put these skills to use for the Chinese community by helping to deliver about 500 babies. Nellie also facilitated adoptions and provided foster care for many children, adopting a baby girl, Eleanor, when she was 46.

She further helped the inhabitants of Chinatown by serving as an interpreter for immigrants who had to face Canadian officials. In one case, she helped an injured worker get payment from the Workmen’s Compensation Board. Nellie’s activism contributed to ending the practice of placing Asian-Canadian, African-Canadian, and First Nation patients in the basement of the Vancouver General Hospital. Furthermore, she participated in several community groups, including the Chinese Benevolent Association.

During a time when Chinese-Canadians faced discrimination, Nellie served as a great ally of Vancouver’s Chinatown until her death in 1949. For her services as midwife, interpreter, and activist, Nellie Yip Quong was designated a National Historic Person. The neighbourhood in which she lived, Vancouver’s Chinatown, has also been commemorated as a National Historic Site.

[SignalHillHiker]

April 14

1871 - All of today's Canada, excluding Newfoundland: A common Canadian currency is introduced by Ottawa.

1892 - Windsor, Ontario: Windsor is incorporated as a city.

1912 - Cape Race, Newfoundland: 14-year-old James Myrick becomes the first person to receive the Titanic's distress call while visiting the Marconi Station. The station's three wireless operators had stepped out. The four conspired to lie about the situation as it would have cost the operators their jobs.

[SignalHillHiker]

April 15

1750 - Toronto, Ontario: Pierre Robineau de Portneuf 1708-1761 starts to build Fort Toronto near the Mississauga village of Teiaiagon on the orders of the Marquis de La Jonquière, Governor of New France.

Unknown - St. John's, Newfoundland: The Roman Catholic Church gives up its decades-long struggle to discourage Newfoundlanders from eating seal on Good Friday and declares the delicacy to be fish. This declaration is now enshrined in Canadian law as part of the Terms of Union that brought Canada and Newfoundland together in 1949.

1859 - Winnipeg, Manitoba: First steamboat, the International, starts operating on the Red River, carrying freight and passengers between Fort Garry and St. Paul, Minnesota.

1923 - Toronto, Ontario: Insulin becomes available for general use; discovered in 1922 by Banting and Best at the University of Toronto.