#OnThisDay ... in Canada's history! On this page, you'll discover significant events that shaped our society. Subscribe to Library and Archives Canada's Facebook and Twitter pages or use the #Canada150 and #OnThisDay hashtags for today-in-history vignettes. Above all, join the conversation as we share 150 years of history, one day at a time!
June 1, 2008
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada begins its five-year mandate to investigate the Indian Residential School System. For decades, many Indigenous children were placed in residential schools by order of the Canadian government. Some of the children were abused. The system itself was an attempt to eradicate traditional ways and assimilate the children.
The final report will be issued in December 2015, with a list of recommendations for acts of reconciliation, including changes and improvements to child welfare, education, language and culture, health, and justice for Indigenous people.
To learn more:
Library and Archives Canada
National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation - University of Manitoba
Government of Canada
Photo of Mi'kmaq girls in sewing class at the Roman Catholic–run Indian Residential School in Shubenacadie, Nova Scotia, 1929.
Source © CBC
June 2, 1983
Canadian folk singer Stan Rogers, 33, perishes with 22 other people at Cincinnati airport when Air Canada Flight 797 catches fire.
Known for songs like "Barrett's Privateers" and "Northwest Passage," Stan Rogers was born in Hamilton, Ontario, in 1949 and spent summers in Nova Scotia with his family.
The aviation industry will respond by increasing aircraft and runway safety measures, including in-flight smoke detectors and fire training for flight and ground crews.
To learn more:
Library and Archives Canada
CBC/Radio-Canada
YouTube
Hear Stan Rogers sing:
The Canadian Encyclopedia
Photo of Stan Rogers singing and playing guitar.
June 3, 1973
The Société de l'Acadie du Nouveau-Brunswick (SANB) is founded in Shippagan, New Brunswick.
The SANB was created as a response to recommendations made in 1972 during the Congrès des francophones du Nouveau-Brunswick.
The SANB's mandate is to defend and promote the rights and interests of Francophones and Acadians in New Brunswick.
To learn more:
Library and Archives Canada
National Film Board of Canada
Global Affairs Canada
Société de l'Acadie du Nouveau-Brunswick
Stamp of oil-on-canvas painting entitled Paysage acadien (Acadian Landscape) by artist Nérée De Grâce, 1981.
June 4, 1979
Flora MacDonald becomes the first woman to be appointed Secretary of State for External Affairs.
Born in Nova Scotia, Flora MacDonald lived an interesting life before and after her political career. In 1976, she ran unsuccessfully against Joe Clark for the leadership of the Progressive Conservative Party. Their rivalry is the subject of the National Film Board documentary "Flora: Scenes from a Leadership Convention." She worked with and for prime ministers Diefenbaker, Clark and Mulroney.
To learn more:
Parliament of Canada
National Film Board of Canada
The Canadian Encyclopedia
Photo of Flora Isabel MacDonald.
June 5, 1935
The "On to Ottawa Trek" starts. An estimated 1,500 out-of-work labourers from federal relief camps in remote parts of British Columbia peacefully commandeer a train and leave for Ottawa. Rampant unemployment and insufficient social programs are major problems for Canadians in the 1930s.
The original protesters will be joined by scores more as they make their way toward Ontario. When they reach Regina, the government will insist that the railways stop the train. Only eight Trekkers will go on to Ottawa for negotiations with Prime Minister R.B. Bennett.
To learn more:
Library and Archives Canada
CBC/Radio-Canada
The Canadian Encyclopedia
Photo of relief camp strikers on their way to Ottawa during the "On to Ottawa Trek," June 1935.
June 6, 1944
The Second World War is at a turning point: at 6 a.m., 150,000 Allied troops leave England on ships to start the D-Day (Operation Overlord) attacks on German positions on the beaches of Normandy, France.
The Canadians are in charge of storming Juno Beach, the Americans are at Utah and Omaha beaches, and the United Kingdom takes Sword and Gold beaches.
Just before the ships set sail across the English Channel, 450 Canadian paratroopers are dropped behind enemy lines to assist the troops about to land.
To learn more:
Library and Archives Canada
Veterans Affairs Canada
Canadian War Museum
Statistics Canada
Troops of the 9th Canadian Infantry Brigade (Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry Highlanders) going ashore from LCI 299 (Landing Craft Infantry), Bernières-sur-Mer, Normandy, France, June 6, 1944.
June 7, 1900
Dr. Irma LeVasseur graduates from the School of Medicine at St. Paul University in Minnesota. Three years later, she will become the first French-Canadian woman allowed to practice medicine in Quebec.
In 1906, she will move to Europe to learn pediatric medicine so she can improve the treatment of sick children in her home province.
She will be responsible for opening many pediatric hospitals and clinics during her career, including Enfant-Jésus in Québec and Sainte-Justine in Montréal.
To learn more:
Library and Archives Canada
Centre d'histoire de Montréal
The Canadian Encyclopedia
Photo of Irma LeVasseur.
June 8, 1944
Seven Canadian prisoners of war are murdered in the garden of the Ardenne Abbey in France. Eleven Canadian soldiers were killed there in cold blood the previous day. This Second World War atrocity is known as the "Ardenne Abbey massacre."
The execution of prisoners of war is a direct violation of the Geneva Convention and a war crime. SS Colonel Kurt Meyer and the 12th SS Panzer Division will be held responsible for the murders of at least 18 Canadian soldiers from the North Nova Scotia Highlanders and the Sherbrooke Fusiliers Regiment. Meyer will be tried after the war and convicted for these war crimes.
To learn more:
Library and Archives Canada
Veterans Affairs Canada
Photos of 16 of the Canadian soldiers executed by SS Colonel Kurt Meyer at the Ardenne Abbey in Caen. This information came to light only after the war, when a young Polish soldier, pressed into service by the Nazis and a witness to the massacre, told his story.
June 9, 1993
The Montreal Canadiens win their 24th Stanley Cup, with Jacques Demers at the helm and Patrick Roy between the pipes. They defeat the Los Angeles Kings and Wayne Gretzky.
To learn more:
Library and Archives Canada
Canadian Museum of History
Montreal Canadiens
Youtube
Caricature of coach Jacques Demers, who led the Montreal Canadiens to a Stanley Cup victory in the 1992-1993 season.
June 10, 1940
Norman Rogers, Minister of National Defence, dies in a plane crash near Newtonville, Ontario. The same day, Canada and its allies enter into a state of war with Italy.
A friend of Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, Rogers was a First World War veteran and a Liberal Member of Parliament for the Kingston area. The Kingston airport will be named in his honour.
To learn more:
Veterans Affairs Canada
Canadian War Museum
Queen's University
The Canadian Encyclopedia
Photo of the Hon. Norman Rogers, Air Marshal G.M. Croil and the Rt. Hon. W.L. Mackenzie King in Rockcliffe, Ontario, on January 30, 1940.
June 11, 2008
On behalf of the Government of Canada, Prime Minister Stephen Harper rises in the House of Commons to offer an apology to the former students of the Indian Residential Schools system.
For over a hundred years, many Indigenous children were removed from their homes and placed in residential schools. Over 150,000 children were taken away from their families and communities under this system.
To learn more:
Library and Archives Canada
Project Naming
Parliament of Canada
Cree students at their desks with their teacher in a classroom, All Saints Indian Residential School, Lac La Ronge, Saskatchewan, March 1945.
June 12, 1912
Large but sombre crowds gather for the grand opening of the Château Laurier Hotel in downtown Ottawa. The hotel was built by the late Charles Melville Hays, who drowned aboard the Titanic only weeks earlier while travelling home for the event.
The hotel is the pride of the Grand Trunk Railway. It will undergo numerous renovations and expansions over the next 105 years.
To learn more:
Library and Archives Canada
Parliament of Canada
Canada's Historic Places
Photo of the Château Laurier Hotel, Ottawa, June 1, 1912.
June 13, 1993
Kim Campbell wins the leadership race for the Progressive Conservative Party. She defeats political rival Jean Charest on the second ballot.
Since Prime Minister Brian Mulroney had already announced his imminent retirement, Campbell and Charest were competing not only for the party leadership but also to become the next prime minister. Her win will make Campbell the first female prime minister of Canada.
To learn more:
Library and Archives Canada
Parliament of Canada
CBC Radio-Canada Archives
Photo of the Right Honourable Kim Campbell, 1999.
June 14, 1919
In a field in St. John's, Newfoundland, pilots John Alcock and Arthur W. Brown prepare to take off on the world's first non-stop transatlantic flight. They will make their successful crossing in a rebuilt and modified Vicker's "Vimy" biplane from the First World War. Alcock and Brown will land in Clifden, Ireland, 16 hours later.
The pilots will win the Daily Mail newspaper's £10,000 prize for making the first transatlantic flight.
To learn more:
Library and Archives Canada
Canada Aviation and Space Museum
Transport Canada
YouTube
Capt. John Alcock (centre) during loading of Vickers "Vimy" aircraft prior to transatlantic flight, Lester's Field, St. John's, Newfoundland, 1919.
June 15, 1944
Tommy Douglas is elected Premier of Saskatchewan. As leader of the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation, he will head the first socialist provincial government in Canadian history.
Tommy Douglas is considered the father of Canadian health care. In 1947, he will introduce provincial hospital insurance. Douglas will found the national New Democratic Party in 1961. A comprehensive health care system for the province will follow in 1962.
The federal government will introduce the Medical Care Act in 1966. By 1972, universal health insurance, or medicare, will extend across Canada.
To learn more:
Health Canada
The Canadian Encyclopedia
Canadian Museum of History
Parliament of Canada
Photo of Marie-Thérèse Casgrain and Tommy Douglas, ca 1955.
June 16, 1946
The Canadian government deports 3,964 formerly interned individuals to Japan. The American ship S.S. General M.C. Meigs sets sail for Japan with the Japanese-Canadian and Japanese-American deportees aboard.
Mackenzie King's government decided that Japanese-Canadians, who had been interned during the Second World War, would not be permitted to return to the Pacific Coast because of concerns about their national loyalties. They were given only two choices: move east of the Rocky Mountains, or go to occupied Japan.
In 1988, Prime Minister Brian Mulroney will apologize on behalf of the Canadian government for the internment and subsequent deportation. He will also repeal the War Measures Act, making similar occurrences in the future impossible.
To learn more:
Library and Archives Canada
Canadian War Museum
CBC Digital Archives
The Canadian Encyclopedia
Photo of Japanese Canadians being sent to Japan after the Second World War on the U.S. Army transport S.S. General M.C. Meigs, at C.P.R. Pier A, Vancouver, B.C., June 16, 1946.
June 17, 1871
Anna Swan, Nova Scotia's giantess, marries fellow giant Martin Van Buren Bates at St. Martin-in-the Fields Church near Trafalgar Square in London, England. The world's tallest married couple are a sensation.
Weighing 18 pounds at birth, Anna Swan was famous in Nova Scotia because of her height, long before her discovery by circus legend P.T. Barnum. She worked at his New York museum for many years, nearly dying in the fire that destroyed the original building.
To learn more:
Library and Archives Canada
Dictionary of Canadian Biography
Guinness World Records
Portrait of Mr. and Mrs. Van Buren Bates, both of whom were eight feet one inch tall and weighed 500 pounds, ca. 1878-1888.
June 18, 1990
Nelson Mandela visits Ottawa only four months after his release from 27 years in prison. He is on a mission to gain support for abolishing apartheid in South Africa. Mandela will speak at a joint session of the House of Commons and the Senate.
Mandela will return in 1998 to receive the Order of Canada. He will also start the Canadian Friends of the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund. This charity will close in 2011.
Mandela's final visit, in 2001, will see him become the first living recipient of honourary Canadian citizenship.
To learn more:
Governor General of Canada
Prime Minister of Canada
CBC News
Photo of Nelson Mandela walking with Brian Mulroney, Ontario, 1990.
June 19, 1973
Karen Kain and Frank Augustyn, dancers with the National Ballet of Canada, win first place in the prestigious Moscow International Ballet Competition in the Soviet Union.
They perform the "Bluebird Pas de Deux" from Sleeping Beauty and earn the nickname "Gold-Dust Twins."
Karen Kain will also take home the women's silver medal for her solo performance.
Today, she is Artistic Director of the National Ballet of Canada, in Toronto.
To learn more:
Library and Archives Canada
National Ballet of Canada
The Canadian Encyclopedia
Photo of Karen Kain in 1999.
June 20, 1967
Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson officially opens the new national library and public archives building at 395 Wellington Street in Ottawa. In 2004, Library and Archives Canada will be created when the National Library of Canada and the National Archives of Canada are merged into one; until 1987, the latter department was known as the Public Archives of Canada.
The building features a spectacular marble foyer with gold mosaic tiles accenting the columns. It is the permanent home of the Jacob M. Lowy collection of rare examples of Judaica and Hebraica.
To learn more:
Library and Archives Canada
CBC Digital Archives
The Canadian Encyclopedia
The Rt. Hon. Lester B. Pearson entering the new Public Archives and National Library after the official opening ceremony, 395 Wellington Street, Ottawa.
June 21, 1996
Governor General Roméo LeBlanc officially declares June 21, the summer solstice, National Aboriginal Day. Three significant events led to the creation of an official National Aboriginal Day.
The earliest was the 1982 call to action from the group now called the Assembly of First Nations for a National Aboriginal Solidarity Day.
The next, in 1995, was the recommendation of Elijah Harper and the Sacred Assembly to create a national celebration of Indigenous contributions. The third, also in 1995, was the recommendation in the final report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples.
To learn more:
Library and Archives Canada
Project Naming
Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada
Canada.ca
Photo from the National Film Board of Canada fonds shows a parade held in Banff in July 1960. Chief Walking Buffalo, Tatânga Mânî (a.k.a. George McLean), of the Stoney Nakoda First Nation, leads the procession of riders. They are wearing their traditional handmade clothing and sit on decorated saddles.
June 22, 1960
Lawyer and politician Jean Lesage is elected Premier of Quebec. His Liberals defeat the socially conservative Union Nationale government, which had been in power for the previous 16 years. Lesage is known as the father of the Quiet Revolution. This period of change will give rise to a less traditional, more urban and more modern Quebec society.
Before becoming premier, Lesage was a federal Member of Parliament and in Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent's Cabinet. Lesage will serve as Premier of Quebec until June 16, 1966.
To learn more:
Canadian Museum of History
Virtual Museum of Canada
Radio-Canada Archives
The Canadian Encyclopedia
Stamp issued by Canada Post in 1998 featuring the image of the late Jean Lesage, former Premier of Quebec.
June 23, 1887
Banff Hot Springs Reserve is expanded and becomes, by an Act of Parliament, Rocky Mountains Park. It is Canada's first national park, and North America's third.
Located in southwest Alberta, the park will become Banff National Park in 1930. It will be put under the stewardship of Parks Canada and be part of the Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Today, Banff National Park covers 6,641 square kilometres and welcomes over 3 million visitors a year. It is one of Canada's best-known national parks.
To learn more:
Library and Archives Canada
Parks Canada
Photo of bathers in Upper Hot Springs Banff National Park.
June 24, 1977
Quebec Premier René Lévesque proclaims June 24 (traditionally Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day) as the Fête nationale du Québec.
Generations ago, the arrival of the summer solstice was celebrated on June 24. A huge bonfire was lit to symbolize the return of the light. In 1834, La Minerve editor Ludger Duvernay revived tradition by holding the first Saint-Jean-Baptiste banquet in Montréal. Duvernay wanted to provide French Canadians with an annual national celebration.
The feast day of Saint-Jean-Baptiste is also celebrated by Francophone communities throughout Canada.
To learn more:
La Fête nationale du Québec
Canadian Heritage
University of Sherbrooke — Le Bilan du siècle
Photo taken during the Saint-Jean-Baptiste festivities on Mount Royal, Montréal, 1976.
June 25, 1968
Progressive Conservative Lincoln Alexander is elected as the Member of Parliament for Hamilton West. He becomes the first Black Canadian in the House of Commons.
After serving with the Royal Canadian Air Force during the Second World War, Alexander studied and practised law, becoming Queen's Counsel. He entered politics in 1965. Alexander will spend 12 years as a Member of Parliament before retiring and serving as Chair of the Worker's Compensation Board of Ontario. In December 2014, the Canadian government will declare January 21 "Lincoln Alexander Day."
To learn more:
Elections Canada
CPAC
The Canadian Encyclopedia
Photo of Lincoln Alexander celebrating his election.
June 26, 1945
Canada signs the United Nations (UN) Charter in San Francisco, California, as a founding member of the organization. The UN will replace the League of Nations, which was created under the Treaty of Versailles in 1919.
The United Nations will hold its first General Assembly in 1946 in London and New York.
To learn more:
Global Affairs Canada
Permanent Mission of Canada to the United Nations
Canadian delegation to the first session of the United Nations General Assembly, New York, October 1946.
June 27, 2003
Canadian Multiculturalism Day is officially celebrated for the first time. On November 13, 2002, the Government of Canada proclaimed that this day would be observed annually on June 27.
The Department of Canadian Heritage describes the day as "an opportunity to celebrate our diversity and our commitment to democracy, equality and mutual respect and to appreciate the contributions of the various multicultural groups and communities to Canadian society."
To learn more:
Library and Archives Canada
Canadian Heritage
Parliament of Canada
Photo entitled: "Dutch or Ukrainian – all the same in new school." Representing the Netherlands, six-year old Betty Luiting (left) shows off her Dutch wooden clogs to Natalie Krispinovich, dressed in Ukrainian costume.Toronto, March 4, 1957.
June 28, 1919
Canada is among the many nations to sign the Treaty of Versailles, a peace treaty that officially ends the state of war with Germany. The First World War broke out after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand exactly five years earlier. The League of Nations is established under the Treaty of Versailles.
Germany is obliged to give up all colonies, to demilitarize, and to pay financial compensation for the war. Some claim that the treaty's harsh conditions contributed to the rise of National Socialism in Germany in the 1930s.
To learn more:
The Canadian Encyclopedia
University of Manitoba
Poster: Souvenir, Signing of Peace, Versailles, 1919: Allied for Right, for Justice, Victory and Remembrance.
June 29, 1989
The new Canadian Museum of Civilization opens in Hull, Quebec. The two main buildings were designed by Métis architect Douglas Cardinal.
The museum collection is over 150 years old. It expanded over the years and went through many name changes. The collection also moved numerous times, including this move from the Victoria Memorial Museum building in Ottawa to its current home.
In 2013, the museum will be renamed the Canadian Museum of History. The museum corporation is also the steward of the Canadian War Museum and the Canadian Children's Museum.
To learn more:
Canadian Museum of History
Canadian War Museum
Métis architect Douglas Cardinal during the opening of the new Canadian Museum of Civilization, June 29, 1989.
June 30, 2001
The "Duplessis Orphans" are granted millions of dollars in compensation by the Government of Quebec. Approximately 20,000 orphaned children were falsely diagnosed with mental illnesses and sent to church-run institutions. Throughout the 1940s and 1950s, the Maurice Duplessis government sent children to these institutions, where they suffered both physical and psychological abuse. Some 1,500 people are compensated, with each receiving $25,000.
To learn more:
National Film Board of Canada
CBC Digital Archives
The Canadian Encyclopedia
Photo of a group of men including the Premier of Quebec, Maurice Duplessis, who is holding his hat; date and location unknown.
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