Canadian Events of the 1890s

 March 3, 1890Birth of Norman Bethune, physician.
March 24, 1890Birth of Agnes Macphail, first woman elected to the Canadian House of Commons.
May 4, 1890Birth of Franklin Carmichael, painter and member of the Group of Seven artists.
October 9, 1890Birth of Aimee Semple McPherson, evangelist
January 26, 1891Birth of Wilder Penfield, neurosurgeon.
June 6, 1891Death of Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald
September 16, 1891Birth of Julie Winnefred Bertrand, verified, oldest living Canadian at the time of her death in 2007.
November 14, 1891Birth of Frederick Banting. He became a medical scientist, doctor and Nobel laureate. Co-discoverer of insulin.
December 10, 1891Opening of the Calgary and Edmonton Railway line.
April 8, 1892Birth of Mary Pickford, actress. She also co-founded United Artists studio.
1892James Naismith, of Almonte, Ontario, invented the game of Basketball.
May 18, 1892Birth of John Croak. John died in France in WWI. Received the Victoria Cross for his valour.
June 9, 1892Death of William Grant Stairs, explorer and soldier.
August 2, 1892Birth of Jack L. Warner, in London, Ontario. He was founder of Warner Brothers Studio in Hollywood, California.
August 18, 1892Birth of Hal Foster, cartoonist and creator of the comic strip Prince Valiant, which premiered in newspapers in 1937.
August 30, 1892Death of Frederick Newton Gisborne. He laid the first under-sea cable in North America.
1893Lord Stanley, the Governor General, donates the Stanley Cup. Winning it becomes the annual goal, for young and old, players or watchers. The first team to win the Stanley Cup was the Montreal AAA team of 1893.
May 7, 1893Birth of Frank J. Selke. He became an ice hockey manager.
May 27, 1893Algonquin Provincial Park, Ontario, established as a wildlife sanctuary.
June 23, 1893Birth of Merrill Denison, playwright. Some of his plays performed at Tweed Playhouse, Tweed, Ontario.
July 7, 1893Birth of WWI flying ace, James White, at Manitoulin Island, Ontario.
August 21, 1893Birth of Wilfred Curtis at Havelock, Ontario. He became Chief of the Air Staff of the Royal Canadian Air Force.
September 19, 1893Death of Alexander Tilloch Galt, politician and a Father of Confederation.
October 12, 1893Birth of George Hodgson, a swimmer who won two Olympic Gold Medals.
October 27, 1893National Council of Women meets for first time.
October 30, 1893Death of John Abbott, politician and third Prime Minister of Canada.
February 8, 1894Birth of Billy Bishop, WWI flying ace.
March 19, 1894Death of John Langton, businessman and political figure. Settled near Peterborough, Upper Canada, in 1833.
March 22, 1894Montreal Hockey Club wins first Stanley Cup challenge, defeating Ottawa.
June 5, 1894Birth of Roy Thomson, a newspaper owner and media entrepreneur.
June 14, 1894Massey Hall opens in Toronto, Ontario.
September 4, 1894First celebration in Canada of Labour Day.
1894Founding of Toronto Mendelssohn Choir.
February 1, 1895Birth of Conn Smythe, ice hockey manager and owner.
February 15, 1895Birth of Earl Thomson, athlete and Olympic gold medalist for the high hurdles.
1895The Yukon becomes a Provisional District separate from the Northwest Territories.
September 7, 1895Birth of Peter Parker, a radio announcer who made the first play by play radio broadcast of an ice hockey game.
1895First generation of electrical power at Niagara Falls.
February 20, 1896Death of Hart Massey, a businessman and philanthropist. He was born in Haldimand Township, Northumberland County, Ontario.
March 8, 1896Birth of Charlotte Whitton, feminist and mayor of Ottawa, Ontario.
April 20, 1896Birth of Wilfrid May, a WWI flying ace and later a pioneer bush pilot.
May 18, 1896Birth of Brock Chisholm, doctor. He became the first Directory-General of the World Health Organization.
June 19, 1896Death of John Beverley Robinson, politician. He was a nephew of Peter Robinson, for whom Peterborough, Ontario, is named.
July 2, 1896Birth of Eta Prudence Heward. In 1929 her painting, Girl on a Hill, won top prize in the Governor General Willingdon competition.
July 27, 1896Birth of Anne Savage, in Montreal. She became a painter and art teacher.
August 17, 1896Gold is discovered in the Klondike. Within a year 100,000 hopeful people have gone north to seek a fortune.
August 30, 1896Birth of Raymond Massey, actor.
August 31, 1896Birth of Alice Strike. She would become Canada’s last surviving female WWI veteran.
January 29, 1897Founding in Ottawa, Ontario, of the Victorian Order of Nurses.
February 2, 1897Clara Brett Martin, born in 1874, becomes first woman to practise law in Ontario
February 19, 1897Founding of the first Woman’s Institute at Stoney Creek, Ontario.
April 23, 1897Birth of Lester Bowles Pearson at Newtonbrook, York Township, now part of Toronto, Ontario.
1897Long-distance power transmission from Niagara becomes available.
December 14, 1897Death of Robert Simpson, founder of Simpsons store.
1898The Klondike Gold Rush progresses, spreading like a fever over the land.
 June 13, 1898The Yukon becomes a Territory.
July 17, 1898Birth of Osmond Borradaile, cameraman and cinematographer. Also veteran of WWII.
July 29, 1898The White Pass and Yukon Route, Skagway to Whitehorse, opens.
August 24, 1898Death of Casimir Gzowski, engineer known for his work on Canadian railways and the Welland Canal. Also served as acting Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, 1896-1897.
September 29, 1898Canada holds a referendum on the prohibition of alcohol.
November 8, 1898Birth of Marie Prevost, actress, who had a twenty year career during which she made 121 silent and talking pictures.
November 29, 1898Birth of Emmett Matthew Hall. Considered, along with Tommy Douglas, as one of the fathers of Canadian Medicare.
February 10, 1899Death of Archibald Lampman, Canadian poet. Born near Chatham, Ontario and grew up at Gore’s Landing, north of Cobourg, Ontario.
February 27, 1899Birth of Charles Best, medical scientist and co-discoverer of insulin.
March 14, 1899Birth of K. C. Irving, considered one of Canada’s foremost entrepreneurs and a world leading industrialist.
July 24, 1899Birth of Chief Dan George, actor and author.
September 18, 1899
New City Hall opens in Toronto, Ontario.
August 29, 1899Death of Catharine Parr Traill, writer.
October 4, 1899First Canadian troops sent overseas to serve during Boer War.
October 25, 1899Death of Peter Mitchell, politician and a member of the Father’s of Confederation.
November 10, 1899Birth of Billy Boucher, a professional ice hockey player with the NHL.

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