This week in Nova Scotia history
Oct. 25-31
• 25 October 1951 - Louis Armstrong held a concert in Halifax at the Queen Elizabeth Auditorium. Tickets were $2.20 (incl. tax). Besides Armstrong playing trumpet and doing vocals, Jack Teagarden played trombone and vocals, Cozy Cole played drums and Earl (Fatha) Hines played piano.
Prior to his Halifax concert, Armstrong had been the first African American to host a nationally broadcast radio show in The Story of Swing (1937) and later This is Jazz (1947).
After the Halifax concert, he would appear in such films as High Society (1956) and Gene Kelly's film version of Hello Dolly in 1969 as the bandleader ‘Louis,' singing the titled song with actress Barbara Streisand in one of his most recognizable performances. Many older Nova Scotians would remember seeing him in numerous television appearances, such as on The Ed Sullivan Show.
• 26 October 1938 — The Bluenose schooner won its last International Fisherman's Cup Race by less than three minutes, winning three races out of five against the Gertrude L. Thebaud off Gloucester, Massachusetts.
The Bluenose had been racing since 1921 when it won the second international Fishermen's Race in October off Halifax against the American Challenger Elsie — this year marks the 100th anniversary of that victory. With that victory, the Bluenose also “sailed into the hearts and minds of those in Nova Scotia and beyond,” becoming a wellknown Canadian icon.
Prior to its win in 1921, the schooner had just been launched from the Smith and Rhuland Shipyard in Lunenburg a few months earlier in March at a cost of $35,000. (over half a million dollars in today's funds).
Many knew at that time that the ship was no ordinary fishing vessel. “Its unmistakable grace, elegance of design and efficiency under sail were advertisements for the architect, William J. Roué, and for the superb workmanship of Nova Scotia shipwrights.”
Prior to its last race in 1938, the Bluenose was also featured in one of the first scenic stamps issued in Canada in 1929 by the Post Office Department — reflecting a composite design based on photographs by Wallace R. Macaskill, showing the Bluenose racing off Halifax Harbour.
The schooner also attended the 1933 World's Fair in Chicago. And in 1935, it had sailed to England to celebrate the Silver Jubilee of King George V. It later would also appear on the Canadian dime in 1937. Besides its racing ‘career,' the Bluenose was also a working schooner and would set records for some of the largest catches of fish brought into Lunenburg.
(References: Casbourn, Valerie. 100th anniversary of legendary fishing schooner Bluenose. Library and Archives Canada Blog, 15 April, 2021. And Bluenose a Canadian Icon, Nova Scotia Archives. )
• 27 October 2016 — Daniel Christmas (b. 1956), Mi'kmaw leader and lifelong resident of the Membertou First Nation, was named a non-partisan Independent Senator and first Mi'kmaw representative to the Canadian Senate by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. He was sworn-in in December.
Christmas is a former Director of Advisory Services for the Union of Nova Scotia Indians where he had worked for fifteen years. He also served as an elected councillor for Membertou for eighteen years and was actively involved in the recognition and implementation of Mi'kmaw aboriginal and treaty rights in Nova Scotia.
• 28 October 1805 — A pressgang consisting of naval seamen and marines from the HMS Cleopatra stormed the streets of Halifax looking for naval deserters, pressing men, and abusing civilians with bayonets and other weapons.
There had been no authorization for the pressment from either colonial or town authorities and a riot soon ensued in which one man was killed and a number of others were injured.
Governor Wentworth “criticized the admiral for disturbing the peace and pressing illegally onshore, while the solicitor general was ordered to arrest the guilty parties.” Soon though the charges were dropped, but it would become increasingly harder for the British Navy to man its ships in Nova Scotia. No more press warrants would be issued until the War of 1812.
(Reference: Mercer, Keith. Northern Exposure, Resistance to Naval Impressment in British North America, 1775-1815. The Canadian Historical Review, vol. 91, No.2, 2012, p. 199-232. Project MUSE, doi:10.1353/ can.0.0304.)
• 29 October 1963 — Hurricane Ginny made landfall near Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. At the time, it was the strongest recorded to make landfall in Canada reaching peak winds of 175 km/h, creating severe damage to wharves and harbours, as well as trees, causing many power outages up along the coast to Halifax and across the Bay of Fundy to New Brunswick. All of Prince Edward Island was also left without power. There were no fatalities, but several injuries were reported.
• 30 October 1991 — This is the thirtieth anniversary of the Operation Boxtop Flight 22 crash and rescue in the High Arctic. A Canadian Forces Lockheed CC-130E Hercules from 435 Transport and Rescue Squadron in Edmonton had crashed while on a bi-annual resupply flight in hazardous weather conditions near the Canadian Forces Station Alert in Nunavut on the northeastern tip of Ellesmere Island.
The crash resulted in the death of five Canadian Armed Forces personnel (four died in the crash and one perished before help arrived). 13 survivors needed immediate medical assistance, but bad weather and local terrain made it near impossible to rescue the men and women. A ground rescue team set out overland from the CFS Alert Station for the crash site through darkness and horrendous weather conditions - it took them 21 hours to reach the crash scene.
In the meantime, the effort was also joined by six Search and Rescue (SAR) technicians from 413 Squadron at CFB Greenwood who was able to locate the crash site and parachute down to provide medical support to the survivors. Many of them had been “soaked in diesel fuel and had endured high winds and temperatures between -20C and -30C. Some had sheltered in the tail section of the downed aircraft, but others were more exposed to the elements.” Once the injured were treated and prepared for medical evacuation, a Twin Huey helicopter from Alert made three trips to bring the survivors back to the station.
Later a television movie about the rescue, with an American slant, would be released in 1993 called Ordeal in the Arctic.
(Thanks to Trish Rubin for bringing this to my attention. For more information see: “Remembering the crash of Boxtop Flight 22. Thomas, Michael Corporal. 30 October, 2017. Government of Canada website: http:// www.rcaf-arc.forces.gc.ca/ en/article-template-standard. page?doc=remembering-thecrash-of-boxtop-flight-22/ ig9v1k0t ).
• 31 October 1765 — The Philadelphia Company received their land grant for northern Nova Scotia. The grant encompassed over 200,000 acres (81,000 ha) along the Northumberland shore that had been left fallow after the Acadian Deportation.
The Company had been formed by a group of businessmen in Philadephia with a plan to promote and populate the area with at least one thousand Protestant colonists by 1775. Their efforts began with six families arriving on the brig Hope from Maryland who settled in the Pictou Harbour area. But later the plan was not fulfilled and the grant was cancelled.
By 1773, Scottish Gaels had begun to settle in Nova Scotia — starting with the arrival of the Hector at Pictou with 178 emigrants (18 children had been buried at sea on the ten-week voyage), and new arrivals would continue well into the 1870s.
Many were fleeing high rents for land as a result of the political turmoil that had led to the British victory at the Battle of Culloden and the defeat of Bonnie Prince Charles and his Jacobite intentions. Many looked to Nova Scotia for a better life. It is estimated that more than 50,000 Gaelic settlers immigrated to Nova Scotia between 1815 and 1870.
(Leo J. Deveau is an independent librarian, researcher, speaker and author of 400 Years in 365 Days - A Day by Day Calendar of Nova Scotia History (2017). His most recent book is Fideliter The Regimental History of The Princess Louise Fusiliers (2020). He can be reached at 400years@formac.ca or at: www.400years.ca.