Today in history

On this date:

In 1663, Jean Baptiste Le Gardeur de Repentigny was chosen as the first mayor of Quebec.

In 1758, the first meeting of the Nova Scotia legislature was held.

In 1763, Cape Breton was annexed to Nova Scotia.

In 1763, a Royal proclamation sought to deal with the problem of aboriginal unrest in the west. The western boundary of Quebec was set at a line running northwest from the point where the 45th parallel crossed the St. Lawrence River to Lake Nipissing. The Appalachian watershed became the western boundary of the Atlantic colonies, blocking British settlement of the Indian lands of the Ohio and Mississippi Valleys. Labrador, Anticosti Island and the Magdalen Islands were given to Newfoundland and Nova Scotia annexed all the area the French had known as Acadia.

In 1777, an American revolutionary force under George Washington was routed at Chadds Ford, Pa. by the 1st American Regiment. The regiment later became known as the Queen’s York Rangers – one of Canada’s oldest military units. It was organized before the American Revolution by Robert Rogers but was later moved to Toronto by John Graves Simcoe, the first lieutenant governor of Upper Canada. The Rangers also served in the Northwest Rebellion, the Boer War and the First and Second World Wars.