1876 in Canada

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See also:	History of Canada; Timeline of Canadian history; List of years in Canada;

Events from the year 1876 in Canada.

Incumbents

Crown

Monarch – Victoria^[1]

Federal government

Governor General – Frederick Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood
Prime Minister – Alexander Mackenzie
Chief Justice – William Buell Richards (Ontario)
Parliament – 3rd

Provincial governments

Lieutenant governors

Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia – Joseph Trutch (until June 27) then Albert Norton Richards
Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba – Alexander Morris
Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick – Samuel Leonard Tilley
Lieutenant Governor of the North-West Territories – David Laird (from October 7)
Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia – Adams George Archibald
Lieutenant Governor of Ontario – Donald Alexander Macdonald
Lieutenant Governor of Prince Edward Island – Robert Hodgson
Lieutenant Governor of Quebec – René-Édouard Caron (until December 13) then Luc Letellier de St-Just (from December 15)

Premiers

Premier of British Columbia – George Anthony Walkem (until February 1) then Andrew Charles Elliott
Premier of Manitoba – Robert Atkinson Davis
Premier of New Brunswick – George Edwin King
Premier of Nova Scotia – Philip Carteret Hill
Premier of Ontario – Oliver Mowat
Premier of Prince Edward Island – Lemuel Cambridge Owen (until August 1) then Louis Henry Davies
Premier of Quebec – Charles Boucher de Boucherville

Territorial governments

Lieutenant governors

Lieutenant Governor of Keewatin – Alexander Morris (from October 7)
Lieutenant Governor of the Northwest Territories – Alexander Morris then David Laird

Events

January 1 – The building of Fredericton City Hall is completed
February 1 – Andrew Elliott becomes premier of British Columbia, replacing George Walkem
April 12 - The Indian Act is passed. Consolidating and expanding on existing Canadian laws, it defines the special status and land regulations of Aboriginal peoples in Canada who live on reserves; status Indians have no vote in Canadian elections and are exempt from taxes
July 1 – The Intercolonial Railway connecting central Canada to the Maritimes is completed
August – Sir Louis Henry Davies becomes Premier of Prince Edward Island, replacing Lemuel Cambridge Owen
August 10 – The world's first long-distance phone call connects the Bell residence with a shoe and boot store in nearby Paris, Ontario.
August 23 – The first signings of Treaty 6. Further signings will be on August 28 and September 9.
October 7 – The District of Keewatin (incorporating the disputed area between Ontario and Manitoba) is separated from the North-West Territories.
October 10 – 1876 Prince Edward Island election: Lemuel Cambridge Owen's Conservatives win a second consecutive majority

Full date unknown

The Toronto Women's Literary Club is founded as a front for the suffrage movement.
The Legislative Council of Manitoba is abolished, and the legislature becomes unicameral.

Sport

September 20 – The Ottawa Football Club (Ottawa Rough Riders) is established.

Births

January to June

January 8 – Matthew Robert Blake, politician (died 1937)
January 21 – James Charles Brady, politician (died 1962)
January 27 – Frank S. Cahill, politician (died 1934)
April 3 – Margaret Anglin, actress, director and producer (died 1958)
April 21 – William Henry Wright, prospector and newspaper owner (died 1951)
June 17 – Thomas Crerar, politician and Minister (died 1975)

July to December

August 23 – William Melville Martin, politician and Premier of Saskatchewan (died 1970)
September 6 – John Macleod, physician, physiologist and Nobel laureate (died 1935)
October 6 – Ernest Lapointe, politician (died 1941)
November 18 – Walter Seymour Allward, sculptor (died 1955)
December 9 – Berton Churchill, actor (died 1940)

Deaths

February 4 – Charles-Séraphin Rodier, mayor of Montreal (born 1797)
February 5 – George Ryan, politician (born 1806)
April 5 – Élisabeth Bruyère, nun (born 1818)
June 1 – Malcolm Cameron, businessman and politician (born 1808)
July 3 – Aldis Bernard, mayor of Montreal (born 1810)
July 27 – Thomas-Louis Connolly, Archbishop of Halifax (born 1814)
October 2 – Louis-Ovide Brunet, priest and botanist (born 1826)
October 6 – John Young, 1st Baron Lisgar, Governor General (born 1807)
December 13 – René-Édouard Caron, 2 Mayor of Quebec City and 2nd Lieutenant-Governor of Quebec (born 1800)

Full date unknown

Edward Feild, Church of England clergyman, inspector of schools, bishop of Newfoundland (born 1801)
Wilson Ruffin Abbott, businessman and landowner (born 1801)

Historical documents

Bell's Ontario experiments lead to the first long-distance telephone conversation^[2]

Treaty 6 annexes land of Cree and other nations in exchange for reserves subject to sale or development, plus money and supplies^[3]

Matron reports illness and death of girl at Wawanosh Indian residential school as local physician says her disorder is hysteria^[4]

Mark Twain's anger at a Canadian firm publishing The Adventures of Tom Sawyer without permission^[5]

Emigrant's guide written especially for "people of small fortune"^[6]

References

^ "Queen Victoria | The Canadian Encyclopedia". www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca. Retrieved 5 December 2022.
^ Alexander Graham Bell, "First Transmission of Speech over a Telegraph Line in Brantford, August 1876" The Pre-Commercial Period of the Telephone (1911), pgs. 14-16. Accessed 16 September 2018
^ "The Treaty at Forts Carlton and Pitt, Number Six" (September 9, 1876), Voices of the Plains Cree (1973, 1995), pgs. 124-9. Accessed 23 June 2021
^ "Shingwauk Home; The following is the Matron's letter[....]" (February 1, 1876), Dominion Churchman (April 20, 1876), pg. 187 Accessed 29 November 2024
^ Samuel Langhorne Clemens, "To Moncure D. Conway, 2 November 1876, Hartford, Conn." Mark Twain Project. Accessed 16 September 2018
^ John J. Rowan, The Emigrant and Sportsman in Canada; Some Experiences of an Old Country Settler (1876). Accessed 23 April 2020

[1] "Queen Victoria | The Canadian Encyclopedia". www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca. Retrieved 5 December 2022.

[2] Alexander Graham Bell, "First Transmission of Speech over a Telegraph Line in Brantford, August 1876" The Pre-Commercial Period of the Telephone (1911), pgs. 14-16. Accessed 16 September 2018

[3] "The Treaty at Forts Carlton and Pitt, Number Six" (September 9, 1876), Voices of the Plains Cree (1973, 1995), pgs. 124-9. Accessed 23 June 2021

[4] "Shingwauk Home; The following is the Matron's letter[....]" (February 1, 1876), Dominion Churchman (April 20, 1876), pg. 187 Accessed 29 November 2024

[5] Samuel Langhorne Clemens, "To Moncure D. Conway, 2 November 1876, Hartford, Conn." Mark Twain Project. Accessed 16 September 2018

[6] John J. Rowan, The Emigrant and Sportsman in Canada; Some Experiences of an Old Country Settler (1876). Accessed 23 April 2020

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