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3 February 2017 – About 150 people of different religious faiths formed a support circle around Halifax’s largest mosque (the Ummah Mosque) as a public gesture to show solidarity with the city’s Muslims after the fatal shooting at a mosque in Quebec City on January 29th that left six people dead.
4 February 1980 – On this date, the Cape Breton based rock group, The Minglewood Band was nominated for a Juno Award for most promising group of the year. Formed in 1974, the band released seven albums between 1976 and 1992. Lead singer Matt Minglewood (born Roy Alexander Batherson) also launched a solo career in the mid-eighties. Besides the band’s albums, Matt has released a number of his own albums. Based in Glace Bay, he has taken home many national and East Coast music Awards, as well as being bestowed the Queen’s Jubilee Medal for his contribution to Canadian music. This year he will be inducted into the Casino Nova Scotia Music Hall of Fame (Feb. 27-29) for his more than 50 years of music-making and touring experience.
5 February 1840 – On this date, Samuel Cunard’s new ship, the RMS (Royal Mail Ship) Britannia, was launched at Greenock, Scotland. With a carrying capacity of 197 passengers and crew, she would make her maiden voyage to Halifax and Boston from Liverpool, England on July 4, 1840 in 12 days and 10 hours. Other new Royal Mail Steamships would follow, including the Acadia (August 1840), the Caledonia (October 1840), and the Columbia (January 1841).
6 February 1964 – On this day in Halifax, the electric trolley coach for route #7 was extended three blocks north, providing direct service to the Nova Scotia Community College campus on Leeds Street. However, five years later, on December 31, 1969, the electric trolley coaches were replaced by a fleet of diesel buses.
7 February 1758 – On this day, Charles Lawrence, governor of Nova Scotia issued a notice the Nova Scotia Council had passed a resolution to establish the first elections for a representative assembly in the colony of Nova Scotia. However, due to the planned siege on Fortress Louisbourg and the gathering of British forces in Halifax (estimated at 27,000 men and 157 ships) in May, the elections were held off untill the fall. The first elected assembly would not convene in Halifax untill October 2.
Such assemblies would further be elected in Prince Edward Island (1873), New Brunswick (1785), and Lower Canada (Quebec) and Upper Canada (Ontario) in 1792. However, the power in these assemblies were largely still in the hands of executive councils who were nominated by the colonial governors, who themselves were nominated by the British Crown. Nevertheless, these became the first steps towards democracy, which would later lead to Nova Scotia becoming the first elected responsible government in a British colony in 1848. Within six years, all the Canadian colonies would have responsible governments.
8 February 1879 – In a paper presented to the (Royal) Canadian Institute in Toronto on this day, Sir Sandford Fleming (1827-1915) proposed a model of International Standard Time. In essence, it’s a 24-hour clock that divided the world into local time zones, (comprised of 15 degrees longitude each).
Known at the time for his engineering work in the development of railways across Canada, Fleming was an extraordinary visionary on a global scale. Later at the 1884 International Meridian conference in Washington D.C., he would champion further his concept of synchronized and standardized time which would revolutionize how society viewed time.
By 1929, his proposal of adopting 24 time zones came into acceptance by all of Earth’s major countries. By 1897 Fleming was elevated to knight commander by Queen Victoria and given the right to use the term sir before his name.
Fleming had resided in Halifax from 1864-1869, later moving to Ottawa to begin work on the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway through the Rockies. He died in Halifax while staying with his daughter at Dingle Cottage on 22 July 1915.
9 February 1880 – A liturgical service at St. Paul’s Church, Halifax, was carried by telephone for two blocks. There is no record on whether it was worth listening to!
Leo J. Deveau is an independent librarian, researcher and author of 400 Years in 365 Days – A Day by Day Calendar of Nova Scotia History (Formac). He can be reached at 400years@formac.ca or at: www.400years.ca.
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