1642 Montréal, History: French explorers had been stopping at the island now called Montréal since 1535. A small settlement development to store supplies, dig wells, and then to trade in furs. On this day the settlement was named Montréal (for the Mont Royal that dominates the island) a group of thirty colonists led by Paul de Maisonneuve began to build a permanent town starting with a church to convert the natives. We spent a few hours at the museum excavation of this original site. On one side of Mont-Royal it is English-speaking and on the other French-speaking along the Rue St Laurence. Or has that verity changed?
1652 Providence, History: Rhode Island, long the North American centre of the slave trade, legislated against slavery though the law was not enforced. There were many Quakers in the colony who had gone there to escape religious persecution in Massachusetts Bay, and they opposed slavery. They could swing the numbers on a vote but could not compel authorities to enforce it. The result was that Providence remained a slave trading centre but locals were enjoined not to own slaves. The Ivy League university, Brown, was built and endowed by slave traders.
1830 Stroud (England), Technology: Edwin Budding signed an agreement to manufacture his invention – the push lawn mower which he had designed to cut grass on cricket pitches. Saturdays would never be the same again.
1897 London, Literature: Bram Stoker published ‘Dracula.’ Next stop Bela Lugosi!
1910 Halley’s Comet passed in front of the sun in a spectacular display while the Earth moved through the Comet’s tail. This was the first appearance of the Comet that was photographed.
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