Browse "Atlantic Canada"

Soldiers rounding up terrified civilians, expelling them from their land, burning their homes and crops ‒ it sounds like a 20th century nightmare in one of the world's trouble spots, but it describes a scene from Canada's early history, the Deportation of the Acadians.

This collection explores the rich heritage of the Acadians through articles and exhibits, as well as quizzes on arts and culture, history and politics, historical figures, and places associated with the Acadian people.

This timeline highlights events and people related to Acadian History.

Allan Gilmour, shipbuilder, timber merchant (b at Craigton, Mearns [Strathclyde], Scot 29 Sept 1805; d at Glasgow, Scot 18 Nov 1884).

Angus McAskill, the Cape Breton giant (b at Harris, Scot 1825; d at Englishtown, NS 8 Aug 1863). The tallest nonpathological giant on record, at maturity he was 236 cm (7´9´) tall, weighed 193 kg (425 lbs) and had a shoulder width of 112 cm and palms measuring 20 cm by 30 cm.

Charles Edward Poulett Thomson Sydenham, 1st Baron, politician, colonial administrator (b at Wimbledon, London, Eng 13 Sept 1799; d at Kingston, Canada W 19 Sept 1841).

Bartholomew Roberts, pirate (b in Pembrokeshire, Wales c 1682; d 10 Feb 1722).

Basques were expert fishermen and sailors from the southeast corner of the Bay of Biscay. With the Portuguese, they were early arrivals to Newfoundland's Grand Banks.

Benjamin Bowring, silversmith, watchmaker, merchant (b in Devonshire, Eng 1778; d at Liverpool, Eng June 1846). One of a large number of Devonshire tradesmen who immigrated to St John's, Bowring first visited Newfoundland in 1811; in 1815 he sold his shop in Exeter and opened a store in St John's.

Bernard Donald Macdonald, Roman Catholic bishop of Charlottetown (b at Allisary, PEI 25 Dec 1797; d at St Dunstan's College, near Charlottetown, 30 Dec 1859). In 1812 Macdonald was one of the first 2 Island boys sent to study for the priesthood at the Grand Seminary of Québec.

As a young man, Biencourt was reputedly tactless in dealing with others, and his violent quarrels with Jesuit missionaries undoubtedly harmed the colony. His determination, however, was crucial to the survival of the French presence in Acadia after a disastrous English raid in 1613.

Military supremacy did not solve the problem of how to bring real social and economic stability to the colony for d'Aulnay. After his accidental death by drowning in 1650, Acadia lapsed again into internal strife.

Charles de Saint-Étienne de La Tour, colonizer, trader, governor of Acadia (b at Champagne, France 1593; d at Cap de Sable, Acadia 1663). La Tour possibly reached Acadia as early as 1606, living there permanently from 1610.

Among the approximately 2,000 victims who died in the Halifax Explosion of 1917, one-quarter were children under the age of 18. Many other young people survived but would carry physical and emotional scars with them for the remainder of their lives. Dead and wounded children were the most poignant victims of the disaster.

The Commission of Government in Newfoundland was established in response to an extraordinary set of circumstances.

"Thomas Willoughby, thou art a ne'er-do-well! Get thee to Cupers Cove and reform thyself." Young Willoughby, 19, may not have heard exactly those words, but he was sent to Cupers Cove, Newfoundland in 1612 to 'reform himself.

Edward Cornwallis, founder of Halifax in 1749, governor of Nova Scotia from 1749-52, military leader and governor of Gibraltar from 1762-76, (born 22 February 1713 in London, England; died 23 January 1776 in Gibraltar).

Enos Collins, merchant, privateer, banker (b at Liverpool, NS 5 Sept 1774; d at Halifax 18 Nov 1871). Enos went to sea as a cabin boy on one of his father's fishing vessels, becoming master of a trading ship before he was 19.

Eric Cobham, pirate (fl c 1740-60). Based in Newfoundland about 1740 to 1760, Cobham, a native of Poole, England, and his wife, Maria Lindsay, plundered shipping in the Gulf of St Lawrence, their crimes undetected because they sank nearly every vessel captured and murdered the crews.

Fishing Admiral, a position of authority claimed by the first fishing ship's captain to enter each Newfoundland harbour every year, although in some harbours in the 1500s each ship's captain may have taken a turn during the fishing season.