July 21,1836 (http://www1.sympatico.ca/news/otd/images/otd.98.07.21.a.lg.gif) La Prairie Quebec - Governor Archibald Acheson, Lord Gosford 1776-1849 rides on the first train of the Champlain & St. Lawrence with 300 other guests, pulled by the locomotive Dorchester over wooden rails; the 23 km portage road running from La Prairie opposite Montreal to St-Jean on the Richelieu is Canada's first public railway line; became part of the Montreal and Champlain Railroad in 1857; leased to the Grand Trunk in 1864; now part of the CN system. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- - July 21, 1899 Queenston Ontario - Opening of new suspension bridge over Niagara River to Lewiston, New York. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --- July 21, 1797 Montreal Quebec - American spy David McLane publicly hanged, beheaded and disembowelled; first execution of its kind in Canada. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- July 21, 1730 Quebec Quebec - Canada's population estimated at 33,682 French inhabitants. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------- July 21, 1861 It isn’t often that people are invited to a picnic to watch a war; but that’s what happened on this day in 1861. For those of you who weren’t invited or just don’t remember, it was the first major battle of the Civil War between the North and the South. U.S. Federal troops under the leadership of Major General Irwin McDowell attacked Confederate troops led by General Beauregard. It was the _Battle of Bull Run_ (http://440.com/twtd/dxlnkgo2.html) Creek at Manassas Junction, Virginia. The Confederates, with the help of General E. Kirby Smith and General Thomas ‘Stonewall’ Jackson, held back the Union troops like a stone wall. Many folks, dressed in their Sunday best, came to watch and picnic as 60,000 men fought for over ten hours. When a shell destroyed a wagon blocking the main road of retreat, panic sent Union troops and picnickers scurrying back to Washington D.C. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- July 21, 1873 - The first train robbery in America was pulled off by Jesse James and his gang. They took $3,000 from the Rock Island Express at Adair, IA. Stick ’em up. And don’t try to grab my mask! :) ------------ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -