History of Toronto

[4] After the failed rebellion, the Orange Order, a conservative Protestant fraternal organization, became the dominant power in local politics in a city intensely dedicated to Britishness.

[6] In the second half of the 19th century, Toronto grew into an important regional centre, linked to the rest of Ontario by a growing railway network and American and British markets by its port.

[7] By 1914, the city's financial sector, profiting from a mining boom in northern Ontario, was competing nationally with Montreal, while American corporations were increasingly choosing Toronto for branch offices.

[11] It has also been speculated that the name origin is the Seneca word Giyando, meaning "on the other side", which was the place where the Humber River narrows at the foot of the pass to the village of Teiaiagon.

The settlement was renamed when Lieutenant Governor John Graves Simcoe called for the town to be named after the Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany.

These settlers traversed large distances in family-sized bands, sustaining themselves on caribou, mammoths, mastodons, and smaller animals in the tundra and Boreal forest.

[13] Iroquoian villages during this period were located on high, fortified grounds, with access to wetlands and waterways to facilitate hunting, fishing, trade, and military operations.

Under the Imperial policy of the time, namely the Royal Proclamation of 1763, which was rooted in Roman Law, Dorchester arranged to purchase more than 1,000 square kilometres (250,000 acres) of land from the Mississaugas in 1787.

The influx of loyalist settlers to the western portions of the Province of Quebec, including the Toronto area, led to the passage of the Constitutional Act 1791.

Simcoe was unhappy with the then-capital of Upper Canada Newark, and proposed moving it to the site of present-day London, Ontario but was dissuaded by the difficulty of building a road to the location.

Rejecting Kingston, the choice of British Governor Lord Dorchester, the Toronto purchase site was then chosen by Simcoe on July 29, 1793, as the temporary capital of Upper Canada.

The blast, powerful enough to perforate eardrums and hemorrhage the lungs of some American soldiers massed outside the Fort was said to have rattled windows 50 kilometres across the lake in Niagara.

[34] After the ship briefly exchanged fire with the improved Fort York, built several hundred metres to the west from its original position, the USS Lady of the Lake withdrew and returned to the American squadron outside the harbour.

Mackenzie met with organized resistance, as the newly resurrected "British Constitutional Society", with William H. Draper as president, Tory aldermen Carfrae, Monro and Denison as vice-presidents, and common councilman and newspaper publisher George Gurnett as secretary, met the night before, and "from 150 to 200 of the most respectable portion of the community assembled and unanimously resolved to meet the Mayor upon his own invitation."

The inability of the mechanics to attend was their saving grace, for the meeting ended in a terrible tragedy when the packed gallery overlooking Market Square collapsed, pitching the onlookers into the butcher's stalls below, killing four and injuring dozens.

[39] The epidemic also killed the first Roman Catholic Bishop of Toronto, Michael Power, while providing care and ministering to Irish immigrants fleeing the Great Famine.

As Irish and other Catholics migrated to Toronto and became a larger part of the population, the Orange Order representing Protestant elements loyal to the British Crown fought to keep control of the ruling government and civil services.

The re-configuration of the Don River mouth to make a ship channel and lakeshore reclamation project occurred in the 1880s, again largely driven by sanitary concerns and establishing effective port commerce.

In response, the Church built a network of charitable institutions such as hospitals, schools, boarding homes, and orphanages, to meet the need and keep people inside the faith.

McGowan argues that between 1890 and 1920, the city's Catholics experienced major social, ideological, and economic changes that allowed them to integrate into Toronto society and shake off their second-class status.

This was addressed in October 1918, when the construction of the Prince Edward Viaduct, was finalized, linking Bloor Street on the western side of the ravine with Danforth Avenue on the east.

Macleod (1876–1935) and Frederick Banting (1891–1941), shared the Nobel prize in Medicine for their 1921 discovery of insulin, putting Toronto on the world map of advanced science.

[54][55] From 1926 to 1936, Toronto lawyer, financier, and practical joker Charles Vance Millar created the Great Stork Derby, a contest in which women had to give birth to the most babies within a ten-year period after his death, in order to qualify for an unusual bequest in his will for a residue of his significant estate.

The Metro Toronto government took over the construction and maintenance of region-wide infrastructure, building water treatment plants, roads, public transit and expressways, to facilitate the growth of the suburbs.

The experiment in social housing would improve the number of affordable units available, at the expense of a large increase in the budgets of Metro and Toronto to maintain the buildings.

Factors for the growth of Toronto over Montreal included strong immigration, increasingly by Asians and people of African descent, the increasing size of the auto industry in Southern Ontario, due to the signing of the Auto Pact with the US in 1965, a calmer political environment (Quebec experienced two referendums on separation during these years, one in 1980 and the other in 1995), and lower personal income taxes than in Quebec.

The Ontario government transferred a section of the Queen Elizabeth Way to the Metro Gardiner Expressway, cancelled the Eglinton subway line and trimmed transit, housing and welfare subsidies.

[68] Lastman gained national attention after multiple snowstorms, including the January Blizzard of 1999, dumped 118 cm of snow and effectively immobilized the city.

The situation was resolved when the Ontario government tabled back-to-work legislation to end the strike, and the city was back to normal before the start of World Youth Day.

[79] Favourable economic conditions and a high demand for housing spurred a condo boom in Toronto, with tens of thousands of upscale apartments constructed throughout the city.

View of Toronto in 1854
Development of the Great Lakes following the end of the Last Glacial Period . The first human settlers arrived in the area 11,000 to 10,500 years ago, as the glaciers retreated from the area.
Hopewell Interaction Area around the eastern Great Lakes during the Middle Woodland period (100 BCE to 500). Present-day Toronto was situated in the Point Peninsula local expression of the Hopewellian exchange system.
A map of the region, with Ganatsekwyagon and other areas highlighted along the Rouge Trail, c. 1673. Teiaiagon is shown west Ganatsekwyagon.
In the 17th century, the area was a crucial point for travel, with the Humber and Rouge River providing a shortcut to the upper Great Lakes . These routes were known as the Toronto Passage .
Fort Rouillé was one of several French trading posts established in Toronto during the 1750s. The forts were abandoned in 1759 as a result of the Seven Years' War .
Signatures of the parties that ratified the 1805 indenture to the Toronto Purchase , an agreement initially made in 1787.
John Graves Simcoe 's plans for York harbour, 1793.
Constructed in 1793, Fort York was located at the entrance of a bay formed by the Toronto Islands .
King Street in 1804. Later renamed Front Street, the road was one of York's original streets.
The American naval squadron exchange fire with Fort York during the Battle of York in April 1813. The American landing is depicted to the west (left foreground).
U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Zebulon Pike mortally wounded near the end of the Battle of York, struck by debris from an explosion set off at Fort York .
The second St. Lawrence Market building, opened in 1831.
People celebrating the incorporation of Toronto. In 1834, the Town of York was incorporated as the new City of Toronto.
In 1837, a revolutionary insurrection was crushed by British authorities and Canadian volunteer units at Montgomery's Tavern on Yonge Street.
View of Toronto looking west from King and Jarvis in 1845. The buildings right of the trees were later destroyed in the Great Fire of 1849 .
The construction of Union Station in 1858 dramatically increased commerce as well as the number of immigrants.
Horse-drawn streetcars in downtown Toronto in 1890.
McCaul Pond at the University of Toronto campus, created from a dammed Taddle Creek , 1870.
The Crystal Palace at the grounds of the Toronto Industrial Exhibition, 1871
An Orange Order parade on King Street , c. 1870. The fraternal organization , originally made up of Irish Protestant immigrants, became a dominant force in Toronto during the late 19th century.
The Great Fire of Toronto of 1904 was a large fire that destroyed much of Downtown Toronto .
Construction for the Prince Edward Viaduct in 1916.
Toronto skyline in July 1930.
In 1944, the 1,000th Canadian-built vessel since the start of World War II was launched in Toronto. During the war, most of the city's industries were converted for war-time production.
In 1954, Hurricane Hazel swept through Toronto, causing significant flooding and damage.
The opening for the fourth Toronto City Hall in 1965. The modernist design of the building have made it a landmark of the city.
Skyline of downtown Toronto in 1973. Construction for the CN Tower is visible in the left background.
Construction of First Canadian Place , the operational headquarters of the Bank of Montreal , in 1975. The 1970s saw several Canadian financial institutions move to Toronto.
The former Toronto Stock Exchange building incorporated into the Toronto-Dominion Centre . The city began to designate heritage buildings in the 1970s, forcing some developers to incorporate them in their designs.
Municipalities of Metropolitan Toronto prior to its dissolution. In 1998, the six municipalities were dissolved and amalgamated, forming the new city of Toronto.
A TTC streetcar is left stranded after the city lost power in the Northeast blackout of 2003 .
Official photo of world leaders at the 2010 G20 Toronto summit .
Damage from a fallen tree after the December 2013 North American storm complex passed through Toronto.