Photo Courtesy Of Corbis
HISTORY
1749 Founded by Hon. Edward Cornwallis. The original residents of the region, the Mi'kmaq, called the area 'Chebookt'. Cornwallis named the settlement 'Halifax' after Lord Halifax, England's president of the Board of Trade. 1750 Dartmouth was founded, named for the town of Dartmouth, England.
FIRSTS AND OLDESTS ~ CANADA
1749 Protestant Church, St. Paul's and also Halifax's oldest building
1752 First newspaper in Canada, the Halifax "Gazette"
1755 First post office
1758 Representative government
1813 Sunday School for Blacks
1884 Law School
FIRSTS AND OLDESTS ~ NORTH AMERICA
1752 Board of Trade
1752 Oldest Saltwater Ferry Service
1758 Naval Dockyard
1800 St. George's Round Church - the only church ever designed by a member of the British Royal Family
1800 Government House is Oldest Intact Executive Mansion - due to the burning of the White House
1813 General Robert Ross buried in Halifax. He burned The White House and Washington, DC resulting in the writing of the Star Spangled Banner and the painting of the President's Home white.
1837 Yacht Squadron (Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron)
DID YOU KNOW?
World Famous Cunard Steamship Line was founded in Halifax in 1840
Mr. & Mrs. Charles Dickens visited Halifax in 1842
Halifax is ranked as one of Canada's top 5 "smart cities" with 6 universities, 29897 university students and with the highest ratio of educational facilities to population in North America
The Black Community of HRM has a 200 year history in the area.
Halifax Explosion of 1917 was the world's largest manmade explosion prior to Hiroshima.
Halifax Citadel is Canada's most visited National Historic Site.
Peggy's Cove, world's most photographed fishing village and has the only post office in Canada located in a lighthouse
Halifax became North America's centre for buddhism 'Shambhala International' in 1986.
STATISTICS, GEOGRAPHY & MORE
Population 356,000 (1/3 of Nova Scotia's population)
Travel 2 hours closer to Europe by air than New York City
One day closer to Europe by water than any other North American port on the Atlantic Coast.
Climate Mild winters and cool summers. Average summer temperature 16-24 C Average winter temperature -3 C
Topography The glacial age created our very rugged coastline and areas of smooth, exposed rock (i.e. Point Pleasant Park at Martello Tower). Drumlins, mounds of fertile soil in a whale shape, were formed by moving glaciers (Citadel Hill) and erratics, rocks left randomly behind by melting ice of glaciers (i.e. Peggy's Cove.)
Final stage in our landscape development was forestation which covered most of HRM until the 18th century.
Land Area HRM is 5,577.26 square kilometres with over 400km of coastline
Halifax Harbour World's second largest natural ice-free harbour.
Shopping 1,501 retail shops and 22 major shopping centres
Restaurants 447
Yacht Clubs 5
Ocean Beaches 7
Pubs More per capita than any other city in Canada
Fondly known City of Trees - Halifax
If you have any other facts on Halifax that aren't included on this list. Send us an e-mail so we can include it.
