50 Fun Facts About Montreal

Montreal was founded in 1642 under what name?

The settlement was founded as Ville-Marie, 'City of Mary', in honour of the Virgin; the name Montreal did not appear in official documents until 1705.

Which French explorer visited the Iroquoian village of Hochelaga at the foot of Mount Royal in 1535?

Jacques Cartier reached Hochelaga in October 1535 and named the mountain behind it Mont Royal; by Champlain's 1603 visit the St Lawrence Iroquoians had vanished.

Who was the first governor of the settlement founded on 17 May 1642?

Paul Chomedey de Maisonneuve led the founding colonists and governed Ville-Marie; in January 1643 he carried a cross up Mount Royal after a flood spared the settlement.

Mount Royal, which gives the city its name, has how many peaks?

Mount Royal has three peaks: the main summit at 233 m, Outremont summit at 211 m and Westmount summit at 201 m; the illuminated cross on the main peak dates from 1924.

Mount Royal Park, opened in 1876, was designed by which landscape architect?

Frederick Law Olmsted, co-designer of New York's Central Park, planned Mount Royal Park; his design was only partly carried out when the park opened in 1876.

Montreal fell to the British in 1760 during which conflict?

Montreal capitulated to Jeffery Amherst in September 1760, ending the Seven Years' War in North America; the 1763 Treaty of Paris then ceded New France to Britain.

Montreal lost its status as capital of the Province of Canada in 1849 when a mob did what?

A Tory mob burned down the Parliament building on 25 April 1849 in protest at the Rebellion Losses Bill; the capital then alternated between Toronto and Quebec City until Ottawa was chosen.

The 1689 Iroquois attack, New France's worst massacre, struck which part of Montreal island?

About 1,500 Mohawk warriors attacked Lachine on 5 August 1689, burning the village and killing or capturing dozens of settlers; the Lachine Rapids later gave the Lachine Canal its name.

Which emblem was added to the centre of Montreal's flag in 2017?

A white pine, a symbol of peace for Indigenous nations, was added to the centre of Montreal's flag in September 2017, joining the fleur-de-lis, rose, thistle and shamrock.

Quebec's Charter of the French Language, known as Bill 101, became law in which year?

Bill 101 was adopted on 26 August 1977 under René Lévesque's first Parti Québécois government, sponsored by Camille Laurin; several corporate head offices left Quebec afterwards.

Which city overtook Montreal as Canada's largest and richest in the 1970s?

Toronto overtook it as the October Crisis and the 1976 election of the sovereigntist Parti Québécois hastened the exodus of head offices.

Expo 67 drew more than 50m visitors at a time when Canada's whole population was what?

The per-capita attendance record still stands; the third day alone drew 569,500 people.

Expo 67's theme, 'Man and His World', came from a book by which author?

Antoine de Saint-Exupery's 1939 book Terre des Hommes, published in English as Wind, Sand and Stars, gave Expo 67 its theme; the fair was built largely on Saint Helen's Island.

Habitat 67, the stacked-cube housing complex, began as whose master's thesis at McGill?

Moshe Safdie developed Habitat 67 from his 1961 McGill master's thesis and built it for Expo 67 at Cité du Havre; 354 prefabricated concrete units are stacked into terraced homes.

The Montreal Biosphere's dome, the former US pavilion at Expo 67, was designed by whom?

Buckminster Fuller's geodesic dome housed the US pavilion; its acrylic skin burned off in a 1976 fire, leaving the steel frame, which reopened as the Biosphère environment museum in 1995.

Montreal is the only Canadian city ever to have hosted which international event?

Montreal hosted the Summer Olympics in July 1976, the only Summer Games ever held in Canada; Calgary (1988) and Vancouver (2010) hosted Winter Games.

At the 1976 Montreal Olympics, 14-year-old Nadia Comaneci became the first to do what?

Nadia Comaneci scored the first perfect 10 in Olympic gymnastics on the uneven bars on 18 July 1976, then recorded six more; she won three golds in Montreal.

Montreal's Olympic Stadium has the nickname 'The Big Owe', which refers to what?

The huge cost of building it and the Games as a whole earned the nickname; the 'Big O' comes from its doughnut-shaped roof, and the bill was finally paid off in November 2006.

The Olympic Stadium's 165 m mast holds what record?

At 165 m and leaning 45 degrees, the Montreal Tower is the world's tallest inclined tower; Roger Taillibert designed it to haul open a retractable roof by cables, which never worked properly.

The Montreal Metro, opened in 1966, is unusual among North American subways for running on what?

The Metro runs on rubber tyres, a system imported from Paris; partly because such trains cannot cope with snow it is entirely underground. It opened in October 1966.

Montreal's Underground City, or RESO, has roughly how many kilometres of tunnels?

RESO's roughly 32 km of tunnels link shops, universities, hotels and metro stations beneath about 12 square kilometres of downtown, making it the largest such network in the world.

Saint Joseph's Oratory grew from a chapel built on Mount Royal in 1904 by whom?

Brother André, a Holy Cross lay brother famed as a healer, built a small chapel to Saint Joseph on Mount Royal in 1904; it grew into the Oratory, and he was canonised in 2010.

Which singer married René Angélil at Montreal's Notre-Dame Basilica in December 1994?

Celine Dion married there on December 17, 1994; the basilica also hosted state funerals for Maurice 'Rocket' Richard and Pierre Trudeau in 2000.

Notre-Dame Basilica's Gothic Revival architect James O'Donnell did what on his deathbed?

James O'Donnell, an Irish-born Protestant from New York, converted to Catholicism on his deathbed in 1830 and is the only person buried in the crypt of the church he built from 1824 to 1829.

How many Stanley Cups did the Montreal Canadiens win during the 20th century?

The Canadiens won 24 Stanley Cups between 1916 and 1993, more than any other club; Patrick Roy was in goal for the 1993 win over the Los Angeles Kings.

The Canadiens were founded in which year, before the NHL itself existed?

The Club de hockey Canadien was founded on 4 December 1909 as a National Hockey Association team; it joined the new NHL in 1917 and won its first NHL-era Stanley Cup in 1924.

The Montreal Expos, who played from 1969 to 2004, were the first what?

The Expos became MLB's first franchise outside the United States when they debuted in April 1969 at Jarry Park; after the 2004 season they moved to become the Washington Nationals.

The Circuit Gilles Villeneuve sits on which man-made island in the St Lawrence?

Notre Dame Island was built from Metro excavation fill for Expo 67; Gilles Villeneuve won the first Grand Prix there for Ferrari in October 1978, and the track was renamed for him in 1982.

The Alouettes beat the Winnipeg Blue Bombers 28-24 to win the Grey Cup in which year?

Montreal beat Winnipeg 28-24 in the 110th Grey Cup in Hamilton on 19 November 2023, on a late Cody Fajardo touchdown pass; the Alouettes' previous title had come in 2010.

Which botanist founded the Montreal Botanical Garden in 1931?

Brother Marie-Victorin, a Christian Brother and botany professor at the Université de Montréal, founded the Montreal Botanical Garden in 1931; Henry Teuscher designed its grounds and greenhouses.

The Montreal International Jazz Festival was first staged in which year?

The first Festival International de Jazz de Montréal was held in 1980, founded by Alain Simard and André Ménard; in 2004 Guinness World Records named it the world's largest jazz festival.

Cirque du Soleil, headquartered in Montreal, was founded in 1984 in which Quebec town?

Guy Laliberté and Gilles Ste-Croix's street troupe, Les Échassiers de Baie-Saint-Paul, became Cirque du Soleil, founded in Baie-Saint-Paul in 1984 during Quebec's 450th-anniversary celebrations of Cartier's arrival.

McGill University was founded in 1821 from the bequest of a merchant of which nationality?

James McGill, a Glasgow-born Scottish fur trader, died in 1813 leaving £10,000 and his Burnside estate to found a college; McGill University received its royal charter in 1821.

Leonard Cohen was born in 1934 in which anglophone enclave of Montreal?

Leonard Cohen was born on 21 September 1934 in Westmount, the affluent anglophone enclave on the mountain's western slope; 'Hallelujah' came on his seventh album, Various Positions, in 1984.

Schwartz's, the famous smoked-meat deli, was founded in 1928 by an immigrant from which country?

Reuben Schwartz, a Jewish immigrant from Romania, opened the deli on boulevard Saint-Laurent in 1928; its brisket is dry-cured with cracked pepper, coriander and garlic before smoking.

How does a Montreal bagel differ from a New York bagel?

A Montreal bagel is smaller, sweeter and denser than a New York bagel, boiled in honey-sweetened water with no salt and baked in a wood-fired oven; St-Viateur and Fairmount in Mile End are the famous bakeries.

Poutine, a Quebec staple, emerged in which region in the late 1950s?

Fries, cheese curds and hot gravy; Warwick and Drummondville both claim the invention.

Place Ville Marie, the cruciform skyscraper completed in 1962, was designed by which architect?

I. M. Pei's firm designed Place Ville Marie, the cross-shaped office tower completed in 1962 over the Central Station rail yards; its rooftop beacon sweeps the sky every night.

In 2006 Montreal was named a UNESCO City of Design, joining which two cities?

UNESCO named Montreal a City of Design in June 2006, the third after Berlin and Buenos Aires, which had joined the Creative Cities Network in 2005.

On 1 January 2002 Montreal merged with how many other municipalities on its island?

The forced merger folded Montreal and 27 other island municipalities into one city on 1 January 2002; anglophone suburbs resented it and 15 demerged again on 1 January 2006.

Which two rivers meet at the Island of Montreal?

The Island of Montreal lies at the confluence of the Saint Lawrence and the Ottawa rivers; the Rivière des Prairies, a channel of the Ottawa, runs along the north shore, separating the city from Laval.

Roughly how much snow does Montreal get in an average year?

Montreal averages about 210 cm of snow a year, with total precipitation around 1,000 mm; the record low was -37.8 °C in January 1957.

Mark Twain said Montreal was the first city where you couldn't throw a brick without doing what?

At an 1881 banquet Twain said Montreal was the first city he had seen where you couldn't throw a brick without breaking a church window; it has four Roman Catholic basilicas, including Mary Queen of the World.

A 2001 study rated the Plateau Canada's most creative neighbourhood because artists were what share of its workforce?

The former working-class francophone district has gentrified heavily; Mile End next door has the famous bagel shops.

In which census year did the City of Montreal first count more than one million residents?

The 1951 census counted 1,021,520 people in the City of Montreal, up from 903,007 in 1941; the 2021 census counted 1.76 million in the city and 4.29 million in the metro area.

Which mayor presided over Expo 67, the Metro's opening and the 1976 Olympics?

Jean Drapeau, mayor from 1954 to 1957 and 1960 to 1986, brought Expo 67, the Metro and the 1976 Olympics, and personally picked Roger Taillibert to design the Olympic Stadium.

Which United Nations aviation body is headquartered in Montreal?

The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a UN specialised agency, has had its headquarters in Montreal since 1947; the World Anti-Doping Agency and the airline trade body IATA are also based there.

Montreal's video game boom dates from the 1997 opening of which publisher's local studio?

Ubisoft Montreal opened in 1997, lured by Quebec's new multimedia tax credit; the city has since drawn Electronic Arts, Eidos, Warner Bros. and Gameloft studios among others.

Which bridge, opened in 1930, links Montreal to Longueuil across the St Lawrence?

The Jacques Cartier Bridge opened on 24 May 1930 as the Harbour Bridge and was renamed in 1934, the 400th anniversary of Cartier's first voyage; it carries five lanes to Longueuil.

Concordia was formed in 1974 by merging Loyola College with which institution?

Sir George Williams University, which grew out of YMCA evening classes downtown, merged with the Jesuit Loyola College in August 1974 to form Concordia University.