Junes past saw the debuts of many future travel and entertainment mainstays: touring circuses, public museums, and the Maid of the Mist, while ocean liners and hot-air balloons also made travel tracks this month. Read on for more amazing moments and snapshots in time:

In 1534, French explorer Jacques Cartier discovered Prince Edward Island, describing it as “the best-tempered region one can possibly see, and the heat is considerable.”

In 1611, English explorer Henry Hudson, his son and several sick men were set adrift by mutineers in what is now Hudson Bay.

In 1621, the Dutch West Indies Co. was founded to promote trade and colonization in the Americas.

In 1668, French explorer and fur trader Medard Chouart des Groseilliers sailed from England on a voyage that led to the forming of the Hudsons Bay Co.

In 1683, the first public museum, The Ashmolean, was opened in Oxford, England.

In 1690, Hudson’s Bay Co. employee Henry Kelsey began a two-year journey from York Factory in what is now northern Manitoba. He’s believed to be the first white man to see the Canadian Prairies, and he was the first European to record the region’s flora and fauna.

In 1783, the Montgolfier brothers first publicly demonstrated their hot-air balloon, which did not carry any passengers, over Annonay, France. The following year, opera singer Elizabeth Thible became the first woman to fly aboard the balloon, over Lyon.

In 1789, fur trader Alexander Mackenzie left Fort Chipewyan in northern Canada on the trip which saw him discover the Mackenzie River on June 29.

In 1835, P.T. Barnum’s circus began its first tour of the United States.

In 1839, legend has it that Abner Doubleday invented baseball in Cooperstown, NY. Exactly one century later, the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum opened there. Historians – and even the Hall itself – now consider the Doubleday story to be totally false.

In 1861, the “Maid of the Mist” became the first ship to navigate the Niagara whirlpool rapids.

In 1886, the first through-train of the Canadian Pacific Railway left Montreal for the BC coast near Vancouver.

In 1887, Parliament passed legislation creating Banff National Park, which launched Canada’s national parks system.

In 1902, electronics and aviation inventor William Lear was born in Hannibal, Mo. His inventions included a practical car radio, which launched the Motorola Company, and the eight-track tape player. He also designed aircraft navigational aids and founded the corporate jet-maker Learjet. Lear’s aircraft designs included the Canadair Challenger. Fun fact: Lear named his eldest daughter Shanda.

In 1914, the era of airplane food began when a full meal with wines was served during a trial flight of a Russian-built airliner from Petrograd (now St. Petersburg) to Kyiv.

In 1919, British pilots John William Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown took off from St. John’s, Nfld., for the first non-stop transatlantic flight. They landed in a peat bog at Galway, Ireland, after flying about 3,100 km in just over 16 hours. The flight won them a $10,000 prize offered by the London Daily Mail, and both were awarded knighthoods.

In 1925, Canada House in Trafalgar Square in London was opened by King George V.

In 1931, aviators Wiley Post and Harold Gatty took off from New York on the first flight around the world in a single-engine plane that lasted eight days and 15 hours.

In 1936, the liner Queen Mary reached New York on her maiden voyage from Britain.

In 1941 (on June 24), American Airlines operated its first-ever international passenger flight from Buffalo, NY, to Toronto. The aircraft operating the historic flight was a Douglas DC-3 aircraft with 21 customers onboard.

In 1943, Trans-Canada Airlines (now Air Canada) inaugurated transatlantic service.

In 1945, Canada joined 25 other countries in setting up a body to regulate international civil aviation.

In 1965, the last section of the Trans-Canada Highway was opened between Fort Frances and Atikokan in northwestern Ontario.

In 1969, the National Arts Centre in Ottawa opened with a performance by the National Ballet of Canada. Among the other performers participating in the two-week inaugural festival were the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, contralto Maureen Forrester, and singer Gordon Lightfoot.

In 1976, the CN Tower was officially opened in Toronto. At 555 metres, it was at the time the world’s tallest self-supporting structure.

In 1979, a 26-year-old cyclist, Bryan Allen, flew the man-powered “Gossamer Albatross” across the English Channel.

In 1983, a fire broke out in a bathroom aboard an Air Canada jet, which was forced to make an emergency landing in Cincinnati. Twenty-three people died, including Canadian folk singer Stan Rogers. Eighteen people survived.

In 1985, 329 people, including 280 Canadians, were killed when a bomb exploded aboard an Air India jet off the Irish coast. The flight had originated in Toronto and stopped at Montreal before heading to London and Bombay.

In 1998, it was the end of the line for conductors on Canadian passenger trains. Their positions were eliminated as a cost-saving measure. At one time, conductors were in charge of all train staff and oversaw the engineers and service staff.

In 2002, an American fugitive who pulled off what’s believed to be the only successful hijacking in Canadian history was sentenced to five years in prison. Patrick Critton hijacked an Air Canada plane to Cuba during a flight from Thunder Bay to Toronto in 1971. He was captured in the fall of 2001 in New York state. Critton pleaded guilty to kidnapping and extortion in a Toronto-area court.

In 2003, The World Health Organization removed Hong Kong from its list of SARS-infected areas, and Beijing the following day. SARS killed 296 people in Hong Kong and 174 in Beijing.

In 2003, Prime Minister Jean Chretien opened the $8-million Juno Beach Centre in Normandy, France, honouring the valour of Canadian soldiers who fought and gave their lives during the June 6th, 1944, D-Day invasion. A total of 340 men died and 574 more were wounded during the assault.

In 2004, the “SpaceShipOne” rocket plane punched through Earth’s atmosphere, then glided to a landing in California’s Mojave Desert in the first privately financed manned spaceflight.

In 2007, the Rideau Canal, which stretches from Ottawa to Kingston, was confirmed as a World Heritage site by UNESCO, joining more than 800 sites on the list of international cultural treasures.

In 2008, the Ontario home where Lucy Maud Montgomery penned many of the books in her Anne of Green Gables series was named a national historic site.

In 2009, a new era at the Canada-US border, the world’s longest undefended border, formally kicked in as those entering the US, including American citizens, were required to show a passport before making the crossing.

In 2009, an Air France Airbus crashed into the Atlantic Ocean as it flew from Rio de Janeiro to Paris. All 228 people aboard were killed, including one Canadian.

In 2010, the House of Commons voted unanimously to designate Halifax’s Pier 21 as Canada’s national immigration museum. From 1928-71, a million immigrants arrived at Pier 21. It closed on March 8, 1971, as more immigrants arrived in Canada by plane.

In 2018, WestJet Airlines launched Swoop, joining Flair Airlines as Canada’s only ultra low-cost airlines.