50 Fun Facts About Montreal

Montreal was founded in 1642 under what name?

'City of Mary' honoured 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?

He estimated over a thousand inhabitants; by Champlain's visit in 1603 the St Lawrence Iroquoians had vanished.

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

He placed the first cross on Mount Royal in 1643 after praying to the Virgin to stop a flood.

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

The main summit stands 233 m; the illuminated cross on top dates from 1924.

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

He co-designed New York's Central Park, though his Montreal plan was never fully completed.

Montreal fell to the British in 1760 during which conflict?

American forces under Benedict Arnold occupied it briefly in 1775-76 before being driven out.

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

Tories were protesting the Rebellion Losses Bill; Ottawa was eventually chosen as a compromise capital.

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

The Lachine Rapids and later the Lachine Canal made the same spot central to the city's trade.

Montreal is described as the largest primarily French-speaking city where?

About 58.5% of residents speak both French and English, making it one of the most bilingual cities in Canada.

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

Camille Laurin introduced it under Rene Levesque's first Parti Quebecois government; many businesses left Montreal for Ontario.

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

The October Crisis and the 1976 election of the sovereigntist Parti Quebecois 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?

Terre des Hommes was translated as Wind, Sand and Stars; 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?

It was built for Expo 67 at Cite du Havre on the St Lawrence and is still lived in.

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

Its acrylic skin burned off in a 1976 fire, leaving the bare steel frame, which reopened as an environment museum in 1995.

Montreal is the only Canadian city to have hosted what?

The 1976 Games are remembered for Nadia Comaneci's perfect 10s, an African boycott and a stadium that took decades to pay off.

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

She recorded seven perfect scores and won three golds; 29 mostly African nations boycotted over New Zealand's rugby tour of South Africa.

The Olympic Stadium's nickname 'The Big Owe' refers to what?

The 'Big O' name comes from its doughnut-shaped roof; the bill was finally paid off in November 2006, over 30 years after it opened.

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

French architect 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 Paris-style technology was imported; stations feature art by leading Quebec artists.

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

It links shops, universities, hotels and metro stations under 12 square kilometres of downtown, the largest such network in the world.

Saint Joseph's Oratory has the world's second-largest copper dome after which building?

It grew from a chapel built in 1904 by Brother Andre, a lay brother famed as a healer and later canonised.

Which singer married Rene Angelil at Notre-Dame Basilica in December 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?

The Irish-American Anglican was thus allowed burial in the crypt of the church he built between 1824 and 1829.

The Montreal Canadiens have won the Stanley Cup a record how many times?

Founded in 1909, they are the oldest continuously operating pro hockey team in the world and the only NHL club older than the league.

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

They joined four other NHA teams to form the NHL in 1917 and won their first NHL Cup in 1924 with Howie Morenz.

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

They moved to become the Washington Nationals; the Blue Jays are now Canada's only MLB team.

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

Gilles Villeneuve won the first race there for Ferrari in 1978; the island was built for Expo 67.

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

Founded in 1946, the CFL club has folded and been revived twice; the 1970s team dominated with three titles.

Montreal hosts the world's largest jazz festival and Just for Laughs, the world's largest what?

The city also has Les Francos, the largest French-language music festival, among 100-plus annual festivals.

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

It holds the 2004 Guinness record as the world's largest jazz festival.

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

Guy Laliberte and Gilles Ste-Croix's troupe began as street performers called Les Echassiers, the Stilt Walkers.

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

James McGill died in 1813; his university counts 15 Nobel laureates and three prime ministers among its people.

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

'Hallelujah' came on his seventh album in 1984; a giant mural of him now looks over downtown.

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

Reuben Schwartz was by most accounts a terrible businessman; the brisket is cured with cracked pepper, coriander and garlic.

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

It is boiled in honey-sweetened water and contains no salt; 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.

Montreal's harbour is described as what?

It sits at one end of the St Lawrence Seaway and is Canada's largest container port.

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

It also hosts the UN's civil aviation body ICAO and the World Anti-Doping Agency.

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

Anglophone suburbs resented the forced merger and 15 of them demerged again in 2006.

Which two rivers meet at the Island of Montreal?

The Riviere des Prairies runs along the north shore, separating the city from Laval.

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

Total precipitation is about 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?

The city has four Roman Catholic basilicas, including Mary Queen of the World and St Patrick's.

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.

Montreal's population passed one million in which year?

The 2021 census counted 1.76 million in the city and 4.29 million in the metro area, second in Canada.

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

He struck a secret deal with architect Roger Taillibert for the Olympic Stadium.

Which United Nations aviation body is headquartered in Montreal?

The city also hosts the World Anti-Doping Agency and Airports Council International, while the Canadian Space Agency sits just across the river in Longueuil.

The city's video game boom dates from the 1995 opening of which publisher's local studio?

It opened on November 2, 1995, and the city has since drawn EA, Eidos, BioWare, THQ and Gameloft among others.

Montreal's nickname la ville aux cent clochers refers to its abundance of what?

There are an estimated 650 churches on the island, 450 of them from the 1800s or earlier.

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

Macleans has ranked the merged school among Canada's top comprehensive universities.