Amazing people, events and places which infuse the country with life
Constructed in 1831 at Quebec City, Royal William‘s steam engines powered paddle wheels. The vessel plied the St. Lawrence River and the Atlantic Ocean. Churning through the brisk waters of the St. Lawrence River and later the vast expanse of the Atlantic Ocean, the Royal William was an impressive vessel, using only her steam engines […]
Summer 1912, Thomas Wilby and Jack Haney made a road trip in a special REO from Halifax, NS to Vancouver, BC. Roads? What Roads? And the men? Not friends. In a grand gesture, Jack Haney backed the wheels of the special Reo automobile into the beach water of the Atlantic Ocean at Halifax, Nova Scotia […]
The receiver in Newfoundland moved, tap, tap, tap on December 12, 1901. The Morse Code letter “S” had travelled thousands of miles.. On December 15, 1902, Marconi transmitted a full message. Success! The boy grew up with an intense curiosity about the sciences of electricity and physics. Born on April 25, 1874, Guglielmo Marconi was […]
Arriving from New Zealand in 1898, Rutherford dove into research in the Montreal, Quebec lab, initiating major discoveries that enlarged the field of nuclear physics. A physics expert trained under scholarship at Cambridge University’s Cavendish Laboratory in England, Ernest Rutherford was stymied in furthering his research. It wasn’t a lack of skills nor was it […]
Hearing loss did not restrict Joseph Burr Tyrrell. He was one of Canada’s highly respected geologists, first to find Albertosaurus and rich seams of coal. Scarlet fever struck Joseph Tyrrell when he was a young child and the illness left him with permanent hearing damage. Tyrrell, born on November 1, 1858 in Weston, Ontario, was […]
With irons and brooms, members of the Montreal Curling Club used the thick ice of the St. Lawrence River as their rink. Brrrr… it was a cold game outside Settling into their new homeland of Canada, lively Scottish immigrants knew just how to fill the frosty winter months with activity. The lack of granite stones […]
The first black-owned and operated newspaper in Canada, ‘Voice of the Fugitive’ provided vital information to slaves seeking freedom north of the border A prosperous plantation in Shelby County, Kentucky was the birthplace of Henry Walton Bibb on May 10, 1815. The baby was not born into the wealth and comfort of the south. There […]
Invented in France in 1867, oleomargarine was banned in Canada in 1886. The spread was enriched and affordable, and it was a threat to the dairy industry. Margarine, the butter substitute that is slathered on toast, baked into muffins and melting on top of a scoop of mashed potatoes, was a welcomed product for consumers […]
Though not recorded, it is possible that the Vikings from Greenland observed North America’s first Christmas at their settlement in Vinland (Newfoundland) An adventurous man with a spirit of curiosity, Leif Ericson was an explorer. As a young Viking boy, Leif inherited his father Eric’s bravery and fearlessness. Exiled from their home, the Norwegian Ericsons […]
The Dominion Parks Branch was introduced May 19, 1911 under Parks Commissioner J.B. Harkin. Its aim was to preserve Canada’s natural and cultural heritage. Nearly hidden treasures, Canada’s national parks are jewels of nature nestled into the background of a vast country. “National parks tell the stories of Canada’s natural beginnings – mountains forming, lakes […]
Eleven minutes. The gruesome battle on June 1, 1813 between British HMS Shannon and America’s USS Chesapeake was fought and over in eleven minutes. Aboard the frigate HMS Shannon, Captain Philip Bowes Vere Broke of the British Navy issued a challenge to the commander of the USS Chesapeake. The American vessel was in the Boston […]
A native community on the south and northeast coasts of Newfoundland, the Beothuk were traced back to prehistoric ancestors, but became extinct by 1829. Constructing comfortable wigwams of saplings covered with bark or perhaps caribou skins, the Beothuk home was a temporary summer refuge. On the south and northeast coasts of Newfoundland, the wigwams were […]