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On 6 December 1917, SS Mont-Blanc, which was carrying explosives, collided with SS Imo in Halifax Harbour. The resulting explosion, tidal wave and fires killed some 2,000 people. Parks Canada describes it as the largest human-made explosion before the atomic bomb.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: Dennis G. Jarvis · Photo licence: CC BY-SA 2.0 · Credit & context
In 1996, Canada’s two-dollar paper note was replaced by a coin as a cost-saving measure: a two-dollar note lasted about a year, while coins can last more than 10 years. The coin, known as the toonie, has carried a polar bear by nature artist Brent Townsend since 1996.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: TravelingOtter from Houston, Texas, USA · Photo licence: CC BY 2.0 · Credit & context
In 1946, Viola Desmond, a successful Nova Scotia businesswoman, refused to leave a whites-only area of a movie theatre; her court case inspired the pursuit of racial equality across Canada. In 2018 she appeared on Canada’s first vertical bank note, the $10 note.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: Colin Stepney · Photo licence: CC BY-SA 4.0 · Credit & context
The Canadian horse was recognized as the national horse of Canada in April 2002 through the National Horse of Canada Act. The breed’s origins trace to 1665, when the King of France sent horses to New France.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: Deinocheirus · Photo licence: CC BY-SA 4.0 · Credit & context
It was long believed that King George V’s 1921 proclamation of Canada’s coat of arms designated red and white as the national colours, but the proclamation contains no such declaration. Canadian Heritage notes that red and white are not set in law as national colours but have become part of national identity through common use.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: Sikander Iqbal · Photo licence: CC BY-SA 4.0 · Credit & context
The Nisg̱a’a Treaty, British Columbia’s first modern treaty, took effect on 11 May 2000. It recognizes about 2,000 square kilometres of Nisg̱a’a Lands and was the first treaty in British Columbia to provide constitutional certainty for self-government.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: Darren Kirby · Photo licence: CC BY-SA 2.0 · Credit & context
The National Day for Truth and Reconciliation is observed each year on 30 September, honouring Residential School Survivors, their families and communities. It became a federal statutory holiday through Bill C-5, which received royal assent on 3 June 2021; Orange Shirt Day, which began in Williams Lake, British Columbia, in 2013, is observed the same day.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: Joli Rumi · Photo licence: CC BY-SA 4.0 · Credit & context
Terry Fox began his Marathon of Hope, a cross-Canada run to raise money for cancer research, by dipping his artificial leg in the Atlantic Ocean on 12 April 1980. After 143 days and 5,373 kilometres, he was forced to stop outside Thunder Bay, Ontario, on 1 September 1980 because cancer had appeared in his lungs.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: Jeangagnon · Photo licence: CC BY-SA 4.0 · Credit & context
Canada adopted its first federal Official Languages Act in 1969. It declared English and French to be the two official languages of the Parliament and government of Canada.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: Takipoint123 · Photo licence: CC BY-SA 4.0 · Credit & context
The Bank of Canada Act received royal assent on 3 July 1934, and the Bank of Canada opened in March 1935 as a privately owned institution with shares sold to the public. It became publicly owned in 1938 and remains so today.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: Robert Linsdell from St. Andrews, Canada · Photo licence: CC BY 2.0 · Credit & context
Frederick Banting and John Macleod shared the 1923 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine “for the discovery of insulin.” Banting, born in Alliston, Ontario, was affiliated with the University of Toronto at the time of the award.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: Adam Bishop · Photo licence: CC BY-SA 4.0 · Credit & context
Gold was discovered at Discovery Claim on Bonanza Creek, Yukon, on 16 August 1896, triggering the Klondike Gold Rush. Accounts vary, but Parks Canada notes it is generally held that Keish (Skookum Jim Mason) of the Tagish First Nation discovered the gold.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: JKBrooks85 · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
L’Anse aux Meadows, at the tip of Newfoundland’s Great Northern Peninsula, holds the first known evidence of European presence in the Americas. Norse expeditions from Greenland built a small timber-and-sod encampment there over 1,000 years ago; the site was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1978.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: Pierre Gingras · Photo licence: CC BY-SA 4.0 · Credit & context
On 6 June 1944, some 14,000 Canadians came ashore at Juno Beach in Normandy, under heavy enemy fire, to help establish an Allied beachhead. Veterans Affairs Canada reports that 359 Canadian soldiers were killed on D-Day.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: remiforall · Photo licence: CC BY-SA 4.0 · Credit & context
The Battle of Vimy Ridge began on Easter Monday, 9 April 1917. It was the first time all four divisions of the Canadian Corps fought together as one formation.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: 0x010C · Photo licence: CC BY-SA 3.0 · Credit & context
On 18 October 1929, the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council ruled that women were “persons” under section 24 of the British North America Act, 1867, and therefore eligible for appointment to the Senate. The appeal followed a 1928 Supreme Court of Canada decision and a campaign by five Alberta women: Emily Murphy, Henrietta Muir Edwards, Louise McKinney, Nellie McClung and Irene Parlby.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: John.B.Codrington · Photo licence: CC BY-SA 4.0 · Credit & context
CBC/Radio-Canada is a Crown corporation established by Parliament in 1936 as Canada’s national public broadcaster. Its current mandate is set out in the Broadcasting Act of 1991.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: Arild Vågen · Photo licence: CC BY-SA 4.0 · Credit & context
The Order of Canada was created in 1967, Canada’s centennial year. It honours people who make extraordinary contributions to the nation; its motto, Desiderantes meliorem patriam, means “They desire a better country.”
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: Concierge.2C · Photo licence: CC BY-SA 3.0 · Credit & context
Canada’s one-dollar coin was introduced in 1987 as a cost-saving measure to replace the one-dollar bill. It was soon nicknamed the “loonie” after the loon on its reverse, designed by wildlife artist Robert-Ralph Carmichael.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: ImagePerson · Photo licence: CC BY 4.0 · Credit & context
Equalization is the Government of Canada’s transfer program for addressing fiscal disparities among provinces. It began in 1957, its payments are unconditional, and section 36(2) of the Constitution Act, 1982 commits Parliament and the Government of Canada to the principle of making equalization payments.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: Ken Lund from Reno, Nevada, USA · Photo licence: CC BY-SA 2.0 · Credit & context
The Maple Leaf Tartan was designed in 1964 and became an official symbol of Canada in 2011. Its colours evoke the changing colours of maple leaves through the seasons.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: Wilfredor · Photo licence: CC0 · Credit & context
From the early 19th century until the American Civil War, settlements along the Detroit and Niagara rivers were important terminals of the Underground Railroad, a network of Black and white abolitionists helping African Americans find freedom. By 1861, some 30,000 freedom-seekers lived in what is now Ontario.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: M. Readey · Photo licence: CC BY-SA 3.0 · Credit & context
Section 92(8) of the Constitution Act, 1867 assigns municipal institutions in a province to provincial legislative authority. Municipal governments therefore operate within legal frameworks established by their provinces.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: Wilfredor · Photo licence: CC BY-SA 4.0 · Credit & context
The Canada–United States–Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) entered into force on 1 July 2020. It replaced the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: Crisco 1492 · Photo licence: CC BY-SA 4.0 · Credit & context