|
Historical Firsts |
Inventions |
Women's Firsts |
- Quebec is the only existing walled city in North America, founded 1608
- Collection of vital statistics such as births, deaths, baptisms, marriages in 1620 - 21
- First census - Jean Talon - 1666
- "Uncle Tom", Rev. Josiah Henson, a slave who escaped to Canada was reported to be the inspiration for Harriet Beecher Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin"
- Slavery abolished in Canada in 1793 by Governor John Graves Simcoe, long before the U.S. ever thought of it
- Independence without revolution, 1867
- Rick Hansen, "Man in Motion", set off on March 21, 1985 to make a World Tour, starting in BC. He did it in a wheelchair. The task was to wheel 40, 073 km the distance around the equator. Two years later almost to the day, he accomplished the task.
|
- Invention of green ink, [counterfeiters love it!]
- First steamship [Royal William] to visit an American port, Boston, in 1833.
- The same ship also was the first vessel entirely under steam to cross the Atlantic Ocean to England in 1833
- First steam-powered naval ship, now renamed the Isabella Segunda.
- May 1836 the Royal William became the first steampowered warship to fire its guns in battle
- In 1903-4, the first steam turbine ocean liners, the Victorian and the Virginian were built in Montreal.
- Elijah McCoy, son of former slaves, invented the first automatic lubricator for engines in 1872.
- The longest national railway, the Canadian Pacific Railway was completed in 1885, covering the distance of 2891 miles or 4652 km from Montreal to Port Moody, BC.
|
- Mary Shadd Cary, First Black Newspaperwomen in North America, 1853
- First women lawyer in British Empire was Canadian Clara Brett Martin, 1874-1923
- First women judge in the British Empire, Emily Murphy, b1868
- First woman elected to legislative assembly in British Empire, Louise McKinney 1917
- First women cabinet minister in Western World, Mary Ellen Smith, 1918, BC
- First women to be named Speaker of any legislature in British Commonwealth
- World's largest organization of women, National Council of Women of Canada [NCWC] 1893
- First North American women to reach the summit of Mt. Everest on Tuesday, May 20, 1986, two days after her 29th birthday.
|
- 1980, Terry Fox of BC started a cross-country "Marathon of Hope" to raise money for cancer research. He ran 3331 miles or 5373 km one one good leg and was forced to stop on Sept. 1, 1980 just east of Thunder Bay, Ontario when cancer was found in his good leg.
- Inspired by Terry Fox, another person who had lost one leg to cancer Steve Fonyo began to run across Canada, in 1985. He completed the run in 1986, 14 months later. He raised $13,000,000 for cancer research.
|
- In1885, the Canadian National Railway, [CNR], was completed. It became the largest railway system in North America, controlling some 31,050 miles or 50000 km of track. [Sorry Amtrak, you just don't cut it!]
- In 1869,Toronto dentist J.W. Elliot patented the "Compound Revolving Snow Shovel"
- In 1925-26, Canadian Arthur Sicard demonstrated the invention of the snowblower!
- In 1899, the World's longest covered bridge, was bult in Hartland, NB. Some 1282 feet or 390.8 metres
|
- Canadians pioneered the STOL [short takeoff and landing] planes such as the 1948 Beaver, Turbo-Beaver, Otter, Twin Otter, Caribou and Buffalo. One might even say that Canadians invented the Buffalo Wings! Of course we invented the rest of the aircraft as well.
- The Dash-7,an STOL is in use in over 107 countries.
- First aircraft built for the North, the Norseman by Robert Noorduyn in 1935-36.
- The first commercial jet transport to fly in the western hemisphere the Jetliner C-102 was designed in Canada by James Floyd. First flown in 1949.
|
- anti-gravity suit
- Trans-Canada Highway is the world's longest national highway
- Yonge Street, Toronto is designated the world's longest street. Built from 1796 to present day. Now runs officially from Rainy River near Manitoba border to Toronto Harbourfront. 1178.3 miles, 1900.5 km long
- foremost anti-pollution cars invented in 1972
- The first oil company in North America was NOT in Texas but instead in Oil Springs, near Sarnia Ontario.
- The First commercial oil well was completed in 1858
- First plant to run on hydro-electricity in the world
- the light pipe
- First entirely French newspaper in North America, 1778, in Montreal, La Gazette de Commerce et Litteraire
|
- The hydrofoil boat was invented by Alexander Graham Bell, creator of the telephone, and Casey Baldwin sometime before 1911. In 1919, the H.D.4 reached the world record speed of 70.86 mph [113.37 kph], a record not broken until 1929.
- garbage bags
- flip-top cans
- free mail
- 1st transatlantic underwater communication cables
- longest submarine telephone cable
- first long distance telephone call
- also first FREE long distance call
- first transatlantic wireless message by Marconi in Newfoundland
- first wireless voice message by Reginald Fessenden in 1900
- First radio voice broadcast in 1906 by Fessenden
- First scheduled radio broadcast1918, Montreal by Marconi
- First commercial radio station, Marconi
- First batteryless radio and radio station by Edward Samuel Rogers in 1925
|
- foremost wirephoto transmitter, 1921 by Sir William Stephenson
- World's first geostationary communications satellite called Telesat. [They told sat but no one listened! (:-)]
- Blissymbolics
- CN Tower which in 1975 was the world's tallest free-standing structure
- psychosomatic medicine by Sir William Osler
- Pioneer work in treatment of children at Toronto Hospital for Sick Children, renowned throughout the world
- Drs Banting and Best discovered insulin to treat diabetes
- Hans Selye pioneer in stress-disease links
- Neurologist Dr. Wilder Penfield founded the Montreal Neurological Institute in 1934
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
CANADA's FIRSTS