Key Innovations, Events and People of 19-20 Centuries that Have Shaped The History of Canada

Key person – Captain Arthur Roy Brown

Captain Arthur Roy Brown was born on Dec.23, 1893 in a place called a Carleton Place, ON, Canada. He was a Canadian and also an ace during the First World War.

He was known for bringing down Manfred Von Richthofen (red Baron) who was the greatest ace during world war one. Roy Brown joined the Royal Naval Air Service as soon as he received his certificate from the school that taught him for to fly a plane (Wright brother’s school) in Dayton, Ohio.

During his times of training for the war he almost died by breaking a part of his spine on April 1916, everyone taught it would be a terrible injury but he recovered quickly.

Key event- Vimy ridge

The battle of Vimy Ridge is something that Canada was most proud of during world war 1 this precious day started on April 9th,1917 when Canada’s Army led and trained by Arthur Currie carried out their plan to attack in action.

Arthur Currie carefully planned out everything for make sure that this plan didn’t fail. He trained soldiers for weeks before the plan underwent action, first he started off by creating a mock ridge to practice on, and topographic maps to make sure the soldiers knew how to get in and out quickly. This plan was known as the “Creeping Barrage”. This battle started April 2, 1917, all types of soldier’s land and get into position without the Germans knowing since they had a hill which meant an height advantage to see if any enemies are trying to invade them.

Battle started April 9th when Canada put their plan into action (30,000 Canadian fought) Canada won the battle on April 12th, 1917.

Key Innovation-Gas mask

The gas mask was invented by a Canadian physician and soldier known as doctor Cluny Macpherson at St. John Newfoundland.

During the battle of Ypres, a new form of weapon was used for the first time referred as chlorine gas. Many soldiers died from this and the only way soldiers could have survived was by using urine soaked piece of fabric over their mouth to filter out the gas. While many soldiers were dying because of this Cluny Macpherson thought of an invention which would save thousands of people called a gas mask. Macpherson took a German prisoner helmet and placed a canvas hood over it. This would filter out all the chemicals and absorb the gas. He saved thousands from suffering from choline gas.

Key person-The group of seven

The group of seven was a group of Canadian landscape painters from 1920-1933. The original members of the group of seven were Frederick Varley, Frank Johnston, J.E.H MacDonald, Franklin Carmichael, Arthur Lismer, A.Y. Jackson and Lawren Harris. This group of talented people brought a different style of painting that people weren’t expecting. They used bold colors and used large strokes of paint. They influenced many different painters to express themselves in many different forms and ways.

Key event-The person’s case

Before 1929, in the eye of law (government) women were not considered as a person, the North American Act stated that only “qualified persons” were given the right to become a Canadian senate. This “law” made a bunch of friends come together to create a group called “The famous five” and take the case into the provincial court of Alberta.

The famous five consisted of Emily Murphy, Louise Mckinney, Irene Parlby, Henrietta Edwards and Nellie McClung. When they presented their case to the supreme court of Canada they were denied but this group of women didn’t give up and decided to take the case to the only level higher than federal known as the privy court. They represented their case to the privy court and they decide to agree and change the law even if the federal court denied.

After this case, women were allowed to be accepted into a government job.

Key Innovation-the creation of Insulin

Diabetes was something that everyone feared because there was no cure for it and it would lead to death That is the reason insulin was created Millions of people had diabetes since their pancreas dint produce enough insulin for sugar to be processed by our body.

After a long period of research in 1921, two Canadians named Frederick Banting and Charles Best created a team that would discovery the formula for Insulin. This was first tested on dogs and cured dogs that had diabetes. 1922 was the year that insulin was used on a human. It was used on a teenager named Leonard Thompson and after a couple weeks the results came up positive and it was confirmed that Insulin controlled diabetes.

This was not a cure but helped millions of people with diabetes live normal lives. Insulin is Canada’s greatest discovery.

Key person-Agnes Macphail

Agnes Macphail was born on March 24, 1890, in a place called Proton Township, Ontario, Canada. Agnes Macphail was the first even Canadian women to be elected into the house of commons in 1921-1941 which means she was the first women allowed to vote and run to office until 1940, she was also one of the first women to be elected towards the Ontario legislature she has an important role in Canada’s history since she was the first Canadian women to sit in parliament until 1935.

Key event-The On-to-Ottawa trek

Because of the great depression, many people lost their jobs and became unemployed, Men started to leave their homes in search for a job and money the name given to these people was transients many people went homes during this time and they were given the name hobo’s.

The amount of unemployed people was getting out of control and many communities started to become scared, things were starting to get dangerous so Prime Minister R.B Bennet created relief camps in the northern British Columbia. The men in these cams did manual labor had were living a very poor lifestyle making 25 cents a day. The men went on strike to Ottawa demanding better work conditions and higher wages R.B Bennet had to stop them so he sent The Royal Mounted Police to stop the strike in Regina, Saskatchewan. Nearly 40 people were injured and 130 were arrested.

In the end, wages were increased to 40 cents.

Key innovation-table hockey

Table hockey was originally invented in Canada, during the year of 1932, by a Canadian named Donald H. Munro Sr, In Toronto.

The creation of table hockey took place during the great depression. Donald has 3 young kids and a wife And didn’t have enough money to buy them a Christmas gift so instead, he took a bunch of household items like scrap pieces of wood, metal, coat hanger wire, clock spring. Unlike many games in our generations, other names given to table hockey at the time were rod hockey game, stick hockey and bubble hockey.

Key person-William Lyon Mackenzie King

William Lyon Mackenzie King was born on Dec,17th 1874 in Kitchener Ontario, Canada he was the grandson of William Lyon Mackenzie, which was one of the leaders of the 1837 Rebellion in Upper Canada king was a journalist, author, civil servant and a politician.

William Lyon Mackenzie King had an important role that would affect Canada, which was the conscription crisis. Canada was fighting in the war and needed more soldiers to support them but at the start of world war two king promised there would be no conscription, he didn’t know what to do so he just asked the public to vote for what should be done.

The French Canadians didn’t want conscription while the English Canadians wanted conscription In 1940, An National Resources Mobilization act was established by the government, which limited conscription (trained soldiers but soldiers weren’t allowed oversea unless emergency) this was William Lyon Mackenzie kings plan to make both sides happy.

He also made Canada’s relation with the United States better, he signed an agreement with U.S.A’s prime minister Franklin Roosevelt for joining America’s and Canada’s forces.

He also contributed to ending the depression by mobilizing the economy for war.Longest Canadian prime minister serving for 22 years in office.

Key event-Juno Beach Invasion

On June 6th, 1944, Canada, America and Britain join forces to fight of forces from Normandy France, The Canadians were given the responsibility to take one of the beaches which was given know as Juno beach The Canadians which landed there were part of Britain’s Second Army.

Juno beach was the second most defended beach at Normandy during the invasion.

Canada’s raid was one of the most successful attacks during the D-day. D-day(including the successful Canadian attack) is significant to Canada’s history because it was the battle that led to the end of world war 2, it made Germany and the Nazi Party surrender.

Key innovation-G-suit

Wilbur Rounding Franks was a Canadian medical researcher and the inventor of the G-Suit. After Wilbur Rounding Franks graduated in medicine at the University of Toronto he went to train in cancer research, which is where he and his team created the G-suit (1941). The G-suit was created to prevent the pilots in world war 1 from blacking out when flying at high speed. This suit was also used by astronauts. This suit was made out of rubber and water filled-padding.

Many different people tried to replicate Franks idea and make it better or make it for different purposes.

Key person- Lester B. Pearson

Lester B. Pearson was born on April 23, 1897, in Newtonbrook, ON. Lester B. Pearson was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1957 by proposing the world’s first ever peacekeeping force in the United Nations in order to solve the Suez Crisis.

He is the first ever Canadian to win the Nobel prize of Peace in Canada’s history Lester B. Pearson helped Canada join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization(NATO)In 1963 he came Canada’s Prime Minister, and during the election, he promised to make Canada its own flag.

Key Event- Canada’s Flag

The Red Maple Leaf on Canada’s flag was given to Canada on February 15th, 1965There was a huge argument about the design of Canada’s flag from 1867-1964It was In 1964 when Canada’s Prime minister (Lester B. Pearson) established a committee to create an official flag for Canada.

On January 28th, 1965, Queen Elizabeth finally decided that on the 15th of February, 1965 The Red Maple Leaf would become Canada’s new flag. This design was created by George Stanley and John Matheson, they were inspired to create the design form the flag of the Royal Military College of Canada.

Key innovation- creation of blackberry

The very First world’s blackberry phone was invented in 1999 by Mike Lazaridis, the president of a Canadian company called Research In Motion this device was created in Waterloo, Ontario.

Blackberry was the first every wireless handheld device. Used to send/receive push emails and “instant messages” - Name given to this device was chosen as blackberry because the keys look identical to blackberry fruit seeds.