Historica Canada

Scientists Banting, Best, Collip and Macleod at the University of Toronto as they race for a treatment to cure 13-year-old Leonard Thompson of his life-threatening diagnosis of diabetes.

Nursing Sisters serve at the No. 3 Canadian Stationary Hospital in France during the First World War.

This Heritage Minute follows Canada’s most honoured jazz musicians from his humble beginnings in the Black neighbourhood of Little Burgundy in Montreal to his rise to fame.

A team of Icelandic-Canadians serve in the First World War before bringing home the very first gold medal in Olympic hockey.

This Heritage Minute celebrates Norman Kwong, the first CFL player of Chinese heritage and 4x Grey Cup winner.

Between 1944 and 1945, the Canadian Army was given the important yet deadly task of liberating the Netherlands.

Pioneering gay activist Jim Egan publicly challenged a culture of rampant homophobia in the press starting in the late 1940s, when it was dangerous to speak out.

At 68, a formerly enslaved Black Loyalist enlists men for the Coloured Corps, an instrumental company in the War of 1812.

This Heritage Minute follows the life of Onondaga long-distance runner Gagwe:gih, whose name means “Everything.” Known around the world as Tom Longboat, he was one of the most celebrated athletes of the early 20th century.

The story of Chanie "Charlie" Wenjack, whose death sparked the first inquest into the treatment of Indigenous children in Canadian residential schools.

On June 6, 1944, Canadian Forces landed on Juno Beach. D-Day, as this day would become known, was the largest amphibious invasion of all time, led to the liberation of France, and marked the beginning of the end of the Second World War.

A family escapes persecution in Vietnam, traveling by boat to a Malaysian refugee camp before finding a new home in Montreal.

Elsie MacGill was the world’s first female aeronautical engineer and Canada’s first practicing woman engineer.

From 1914-1941, the Vancouver Asahi were one of city’s most dominant amateur baseball teams, winning multiple league titles in Vancouver and along the Northwest Coast.

As a pioneering trans soul singer in the 1960s, Jackie Shane’s unapologetic and authentic presence in Toronto contributed to the local R&B music scene and made her an enduring queer icon in Canada.

The Grads challenge the self-proclaimed 'world champions' the Cleveland Favorite Knits to a two game tournament in 1923.

A founding member of Cape Dorset’s famed printmaking co-op, Kenojuak Ashevak introduced Inuit art to the world.

This Heritage Minute celebrates Saskatchewan’s Mary “Bonnie” Baker, an all-star catcher in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League and a pioneer for women in sports.

This Heritage Minute introduces the mill town of Paldi, BC, through the eyes of a Sikh woman, Bishan Kaur.

Québec's Father of Confederation negotiates entry into Union of his home province, as well as Manitoba and British Columbia.