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.

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.

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.

Canada's first Prime Minister outlines his vision for Confederation en route to the Charlottetown Conference.

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 Canada’s most honoured jazz musicians from his humble beginnings in the Black neighbourhood of Little Burgundy in Montréal to his rise to fame.

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

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

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

Mohawk Chief John Norton and 80 Grand River warriors hold off American soldiers until reinforcements arrive and the Battle of Queenston Heights is won (1812).

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.

The Acadians are descendants of early French settlers who arrived in Nova Scotia in 1604 and built a distinct culture and society over generations. Their peaceful existence was uprooted in 1755 when over 10,000 Acadians were ripped from their homeland to ensure British rule in North America. This Heritage Minute portrays the deportation through the eyes of an Acadian mother.

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

Mary Riter Hamilton painted the battlefields after the First World War as a testament to its devastating cost. She would suffer mental and physical illnesses as a result of documenting the experiences of Canadian soldiers.

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

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.

Lucy Maud Montgomery battled depression, rejection, and sexism to become known around the world for Anne of Green Gables and 19 other novels. This Heritage Minute tells her story in her own words, as drawn from her journals.

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

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.

The story of Viola Desmond, an entrepreneur who challenged segregation in Nova Scotia in the 1940s.