Victorian Era 1867 Maple Leaf Forever Schoolteacher Alexander Muir's song praised Canada’s British heritage: “In days of yore from Britain's shore Wolfe the dauntless hero came, And planted firm Britannia's flag on Canada's fair domain.” 1873 NWMP The Mounted Police were formed to bring law and order to the vast western territories of the new nation. They performed their task so well that the Mounties became famous around the world. 1876 Long Distance Young Alexander Graham Bell demonstrated his new invention, the telephone, by speaking with his assistant, Thomas Watson, 12 kilometres away. 1880 "O Canada!" Lavalee's "hymn nationale" was originally written for the French-Canadian St. Jean Baptiste Society. It was proclaimed Canada's national anthem in 1975. 1890 Bicycle craze Before the turn of the century, cycling became popular with men and women. In fact, the bicycle played a role in women's struggle for equality. 1892 Pauline Johnson The daughter of a Mohawk chief, Pauline Johnson became internationally famous for her poetry on Native themes and for her popular stage performances. 1894 Stanley Cup Governor General Lord Stanley donated a $50 silver bowl to go to the best amateur hockey team in Canada. As the game grew, so did the size and prestige of "Lord Stanley's cup". Laurier Era 1896 Immigration Minister of the Interior Clifford Sifton, waged a publicity campaign to bring immigrants to the Canadian West. Cheap, fertile land and expanded railroad service attracted thousands of Europeans and Americans. 1905 Macleans John Bayne Maclean bought The Busy Man's Magazine and soon changed its name. Maclean's has chronicled Canadian life for nearly 100 years. 1908 Anne of GG No character from Canadian literature has had the international appeal of Lucy Maude Montgomery's red-haired orphan of Prince Edward Island. 1909 McCurdy John McCurdy developed the "Silver Dart" as part of Alexander Graham Bell's Aerial Experiment Association. The airplane's flight in Baddeck, Nova Scotia was the first in the entire British Empire. Growing Pains 1915 Flanders Fields In a field hospital during the second Battle of Ypres, Dr. John McCrae was inspired him to write the poem beginning "In Flanders fields the poppies blow/Between the crosses, row on row." McCrae died in the war, but his poem, and the symbol of the poppy, has endured. 1919 Radio The invention of the radio was to have an important influence on Canadians' sense of identity. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (originally the Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission) spread Canadian news and entertainment. 1934 Dionnes The public and the press swarmed little Corbeil, Ontario after the birth of five little girls to a French-Canadian family. Sadly, the glare of publicity turned the "good news story" of the Depression into heartache for the Quints and their parents. King Years 1945 United Nations As the war was drawing to a close, delegates from Canada and the other Allied nations met in San Francisco to draft a charter for a new organization dedicated to international peace, cooperation, and understanding. 1947 Leduc Oil When the Mines Minister turned the valve on the Imperial Oil Leduc well, the Alberta oil fields officially opened. "Black gold" would make Alberta one of Canada’s richest provinces. 1948 Scott When Barbara Ann Scott won the Olympic gold medal for figure skating, she became a Canadian celebrity. In no time, Barbara Ann Scott dolls and skating outfits were big sellers from coast to coast. 1952 CBC TV With Canadian viewers tuning in to popular American shows, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation jumped into the new medium with a range of all-Canadian programs. 1954 Marilyn Bell A 16-year-old from Toronto accomplished the impossible by swimming for 21 hours across the rough waters of Lake Ontario. Some 250,000 people cheered Marilyn Bell as she climbed out of the water on the Toronto shoreline. Tenth Decade 1962 Alouette I Canada entered the "Space Age" with the launch of the first Canadian-built satellite into orbit around the earth. Alouette I paved the way for Canadian communication satellites. Trudeau Years 1968 Nancy Greene At the Winter Olympics in Grenoble, France, Nancy Greene took the gold medal in the giant slalom and silver in the slalom, clinching her reputation as the world’s top female skier. 1969 Montreal Expos Major League baseball came to Canada when the Expos opened the 1969 season in the friendly confines of old Jarry Park in Montréal. 1976 Montreal Olympics In spite of huge cost overruns and a boycott by African nations, the 21st Olympics were a success. They will be remembered as the Games in which the 14-year-old Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci scored perfect 10s on her way to Olympic gold. 1977 Metric As part of the federal program to convert weights and measures to the metric system, road signs in most Canadian provinces went from miles-per-hour to kilometres-per-hour on September 8. Many Canadians were angered by the changes, and many were just confused. Age of Discontent 1982 Glenn Gould The brilliant and eccentric pianist Glenn Gould stopped performing publicly early in his career to devote himself to studio recordings that amazed the classical music world with their originality and beauty. 1983 Jeanne Sauvé After winning respect as a three-time Cabinet Minister and as Speaker of the House of Commons, Jeanne Sauvé made history by becoming the first woman to represent the Crown as Governor General. 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics The 15th Winter Olympics opened with a spectacular Wild West show, featuring 6,000 performers. The Calgary Olympics finished with an unprecedented $32-million profit. 1988 Gretzky The country was stunned when its greatest hockey player and national sports idol, Wayne Gretzky, was traded by the Edmonton Oilers to the Los Angeles Kings. 1989 Loonie The last $1 bills rolled off the presses on April 20, to be replaced by a brass coin. Mint officials predicted that the "Loonies" would last 20 times longer than paper bills. Gen X When his witty book defined the post-Baby Boom generation as Generation X, Douglas Copeland coined a phrase that quickly became part of the language. 1992 Blue Jays The 1992 Toronto Blue Jays were the first non-US based team to ever win the baseball World Series. They repeated the feat in 1993 with a dramatic home run by Joe Carter.