Stories: Canada

Stories connected to Canada.

• One pig. An international confrontation.The shooting of a pig helped trigger a confrontation between the United States and Britain in the disputed Sa…
• An aircraft carrier made from ice.Project Habakkuk explored an ice-based aircraft carrier during World War II, including the use of wood-pulp-r…
• A round-the-world voyage. A crew of one.Joshua Slocum became the first person to sail around the world single-handedly. He later described the journe…
• A pile of stones can carry a message.Arctic inuksuit are stone structures that can mark routes or places and serve other purposes. They do not all…
• The city took most of his lot. He built anyway.After a Vancouver street widening left Chang Toy a strip of land roughly 1.8 metres deep, he bet he could sti…
• A journalist was bitten by a man dressed as Santa.In 1931, a disgruntled man in a Santa Claus costume appeared at a Canadian newspaper. An editor asked the lar…
• A film about many children was named for a prolific bull.The Canadian comedy Starbuck follows a man confronted by numerous children from sperm donations. Its title co…
• Opera captions came from a film subtitler.After decades subtitling films, Sonya Friedman tried projecting translated words above the stage at a Canadia…
• A 3D Celeste game was made in one week.Celeste 64 was developed during a week-long game jam to mark the original game's sixth anniversary. Members o…
• At 15, her first event became a world record.Canadian ski jumper Isabel Coursier set a women's world record of 26 metres during her debut at Mount Revelst…
• Researchers call them “funny w” and “funny r.”In reconstructions of Proto-Siouan, scholars use the labels “funny w” and “funny r” for certain proposed soun…
• Return to your Jeep. Find a rubber duck.Jeep ducking is the custom of leaving a small rubber duck on someone else's Jeep. It spread after a 2020 gest…
• A royal birth needed a temporary legal space.The Dutch royal family was in exile in Canada during World War II. To avoid a succession problem, Canada arra…
• A meteorite hit the pavement. A home camera caught the sound.In 2024, a meteorite struck a sidewalk on Prince Edward Island, Canada. A home security camera captured both…
• In Windsor, Canada, pizza toppings start with a different cut.Windsor-style pizza spreads shredded pepperoni across the pie so its flavour reaches every bite and grease do…
• He joined a new football team. His surname became the joke.When Canadian football player Charles Assmann joined Edmonton in 1998, a newspaper reported that teammates ma…
• The players wore 70, 73 and 77. Their line got a TV-show nickname.Los Angeles Kings forwards Tanner Pearson, Tyler Toffoli and Jeff Carter all wore numbers in the 70s. Their 2…
• Ottawa on Friday. Winnipeg on Sunday.Canadian football player Leon Hatziioannou appeared for Ottawa on October 14, 1988. He learned the next day t…
• A dogsled race. The humans sometimes run too.In Ivakkak, a dogsled race in Canada's Nunavik region, pairs of Inuit mushers travel on wide traditional sled…
• The referees were snowed in. Two players took their places.At a January 1983 NHL game in Hartford, a snowstorm kept a referee and linesman from arriving. Active players…
• 'I'll coach seriously now,' said a fake post. Then the team started winning.Parody account NBACentel invented a 2024 quote claiming Milwaukee's coach would start taking coaching serious…
• Making liquor was illegal. A monk helped farmers build stills.During US Prohibition, Benedictine brother Justus Trettel reportedly helped Minnesota farmers build stills to…
• A salmon relative appears to have lived its whole life in fresh water.Eosalmo fossils from Eocene lake deposits in western North America include juveniles and adults. That pattern…
• His next team name looked almost identical to his last one.In 1984 Canadian football player Pieter Vanden Bos was traded to the Saskatchewan Roughriders, then moved wit…
• An ancient, slender fossil may belong to an early molting-animal lineage.Fossils about 560 to 550 million years old from Australia and Newfoundland were described as Uncus dzaugisi i…
• No shiny car renderings: the racers are colored dots on a thick track line.The 2024 management game Golden Lap puts players in charge of a 1970s-style Formula One team. Its races repre…
• The territorial rivals left each other drinksCanada and Denmark disputed Arctic Hans Island, sometimes planting flags and leaving bottles of alcohol. The…
• This pudding belongs beside ham, not after dinnerPease pudding is a savory dish made from boiled legumes, typically split yellow peas. Common in northeast Eng…
• Three teams share one very large ballKin-Ball originated in Canada and uses a ball about 1.2 metres across. Three teams participate in a match, an…
• Four horses pulled against his resistanceStrongman Louis Cyr’s performances included resisting the pull of four draft horses, two on each side. Accoun…
• She added baskets to a Niagara tightrope crossingMaria Spelterini crossed the Niagara Gorge on a tightrope in July 1876. On a subsequent crossing she strapped…
• The familiar pizza was developed in OntarioSam Panopoulos is credited with creating the familiar Hawaiian pizza in Ontario, Canada, in 1962. He chose Ha…
• Broomball players wear specialized shoesBroomball takes place on ice, but players use specialized rubber-soled shoes rather than skates. They send a…
• Markham’s westward flight ended in CanadaBeryl Markham left England alone for North America in September 1936, intending to reach New York. Fuel starv…
• Poutine keeps the curds’ texture in the experienceQuébécois poutine combines fries, cheese curds and gravy. Hot gravy warms the curds without necessarily melti…
• A letter addressed simply to Terry Fox, CanadaIn 1980, Terry Fox attempted a cross-Canada run on a prosthetic leg to raise money for cancer research. His i…
• White berries with a doll-eye lookActaea pachypoda, native to eastern North America, has white fruit marked by a dark stigma scar. The combinat…
• The mail-train dog needed a jacket for his souvenirsIn the late nineteenth century, Owney travelled with mail bags and became a favourite of American postal work…
• Disaster relief led to a Christmas gift across the borderBoston sent relief after the 1917 Halifax harbour explosion in Canada. Halifax sent a Christmas tree in thank…
• The forces landing on Kiska found no Japanese garrisonAmerican and Canadian forces landed on Kiska in the Aleutians in August 1943, after the Japanese garrison had…
• Road improvements exposed an ancient Vancouver village siteMarpole Midden in Vancouver, Canada, occupies the site of an ancient Musqueam village and burial ground. Road…
• Keeping the useful parts of lunchElysia chlorotica, a green sea slug found along North American coasts, retains chloroplasts from the algae it…
• The new city hall became a tentVancouver incorporated as a city in April 1886. On June 13, land-clearing fires spread and destroyed much of…
• The rainbow grasshopper cannot flyNorth America’s rainbow grasshopper has striking red, yellow and pale-green markings against a largely black…
• A feast can demonstrate wealth through giftsPotlatches among Indigenous peoples of North America’s Pacific Northwest Coast involve hosts distributing gif…
• Its back spines were once mistaken for walking legsHallucigenia was a Cambrian animal with legs and spines on its back. A 1977 reconstruction treated the spines…
• Her walls, doors and stove became part of a museum exhibitCanadian artist Maud Lewis worked in a small home and painted far beyond boards. She decorated walls, doors,…
• Five eyes and a claw-ended appendage made an unusual headOpabinia, known from Canada’s Burgess Shale, lived during the Cambrian period. Its head had five eyes and a f…
• A border-defence fort turned out to be in CanadaIn 1816 the United States began building a fort at the northern end of Lake Champlain. A new survey placed th…
• A popular actress’s studio would not reveal her nameCanadian-born Florence Lawrence became popular in early American films. Fans wrote asking who she was, but Bi…
• This wasp lays eggs in beetle grubs undergroundPelecinus polyturator occurs across the Americas. Females have a strikingly long, jointed abdomen and place e…