We are fast approaching the end of the first decade of the 20th century, but first we need to delve into a rather important year in Canadian history…1908.
On Jan. 2, the Royal Canadian Mint officially opened. Prior to this year, Canadian coins were struck at the Royal mint in London. As Canada was emerging into its own in the 20th century, it looked to minting its own coins. A branch of the Royal Mint in Ottawa was first proposed in 1890, and it was not until 1901 that it was authorized.
When the Royal Canadian Mint started up, Lord Grey and Lady Grey activated the press. The first coin to be struck was a 50-cent coin. At the time of its opening, the facility had 61 employees.
The same day that the Royal Canadian Mint opened, the first all-star game in history was played. This game was played to benefit the family of Hod Stuart, who died while swimming the previous year. A star with the Montreal Wanderers, he was one of the best players of the 1910s. Over 3,800 spectators came out to attend the game, which sold out days in advance. The Westmount Arena hosted the game at no charge, and $2,100 was raised for Stuart’s family. Fans chose who they wanted on the all-star team, that would play the Wanderers.
In the game, the Wanderers won 10-7.
On Jan. 6, George Dixon died. One of the greatest boxers in history, he was the first black athlete to win a world championship in any sport and the first Canadian-born boxing champion. In 163 matches, he had 74 wins, 30 losses and 55 draws.
Shortly after his final fight, he died in the alcoholic ward of Bellevue Hospital. At the time, he had resorted to living on the street. His fans attempted to get him back on his feet, but it was too late. A charity boxing tournament was held on Jan. 23, 1908 to pay part of his hospital bills.
On Feb. 7, Lela Brooks was born in Toronto. She was the first female member of the Old Orchard Skating Club and began speed skating when she was 12. By the time she was 17, she had broken six world records.
Over the course of her career, she set 17 world records in speed skating and with 65 championships. During the 1932 Winter Olympics, when speedskating was a demonstration sport, she made it to the final in all three events. She passed away on Sept. 11, 1990. In 1972, she was inducted into the Speed Skating Canada Hall of Fame. She is also a member of Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame.
On April 7, Percy Faith was born in Toronto. As a child, he played violin and the piano at Massey Hall. After he burned his hands in a fire, he turned to conducting. As a composer and conductor, he popularized easy listening and mood music. He became a staple of popular music in North America in the 1950s and 1960s.
Over his career, he released dozens of albums, 21 of which made the Billboard Hot 200. Themes for Young Lovers was his biggest album, hitting #32 on the charts. He is one of only three artists to have the best-selling single of the year twice. The other two artists are Elvis Presley and The Beatles.
On April 26, a landslide occurred at Notre-Dame De-La-Salette. The landslide killed 34 people, while sending 15 homes into the river. The river was blocked by mud and land, which sent a wave into the village, damaging several buildings. Other landslides occurred in 1900 and 1912.
On April 28, Ethel Catherwood was born. Catherwood was raised and educated in Saskatoon. She excelled at baseball, basketball and track and field. In 1926, she broke the British-held high jump record, which led to her further success in the event in the 1928 Olympics.
At the games, many journalists focused on her physical attributes, and she was called the Saskatoon Lily. The New York Times called her the prettiest girl athlete of the games, showing the still prevalent sexism of the time.
Following the 1928 Games, she was offered a movie contract, which she turned down. She was given $3,000 in an education trust to fund her piano studies. When she returned to Saskatoon, 2,000 people met her at the train station.
In 1930, she won Canadian titles in javelin and high jump and won another javelin title in 1931.
She spent the rest of her life in California, avoiding public and media attention and rarely spoke of the Olympics. She eventually sold her medals and trophies, denied all interview requests and never attended a reunion of the team.
In 1955, she was inducted into Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame, followed by an induction in Saskatchewan’s Sports Hall of Fame in 1966. In 1986, she was inducted into the Saskatoon Sports Hall of Fame.
She would pass away in California in 1987.
On May 11, Hide Hyodo Shimizu was born in Vancouver. After obtaining her teacher’s certificate, she became one of the first Japanese Canadians to begin teaching in Canada.
During the Second World War, when Japanese Canadians were forced into internment camps by the Canadian government, Shimizu began to recruit 120 Japanese teachers and trained them to prepare and deliver school assignments.
She established a school system for 3,000 Japanese Canadians in the camps. These schools operated out of shacks with 20 students, using discarded textbooks donated by the Vancouver School Board. Every month, Shimizu visited the camps.
After the war, she lobbied for the government to provide compensation for the harms done to Japanese Canadians during the war. She passed away on Aug. 22, 1999.
On May 13, Babe Dye was born. As an NHL star from 1919 to 1931, he emerged as a premier goal-scorer. He was the scoring champion in 1922-23 and again in 1924-25. In 1922, he won the Stanley Cup. To this day, he remains the Maple Leafs’ all-time franchise points per game leader. In 1970, he was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame, eight years after he died.
On May 19, Percy Williams was born in Vancouver. A gifted runner, he quickly emerged as one of the top runners in Canada.
At the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics, he won two gold medals in the 100 and 200 metres. At the British Empire Games in 1930, he won a gold in the 100 yards.
In 1966, he donated his gold medals to the BC Sports Hall of Fame.
He died in 1982.
On June 8, Ontario went through a provincial election. The Conservative Party was elected to a second term of government with 86 seats, an increase of 17 seats from the previous election. The Ontario Liberal party lost nine seats to finish with only 19. The Liberals would not see an election win until 1934.
On June 13, Anne of Green Gables was published for the first time by Lucy Maude Montgomery. Set in the late-19th century, the novel followed Anne Shirley sent by mistake to two middle-aged siblings who had intended to adopt a boy to help on their Prince Edward Island farm. The novel has become a classic of children’s novels and has sold 50 million copies in 36 languages. It spawned several more novels, television series, movies, plays and much more.
On June 14, Lord Stanley died. He had served as the Governor General of Canada from 1888 to 1893. His legacy in Canada is the donation of The Stanley Cup in 1892, which has become the championship trophy of the NHL and one of the most recognized trophies in the world. Due to his donation, he was one of the original inductees into the Hockey Hall of Fame.
On Aug. 2, the community of Fernie was burned to the ground in less than 90 minutes. The fire that tore through the community caused $5 million in damages and left only 16 homes on the far west end of the community untouched by flames. After this fire, Fernie city council declared that all buildings within a ten-block section had to be made of fireproof materials.
On Aug. 14, Saskatchewan went through its second election in its history. Thomas Walter Scott and the Liberals won another election, gaining nine seats to finish with 27.
Meanwhile, Frederick Haultain and the Provincial Rights party finished with 14 seats, an increase of five from the previous election.
On Sept. 20, Ernest Manning was born in Carnduff, Saskatchewan. As a student of William Aberhart’s Prophetic Bible Institute in Calgary, he became a follower of Aberhart and his radio broadcasts in the early-1930s.
When Aberhart and the Social Credit Party swept into victory in 1935, Manning was elected as an MLA. In Aberhart’s government, he served as the provincial secretary and became one of the rising stars of the party.
After Aberhart died in office in 1943, Manning was chosen as the leader of the Social Credit Party. He remained as leader until 1968, the longest stretch for a premier in Alberta’s history.
As premier, he oversaw the transformation of Alberta’s economy after the Leduc No. 1 oil discovery.
Three years after he retired, the Social Credit party fell and was replaced by the Progressive Conservatives.
His son Preston went on to co-found the Reform Party, which later became the Canadian Alliance and later the Conservative Party of Canada.
Ernest Manning died in 1996.
On Oct. 26, Canada went through a federal election.
After years of increasing their seat count, the Liberals had their first setback with the loss of four seats in the election, falling to 133 but still having a strong majority. The Conservatives gained 10 seats, to finish with 85, and increased their share of the popular vote by .3 per cent.
In Ontario, the great battleground, the Conservatives still had dominance with 47 seats, while the Liberals finished with 37 seats. Many newspapers stated that if Borden had of won Ontario with more seats, he likely would have won the election
In Quebec, the share of seats controlled by the Liberals fell, but only to 52, while the Conservatives picked up 12 seats. The Labour Party earned its first seat in the House of Commons as well, with one seat in Quebec.
While Laurier won the election, he was exhausted and ill from the campaign effort that was unlike any he had dealt with since his early years in politics.
On Oct. 31, Muriel Duckworth was born in Austin, Quebec. A practicing Quaker, she was committed to non-violence. She often spoke out against war and refused to accept that there were good and bad wars. She founded the Nova Scotia Voice of Women for Peace, and from 1967 to 1971 was the president of the Voice of Women as they led protests against Vietnam.
She became the first woman in Halifax to run for a seat in the Nova Scotia Legislature. In 1981, she received the Governor General’s Award in Commemoration of the Persons Case. In 1983, she received the Order in Canada and in 1991, she received the Pearson Medal of Peace. She also received 10 honorary degrees.
She died on Aug. 22, 2009.
On Dec. 23, Yousuf Karsh was born. After surviving the Armenian Genocide, he came to Canada in 1923 and lived in Halifax, and then Sherbrooke where he attended high school.
He was taught photography by his uncle, using a small box camera.
In 1932, he opened a studio in Ottawa. He remained in his studio at 130 Sparks Street until 1972.
His first taste of success as a portrait of Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, then Governor General Lord Bessborough.
In 1941, he achieved his breakthrough with his iconic portrait of Winston Churchill. As the story goes, to get the look he wanted, he snatched Churchill’s cigar out of his mouth and snapped the photo of the reaction.
The photo is the most reproduced portrait in the history of photography. On May 21, 1945, it appeared on the cover of Life.
The image is also on the Bank of England £5 note.
For the next five decades, he photographed anyone who was anyone including Martin Luther King Jr., Ernest Hemingway, Humphrey Bogart, Muhammad Ali, Albert Einstein, RUSH, Nelson Mandela and several Canadian Prime Ministers and American presidents.
He finally closed his studio in June 1992. His last sittings were in May 1993 for President Bill Clinton and First Lady Hillary.
Yousuf died on July 13, 2002 and is buried in Ottawa.
Currently, Library and Archives Canada has a collection of 355,000 items in its Karsh collection including 150,000 negatives.
