The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
In celebration of our wonderful country, here are some interesting facts about Canada: North America's earliest undisputed evidence of human activity, 20,000-year-old stone tools and animal bones, have been found in caves on the Bluefish River in northern Yukon. ÊNewfoundland was the first part of Canada to be explored by Europeans. Ironically, it was the last area to become a province, in 1949. The world's strongest current is found in the Nakwakto Rapids at Slingsby Channel, British Columbia. The current has been measured at speeds up to 29.6 km per hour. Canadian James Naismith invented basketball to give his physical education students at the YMCA Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts, an indoor team sport to play during the long winters. ÊAlert, in Nunavut territory, is the northernmost permanent settlement in the world. Our capital city, Ottawa, was originally named Bytown after Colonel John By, who headquartered there while building the Rideau Canal to connect the Ottawa River with Lake Ontario. Canadians have devised many important inventions, including Kerosene, the electron microscope, the electronic organ, insulin, the snowmobile and the electric cooking range. 'O Canada,' originally named 'Chant national,' was first performed in Quebec City in 1880. ÊCanada is a major producer and consumer of cheese. In 1997, Canadians produced 350,000 tons of at least 32 varieties of cheese and ate an average of 23.4 pounds per person, with cheddar being the most popular. The Moosehead Brewery in Saint John, New Brunswick, turns out 1,642 bottles of beer per minute. In 1527, John Rut of St. John's, Newfoundland, sent a letter to King Henry VIII _ the first letter sent from North America. Canada is known as the home of large animals like the moose and grizzly bear, but it is also home to about 55,000 species of insects and about 11,000 species of mites and spiders. A black bear cub from Canada named Winnipeg (or 'Winnie' for short) was one of the most popular attractions at the London Zoo after it was donated to the zoo in 1915. Winnie became a favourite of Christopher Robin Milne and inspired the stories written by his father, A.A. Milne, about Winnie the Pooh. Manitou Lake on Manitoulin Island in Lake Huron is the world's largest lake within a lake (66.1 square km).
