Signing up enhances your TCE experience with the ability to save items to your personal reading list, and access the interactive map.
Create AccountAbraham Nordheimer. Music dealer, publisher, teacher, b Memmelsdorf, Bavaria, 24 Feb 1816, d Hamburg 18 Jan 1862 while on a visit to Germany. With his younger brother Samuel he followed his older brother Isaac, an Oriental scholar, to New York in 1839. He later opened the A. & S. Nordheimer music store and publishing firm with his brother Samuel.
Abraham “Abe” Okpik,OC, Inuit community leader (born 12 January 1929 in the Mackenzie Delta area, Northwest Territories; died 10 July 1997 in Iqaluit, Nunavut). He was instrumental in Project Surname, a movement to replace the identification numbers assigned to the Inuit in Northern Canada with surnames. He was also the first Inuk to sit on what is now the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories. In the mid-1970s, Okpik left a lasting mark on the Inuit language as he worked with other linguists to simplify the Inuit writing system. Okpik is remembered for his efforts in protecting and promoting Inuit language and culture.
Abraham Ulrikab (born 29 January 1845 in Hebron, Labrador; died 13 January 1881 in Paris, France) was one of eight Labrador Inuit to die from smallpox while travelling through Europe as part of an ethnographic show (now called human zoos). In 2011, his skeleton, along with that of four other Inuit, was uncovered in the reserves of the Muséum national d’histoire naturelle (National Museum of Natural History) in Paris. The Nunatsiavut government (See Labrador Inuit) is studying the possibility of having them repatriated.
Abraham's Children. Pop group formed in Toronto in the late 1960s with Jimi Bertucci (bass), Ron Bartley (guitar), Bob McPherson (keyboards) and Brian Cotterill (drums), and Shawn O'Shea (guitar) as of 1973.
The original Acadians were from France. Acadia is now part of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. The French first began settling in Acadia during the first decade of the 17th century. In 1713, the British took over Acadia. They expelled the Acadians in the 1750s. The British did not trust the Acadians. The expulsion of the Acadians is also known as the Great Upheaval. The expulsion of the Acadians was tragic. In the 1760s, the British let the Acadians come back. Acadia remains alive and well today in the Maritimes. Thousands of Canadians are the descendants of the Acadians. (This article is a plain-language summary of the Acadian Expulsion. If you are interested in reading about this topic in more depth, please see our full-length entry, Acadian Expulsion (The Great Upheaval).)
Acheson Gosford Irvine, soldier, police officer, prison warden (b at Québec C 7 Dec 1837; d there 9 Jan 1916). The third commissioner of the NWMP, Irvine's reputation was ruined by the North-West Resistance.
Achille Fortier. Composer, teacher, b St-Clet, near Montreal, 23 Oct 1864, d Viauville, Montreal, 19 Aug 1939; honorary D MUS (Montreal) 1926.
Ada Bronstein (b Lvoff). Pianist, accompanist, teacher, b Harbin, China, 1916, naturalized Canadian 1957. She studied piano in Harbin and Shanghai with Boris Lazareff, pupil and son-in-law of Alexander Siloti.
Ada (Jane Fairlina) Kent (b Twohy). Pianist, organist, composer, b Denver, Colo, of Canadian parents, 8 Feb 1888, d on a visit to London 23 Jul 1969; LAB 1904, B MUS (Toronto) 1906.
Ada Mackenzie, golfer (b at Toronto 30 Oct 1891; d at Richmond Hill, Ont 25 Jan 1973). Mackenzie paved the way for women to take golf seriously by founding the first club restricted to women, the Ladies' Golf and Tennis Club, in Thornhill, Ont, in May 1925. Mackenzie's own play set high standards.
Adam Reuben Beach, actor, advocate, motivational speaker (born 11 November 1972 in Ashern, MB). Saulteaux actor Adam Beach is one of Canada’s most successful actors of Indigenous descent. After co-starring in Bruce McDonald’s Dance Me Outside (1994) and the American indie hit Smoke Signals (1998), he gave acclaimed lead performances in John Woo’s Windtalkers (2002), Clint Eastwood’s Flags of Our Fathers (2006) and the HBO TV movie Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (2007). He also starred in such Canadian TV series as The Rez (1996–97), Moose TV (2007) and Arctic Air (2012–14). He is a motivational speaker and an outspoken advocate for Indigenous peoples’ rights. In 2012, he founded the Adam Beach Film Institute, a film school in Winnipeg for Indigenous Youth.
The following article is an editorial written by The Canadian Encyclopedia staff. Editorials are not usually updated.
Adam Dollard des Ormeaux, soldier, French colonist (born 23 July 1635 in France; died in May 1660 near Carillon, in New France). Adam Dollard des Ormeaux was the garrison commander in Ville-Marie. He led a group of French fighters and their Algonquin and Huron-Wendat allies against the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) at the battle of Long Sault. Adam Dollard des Ormeaux has long been considered both a hero and a martyr who sacrified himself in the defence of Ville-Marie. Recent studies, however, have cast doubt on how heroic his conduct actually was.
Adam Gopnik, essayist, author, critic (born at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA 24 Aug 1956). While born in America, Gopnik was raised in Montréal, where he completed a BA at McGill University. He moved to New York, a city that remains his home, to attend graduate school.
