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Norway is a Scandinavian country in northwestern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden, Finland and Russia. Permanent Norwegian migration to North America began in 1825 when the first shipload of Norwegians arrived in New York. In 2016, the Canadian census reported 463,275 people of Norwegian origin (35,905 single and 427,370 multiple responses).

Lillian Kathleen Thomas, née Beynon, journalist, author, suffragist (born 4 September 1874, King Township, ON; died 2 September 1961, Winnipeg, MB).

John Archibald (Archie) MacNaughton, soldier, farmer (born 7 October 1896 in Black River Bridge, NB; died 6 June 1944 in Normandy, France). Archie MacNaughton fought in both the First World War and Second World War. MacNaughton rose to the rank of major and was a well-respected officer with the North Shore New Brunswick Regiment. When he was 47 years old, MacNaughton led North Shore’s “A” Company into Normandy on D-Day. He was killed in action while pushing inland from Juno Beach.

Lilly Saini Singh, actor, comedian, author, television host (born 26 September 1988 in Scarborough, ON). Internet personality Lilly Singh has amassed nearly 15 million subscribers and more than 3 billion views since launching her popular channel of YouTube videos under the name IISuperwomanII in 2010. She has since appeared as an actor in films and TV series and published the book How To Be a Bawse: A Guide to Conquering Life (2017), which topped the New York Times Business Best Sellers list. In 2017, she ranked No. 10 on Forbes’ list of the world’s highest-paid YouTube stars and won a People’s Choice Award for Favorite YouTube Star. In 2019, NBC announced that Singh would be the host of a new late-night talk show premiering in September of that year called A Little Late with Lilly Singh. She is an outspoken mental health and anti-bullying advocate and came out as bisexual in 2019.

John Joseph Kelso, journalist and social reformer (born 31 March 1864 in Dundalk, Ireland; died 30 September 1935 in Toronto, Ontario). A lifelong advocate for the rights of children and animals, Kelso founded the Toronto Humane Society, Children’s Aid Society of Toronto, Fresh Air Fund and Santa Claus Fund. Kelso left a legacy as an early founder of the social services system in Ontario.

Between 1840 and 1930, nearly a million francophones from Canada emigrated to the United States. (See also Canada and United States.) Most emigrants came from Quebec. There were also Acadians from the Atlantic provinces. These emigrants lived throughout the Northern US, but most settled in New England. The largest cohort worked in the textile industry. The 1880s and 1890s were the crest of several waves of emigration that ended with the Great Depression. Also known as Franco-Americans, about two million French Canadian descendants live in New England today.

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Samuel Simpson Sharpe, barrister, politician, soldier (born on 13 March 1873 in Zephyr, Ontario; died 25 May 1918 in Montreal, Quebec). Sharpe was a militia officer and sitting Member of Parliament when he raised the 116th Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force, and took it overseas. After participating in some of Canada’s bloodiest battles of the war, he was hospitalized for “nervous shock” and returned to Canada. While undergoing treatment, he committed suicide by jumping from a Montreal hospital window.

William Andrew White, Baptist minister and army chaplain (born 16 June 1874 in King and Queen Court House, VA; died 9 September 1936 in Halifax, NS). White was a leading member of the African Nova Scotian community. He was chaplain for the No. 2 Construction Battalion, making him one of the few Black officers in the Canadian Expeditionary Force during the First World War.

Reginald Aubrey Fessenden, electrical engineer (born 6 October 1866 in East Bolton, Canada East; died 22 July 1932 in Hamilton, Bermuda). Fessenden was a pioneer in the field of radio communication. He made the first voice transmission over radio waves. He also laid the foundations of amplitude modulation (AM) and achieved the first two-way radiotelegraphic communication across the Atlantic Ocean. His 1906 transmission of a Christmas concert is considered the first radio broadcast in history. (See also Radio Programming)

Donald Lewes Hings, MBE, CM, inventor, engineer and telecommunications pioneer (born 6 November 1907 in Leicester, United Kingdom; died 25 February 2004 in Burnaby, BC). Donald Hings contributed to the development of electronic and geophysical technology for more than 60 years. He was the originator of more than 55 patents in Canada and the United States, but he is perhaps best known for his invention of the radio frequency system commonly known as the “walkie-talkie.” The walkie-talkie was adopted by the armed forces of Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States and was credited with providing soldiers with a reliable means of battlefield communication and saving the lives of untold numbers of Allied soldiers during the Second World War. Hings’s groundbreaking work opened the door for many of the radio frequency and communication systems used in the present day. (See also Telecommunications.)

Jamal Murray, basketball player (born 23 February 1997 in Kitchener, ON). Jamal Murray is a guard for the Denver Nuggets of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He is considered one of the best Canadian-born basketball players in NBA history. Murray played the 2015–16 season with the University of Kentucky before being drafted seventh overall by the Nuggets in 2016. Murray also helped Canada win a silver medal at the 2015 Pan American Games. He holds the NBA records by a Canadian for most points in a playoff series (221), most points in a single postseason (504) and most points in a game (50), which he has accomplished three times. He injured his knee on 12 April 2021 and was expected to miss most of the 2021–22 season.

Marc Garneau, CC, astronaut, military officer, engineer, politician (born 23 February 1949 in Québec City, QC). Garneau has distinguished himself in three distinct fields. As a naval officer with the Canadian Armed Forces, he spent 10 years as a combat systems engineer. In 1984, Garneau became the first Canadian astronaut to go to space and, from 2001 to 2005, was president of the Canadian Space Agency. As a federal politician, he has served as Liberal house leader, minister of transport and minister of foreign affairs.

Archivist Barbara M. Wilson explores the significance of a letter sent to Sir Sam Hughes by George Morton, a letter carrier, barber and civil rights advocate from Hamilton, Ontario. In his letter, dated 7 September 1915, Morton asked the minister of militia and defence why members of the Black community were being turned away when trying to enlist for service with the Canadian Expeditionary Force during the First World War. (See also Black Volunteers in the Canadian Expeditionary Force.)

Serena Ryder, singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, mental health advocate (born 8 December 1982 in Millbrook, ON). Folk-rock singer-songwriter Serena Ryder is known for her raspy, soulful vocals and raw, emotional lyrics. She first gained attention with her gold-certified albums If Your Memory Serves You Well (2006) and Is It O.K. (2008). She won the Juno Award for New Artist of the Year in 2008 and achieved international stardom with her fifth album, Harmony (2012), and her smash hit “Stompa,” which went triple platinum in Canada. She has won a Canadian Screen Award, a MuchMusic Video Award, a SOCAN Award and seven Juno Awards, including Artist of the Year and Songwriter of the Year in 2014. She received the Allan Slaight Music Impact Honour from Canada’s Walk of Fame in 2021.

Albert Henry George Grey, 4th Earl Grey, governor general of Canada from 1904 to 1911 (born 28 November 1851 in London, United Kingdom; died 29 August 1917 in Howick, Northumberland, United Kingdom). Earl Grey established awards that honour Canadian arts, drama and sports. The Grey Cup is still presented to the winning team of the Canadian Football League championship.

Samuel (Joseph) Dolin. Composer, teacher, administrator, b Montreal 22 Aug 1917, d Midland, Ont, 13 Jan 2002; B MUS (Toronto) 1942, D MUS (Toronto) 1958. He began his musical studies in Montreal under Tania and Vladmir Elgart, Stanley Gardner and Vladimir Emenitov (piano and theory).

Emma Donoghue, novelist, literary historian, teacher, playwright, radio and film scriptwriter (born 24 October 1969 in Dublin, Ireland). Winner of the 2010 Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize, Emma Donoghue has introduced a fresh, if often jarring, voice in modern fiction produced by women. One of Canada’s most important contemporary literary figures, she is perhaps best known for the novel Room (2010), which was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, and for the screenplay of its 2015 film adaptation, which earned Donoghue a Canadian Screen Award and an Independent Spirit Award, as well as BAFTA and Academy Award nominations.

Tommy Douglas — the father of socialized medicine in Canada and one of the country’s most beloved figures — once supported eugenic policies. In 1933, he received a Master of Arts in sociology from McMaster University for his thesis, “The Problems of the Subnormal Family.” In the thesis, Douglas recommended several eugenic policies, including the sterilization of “mental defectives and those incurably diseased.” His ideas were not unique, as two Canadian provinces (and 32 American states) passed sexual-sterilization legislation in the 1920s and 1930s. However, by the time Douglas became premier of Saskatchewan in 1944, he had abandoned his support for eugenic policies. When Douglas received two reports that recommended legalizing sexual sterilization in the province, he rejected the idea.

Mary Brant, Kanyen'kehà:ka (Mohawk), Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) leader, Loyalist, diplomat, political activist (generally known as Molly Brant and as Konwatsi'tsiaiénni in the Mohawk language, meaning “someone lends her a flower”) (born circa 1736; died 16 April 1796 in Kingston, ON). Brant was one of the most important Indigenous women in Canadian history. From her influential position as head of a society of Six Nations matrons, she enjoyed a much greater status within the Mohawk nation than her more colourful, younger brother, Mohawk leader Joseph Brant. Consulted by Indigenous people on matters of importance, she was a powerful ally to the British forces and served as their highly effective intermediary with the Iroquois in the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783).