Science

March 19, 0721 BCE

Physics 

First Recorded Solar Eclipse

The first recorded solar eclipse was seen from Babylon.

November 30, 1618

Physics 

First Comet Sighting

The first sighting of a comet by Europeans in Canada was recorded.

December 31, 1638

Physics 

Lunar Eclipse

A lunar eclipse was sighted in Huronia.

December 25, 1758

Physics 

Halley's Comet Returns

As predicted by Edmond Halley in 1705, the comet of 1682 returned, the first ever predicted.

May 05, 1796

People  Engineering 

Birth of Robert Foulis

Robert Foulis, civil engineer, inventor of the world's first steam-operated fog alarm, was born at Glasgow, Scotland.

October 22, 1846

Communication 

First Telegraph in Canada

The Toronto, Hamilton, Niagara and St Catharines Telegraph Company was established, the first telegraph company in Canada. The first section was opened for use 19 Dec 1846 from Toronto to Hamilton. The telegraph profoundly altered 19th century life.

March 08, 1855

Engineering 

Bridge Over Niagara

A suspension bridge was opened across the Niagara River, at Niagara Falls.

July 27, 1857

Women in STEM 

Birth of Ann Stowe-Gullen

Physician Ann Stowe-Gullen, who was the first woman to gain a medical degree in Canada, was born at Mount Pleasant, Canada W.

August 12, 1858

Communication 

Telegraph Message to Valencia

The first telegraph message was sent from Trinity Bay, Newfoundland, to Valencia, Ireland, on cable laid by USS Niagara and HMS Agamemnon.

March 18, 1869

Women in STEM 

Birth of Maude Abbott

Maude Abbott, who graduated from McGill but was barred from medicine because of her sex, was born at St Andrews East, Que.

January 20, 1877

Women in STEM 

Birth of Irma Le Vasseur

Irma Le Vasseur, the first French Canadian female doctor, was born in Québec City.

October 18, 1881

Women in STEM 

Birth of Elizabeth Bagshaw

Elizabeth Catherine Bagshaw, physician, was born near Cannington, ON. Bagshaw had a successful 60-year medical practice after graduating from University of Toronto (MB) in 1905, but is best known for her 30 years as medical director of the Hamilton Birth Control Clinic.

November 14, 1891

People 

Birth of Frederick Banting

Sir Frederick Banting, who co-discovered insulin, was born at Alliston, Ont.

August 19, 1809

Technology  Engineering 

Accommodation Launched

The first steamboat in Canada, the Accommodation, was launched at Montreal. Driven by two paddle wheels and powered by a steam engine, it heralded a new age and showed that Canadians could keep abreast of the latest technology.

April 21, 1841

Women in STEM 

Birth of Jennie Trout

Jennie Trout, first Canadian woman licensed to practise medicine in Canada, was born at Kelso, Scot.

July 20, 1854

Engineering 

Work Begins on Victoria Bridge

The first stone, from the Kahnawake quarry, was laid on the abutment of the Victoria Bridge, spanning the St Lawrence River at Montreal.

July 17, 1860

Physics 

Total Eclipse Obscured

An American expedition, including Nova Scotia-born astronomer Simon Newcomb, arrived in northern Manitoba to observe a total eclipse, but were thwarted by clouds on the crucial day.

August 25, 1860

Engineering 

Victoria Bridge Opened

The Prince of Wales presided over a ceremony officially opening the Victoria Bridge, spanning the St Lawrence River at Montreal. It was considered one of the engineering wonders of its day.

July 23, 1872

People  Engineering 

Elijah McCoy Files First Patent

Elijah McCoy was an African Canadian engineer and inventor. His first patent was for a device commonly known as an “oil-drip cup.” By the end of his career, he registered over 50 patents.

February 08, 1879

Inventions and Innovations 

Fleming's Standard Time

Sandford Fleming first proposed to divide the world into 24 equal time zones, with a standard time within each zone. His idea was adopted by 24 countries at a conference in 1884.

February 04, 1882

Energy 

Electricity comes to BC

The first electricity came to BC, at the Moodyville sawmill on Burrard Inlet, powering the first electric lights on the Pacific coast north of San Francisco.

November 18, 1883

Inventions and Innovations 

Standard Time Adopted

Standard Time, advocated by Sandford Fleming, was adopted by North America. Fleming was instrumental in convening the 1884 International Prime Meridian Conference at which all 25 represented nations adopted international standard time.

August 08, 1887

Energy 

Vancouver Lights Up

The Vancouver Electric Illumination Society (later, BC Hydro) started up its steam-powered generating plant - and 300 streetlights went on.

May 26, 1896

Engineering 

Point Ellice Bridge Disaster

During celebrations for Queen Victoria's birthday, a span of the bridge at Point Ellice in the harbour of Victoria, BC, fell out. A loaded streetcar fell with it and 55 people were killed, the worst streetcar accident in North American history.

March 13, 1900

Earth Science 

Tyrrell's Survey

J.W. Tyrrell began a 2782 km journey to survey the area from Great Slave Lake to Chesterfield Inlet.

December 23, 1900

Communication 

Fessenden's Wireless

Reginald Aubrey Fessenden of Québec transmitted the first wireless voice broadcast near Washington, DC. On December 24, 1906, he made the first radio voice broadcast from Brant Rock, Mass.

October 31, 1902

Communication 

Completion of trans-Pacific Telegraph Cable

The trans-Pacific telegraph cable was completed from Bamfield to Brisbane, Australia, with the first message sent by Canadian innovator-engineer Sir Sandford Fleming.

July 23, 1904

Engineering 

First Bridge Opens at New Westminster

The first bridge built across the lower reaches of the Fraser River opened at New Westminster. To mark the occasion, residents held a civic luncheon, watched Aboriginal canoe races and set off fireworks from the bridge's upper deck.

February 23, 1909

Inventions and Innovations 

Silver Dart Flies

John Alexander Douglas McCurdy (1886-1961) flew the aircraft the Silver Dart for about one kilometer at Baddeck, NS. It was the first powered flight of a heavier-than-air machine in Canada and the British Empire.

August 01, 1911

People  Women in STEM 

Faith Fyles Becomes First Woman Assistant Botanist at the Department of Agriculture

Faith Fyles was the first woman hired to the position of assistant botanist by the Central Experimental Farm (CEF), part of the Department of Agriculture (now Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada). In 1919, she became the department’s first botanical artist, male or female.

November 30, 1915

People 

Birth of Henry Taube

Henry Taube was born in Neudorf, Saskatchewan. He became a US citizen in 1942 and won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1983. (See also Nobel Prizes and Canada.)

January 01, 1916

People  Inventions and Innovations 

Turnbull Invents Variable Pitch

Wallace Turnbull of Saint John built the first working model of the variable pitch propeller, an important development in aviation. A second design was flight tested at Camp Borden in 1927.

May 21, 1919

People 

Birth of Inventor and Research Scientist John A. Hopps

Trained as an electrical engineer, John A. Hopps was recruited to design a cardiac pacemaker with a team of scientists at the Banting Institute in Toronto while he was working on another project at the National Research Council of Canada (NRC). This resulted in the invention of a portable artificial external pacemaker. The device marked a significant medical milestone and laid the groundwork for implantable pacemakers.

September 09, 1919

Inventions and Innovations 

Bell's Hydrofoil

The hydrofoil created by Alexander Graham Bell, his wife Mabel Bell and the engineer F.W. Casey Baldwin set a record for speed over water on the tranquil waters of the Bras d'Or, NS. At a time when the greatest steamships of the world made less than 60km/h, the HD-4 hydrofoil vessel was clocked at 114km/h.

January 11, 1922

Health & Medicine  Inventions and Innovations 

First Treatment with Insulin

Leonard Thompson became the first person to be successfully treated with insulin, at Toronto General Hospital.

January 23, 1929

People 

Birth of John Polanyi

Nobel Prize winner John Charles Polanyi was born at Berlin, Germany.

June 29, 1938

People  Women in STEM 

Birth of Biochemist Annette Herscovics

Annette Herscovics was born in Paris, France, and immigrated to Canada following the Second World War. She later studied at McGill University and worked there for several years before moving to Harvard Medical School. She returned to McGill as a full professor in 1981 and became known for her pioneering work on glycoproteins. She discovered where and how these modifications occur in our cells — a key development in the field of glycobiology.

February 21, 1941

People 

Death of Frederick Banting

Sir Frederick Banting died in a plane crash on his way to England.

August 24, 1943

Energy 

British-Canadian Nuclear Research Program Merges with American Manhattan Project

At the beginning of the Second World War, the UK’s nuclear weapons program was the most developed in the world. It had been transferred to Canada in 1942 due to the threat of a Nazi invasion and the bombing of Britain. At the Quebec Conference of August 1943, the British-Canadian program merged with the American Manhattan Project. Canada supplied and processed uranium, researched the production of plutonium, and provided scientists and facilities.

December 04, 1945

Women in STEM 

Birth of Roberta Bondar

Astronaut Roberta Bondar, who was the first Canadian female astronaut in space, was born at Sault Ste Marie, Ont.

April 02, 1955

Engineering 

Bridge Links Halifax and Dartmouth

The Angus L. Macdonald Bridge linking Halifax and Dartmouth opened.

June 17, 1958

Engineering 

Second Narrows Bridge Collapse

The fourth and fifth spans of the Second Narrows Bridge in Vancouver collapsed as a result of an engineering miscalculation. Eighteen workers were killed.

January 18, 1964

Women in STEM 

Death of Irma Le Vasseur

Irma Le Vasseur, the first French Canadian female doctor, died in Québec City.

October 27, 1979

Energy 

First Power From James Bay

The first hydro-electric power was generated at James Bay.

October 09, 1981

People  Awards 

David H. Hubel Wins Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

David H. Hubel and Torsten N. Wiesel were jointly awarded half of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their work mapping the brain’s visual cortex. (See also Nobel Prizes and Canada.)

November 13, 1981

Technology 

Canadarm Activated in Space

Astronauts aboard the space shuttle Columbia first activated the Canadarm in space. The Canadarm was first used in a repair mission in 1984.

January 05, 1982

Women in STEM 

Death of Elizabeth Bagshaw

Dr. Elizabeth Bagshaw, a tireless champion of women’s health and a family medicine pioneer, died at age 100 in Hamilton, ON. Entering the medical field when women were not welcome, Bagshaw was involved in the country’s first birth control clinic in the 1930s, providing education and services. The clinic became legal in 1969, after years of pressure on the government. Bagshaw retired at age 95 as the oldest practising doctor in Canada.

August 03, 1988

People  Women in STEM 

Birth of Canadian Astronaut Jenni Gibbons

In 2017, Jenni Gibbons was selected as an astronaut candidate by the Canadian Space Agency. After completing her astronaut training, Jenni Gibbons became Canada’s third female astronaut.

March 01, 1989

People  Institutions and Organizations 

Creation of the Canadian Space Agency

The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) was established and Larkin Kerwin was made the organization’s first president.

October 12, 1989

People  Awards 

Sidney Altman Wins Nobel Prize in Chemistry

Sidney Altman was awarded half of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Thomas R. Cech. They discovered that RNA (ribonucleic acid) could act as both a molecule and a biocatalyst. (See also Nobel Prizes and Canada.)

August 29, 1990

Engineering 

Mercier Bridge Reopens

The Mohawk warriors in Kahnawake reach a deal that involves dismantling the barricade on the Mercer Bridge. It takes eight days for the barricade to be dismantled and the bridge to reopen.

October 17, 1990

People  Awards 

Richard E. Taylor Wins Nobel Prize in Physics

Richard E. Taylor shared the Nobel Prize in Physics with Americans Jerome I. Friedman and Henry W. Kendall. They were awarded the prize for their work developing the quark model in particle physics. (See also Nobel Prizes and Canada.)

January 22, 1992

People 

Canada's First Female Astronaut

Neurologist and clinical science researcher specializing in the nervous system, Dr. Roberta Bondar blasted into space aboard the US space shuttle Discovery. Bondar was Canada's first female astronaut.

October 12, 1994

People  Awards 

Bertram Neville Brockhouse Wins the Nobel Prize in Physics

Bertram Neville Brockhouse was awarded one half of the Nobel Prize in Physics for the development of neutron spectroscopy. (See also Nobel Prizes and Canada.)

October 14, 1999

People  Awards 

Mundell Wins Nobel Prize

Canadian-born US resident Robert Mundell won the Nobel Prize for Economics for his work on monetary dynamics and optimum currency areas.

August 29, 1907

Engineering 

Québec Bridge Disaster, 1907

Part of the Québec Bridge, the longest cantilever bridge in the world, collapsed, killing 75 workmen. Blame for the collapse was placed on the American engineer Theodore Cooper and faulty we plates.

October 11, 1910

Energy 

First Long-distance Transmission

An Ontario Hydro transmission line brought Niagara Falls-generated electricity to Berlin (Kitchener), Ont, the first long-distance transmission of electricity in Canada.

July 24, 1914

People  Women in STEM  Health & Medicine 

Birth of Frances Kelsey

Frances Kelsey, the Canadian doctor hailed as a hero for withholding approval of the drug thalidomide in the United States, was born in Cobble Hill, BC. While employed at the US Food and Drug Administration in the early 1960s, Kelsey likely saved thousands of American children from severe deformities and disabilities by refusing to approve the drug for sale, despite the fact that it was already being prescribed in Europe and Canada. Her suspicions were confirmed in 1961, when reports emerged of birth defects among children born to women who had taken thalidomide during pregnancy.

February 14, 1916

Communication 

First Long-Distance Call

The first long-distance call in Canada was placed from Montréal to Vancouver, from the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Montreal to the Globe Theatre in Vancouver.

September 11, 1916

Engineering 

Québec Bridge Disaster, 1916

A new centre span of the Québec Bridge fell into the river as it was being hoisted into position, killing 13 men.

March 18, 1918

Inventions and Innovations 

Daylight Saving Time Introduced

Daylight saving time was introduced in Canada by the federal government as a measure for increasing war production, emulating legislation in Germany and Britain.

July 27, 1921

People  Health & Medicine  Inventions and Innovations 

Banting and Best Isolate Insulin

Frederick Banting and Charles Best at the University of Toronto first isolated insulin. The first diabetes patient was treated on 11 January 1922. Banting and J.J.R. Macleod received the Nobel Prize for their achievement.

September 16, 1921

People  Women in STEM 

Birth of Ursula Franklin

Physicist Ursula Franklin, who pioneered the development of archaeometry (the application of modern techniques of materials analysis to archaeology), was born in Munich, Germany.

February 16, 1922

People  Inventions and Innovations 

Birth of Roland Galarneau

Roland Galarneau was born with only 2 per cent of his vision. In the late 1960s, Galarneau invented the Converto-Braille, a computerized printer that transcribed text into Braille.

October 25, 1923

People  Awards  Health & Medicine 

Banting and Macleod Win Nobel

The Nobel Prize for Medicine was awarded jointly to Frederick Banting and J.J.R. Macleod for the discovery of insulin.

March 15, 1925

People  Health & Medicine 

Birth of Bernard Belleau

Bernard Belleau was a biochemist and medical chemist (see Biochemistry). In the 1980s, he discovered and synthesized the drug 3TC. Also known as lamivudine or Epivir, 3TC is used as an anti-viral for HIV/AIDS.

November 02, 1925

Technology 

Debut of Electrical Recording

RCA Victor unveiled its electrical recording system. It had made the first electrical recording at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York on March 31.

May 16, 1930

Energy 

LaBine Finds Uranium

Prospector Gilbert LaBine discovered pitchblende, the chief source of uranium and radium, at Great Bear Lake, NWT.

May 07, 1935

Institutions and Organizations  Physics 

David Dunlap Observatory

The David Dunlap Observatory at Richmond Hill, Ont, was completed, the second largest in the world at that time.

January 01, 1936

People  Women in STEM  Health & Medicine 

Maude Abbott’s Atlas of Congenital Cardiac Disease Is Published

Published by the American Heart Association in 1936, Maude Abbott’s Atlas of Congenital Cardiac Disease was a groundbreaking text in cardiac research. The life-saving publication helped doctors to better understand and diagnose heart defects and to develop new ways to treat them.

October 17, 1941

People 

Death of John Stanley Plaskett

Astronomer John Stanley Plaskett died at Esquimalt, BC. As director of the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory north of Victoria, he pioneered research on the rotation of the Milky Way Galaxy.

December 02, 1942

Energy 

Fermi Achieves Chain Reaction

At the University of Chicago, Italian physicist Enrico Fermi achieved the first sustained nuclear chain reaction, leading to the atomic bomb and nuclear power.

July 22, 1947

Energy 

Canada's First Nuclear Reactors

The NRX reactor, the ancestor of Canada's unique CANDU reactors, "went critical" at Chalk River, Ont. The NRX was based on Canada's first nuclear reactor, ZEEP (1 watt of power), which was built at Chalk River in 1945.

October 23, 1950

People  Technology  Health & Medicine  Inventions and Innovations 

Bigelow, Callaghan and Hopps Unveil the Portable Artificial External Pacemaker

Cardiac surgeon Dr. Wilfred Bigelow, research fellow Dr. John Carter Callaghan, and Dr. John A. Hopps of the National Research Council of Canada delivered their findings on their newly invented portable artificial external pacemaker to the American College of Surgeons in Boston. The device was designed to send electric pulses to the heart, causing the heart to contract and pump blood to the body. It marked a significant medical milestone and laid the groundwork for implantable pacemakers.

November 08, 1951

Health & Medicine  Inventions and Innovations 

Cobalt-60 Cancer Therapy

Harold Elford Johns is recognized for his research and work developing cobalt-60 therapy units at the University of Saskatchewan. In 1951, he and his team used cobalt-60 radiation therapy to treat a cancer patient. The treatment would be adopted and used to treat cancer patients worldwide. (See also Canadian Contributions to Medicine; Sylvia Olga Fedoruk.)

August 29, 1959

People 

Birth of Chris Hadfield

Astronaut Chris Hadfield, who became the first Canadian among the support team at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, was born at Sarnia, Ont.

February 20, 1962

People  Physics 

Glenn Orbits the Earth

Astronaut John Glenn was the first American to orbit the Earth when he circled it three times in the space capsule Friendship 7.

June 15, 1962

Technology 

Canada's First Space Vehicle

Canada's first space vehicle, a 11.3 kg non-orbiting instrument package, was launched from Wallops Island, Virginia.

September 29, 1962

Technology 

Alouette-I Launched

Canada's first orbiting satellite, Alouette-I, was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

July 24, 1965

Earth Science 

John Tuzo Wilson Publishes a Paper about Transform Faults

In 1965, John Tuzo Wilson’s paper “A New Class of Faults and Their Bearing on Continental Drift” is published in the journal Nature. This paper introduced the concept of transform faults and added to the theory of plate tectonics. (See also John Tuzo Wilson’s Theory of Plate Tectonics.)

November 09, 1965

Energy 

Electrical Blackout

The failure of a relay device of Ontario Hydro's Queenston generating station triggered a massive power failure extending from the Atlantic coast of the US to Chicago, and from Florida to southern Ontario, lasting up to 12 hours.

March 07, 1970

Physics 

Total Eclipse of the Sun

A total eclipse of the sun cast a shadow 160 kilometers wide along Canada's Atlantic coast, sweeping the length of Nova Scotia and across Newfoundland.

September 09, 1970

Earth Science 

DDT Pesticides Banned

The Canadian Government placed a complete ban on the use of DDT pesticides, effective 1 January 1971.

November 07, 1970

Engineering 

Pierre-Laporte Bridge Opens

The Pierre- Laporte Bridge, over the St Lawrence River, was opened. The bridge originally was to be named the Frontenac Bridge, but it was changed to honour Laporte, Québec minister of labour and immigration, following his murder during the October Crisis.

April 05, 1971

Energy 

First CANDU

Gentilly nuclear power plant opened in Québec, the world's first nuclear plant with a reactor fuelled by natural uranium and cooled by ordinary water (the CANDU system).

April 29, 1971

Energy 

James Bay Project

Premier Robert Bourassa announced the development of the James Bay project.

November 02, 1971

People  Awards 

Herzberg Wins Nobel Prize

Gerhard Herzberg was awarded the Nobel Prize for chemistry for his contributions to the knowledge of electronic structure.

February 25, 1972

Energy 

Pickering Station Opened

The Pickering nuclear power plant officially opened, the largest single electricity producer in the world.

June 01, 1972

Women in STEM 

Sylvia Ostry Appointed Chief Statistician of Canada

Sylvia Ostry was an economist and public servant. She was the first female chief statistician of Canada, a position that she held until 1975. (See also Statistics Canada; Economics.)

November 09, 1972

Technology  Communication 

Anik A-1 Launched

Canada launched the world's first geostationary domestic satellite, Anik A-1

April 20, 1973

Technology  Communication 

Anik A-2 Launched

The telecommunications satellite Anik A-2 was launched from Cape Canaveral, Fla. With its launch, Canada became the first country in the world to employ satellites for domestic communications.

December 07, 1973

Energy 

CANDU Deal with South Korea

Canada sold a CANDU reactor to South Korea.

May 18, 1974

Energy 

India Detonates Nuclear Device

India detonated a nuclear device using Canadian materials.

May 22, 1974

Energy 

Canada Suspends Nuclear Exports

The Canadian government suspended shipments of all nuclear equipment and materials to India, after India's detonation of a nuclear device.

May 01, 1975

Technology  Communication 

Anik A-3 Launched

Communications satellite Anik A-3 was launched.

November 08, 1978

Technology  Engineering 

Challenger Flies for First Time

The Canadair Challenger executive jet flew for the first time.

March 05, 1979

Technology 

Voyager 1 Encounters Jupiter

The space probe Voyager 1 made its closest encounter with Jupiter before moving on to Saturn.

November 13, 1981

Technology 

Canadarm Launched into Space

The Canadian-made Shuttle Remote Manipulator System (RMS), the Canadarm, was launched into space for the first time. It was carried aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia on mission STS-2, the second space shuttle. It performed well, exceeding all design goals and was declared operational one year later.

August 16, 1982

Technology 

Anik-D Launched

Anik D-1 was launched, replacing the aging Anik A and B satellites. Anik D-1 was the first commercial satellite built by a Canadian prime contractor, Spar Aerospace Limited.

March 07, 1984

Technology  Communication 

Research In Motion (RIM) Founded

Research in Motion (RIM) was launched as a software and computer science consulting business, but it grew into a mobile communications company. The company was rebranded as BlackBerry in 2013.

October 05, 1984

People 

Marc Garneau Enters Space

Marc Garneau was the first Canadian astronaut to enter space, during the 41-G mission of the American space shuttle Challenger.

January 28, 1986

Technology 

Challenger Explodes

The space shuttle Challenger exploded soon after takeoff, killing 7 astronauts.

December 08, 1986

People  Awards 

John Polanyi Shares Nobel

John Polanyi shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Dudley Herschenbach and Yuan T. Lee.

April 24, 1990

Technology 

NASA Launches Hubble

NASA put the Hubble telescope into orbit. A flawed mirror and other defects were corrected in space in December 1993 by astronauts.

October 13, 1993

People  Awards 

Smith Wins Nobel Prize

Michael Smith won the Nobel Prize in chemistry for his research on site-directed mutagenesis.

July 16, 1994

Physics 

Comet Collides with Jupiter

Fragments of the comet Shoemaker-Levy collided with the planet Jupiter.

October 24, 1995

Energy 

New Emission Standards

The federal government and the provinces agreed that by the year 2001 all new cars sold in Canada must meet strict air pollution emission standards.

November 04, 1995

Technology 

RADARSAT Launched

RADARSAT becomes Canada’s first Earth observation satellite. It was operated until 2013. (See also Canadian Space Agency.)

December 08, 1995

Physics 

Galileo Reaches Jupiter

After 6 years and a 3.7 billion km journey, the space probe Galileo reached Jupiter.

August 12, 1997

Energy 

Nuclear Reactors Shut Down

Ontario Hydro, North America's largest electric utility, announced that it would shut down the 7 oldest of its 19 nuclear reactors: 3 at the Bruce facility on lake Huron and 4 at Pickering on lake Ontario.

December 17, 1997

Physics 

New Pictures of Dying Stars

The Hubble Space Telescope showed images of the dying phases of stars in unprecedented detail, showing the expansion into red giants.

April 21, 1998

Physics 

Formation of Planets Discovered

Astronomers announced that they had observed evidence of the early formation of a group of planets, similar to our own solar system, around a young sun 220 light years away.

April 15, 1999

Physics 

New Solar System Found

Astronomers announced that they had discovered another solar system of multiple planets orbiting a star, some 44 light years away.

April 23, 1999

Earth Science 

New Human Ancestor Found

Paleontologists announced that they had discovered a fossil skull in Ethiopia that belonged to a previously unknown species of human ancestor.

May 27, 1999

People  Women in STEM 

Julie Payette in Space

Canadian astronaut Julie Payette took part in a space shuttle mission. She and a co-worker repaired faulty parts in the Russian space station Zarya's battery pack.

January 01, 2000

Technology 

Millennium Celebrations

The arrival of the year 2000 saw little technological disruption or acts of terrorism. The Y2K (Millennium) bug caused only minor computer problems.

October 06, 2009

People  Awards 

Willard S. Boyle Wins Nobel Prize in Physics

Willard S. Boyle and George E. Smith were jointly awarded half of the Nobel Prize in Physics for their work on the charge-coupled device (CCD). (See also Nobel Prizes and Canada.)

October 06, 2015

People  Awards 

Arthur McDonald Wins Nobel Prize in Physics

Arthur B. McDonald, a physicist at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, was awarded the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physics for discovering that neutrinos — one of the smallest particles of matter — have mass. Neutrinos were previously thought to be massless. He shares the prize with Takaaki Kajita of Japan, whose research broke ground on the same subject. According to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (the organization that awards the Nobel), "the discovery has changed our understanding of the innermost workings of matter."

April 11, 2017

People 

Death of Dr. Mark Wainberg

Montreal-born molecular biologist Dr. Mark Wainberg, a renowned HIV/AIDS researcher and activist, died at the age of 71. In 1989, Wainberg discovered that the antiviral drug 3TC slowed the replication of HIV in the body — a breakthrough in the development of antiretroviral therapy.

October 02, 2018

People  Awards  Women in STEM 

Donna Strickland Wins Nobel Prize

The associate professor at the University of Waterloo became the first woman in 55 years, and only the third ever, to win the Nobel Prize in Physics. Strickland and Gérard Mourou were awarded for their work in laser physics. They shared the prize with Arthur Ashkin.

October 08, 2019

People  Awards 

James Peebles Wins Nobel Prize in Physics

James Peebles was awarded one half of the Nobel Prize in Physics for his contributions in physical cosmology. Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz shared the other half of the prize. (See also Nobel Prizes and Canada.)

October 11, 2021

People  Awards 

David Card Wins Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences

David Card was awarded one half of the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel for his use of natural experiments to study minimum wage, immigration and education. The other half of the prize was jointly awarded to Joshua Angrist and Guido Imbens. (See also Nobel Prizes and Canada.)

April 19, 2001

Technology  Inventions and Innovations 

Canadarm2 Launched Into Space

The Space Station Remote Manipulator Systems (SSRMS), also known as Canadarm2, is a Canadian-made 17-metre-long robotic arm. It is used on the International Space Station (ISS) to conduct maintenance, move equipment and supplies and support astronauts working in space. (See also Canadarm; Robotics in Canada.)

February 01, 2003

Engineering 

Shuttle Columbia Disaster

Space shuttle Columbia disintegrated over Tyler, Texas, killing all seven people on board, including the first Israeli astronaut, Ilan Ramon, and Kalpana Chawla of India. First clues pointed to failure of the heat-shielding tiles.

September 09, 2006

People 

Steve Maclean Launches Into Space Aboard the Atlantis Shuttle

During his second space mission, Steve Maclean became the first Canadian astronaut to operate the Canadarm2 (see Canadarm; Robotics in Canada).

December 14, 2007

Technology 

RADARSAT-2 Launched

RADARSAT-2 was launched in 2007. It is an Earth observation satellite. It uses radar technology to acquire high-resolution images of Earth. (See also Canadian Space Agency.)

March 13, 2013

People 

Hadfield Becomes ISS Commander

Astronaut Chris Hadfield became the first Canadian commander of the International Space Station (ISS), succeeding astronaut Kevin Ford. A brief ceremony aboard the ISS included a broadcast of O Canada.

August 07, 2013

People  Health & Medicine 

Death of Tony Pawson

World-renowned researcher, Tony Pawson, whose discovery about how cells communicate and interact with each other transformed scientists' fundamental understanding of cancer and many other diseases, died in Toronto.

August 07, 2015

Women in STEM  Health & Medicine 

Death of Frances Kelsey

Frances Kelsey, the Canadian doctor hailed as a hero for withholding approval of the drug thalidomide in the United States, died in London, ON, at age 101. While employed at the US Food and Drug Administration in the early 1960s, Kelsey likely saved thousands of American children from severe deformities and disabilities by refusing to approve the drug for sale, despite the fact that it was already being prescribed in Europe and Canada. Her suspicions were confirmed in 1961, when reports emerged of birth defects among children born to women who had taken thalidomide during pregnancy.

September 19, 2015

Technology  Engineering 

Canadian Team Sets Record Speed for Human-Powered Vehicle

A team of Canadian engineers set a new world record for the fastest human-powered vehicle at an annual competition in Battle Mountain, Nevada, attaining a speed of 139.45 kilometres per hour. The vehicle, Eta — a high-efficiency recumbent bicycle enclosed in a carbon-fibre shell — is the work of Aerovelo, a company founded by University of Toronto alumni Todd Reichert and Cameron Robertson. Reichert pedalled the bike to a world record on 17 September 2015 and subsequently broke his own record twice to achieve the final speed.

February 16, 2016

People  Awards  Women in STEM 

Victoria Kaspi Wins the Gerhard Herzberg Canada Gold Medal

Victoria Kaspi is an astrophysicist and is widely recognized for her work on neutron stars (see Astrophysics). She is the first woman to win the Gerhard Herzberg Canada Gold Medal from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC). (See also Gerhard Herzberg.)

May 18, 2016

Earth Science 

New Species of Dinosaur Identified

Paleontologists at the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa announced that bones discovered a decade earlier in Montana are those of previously unknown species of dinosaur related to the triceratops. Nicknamed Judith, the Spiclypeus shipporum specimen now belongs to the museum’s world-class collection of horned dinosaur fossils.

July 22, 2016

People  Women in STEM 

Death of Ursula Franklin

Physicist Ursula Franklin, who pioneered the development of archaeometry (the application of modern techniques of materials analysis to archaeology), died in Toronto, Ontario, at age 94.

May 18, 2017

People 

Death of Michael Bliss

Historian Michael Bliss died in Toronto, Ontario. One of Canada’s leading historians, Bliss wrote numerous prize-winning books on Canadian and medical history, including The Discovery of Insulin and William Osler: A Life in Medicine. He received many career honours, including the Order of Canada, honorary degrees from six universities and honorary fellowship in the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. For many years he was in demand as a lecturer, speaker and public intellectual in North America and Europe.

September 08, 2017

Technology  Engineering 

Avro Arrow Model Found in Lake Ontario

The Raise the Arrow expedition announced that it discovered an Avro Arrow test model at the bottom of Lake Ontario. Images of the find show a jet covered in zebra mussels, which researchers planned to remove to discover more about the plane. The Malton, Ontario-based Arrow project began in the postwar years with the goal of creating one of the world’s fastest and most advanced interceptor aircraft, but it was controversially cancelled in 1959.

September 26, 2017

People  Women in STEM 

Mona Nemer Named Canada’s Chief Scientist

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appointed Mona Nemer, a pioneering heart researcher at the University of Ottawa, to the role of chief science advisor. The position involves promoting advancements in the sciences that will benefit Canadians, providing the government with impartial scientific advice, and reporting to the prime minister and the minister of health on the state of federal government science.

January 16, 2019

Earth Science 

BC Fossils Help Solve Evolutionary Riddle

The fossilized soft tissue of agnostids found in the 500-million-year-old Burgess Shale deposit helped researchers prove a connection between the bug-like creatures and trilobites, adding a new branch to the evolutionary tree of life.

April 06, 2021

Earth Science 

300-Million-Year-Old Fossil Found in New Brunswick

Halifax high school students and amateur paleontologists Rowan Norrad and Luke Allen discovered a 300-million-year-old fossilized dragonfly wing near Grand Lake, New Brunswick. The length of the wing, about 10 cm, indicated a likely wingspan of 25 cm — much larger than contemporary dragonflies. The fossil was sent to the National Museum of Natural History in Paris for further analysis.

October 08, 2024

People  Awards 

Geoffrey E. Hinton Awarded Nobel Prize in Physics

Geoffrey E. Hinton, a Canadian-British researcher and professor emeritus at the University of Toronto, was jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics with John Hopfield. (See also Nobel Prizes in Canada.) Hinton has been recognized as a pioneer in the machine learning (ML) subfield of deep learning (the use of artificial neural networks to analyze data). (See also Artificial Intelligence in Canada.)