📡
1876
The Telephone
👤 Alexander Graham Bell
Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone in 1876, making the first successful call on March 10 in Boston. Bell was born in Scotland but became a Canadian citizen and conducted key experiments in Brantford, Ontario.
🌍 Connected the world in real time for the first time in history — the foundation of all modern telecommunications.
💡 Bell considered the telephone an intrusion and refused to have one in his study. He preferred written correspondence.
💡
1879
Standard Time Zones
👤 Sir Sandford Fleming
Sir Sandford Fleming, a Scottish-Canadian engineer, proposed the worldwide system of standard time zones in 1879 after missing a train in Ireland due to confusing local time schedules. The system was adopted internationally in 1884.
🌍 Without standard time zones, every city would keep its own local time — coordinating trains, commerce and communication would be nearly impossible.
💡 Before Fleming's system, a journey across North America required adjusting your watch over 100 times.
🏒
1891
Basketball
👤 James Naismith
James Naismith, a Canadian from Almonte, Ontario, invented basketball in 1891 in Springfield, Massachusetts. He nailed two peach baskets to a gymnasium balcony and wrote 13 original rules.
🌍 Basketball is now played by over 450 million people worldwide and is the second most popular sport on earth.
💡 The original basketball hoops had no holes in the bottom — someone had to climb a ladder and retrieve the ball after every basket.
⚕️
1921
Insulin
👤 Frederick Banting & Charles Best
Frederick Banting and Charles Best discovered insulin at the University of Toronto in 1921. Before insulin, Type 1 diabetes was a death sentence. Within a year of discovery it was saving lives worldwide.
🌍 Has saved hundreds of millions of lives and is still the primary treatment for Type 1 diabetes over 100 years later.
💡 Banting sold the patent for $1 so the discovery would be available to everyone. He said a discovery this important should not be owned by any individual.
⚕️
1952
The Electric Wheelchair
👤 George Klein
George Klein, a National Research Council engineer in Ottawa, invented the electric wheelchair in 1952 to help veterans injured in WWII. It gave independence to millions of people with mobility challenges.
🌍 The electric wheelchair gave mobility independence to tens of millions of people worldwide with physical disabilities.
💡 George Klein also invented the microsurgical staple gun, the variable-pitch propeller for aircraft, and the ZEEP nuclear reactor — all in one career.
💡
1981
The Canadarm
👤 SPAR Aerospace / NRC
The Canadarm is a robotic arm developed by Canada for NASA's Space Shuttle program, first used in 1981. It became so synonymous with Canadian innovation that it was nicknamed "Canada's handshake in space."
🌍 Served on 90 Space Shuttle missions, deployed the Hubble Space Telescope, and led to the Canadarm2 still operating on the International Space Station.
💡 The Canadarm appears on the back of the Canadian $100 bill.
🍽️
1884
Peanut Butter
👤 Marcellus Gilmore Edson
Marcellus Gilmore Edson of Montreal created a paste from roasted peanuts in 1884, patenting it as a food product. While forms of ground peanuts existed before, Edson's patent is considered the origin of commercial peanut butter.
🌍 Peanut butter is a $800 million industry in North America. It is a staple food in millions of households worldwide.
💡 Americans eat enough peanut butter each year to coat the floor of the Grand Canyon.
💡
1913
The Zipper
👤 Gideon Sundback
Gideon Sundback, a Swedish-Canadian engineer working in Ontario, perfected the modern zipper in 1913. His "separable fastener" had interlocking teeth and a slider — the design used to this day.
🌍 The zipper is used in billions of garments, bags and products worldwide — one of the most ubiquitous fastening devices ever invented.
💡 The word "zipper" was coined by B.F. Goodrich in 1923 when they put Sundback's fastener on rubber boots.
💡
1955
Instant Replay
👤 CBC / George Retzlaff
George Whitmore and CBC Sports producer George Retzlaff developed the first instant replay system for hockey broadcasts in 1955. It was first used nationally during Hockey Night in Canada.
🌍 Instant replay transformed all sports broadcasting and officiating worldwide — now standard in virtually every professional sport.
💡 The first instant replay was met with confusion — viewers thought CBC was showing them a second goal, not the same one again.
💡
1967
IMAX
👤 Ferguson, Kroitor & Kerr
IMAX was developed by a group of Canadian filmmakers — Graeme Ferguson, Roman Kroitor, and Robert Kerr — and debuted at Expo 67 in Montreal. The format uses film frames 10 times larger than standard 35mm.
🌍 IMAX theatres now operate in 80+ countries and have generated over $4 billion in box office revenue.
💡 The first IMAX camera weighed over 200 kg and required two people to operate.