Gutenberg Bible
Although the first invention occurred much earlier in China and Korea, the genesis of modern printing by means of a printing press using metal movable type is rightly traced to Gutenberg ’s publication of...
April 2019
Top 10 Biggest Gaming Publishers
Publisher No. of Games in Top 100 Sellers Nintendo 51 Activision 13 Sony Computer Entertainment 10 Take-Two Interactive 8 Microsoft Games Studios 5 Electronic Arts 5 Ubisoft 3 Bethesda Softworks 1 Red Orb 1...
First Underground Train System
A visionary reformer recognizes the need for improved public transportation to and from London, and his relentless campaign to build a subterranean iron road beneath the teeming city finally becomes realized only a few...
Geese is the Word … Air Canada
During migration, Canada geese fly 3,000 to 5,000 kilometers (1,800 to 3,100 miles) each way, but it doesn’t work the same in both directions. Going south, they move fast, as far as 1,000 kilometers...
Bloody Caesar Cocktail
The Bloody Caesar was invented in 1969 at an Italian restaurant inside the Calgary Inn (now the Westin Hotel) when bartender Walter Chell created a cocktail to commemorate the restaurant’s opening. Taking cues from...
Fuller Brush
“Fuller” wasn’t a description of the bristles, but the last name of the company’s founder, Alfred Carl Fuller (1885-1973). A self-described country bumpkin. Fuller grew up on a farm in Welsford, Nova Scotia. His...
Right Place Wrong Time
A Mountie in Surrey, British Columbia, responded to a burglary call in August 2009. He pulled right up in front of the store being robbed at 72nd Avenue and Scott Road ready to catch the bad...
Canola Oil
In the 1970s, a Canadian doctor named Richard Keith Downey together with University of Manitoba researcher Baldur Stefansson created an edible version of rapeseed (a toxic member of the mustard family). Because it was...
Rush
When this Toronto band formed hastily in 1968, drummer John Rutsey’s older brother suggested “Rush,” both because of the psychedelic connotations (see Mahogany Rush) but also to reflect the band’s frenetic scrambling for a...
Buckley’s Mixture
“It Tastes Awful. And It Works.” It’s hard to believe that would be a winning advertising slogan, but W. K. Buckley made it work, because he wasn’t lying. . . it did taste awful. Buckley was...
