50 great gifts Canada gave the world
/Canada Day is here!
The greatest country in the world is turning 146. And while Canadians are generally considered to be polite, under-the-radar type folks, Canada has given the world some of its greatest inventions. In honour of Canada Day, here are 50 of Canada's greatest gifts to the world:
Update: Our original list included Smarties. Several astute chocolate candy aficionados have since written to tell us the treat was invented in the UK. Our sincerest apologies to candy lovers on both sides of the Atlantic. We've since replaced that item with Canada Dry Ginger Ale, created in 1904 by John. J. McLaughlin.
1. Insulin as a diabetes treatment - Invented by Frederick Banting, Charles Best and James Collip in 1922.
2. Superman - Created by Canadian-born artist Joe Shuster and American writer Jerry Siegel in 1932.
3. Basketball. Invented by James Naismith in 1891.
4. Standard time - introduced by Sir Sandford Fleming in 1878.
5. Canola - created in the early 1970s by Keith Downey and Baldur R. Stafansson.
6. AM Radio - invented by Reginald Fessenden in 1906.
7. The snowmobile - invented by Joseph-Armand Bombardier in 1937.
8. Poutine.
9. Nanaimo bars.
10. Canada Dry Ginger Ale - After hundreds of experiments, John J. McLaughlin achieved the perfect formula for his Ginger Ale in 1904.
11. Crispy Crunch.
12. Coffee Crisp.
13. Walkie-Talkies - invented by Donald L. Hings and Alfred J. Gross in 1942.
14. The prosthetic hand - invented by Helmut Lucas in 1971 (original prototype not pictured...clearly).
15. The snowblower - invented by Arthur Sicard in 1925.
16. The foghorn - invented by Robert Foulis in 1854.
17. Sonar - invented by Reginald Fessenden.
18. The goalie mask - invented by Jacques Plante in 1959.
19. IMAX - co-invented by Roman Kroitor in 1968.
20. Instant replay - invented for CBC's Hockey Night in Canada in 1955.
21. Trivial Pursuit - invented by Chris Haney and Scott Abbott in 1979.
22. Lacrosse - codified by William George Beers around 1860.
23. Ice hockey - invented in Windsor, Nova Scotia.
24. The electron microscope - The first electron microscope in North America was built by J. Hillier, A. Prebus and E.F. Burton at the University of Toronto in 1938 (for a history of the project, click on the photo).
25. Pablum - invented by Frederick Tisdall, Theodore Drake and Allan Brown in 1930.
26. Easy-Off oven cleaner - invented by Herbert McCool in 1932.
27. The cardiac pacemaker - invented by John Hopps.
28. The Wonderbra - invented by Louise Poirier.
29. The alkaline battery - invented by Lewis Urry in 1954.
30. The caulking gun - invented by Theodore Witte in 1894.
31. The Jolly Jumper - invented by Olivia Poole in 1959.
32. The garbage bag - invented by Harry Wasylyk in 1950.
33. The paint roller - invented by Norman James Breakey.
34. The Robertson screw - invented by P.L. Roberston.
35. The Bloody Caesar - invented in Calgary in 1969.
36. Plexiglass - invented by William Chalmers at McGill University in 1931.
37. The explosives vapour detector - invented by Lorne Elias in 1985.
38. Five-pin bowling - invented by Thomas F. Ryan in 1909.
39. Computerized Braille - invented by Roland Galarneau in 1972.
40. The 56k modem - invented by Dr. Brent Townshend in 1996.
41. The pager - invented by Alfred J. Gross in 1949.
42. The McIntosh red apple - Developed by John McIntosh.
43. Peanut butter - first patented by Marcellus Gilmore Edson in 1884.
44. Key-frame animation - invented by Nestor Burtnyk and Marcelli Win in the early 1970s. The technique revolutionized the way animators created 3D graphics.
45. The Java programming language - invented by James Gosling.
46. The telephone - invented by Scottish-born inventor Alexander Graham Bell in Brantford, Ontario.
47. The BlackBerry - invented by Mike Lazaridis.
48. The Canadarm - used on the Space Shuttle.
49. Singer Justin Bieber.
50. And, of course, celebrity astronaut, Commander Chris Hadfield.