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Create AccountKaren Marie Connelly, poet, novelist (b at Calgary, Alta 12 Mar 1969). Karen Connelly grew up in Calgary. In 1986, at the age of 17, she won a Rotary Scholarship that allowed her to spend a year living in a village in northern Thailand.
The Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools is a Catholic religious order founded by Jean-Baptiste de La Salle in France in 1680. In Canada, members are generally referred to as Christian Brothers or De La Salle Brothers. They are not to be confused with the Congregation of Christian Brothers who were founded by Edmund Rice in Ireland in 1802 and whose members in Canada were also called Christian Brothers or Irish Christian Brothers. The Brothers of the Christian Schools were a major force in Catholic education in Canada, especially in Quebec. They first arrived in Montreal in 1837, then experienced numeric growth, geographic expansion and a solid reputation over the next 125 years. The Brothers underwent a significant exodus and decline in vocations with the dramatic religious and social changes spawned by the Second Vatican Council and the Quiet Revolution.
Octave Crémazie, baptized Claude-Joseph-Olivier, poet, bookseller (b at Québec, Lower Canada 16 Apr 1827; d at Le Havre, France 16 Jan 1879).
Thomas Pichon, alias Thomas Tyrell, colonial official, spy, author (b at Vire, France 30 Mar 1700; d at St Helier, Jersey 22 Nov 1781).
Sir Patrick Leonard MacDougall, military officer, author (b at Boulogne-sur-Mer, France 10 Aug 1819; d at Kingston Hill, Eng 28 Nov 1894).
Sophie Rolland. Cellist, b Montreal 18 Jul 1961; premier prix cello (CMM) 1981, Diplôme d'études supérieures (Quebec Department of Education) 1981. She began her musical studies in piano at age five at the École Vincent-d'Indy.
Marguerite (Marie) Gignac. Soprano, teacher, b Windsor, Ont, 17 Jul 1928; Artist Diploma (RCMT) 1951, DMA (Michigan) 1989.
The Battle of Vimy Ridge was fought during the First World War from 9 to 12 April 1917. It is Canada’s most celebrated military victory — an often mythologized symbol of the birth of Canadian national pride and awareness. The battle took place on the Western Front, in northern France. The four divisions of the Canadian Corps, fighting together for the first time, attacked the ridge from 9 to 12 April 1917 and captured it from the German army. It was the largest territorial advance of any Allied force to that point in the war — but it would mean little to the outcome of the conflict. More than 10,600 Canadians were killed and wounded in the assault. Today an iconic memorial atop the ridge honours the 11,285 Canadians killed in France throughout the war who have no known graves.
Edward Cornwallis, founder of Halifax in 1749, governor of Nova Scotia from 1749-52, military leader and governor of Gibraltar from 1762-76, (born 22 February 1713 in London, England; died 23 January 1776 in Gibraltar).
Joseph Joachim Ulric Voyer, opera composer, playwright, music teacher, organist and court clerk (born 5 July 1892 in Québec City, Québec; died 8 January 1935 in Québec City).
Raymond Collishaw, CB, DSO & Bar, OBE, DSC, DFC, fighter pilot, senior Royal Air Force (RAF) commander, businessman (born 22 November 1893 in Nanaimo, BC; died 28 September 1976 in West Vancouver, BC). Collishaw was one of the great aces of the First World War and an important RAF commander in the North African theatre during the Second World War.
Marion De Chastelain, intelligence agent, mother of John De Chastelain, (b 1910, New York, NY; d 1999, Calgary, AB).
Obwandiyag (Pontiac), Odawa chief (born c. 1720 along the Detroit River; died 20 April 1769 in Cahokia, Illinois Country). Obwandiyag was the leader of a loose coalition of Indigenous nations that opposed British rule in what became known as Pontiac’s War (1763–66). The uprising is regarded by many as a historical antecedent to more contemporary Indigenous rights movements.
French Canadian nationalism concerns a wide variety of manifestations of the collective will of much of Canada's French-speaking population to live as a distinct cultural community. Its innumerable ramifications have been not only cultural but also political, economic and social.
Pierre Dugua de Mons (or Du Gua de Monts), colonizer, explorer, trader (born c. 1558 in Royan, France; died 22 February1628 near Fléac-sur-Seugne, France). Pierre Dugua de Mons oversaw the founding of Port Royal, in Acadia (present-day Annapolis Royal), and Quebec City, Quebec. These two places were the first successful French settlements in North America. At a time of significant religious tension in France, there were few people involved in that kingdom’s exploration and settlement of North America that better represent the social, political and religious context of the early 17th century. Both Samuel de Champlain and Mathieu Da Costa, who are better known from this period, were de Mons’s employees and acted under his direction. De Mons’s legacy has been overshadowed by Champlain in part because Champlain wrote extensively about his work, whereas de Mons did not. In addition, in some of Champlain’s writings he replaced de Mons with himself.
Swiss immigration to the territory we now know as Canada began in the late 16th century. The 2016 census reported 155, 120 people of Swiss origin in Canada (25, 235 single responses and 129, 885 multiple responses).
Jean-Mandé Sigogne, Roman Catholic missionary (b at Beaulieu-les-Loches, France 6 Apr 1763; d at Sainte-Marie [Church Point], NS 9 Nov 1844).
Francis Clarence McGee (One-Eyed Frank McGee), hockey player, army officer (born 4 November 1882 in Ottawa, ON; died 16 September 1916 near Courcelette, France).
John (Morton) Grew. Organist, harpsichordist, teacher, b Glenholme, near Truro, NS, 30 Apr 1940; LTCL 1958, Associate piano, organ (Mount Allison) 1960, B MUS (Mount Allison) 1961, M MUS (Michigan) 1966, honorary DD (United Theological College) 1987, honorary LL D (Mount Allison) 1989.
