10 Historical Facts About Canada

Here are a number of less-known historical facts about Canada…

10 Historical Facts About Canada

1. Canada is the largest country in North America, with borders from the Atlantic Ocean to the Arctic Ocean, and the second-largest country in the world by total area.
2. Aboriginal people, such as the Iroquoians, were living there before the French and English colonialists conquered the country in the 15th century.
3. The Innuits are thought to have settled in the north around 6000 BC, with the first people arriving in the land from Asia as far back as 70,000 to 12,000 years ago. By the time Europeans arrived in Canada, the native people had developed successful trading methods, societies, and cultures.
4. ‘Canada’ has been in use as the name of the French colony of Canada since the 16th century. It is mostly agreed that the name is a Latinized form of an Iroquoian word for ‘village’ or ‘settlement’. An alternative theory for the origins of the name is that the name originated when Spanish or Portuguese explorers were unsuccessful in finding the gold and silver they were looking for in the northern part of the continent, and wrote cá nada, meaning ‘nothing here’ in Portuguese.
5. The Vikings established a colony in Labrador (Vinland) in 1003, only to abandon it two years later.
6. Basketball was invented by a Canadian, Dr. James Naismith. Naismith was born to Scottish immigrants to Canada in 1861, and in 1891 the doctor’s class of secretaries played the first game of basketball with a soccer ball and two peach baskets for the goals.
7. Since 1984, Canada has no weapons of mass destruction and has signed treaties renouncing their possession. Nice one, Canada!
8. Are you ready for this one? It is mind-boggling but discovered in the 1960s was the phenomenon that large parts of Canada have less gravity than the rest of the Earth. Whaaat?!
9. There have been two invasions of Canada by America, once in 1775 and again in 1812.
10. The land of Canada is actually owned solely by the official head of state, Queen Elizabeth II. Over 90% is Crown Land, with only 9.7% of total land under private ownership.