William Shatner, born March 22, 1931 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, will always be best known as his role as Captain James T. Kirk on the cult classic television show Star Trek. He appeared in the first original series from 1966 to 1969. He appeared in the six movie adaptions of the TV series and the final Star Trek: Generations. He starred in the TV movies TekWar, based on the novel he co-wrote.
In October 2021, he became the oldest person, at that time, to fly in space. At the age of 90, he flew on Blue Origin's NS-18 suborbital flight on October 13, 2021.
David Saint-Jacques, born January 6, 1970 in Quebec City, Canada, went into space aboard Soyuz MS-11 to the International Space Station in December 2018. He participated in Expeditions 57-59 and conducted an EVA for 6 hours, 29 minutes. He spent almost 204 days in space before returning to Earth in June 2019.
Les Mouches fantastiques (The Fantastic Flies) was the first LGBT publication in North American history, being published between 1918-1920. It was an underground magazine based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It started from a writing circle established by Elsa Gidlow (poet) and Roswell George Mills as its primary contributors. It included poetry and non-fiction about gay and lesbian issues, such as identity, politics, and editorials.
Only five issues of Les Mouches fantastiques were ever published, but it had a wide distribution, receiving correspondence as far away as Havana, Cuba. It was discontinued when Gidlow and Mills moved to New York City in 1920.
Perry Henry Young, Jr., born March 12, 1919 in Orangeburg, South Carolina, became the first African American to fly for a commercial airline in the US. His family moved to Ohio and began attending Oberlin College. He earned his private pilot's license at 20 and dropped out of college to pursue a career in aviation.
Unfortunately, Young could not find work as a commercial pilot due to racial discrimination. When the US entered WWII, he got a job as one of 40 African American flight instructors for the 99th Pursuit Squadron, and trained over 150 Tuskegee Airmen during his tenure.
After the war, he still could not find employment as a pilot. In 1946, he tried to establish a small airline in Haiti, but it closed. He remained in Haiti, flying for the Societe Haitienne-Americaine de Development Agricole and in 1953 began working for the Puerto Rico Water Resources Authority as an executive pilot.
He worked on Baffin Island, Canada as an aviation mechanic, and then moved to the Virgin Islands to pilot for KLM, flying passengers to the Dutch islands.
A helicopter airline, New York Airways, had previously rejected Young because he did not meet their minimum helicopter flight time, but decided to 'break the color line'. They contacted him in the Virgin Islands and hired him on December 17, 1956. He took his first official flight as a copilot on February 5, 1957.
He continued to fly for NYA until they went out of business in 1979. He flew sightseeing helicopter tours in New York until he retired.
He passed away in Middletown, New York on November 8, 1998.
Jay Silverheels, born Harold Jay Smith, May 26, 1912 on the Six Nations of the Grand River in Ontario, was an actor, stunt man, athlete, and poet. His grandfather was a Mohawk Chief and his mother was a Mohawk and paternal Seneca.
He is best known as his role as Tonto in the television series The Lone Ranger, which ran from 1949 to 1957. He reprised his role in two movies The Lone Ranger and The Lone Ranger and the Lost City of Gold. He continued to be typecast to portray Native Americans throughout his career.
He became an outspoken activist for Native American rights and established an acting school for Native American actors.
He was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, July 19, 1979, making him the first Native American (Mohawk) to receive such an honor.
He passed away in March 1980 from a stroke in California. His ashes were returned to Six Nations Reserve in Ontario.
Canadian astronaut Marc Garneau with the Sunphotometer
The second day of flight STS-41-G, the Challenger crew woke up to Irene
Cara’s Flashdance…What a Feeling.
Starting with Apollo 15, NASA started playing music to wake up the flight
crew. Each song is chosen specifically
by the astronauts’ families and typically has a special meaning to their family
member or the crew. Or it can be
applicable to their daily activities. I
haven’t found which astronaut is connected to this song.
The crew lowered the Challenger’s orbit to an altitude of
151 miles, down from 218 miles the day before. Marc Garneau began the Canadian
experiments (CANEX), sponsored by the National Research Council (NRC) of Canada.His experiments included investigations into
medical, atmospheric, climatic, materials, and robotic sciences.One piece of equipment Garneau used was the
Sunphotometer, a handheld instrument which measures solar radiation at several
wavelengths.The Canadian Atmospheric Environment
Service used the readings to measure local atmospheric constituents and to
monitor acidic haze.
Paul Scully-Power (Australian-American astronaut) began
oceanographic observations, and successfully photographed spiral eddies in the
world’s oceans.
David Leestma completed tests on the Orbital Refueling
System remote-controlled hydrazine fuel transfer. The structure was designed to
develop and demonstrate equipment and techniques for refueling satellites in
orbit.
Gregory Chamitoff, born August 6, 1962 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, has been in space twice.
His first trip was aboard Discovery (STS-124) as mission specialist to the International Space Station in May 2008. He participated in Expeditions 17 and 18 spending about six months on the space station. He returned to Earth aboard Endeavour (STS-126) in November.
His second mission was aboard Endeavour (STS-134) to the International Space Station in May-June 2011. He spent almost 16 days in space. It was the last flight of Endeavour.
Shadrach Minkins escaped slavery in Virginia in 1850 and fled to Boston. He worked as a waiter until February 1851 when he was arrested by federal marshals and taken to the courthouse. The Boston Vigilance Committee, an abolitionist organization to protect escaped slaves from being captured and returned to slavery in the South, hired lawyers to defend Minkins.
On February 15, 1851, about twenty black activists stormed the courthouse, overpowered the marshals, and released Minkins. They spirited him away in a wagon to Beacon Hill and hid him in an attic until nightfall. With the help of the Underground Railroad, he escaped to Canada.
He settled in Montreal and never returned to the United States. He passed away in December 1875.
Bion 10, or Kosmos 2229, a Russian spacecraft as part of a multinational effort, was launched December 29, 1992. It carried two monkeys, plants, cell cultures, insects, and amphibians. The Rhesus monkeys were trained to activate food and juice dispensers, to operate a foot pedal to study muscles responses, and to make hand and head movements in response to visual stimuli.
The countries involved were Canada, France, Germany, Lithuania, Netherlands, China, Russia, Ukraine, US, Uzbekistan, and the European Space Agency.
The spacecraft orbited Earth for almost 12 days, before landing successfully on January 10, 1993.
Beautiful and talented Yvonne De Carlo, born September 1, 1922 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, is best known and loved for her role as Lily Munster in the hit comedy The Munsters. She appeared as Sephora, Moses' wife in The Ten Commandments, a role for which she was nominated for a Laurel Award for Top Female Supporting Performance.
De Carlo starred in an episode of Murder, She Wrote, when she appeared as a prison cook. She appeared on Broadway in Steven Sondheim's musical Follies.
She passed away in January 2007 from natural causes.
Shawn Ashmore, born October 7, 1979 in British Columbia, Canada, is probably best known for his portrayal of Bobby Drake/Iceman in four of the X-Men movies: X-Men, X2, X-Men: Last Stand, and X-Men: Days of Future Past. Shawn won an MTV Movie Award for his performance in X2.
He is one minute younger than his twin brother Aaron who is also an actor.
Buff and beautiful Daniel Cudmore, born January 20, 1981 British Columbia, Canada, is best known for his role as Peter Rasputin or Colossus in X2: X-Men United, X-Men: The Last Stand, and X-Men: Days of Future Past. According to imdb.com, he appeared in a deleted scene in X-Men: Dark Phoenix.
He has appeared in DC Comics television shows Arrow, The Flash and Legends of Tomorrow. He will appear later this year in the television series Superman and Lois.
Tyler Mane, born December 8, 1966 in Saskatchewan, Canada, played Sabretooth in the first X-Men movie. The incredibly handsome actor has also played Mike Myers in the rebooted Halloween series of movies.
Jonathan Frid, born December 2, 1924 in Ontario, Canada, is best known as Barnabas Collins in the daytime horror show Dark Shadows. Frid served as a seaman in the Royal Canadian Navy during WWII.
He starred in almost 600 episodes of Dark Shadows and even had an appearance in the 2012 movie version, starring Johnny Depp.
He passed away in April 2012 just a few weeks before the movie was released, making it his final acting role.
Soyuz TMA-16 (L-R): Guy Laliberte, Jeffrey Williams, Maksim Surayev
Mission patch
Soyuz TMA-16, launched September 30, 2009, carried members of Expedition 21 crew and a Canadian space tourist to the International Space Station. Its crew consisted of Commander Maksim Surayev (Roscosmos), Jeffrey Williams (NASA) and Guy Laliberte.
Laliberte remained in space for 10 days and returned to Earth aboard Soyuz TMA-14.
Surayev and Williams participated in Expeditions 21 and 22. They returned to Earth March 2010.
Beautiful actress Carrie-Ann Moss, born August 21, 1967 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, has starred in blockbuster movies such as The Matrix. I've been a fan of hers since then and I've enjoyed her in The Red Planet and Pompeii.
She was nominated for a Saturn award for her role in The Matrix. According to imdb.com, she will appear in The Matrix 4, to be released in 2022.
Robert Thirsk, born August 17, 1953 in British Columbia, Canada, has been in space twice. He holds the Canadian record for most time spent in space - 204 days, 18 hours.
His first trip was aboard Columbia (STS-78) as payload specialist in June 1996. The mission was in preparation for the International Space Station. He stayed in space for almost 17 days.
His second trip was aboard Soyuz TMA-15 to the International Space Station in May 2009. He participated in Expeditions 20 and 21. He returned to Earth in December 2009.
Anna Pacquin, born July 24, 1982 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, has had a stellar career from a young age, but my favorite role of hers is Rogue, from the X-Men movies. She won an Academy Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for The Piano when she was just eleven years old. She has also received numerous awards for her role in True Blood.
This is apparently a clip from X-Men: Days of Future Past that was cut from the final version.
Marc Garneau, born February 23, 1949 in Quebec City, Canada, is the first Canadian to go into space. He is a veteran of 3 space shuttle flights.
His first flight was aboard Challenger (STS-41-G) as payload specialist in October 1984. He conducted a series of experiments sponsored by the Canadian government.
His second flight was aboard Endeavour (STS-77) in May 1996 to the space station Mir as mission specialist. One of the experiments, the Commercial Float Zone Facility was a collaboration of Canada, the US and Germany.
Garneau's third and final flight was aboard Endeavour (STS-97) as mission specialist to the International Space Station in December 2000. He manipulated the Canadarm during the mission in support of the EVAs.
He became president of the Canadian Space Agency in November 2001. He resigned his position to enter Canadian politics in 2006.
Murdoch Mysteries aired its first television episode January 24, 2008. It stars gorgeous actor Yannick Bisson as Detective William Murdoch and Helene Joy as Dr. Julia Ogden, the medical examiner and Murdoch's main love interest.
The series is set in the late 1890s in Toronto and Murdoch uses the latest forensic techniques such as fingerprinting to solve crimes.
