Caroline Wettengel

Victoria was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death. On 1 May 1876, she adopted the additional title of Empress of India.

Victoria inherited the throne at the age of 18, after her father's three elder brothers had all died leaving no surviving legitimate children. She became a national icon who was identified with strict standards of personal morality. Victoria married her first cousin Prince Albert. After his death in 1861, Victoria plunged into deep mourning and avoided public appearances. As a result, republicanism temporarily gained strength but in the latter half of her reign, her popularity recovered. Her Golden and Diamond Jubilees were times of public celebration.

George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen, (28 January 1784 – 14 December 1860), was a British statesman, diplomat and landowner, successively a Tory, Conservative and Peelite politician, who served as Prime Minister from 1852 until 1855 in a coalition between the Whigs and Peelites, with Radical and Irish support.

The Aberdeen ministry was filled with powerful and talented politicians, whom Aberdeen was largely unable to control and direct. Despite trying to avoid this happening, it took Britain into the Crimean War, and fell when its conduct became unpopular, after which Aberdeen retired from politics.

Franklin Pierce (November 23, 1804 – October 8, 1869) was the 14th president of the United States (1853–1857), a northern Democrat who saw the abolitionist movement as a fundamental threat to the unity of the nation.

He alienated anti-slavery groups by championing and signing the Kansas–Nebraska Act and enforcing the Fugitive Slave Act, yet he failed to stem conflict between North and South, setting the stage for Southern secession and the American Civil War.

The Crimean War was fought by an alliance of Britain, France, Turkey and Sardinia against Russian expansion into the Danube region (modern day Romania). One battle - The Battle of Balaclava - became famous for the Charge of the Light Brigade

The Crimean war also saw the rise to prominence of Florence Nightingale.

Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston, (20 October 1784 – 18 October 1865) was a British statesman who served twice as Prime Minister in the mid-19th century. Palmerston dominated British foreign policy during the period 1830 to 1865, when Britain was at the height of her imperial power. He held office almost continuously from 1807 until his death in 1865. He began his parliamentary career as a Tory, defected to the Whigs in 1830, and became the first Prime Minister of the newly formed Liberal Party in 1859.

He had two periods in office, 1855–1858 and 1859–1865, before his death at the age of 80 years, a few months subsequent to victory in a general election in which he had achieved an increased majority. He remains, to date, the last Prime Minister to die in office.

The Grand Trunk Railway was completed from Guelph to Stratford, Ontario; the last stretch from St Marys to Sarnia was finished on November 21. The GTR was a significant factor in the economic development of Canada.

Text and image © The Canadian Encyclopedia

James Buchanan Jr. (April 23, 1791 – June 1, 1868) was an American politician who served as the 15th president of the United States (1857–1861), serving immediately prior to the American Civil War.

A member of the Democratic Party, he was the 17th United States secretary of state and had served in the Senate and House of Representatives before becoming president.

Edward George Geoffrey Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby, (29 March 1799 – 23 October 1869) was a British statesman, three-time Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and, to date, the longest-serving leader of the Conservative Party. He was known before 1834 as Edward Stanley, and from 1834 to 1851 as Lord Stanley. He is one of only four British prime ministers to have three or more separate periods in office. However, his ministries all lasted less than two years and totalled three years and 280 days.

Among the notable achievements of this, his second administration, was the end of the British East India Company following the Sepoy Mutiny, which brought India under direct British control for the first time. Once again the government was short-lived, resigning after only one year, having narrowly lost a vote of no-confidence

The first wave of miners from California arrived at Victoria, en route to the Fraser River Gold Rush. The Gold Rush caused a precipitous decline in the Native population and politically unified British Columbia.

Text and image © The Canadian Encyclopedia

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was Scottish author who created the legendary character, 'Sherlock Holmes.' He wrote over 60 'Sherlock Holmes' stories and many non-fiction, works of fantasy, science-fiction, poetry and historical novels. He went to medical school and set up his own practice. His medical career did not succeed and he began writing while he waited for patients. The rest is history.

Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston, (20 October 1784 – 18 October 1865) was a British statesman who served twice as Prime Minister in the mid-19th century. Palmerston dominated British foreign policy during the period 1830 to 1865, when Britain was at the height of her imperial power. He held office almost continuously from 1807 until his death in 1865. He began his parliamentary career as a Tory, defected to the Whigs in 1830, and became the first Prime Minister of the newly formed Liberal Party in 1859.

He had two periods in office, 1855–1858 and 1859–1865, before his death at the age of 80 years, a few months subsequent to victory in a general election in which he had achieved an increased majority. He remains, to date, the last Prime Minister to die in office.

On the Origin of Species (or more completely, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life), published on 24 November 1859, is a work of scientific literature by Charles Darwin which is considered to be the foundation of evolutionary biology. Darwin's book introduced the scientific theory that populations evolve over the course of generations through a process of natural selection. It presented a body of evidence that the diversity of life arose by common descent through a branching pattern of evolution. Darwin included evidence that he had gathered on the Beagle expedition in the 1830s and his subsequent findings from research, correspondence, and experimentation.

Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in April 1865.

Lincoln led the nation through the Civil War, its bloodiest war and its greatest moral, constitutional, and political crisis. In doing so, he preserved the Union, abolished slavery, strengthened the federal government, and modernized the economy.

The American Civil War was fought in the United States from 1861 to 1865. The Civil War is the most studied and written about episode in U.S. history. Primarily as a result of the long-standing controversy over the enslavement of black people, war broke out in April 1861 when secessionist forces attacked Fort Sumter in South Carolina shortly after Abraham Lincoln had been inaugurated as the President of the United States. The loyalists of the Union in the North proclaimed support for the Constitution. They faced secessionists of the Confederate States in the South, who advocated for states' rights to uphold slavery.

The war ended when General Robert E. Lee surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant at the Battle of Appomattox Court House. Confederate generals throughout the southern states followed suit. Much of the South's infrastructure was destroyed, especially the transportation systems. The Confederacy collapsed, slavery was abolished, and four million black slaves were freed. During the Reconstruction Era that followed the war, national unity was slowly restored, the national government expanded its power, and civil rights were guaranteed to freed black slaves through amendments to the Constitution and federal legislation.

The history of the London Underground began with the construction of the Metropolitan Railway, the world's first underground railway which opened in 1863 using gas-lit wooden carriages hauled by steam locomotives. The Metropolitan eventually extended more than 50 miles from Baker Street, London. By 1907 the District and Metropolitan Railways had electrified the underground sections of their lines.

The Charlottetown Conference was held in Charlottetown, PEI. At the conference Maritime union was virtually dropped, and the delegates agreed to meet a new conference in Québec to discuss a Canadian scheme for a union of all the colonies.

Text and image © The Canadian Encyclopedia

Andrew Johnson (December 29, 1808 – July 31, 1875) was the 17th president of the United States, serving from 1865 to 1869. Johnson assumed the presidency as he was vice president of the United States at the time of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.

A Democrat who ran with Lincoln on the National Union ticket, Johnson came to office as the Civil War concluded. He favored quick restoration of the seceded states to the Union. His plans did not give protection to the former slaves; he came into conflict with the Republican-dominated Congress, culminating in his impeachment by the House of Representatives. He was acquitted in the Senate by one vote.

John Russell, 1st Earl Russell, (18 August 1792 – 28 May 1878), known by his courtesy title Lord John Russell before 1861, was a leading Whig and Liberal politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom on two occasions during the early Victorian era.

When Palmerston suddenly died in late 1865, Russell again became Prime Minister. His second premiership was short and frustrating, and Russell failed in his great ambition of expanding the franchise, a task that would be left to his Conservative successors, Derby and Benjamin Disraeli. In 1866, party disunity again brought down his government.

Edward George Geoffrey Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby, (29 March 1799 – 23 October 1869) was a British statesman, three-time Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and, to date, the longest-serving leader of the Conservative Party. He was known before 1834 as Edward Stanley, and from 1834 to 1851 as Lord Stanley. He is one of only four British prime ministers to have three or more separate periods in office. However, his ministries all lasted less than two years and totalled three years and 280 days.

Derby returned to power for the third and last time in 1866. This administration was particularly notable for the passage of the Reform Act 1867, which greatly expanded the suffrage but which provoked the resignation of three cabinet ministers including the Secretary for India and three-time future Prime Minister, Lord Cranborne (later Lord Salisbury).

The British North America Act was passed by the British Parliament and given royal assent by Queen Victoria on 29 March. It came into effect on 1 July. The Act joined the colonies of Canada, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick in one federal union.

Text and image © The Canadian Encyclopedia

Sir John Alexander Macdonald (11 January 1815 – 6 June 1891) was the first prime minister of Canada (1867–1873, 1878–1891). The dominant figure of Canadian Confederation, he had a political career which spanned almost half a century. Macdonald was born in Scotland; when he was a boy his family immigrated to Kingston in the Province of Upper Canada (today in eastern Ontario).

In 1864, when no party proved capable of governing for long, Macdonald agreed to a proposal from his political rival, George Brown, that the parties unite in a Great Coalition to seek federation and political reform. Macdonald was the leading figure in the subsequent discussions and conferences, which resulted in the British North America Act and the birth of Canada as a nation on 1 July 1867. Macdonald was the first Prime Minister of the new nation, and served 19 years; only William Lyon Mackenzie King served longer.

Marie Skłodowska Curie; born Maria Salomea Skłodowska 7 November 1867 – 4 July 1934) was a Polish and naturalized-French physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity. She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, the first person and only woman to win twice, and the only person to win a Nobel Prize in two different sciences. She was part of the Curie family legacy of five Nobel Prizes. She was also the first woman to become a professor at the University of Paris, and in 1995 became the first woman to be entombed on her own merits in the Panthéon in Paris.

She was born in Warsaw, in what was then the Kingdom of Poland, part of the Russian Empire. She studied at Warsaw's clandestine Flying University and began her practical scientific training in Warsaw. In 1891, aged 24, she followed her older sister Bronisława to study in Paris, where she earned her higher degrees and conducted her subsequent scientific work. She shared the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics with her husband Pierre Curie and physicist Henri Becquerel. She won the 1911 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield, (21 December 1804 – 19 April 1881) was a British statesman who twice served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

During his first term of office, the Conservatives remained a minority in the House of Commons and the passage of the Reform Bill required the calling of a new election once the new voting register had been compiled. Disraeli's term as Prime Minister, which began in February 1868, would therefore be short.

William Ewart Gladstone (29 December 1809 – 19 May 1898) was a British statesman and Liberal Party politician. In a career lasting over sixty years, he served for twelve years as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, spread over four terms beginning in 1868 and ending in 1894.

Many reforms were passed during his first ministry, including the disestablishment of the Church of Ireland and the introduction of secret voting. After electoral defeat in 1874, Gladstone resigned as leader of the Liberal Party.

Ulysses S Grant (born Hiram Ulysses Grant;[b] April 27, 1822 – July 23, 1885) was the 18th president of the United States from 1869 to 1877, commanding general of the Army, soldier, international statesman, and author.

Elected the youngest 19th Century president in 1868, Grant stabilized the post-war national economy, created the Department of Justice, and prosecuted the Ku Klux Klan. He appointed African-Americans and Jewish-Americans to prominent federal offices. In 1871, Grant created the first Civil Service Commission. The Democrats and Liberal Republicans united behind Grant's opponent in the presidential election of 1872, but Grant was handily re-elected. Grant's new Peace Policy for Native Americans had both successes and failures.

With 120 men, Louis Riel occupied Fort Garry in the Red River Colony to block the transfer of the Northwest from the Hudson's Bay Company to Canada. The resistance resulted in the formation of the new province of Manitoba but Riel was exiled.

Text and image © The Canadian Encyclopedia

The 1870 Education Act stands as the very first piece of legislation to deal specifically with the provision of education in Britain. Most importantly, it demonstrated a commitment to provision on a national scale.

The Act allowed voluntary schools to carry on unchanged, but established a system of 'school boards' to build and manage schools in areas where they were needed. The boards were locally elected bodies which drew their funding from the local rates. Unlike the voluntary schools, religious teaching in the board schools was to be 'non-denominational'. A separate Act extended similar provisions to Scotland in 1872.

Ernest Rutherford was a New Zealand physicist known as the father of nuclear physics.

He received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1908 “for his investigations into the disintegration of the elements & the chemistry of radioactive substances.” He identified & named the Alpha & Beta

The Treaty of Washington granted Americans fishing rights in Canadian waters and the use of Canadian canals and the St Lawrence River. Canadians were allowed to navigate Lake Michigan, the St Clair Flats Canal and Alaskan rivers.

Text © The Canadian Encyclopedia<

The Numbered Treaties were a series of 11 treaties made between the Crown and Indigenous peoples of Canada from 1871 to 1921. They cover the area between the Lake of the Woods (northern Ontario, southern Manitoba) to the Rocky Mountains (northeastern British Columbia and interior Plains of Alberta) to the Beaufort Sea (north of Yukon and the Northwest Territories).

Treaty No. 1: The first post-Confederation treaty was signed at Lower Fort Garry, Man. The first of many “Numbered Treaties,” Treaty No. 1 was signed between the Crown and the Ojibwa and Swampy Cree Nations. The treaty included the provision of livestock, agricultural equipment and the establishment of schools in exchange for ceding large tracts of Aboriginal hunting grounds.

Text and image © The Canadian Encyclopedia

The Numbered Treaties were a series of 11 treaties made between the Crown and Indigenous peoples of Canada from 1871 to 1921. They cover the area between the Lake of the Woods (northern Ontario, southern Manitoba) to the Rocky Mountains (northeastern British Columbia and interior Plains of Alberta) to the Beaufort Sea (north of Yukon and the Northwest Territories).

Treaty No. 2 was concluded with Chippewa of Manitoba, who ceded land from the mouth of Winnipeg River to the northern shores of Lake Manitoba across the Assiniboine River to the United States frontier.

Text and image © The Canadian Encyclopedia

The Numbered Treaties were a series of 11 treaties made between the Crown and Indigenous peoples of Canada from 1871 to 1921. They cover the area between the Lake of the Woods (northern Ontario, southern Manitoba) to the Rocky Mountains (northeastern British Columbia and interior Plains of Alberta) to the Beaufort Sea (north of Yukon and the Northwest Territories).

Treaty No. 3 was signed by the Saulteaux (Chippewa) of northwestern Ontario and of Manitoba. For the surrender of a tract comprising about 55,000 sq. miles, the Dominion Government reserved not more than one square mile for each family of five and agreed to pay $12 per head and an annuity of $5 per head.

Text and image © The Canadian Encyclopedia

Alexander Mackenzie (January 28, 1822 – April 17, 1892), was a Scottish-Canadian politician who served as the second prime minister of Canada, in office from 1873 to 1878. Mackenzie was born in Logierait, Perthshire, Scotland and emigrated to Canada when he was 19, settling in what became Ontario.

In 1867, Mackenzie was elected to the new House of Commons of Canada for the Liberal Party. He became leader of the party (and thus Leader of the Opposition) in mid-1873, and a few months later succeeded John A. Macdonald as prime minister, following Macdonald's resignation in the aftermath of the Pacific Scandal. Mackenzie and the Liberals won a clear majority at the 1874 election.

As prime minister, Mackenzie continued the nation-building programme that had been begun by his predecessor. His government established the Supreme Court of Canada and Royal Military College of Canada, and created the District of Keewatin to better administer Canada's newly acquired western territories. At the 1878 election, Mackenzie's government suffered a landslide defeat.

Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield, (21 December 1804 – 19 April 1881) was a British statesman who twice served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

Disraeli's new government enacted many reforms, including: - the Artisans' and Labourers' Dwellings Improvement Act 1875, which made inexpensive loans available to towns and cities to construct working-class housing. - the Public Health Act 1875, modernising sanitary codes through the nation, - the Sale of Food and Drugs Act (1875) - the Education Act (1876). - the Factory Act meant to protect workers, - the Conspiracy, and Protection of Property Act 1875, which allowed peaceful picketing - the Employers and Workmen Act (1875) to enable workers to sue employers in the civil courts if they broke legal contracts.

As a result of these social reforms the Liberal-Labour MP Alexander Macdonald said, "The Conservative party have done more for the working classes in five years than the Liberals have in fifty."

The Numbered Treaties were a series of 11 treaties made between the Crown and Indigenous peoples of Canada from 1871 to 1921. They cover the area between the Lake of the Woods (northern Ontario, southern Manitoba) to the Rocky Mountains (northeastern British Columbia and interior Plains of Alberta) to the Beaufort Sea (north of Yukon and the Northwest Territories).

Treaty No. 4 was signed at Fort Qu'Appelle, Sask, with Cree, Saulteaux (Chippewa) and other First Nations.

Text and image © The Canadian Encyclopedia

The Numbered Treaties were a series of 11 treaties made between the Crown and Indigenous peoples of Canada from 1871 to 1921. They cover the area between the Lake of the Woods (northern Ontario, southern Manitoba) to the Rocky Mountains (northeastern British Columbia and interior Plains of Alberta) to the Beaufort Sea (north of Yukon and the Northwest Territories).

Treaty No. 5 was concluded at Lake Winnipeg ceding an area of approximately 100,000 sq. miles inhabited by Chippewa and Swampy Cree (Maskegon) of Manitoba and Ontario.

Text and image © The Canadian Encyclopedia

"Mr. Watson — Come here — I want to see you" were the first intelligible words spoken over the telephone, as recorded in Bell's Journal entry (10 March 1876). These are often misquoted as "Mr. Watson, come here, I want you." Watson later recounted that Bell had spilled battery acid and had called for him over the phone with these words, but this may have been in a separate incident.

The Numbered Treaties were a series of 11 treaties made between the Crown and Indigenous peoples of Canada from 1871 to 1921. They cover the area between the Lake of the Woods (northern Ontario, southern Manitoba) to the Rocky Mountains (northeastern British Columbia and interior Plains of Alberta) to the Beaufort Sea (north of Yukon and the Northwest Territories).

Treaty No. 6 was signed at Carlton and at Fort Pitt with the Plains Cree, Woodland Cree and Assiniboine. It ceded an area of 120,000 sq. miles of the plains of Saskatchewan and Alberta.

Text and image © The Canadian Encyclopedia

Rutherford Birchard Hayes (October 4, 1822 – January 17, 1893) was the 19th president of the United States from 1877 to 1881, having served also as an American representative and governor of Ohio. Hayes was a lawyer and staunch abolitionist who defended refugee slaves in court proceedings in the antebellum years.

Hayes believed in meritocratic government and equal treatment without regard to race. He ordered federal troops to guard federal buildings and in so doing restore order from the Great Railroad Strike of 1877. He implemented modest civil service reforms that laid the groundwork for further reform in the 1880s and 1890s. He vetoed the Bland–Allison Act, which would have put silver money into circulation.

The Numbered Treaties were a series of 11 treaties made between the Crown and Indigenous peoples of Canada from 1871 to 1921. They cover the area between the Lake of the Woods (northern Ontario, southern Manitoba) to the Rocky Mountains (northeastern British Columbia and interior Plains of Alberta) to the Beaufort Sea (north of Yukon and the Northwest Territories).

Treaty No. 7 was signed at Blackfoot Crossing in southern Alberta by the Blackfoot, Blood, Peigan, Sarsi and Stoney. Canadian officials understood that by the treaty First Nations surrendered some 35,000 sq miles of land to the Crown in return for reserves, payments and annuities.

Text and image © The Canadian Encyclopedia

Sir John Alexander Macdonald (11 January 1815 – 6 June 1891) was the first prime minister of Canada (1867–1873, 1878–1891). The dominant figure of Canadian Confederation, he had a political career which spanned almost half a century. Macdonald was born in Scotland; when he was a boy his family immigrated to Kingston in the Province of Upper Canada (today in eastern Ontario).

He was re-elected in 1878. Macdonald's greatest achievements were building and guiding a successful national government for the new Dominion, using patronage to forge a strong Conservative Party, promoting the protective tariff of the National Policy, and completing the railway. He fought to block provincial efforts to take power back from the national government in Ottawa. His most controversial move was to approve the execution of Métis leader Louis Riel for treason in 1885; it alienated many francophones from his Conservative Party. He died in 1891, still in office; he is respected today for his key role in the formation of Canada. Historical rankings have consistently placed Macdonald as one of the highest rated Prime Ministers in Canadian history.

Albert Einstein (14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist who developed the theory of relativity, one of the two pillars of modern physics (alongside quantum mechanics). His work is also known for its influence on the philosophy of science.

He is best known to the general public for his mass–energy equivalence formula E = mc2, which has been dubbed "the world's most famous equation". He received the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics "for his services to theoretical physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect", a pivotal step in the development of quantum theory.

William Ewart Gladstone (29 December 1809 – 19 May 1898) was a British statesman and Liberal Party politician. In a career lasting over sixty years, he served for twelve years as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, spread over four terms beginning in 1868 and ending in 1894.

Historians have debated the wisdom of Gladstone's foreign-policy during his second ministry. Paul Hayes says it "provides one of the most intriguing and perplexing tales of muddle and incompetence in foreign affairs, unsurpassed in modern political history until the days of Grey and, later, Neville Chamberlain."

British sovereignty over the Arctic Islands passed to Canada.

Arctic sovereignty is a key part of Canada’s history and future — 40 per cent of the country’s landmass is in its three northern territories, and the country has 162,000 kilometers of Arctic coastline

Text and image © The Canadian Encyclopedia

James Abram Garfield (November 19, 1831 – September 19, 1881) was the 20th president of the United States, serving from March 4, 1881 until his death by assassination six and a half months later.

Garfield was shot by Charles J. Guiteau, a disgruntled office seeker, at the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Station in Washington, DC on July 2, 1881. After eleven weeks of intensive and other care Garfield died in Elberon, New Jersey, the second of four presidents to be assassinated, following Abraham Lincoln.

Sir Alexander Fleming (6 August 1881 – 11 March 1955) was a Scottish physician, microbiologist, and pharmacologist. His best-known discoveries are the enzyme lysozyme in 1923 and the world's first antibiotic substance benzylpenicillin (Penicillin G) from the mould Penicillium notatum in 1928, for which he shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1945 with Howard Florey and Ernst Boris Chain. He wrote many articles on bacteriology, immunology, and chemotherapy.

Chester Alan Arthur (October 5, 1829 – November 18, 1886) was an American attorney and politician who served as the 21st president of the United States from 1881 to 1885; he was the 20th vice president of the United States and became president upon the death (assassination) of President James Garfield in September 1881.

Arthur arrived in Washington, D.C. on September 21. On September 22, he re-took the oath of office, this time before Chief Justice Morrison R. Waite. Arthur took this step to ensure procedural compliance; there had been a lingering question about whether a state court judge (Brady) could administer a federal oath of office. He initially took up residence at the home of Senator John P. Jones, while White House remodeling he ordered was carried out, including the addition of an elaborate fifty-foot glass screen made by Louis Comfort Tiffany, which remained in a White House corridor until it was dismantled in 1902.

A prime meridian, based at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, in London was established by Sir George Airy in 1851. By 1884, over two-thirds of all ships and tonnage used it as the reference meridian on their charts and maps. In October of that year, at the behest of US President Chester A. Arthur, 41 delegates from 25 nations met in Washington, D.C., United States, for the International Meridian Conference. This conference selected the meridian passing through Greenwich as the official prime meridian due to its popularity. However, France abstained from the vote, and French maps continued to use the Paris meridian for several decades.

Stephen Grover Cleveland (March 18, 1837 – June 24, 1908) was an American politician and lawyer who was the 22nd and 24th president of the United States, the only president in American history to serve two non-consecutive terms in office (1885–1889 and 1893–1897).

Cleveland was the leader of the pro-business Bourbon Democrats who opposed high tariffs, Free Silver, inflation, imperialism, and subsidies to business, farmers, or veterans on libertarian philosophical grounds.

Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, (3 February 1830 – 22 August 1903), styled Lord Robert Cecil before 1865 and Viscount Cranborne from June 1865 until April 1868, was a British statesman and Conservative Party politician, serving as Prime Minister three times for a total of over thirteen years. He was the last Prime Minister to head his full administration from the House of Lords.

He became Prime Minister of a minority administration from 1885 to 1886. In the November 1883 issue of National Review Salisbury wrote an article titled "Labourers' and Artisans' Dwellings" in which he argued that the poor conditions of working class housing were injurious to morality and health

The last spike was driven by Donald Smith at Craigellachie, BC, at the western entrance to Eagle Pass, in a ceremony marking the completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway. The CPR provided a transportation link from Atlantic to Pacific.

Text and image © The Canadian Encyclopedia

Louis Riel was hanged for treason at the Regina jail. He had been convicted after a trial held in Regina from 28 July to 1 August. Macdonald's refusal to grant leniency made Riel a symbol of English-Canadian oppression.

Text and image © The Canadian Encyclopedia

William Ewart Gladstone (29 December 1809 – 19 May 1898) was a British statesman and Liberal Party politician. In a career lasting over sixty years, he served for twelve years as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, spread over four terms beginning in 1868 and ending in 1894.

During this administration he first introduced his Home Rule Bill for Ireland. The issue split the Liberal Party (a breakaway group went on to create the Liberal Unionist party) and the bill was thrown out on the second reading, ending his government after only a few months and inaugurating another headed by Lord Salisbury.

Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, (3 February 1830 – 22 August 1903), styled Lord Robert Cecil before 1865 and Viscount Cranborne from June 1865 until April 1868, was a British statesman and Conservative Party politician, serving as Prime Minister three times for a total of over thirteen years. He was the last Prime Minister to head his full administration from the House of Lords.

In 1889 Salisbury set up the London County Council and then in 1890 allowed it to build houses. However, he came to regret this, saying in November 1894 that the LCC, "is the place where collectivist and socialistic experiments are tried. It is the place where a new revolutionary spirit finds its instruments and collects its arms".

John Logie Baird (13 August 1888 – 14 June 1946) was a Scottish engineer, innovator, one of the inventors of the mechanical television, demonstrating the first working television system on 26 January 1926, and inventor of both the first publicly demonstrated colour television system, and the first purely electronic colour television picture tube.

In 1928 the Baird Television Development Company achieved the first transatlantic television transmission. Baird's early technological successes and his role in the practical introduction of broadcast television for home entertainment have earned him a prominent place in television's history.

Benjamin Harrison (August 20, 1833 – March 13, 1901) was an American politician and lawyer who served as the 23rd president of the United States from 1889 to 1893. He was a grandson of the ninth president, William Henry Harrison, creating the only grandfather–grandson duo to have held the office.

Harrison's administration included unprecedented economic legislation, including the McKinley Tariff, which imposed historic protective trade rates, and the Sherman Antitrust Act. Harrison also facilitated the creation of the national forest reserves through an amendment to the Land Revision Act of 1891. During his administration six western states were admitted to the Union.

The Manitoba School Act abolished publicly funded support for separate schools for Catholics. The aggrieved French minority argued that the Act violated the agreements under which Manitoba entered Confederation.

Text © The Canadian Encyclopedia

Sir John Joseph Caldwell Abbott, (March 12, 1821 – October 30, 1893), was a Canadian lawyer and politician, who served as the third prime minister of Canada, in office from 1891 to 1892. He held office as the leader of the Conservative Party. Abbott was born in what is now Saint-André-d'Argenteuil, Quebec.

In the 1867 federal election, Abbott was elected to the new House of Commons of Canada as a member of the Conservative Party. A telegram leaked from his office played a key part in the Pacific Scandal of 1873, which led to the downfall of John A. Macdonald's first government. Abbott was appointed to the Senate in 1887, in order to become Leader of the Government in the Senate. He became prime minister in June 1891 following Macdonald's death in office. Abbott was 70 years old at the time, and served only until November 1892

Sir James Chadwick was an English physicist. When his university Professor, Ernest Rutherford became the Director of Research at Cavendish Lab, he invited Chadwick to join him. While there, he discovered the neutron, for which he won the 1935 Nobel Prize in Physics. It led to the development of the atomic bomb. He was distressed that his discovery had been used to kill many innocent people

Ellis Island, in Upper New York Bay, was the gateway for over 12 million immigrants to the U.S. as the United States' busiest immigrant inspection station for over 60 years from 1892 until 1954. Ellis Island was opened January 1, 1892. The island was greatly expanded with land reclamation between 1892 and 1934. Before that, the much smaller original island was the site of Fort Gibson and later a naval magazine.

The island was made part of the Statue of Liberty National Monument in 1965 and has hosted a museum of immigration since 1990. "As a visitor to this place, you stand in awe. It has the aura of an ancient cathedral, redolent with the millions who passed through these doors."

William Ewart Gladstone (29 December 1809 – 19 May 1898) was a British statesman and Liberal Party politician. In a career lasting over sixty years, he served for twelve years as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, spread over four terms beginning in 1868 and ending in 1894.

The general election of 1892 resulted in a minority Liberal government with Gladstone as Prime Minister. The electoral address had promised Irish Home Rule and the disestablishment of the Scottish and Welsh Churches.[118] In February 1893 he introduced the Second Home Rule Bill, which was passed in the Commons at second reading on 21 April by 43 votes and third reading on 1 September by 34 votes. The House of Lords defeated the bill by voting against by 419 votes to 41 on 8 September.

Sir John Sparrow David Thompson (November 10, 1845 – December 12, 1894) was a Canadian lawyer, judge, and politician who served as the fourth prime minister of Canada, in office from 1892 until his death. He had previously been premier of Nova Scotia for a brief period in 1882. Thompson was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia. . In 1885, Thompson entered federal politics at the personal request of Sir John A. Macdonald, becoming Minister of Justice. In that role he was the driving force behind the enactment of the Canadian Criminal Code. Thompson became prime minister in 1892, following the retirement of John Abbott. He was the first Roman Catholic to hold the position. On a trip to England in 1894, Thompson unexpectedly suffered a heart attack and died, aged 49

Stephen Grover Cleveland (March 18, 1837 – June 24, 1908) was an American politician and lawyer who was the 22nd and 24th president of the United States, the only president in American history to serve two non-consecutive terms in office (1885–1889 and 1893–1897).

As his second administration began, disaster hit the nation when the Panic of 1893 produced a severe national depression, which Cleveland was unable to reverse. It ruined his Democratic Party, opening the way for a Republican landslide in 1894

London’s iconic Tower Bridge opens. The bridge’s twin towers, high-level walkways and Victorian engine rooms now form part of the Tower Bridge Exhibition.

Tower Bridge was built to ease road traffic while maintaining river access to the busy Pool of London docks. Built with giant moveable roadways that lift up for passing ships, it is to this day considered an engineering marvel and beyond being one of London’s favourite icons, it is arguably one of the most famous and instantly recognisable structures in the entire world.

Archibald Philip Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery, 1st Earl of Midlothian, (7 May 1847 – 21 May 1929) was a British Liberal politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from March 1894 to June 1895.

Rosebery's government was largely unsuccessful, as in the Armenian crisis of 1895–96. He spoke out for a strongly pro-Armenian and anti-Turkish policy. Gladstone, a prime minister in retirement, called on Britain to intervene alone. The added pressure weakened Rosebery.His designs in foreign policy, such as expansion of the fleet, were defeated by disagreements within the Liberal Party. He angered all the European powers.

Sir Mackenzie Bowell (December 27, 1823 – December 10, 1917) was a Canadian newspaper publisher and politician, who served as the fifth prime minister of Canada, in office from 1894 to 1896. Bowell was born in Rickinghall, Suffolk, England. He and his family moved to Belleville, Ontario, in 1832.

In December 1894, Prime Minister Thompson unexpectedly died in office, aged only 49. The Earl of Aberdeen, Canada's governor general, appointed Bowell to replace Thompson as prime minister, due to his status as the most senior cabinet member. The main problem of Bowell's tenure as prime minister was the Manitoba Schools Question. His attempts at compromise alienated members of his own party, and following a Cabinet revolt in early 1896 he was forced to resign in favour of Charles Tupper.

Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, (3 February 1830 – 22 August 1903), styled Lord Robert Cecil before 1865 and Viscount Cranborne from June 1865 until April 1868, was a British statesman and Conservative Party politician, serving as Prime Minister three times for a total of over thirteen years. He was the last Prime Minister to head his full administration from the House of Lords.

Among the important events of his premierships was the Scramble for Africa, culminating in the Fashoda Incident which escalated tensions with France, and the long, brutal and unpopular Second Boer War in South Africa.

Clifford Sifton removed red tape, broadened the selection of potential immigrants and offered incentives to those who would come to settle the Canadian West, "the last, best West." The result was an influx of immigrants from eastern and southern Europe that changed the composition of the Canadian population forever.

Text and image © The Canadian Encyclopedia

Sir Charles Tupper, 1st Baronet, (July 2, 1821 – October 30, 1915) was a Canadian father of Confederation: as the premier of Nova Scotia from 1864 to 1867, he led Nova Scotia into Confederation. He went on to serve as the sixth prime minister of Canada, sworn into office on May 1, 1896, seven days after parliament had been dissolved. He lost the June 23 election and resigned on July 8, 1896. His 69-day term as prime minister is currently the shortest in Canadian history.

In 1895, the government of Sir Mackenzie Bowell foundered over the Manitoba Schools Question; as a result, several leading members of the Conservative Party of Canada demanded the return of Tupper to serve as prime minister. Tupper accepted this invitation and returned to Canada, becoming prime minister in May 1896. An election was called, just before he was sworn in as prime minister, which his party lost to Wilfrid Laurier and the Liberals.

In the federal election, the Liberals defeated the Conservatives with 118 seats to 88. Wilfrid Laurier became Canada's first French-Canadian prime minister and marked a turning point in Canadian politics after years of Conservative Party rule.

Text and image © The Canadian Encyclopedia

George Washington Carmack, Skookum Jim and Tagish Charlie discovered gold on Bonanza Creek, a tributary of the Klondike River. During the Klondike Gold Rush from 1897 to 1899 at least 100,000 people stampeded to the gold fields.

Text and image © The Canadian Encyclopedia

Sir John Douglas Cockcroft was a British physicist who shared the 1951 Nobel Prize in Physics with Ernest Walton for their work on splitting the atom. His university studies were cut short by WWI. Afterwards he resumed his studies and on graduating he worked with Rutherford in the Cavendish Labs. He collaborated with Ernest Walton and their research was instrumental in the development of nuclear power.

William McKinley (January 29, 1843 – September 14, 1901) was the 25th president of the United States, serving from March 4, 1897, until his assassination six months into his second term.

McKinley led the nation to victory in the Spanish–American War, raised protective tariffs to promote American industry and kept the nation on the gold standard in a rejection of free silver (effectively, expansionary monetary policy). He was shot on September 6, 1901 by Leon Czolgosz, a second-generation Polish-American with anarchist leanings. McKinley died eight days later

The Spanish–American War was fought between the United States and Spain in 1898. Hostilities began in the aftermath of the internal explosion of USS Maine in Havana Harbor in Cuba, leading to U.S. intervention in the Cuban War of Independence. U.S. acquisition of Spain's Pacific possessions led to its involvement in the Philippine Revolution and ultimately in the Philippine–American War.

The result was the 1898 Treaty of Paris, negotiated on terms favorable to the U.S. which allowed it temporary control of Cuba and ceded ownership of Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippine islands. The cession of the Philippines involved payment of $20 million ($602,320,000 today) to Spain by the U.S. to cover infrastructure owned by Spain.

The Philippine–American War, was an armed conflict between the First Philippine Republic and the United States that lasted from February 4, 1899, to July 2, 1902. While Filipino nationalists viewed the conflict as a continuation of the struggle for independence that began in 1896 with the Philippine Revolution, the U.S. government regarded it as an insurrection. The conflict arose when the First Philippine Republic objected to the terms of the Treaty of Paris under which the United States took possession of the Philippines from Spain, ending the short Spanish–American War.

The war, and especially the following occupation by the U.S., changed the culture of the islands, leading to the disestablishment of the Catholic Church in the Philippines as a state religion, and the introduction of English to the islands as the primary language of government, education, business, industry, and, in future decades, among upper-class families and educated individuals.

The Numbered Treaties were a series of 11 treaties made between the Crown and Indigenous peoples of Canada from 1871 to 1921. They cover the area between the Lake of the Woods (northern Ontario, southern Manitoba) to the Rocky Mountains (northeastern British Columbia and interior Plains of Alberta) to the Beaufort Sea (north of Yukon and the Northwest Territories).

Treaty No. 8: Cree, Beaver, Chipewyan and Slavey First Nations ceded territory south and west of Great Slave Lake in northern Alberta to the federal government.

Text and image © The Canadian Encyclopedia

The Boxer Rebellion was an anti-foreign, anti-colonial, and anti-Christian uprising that took place in China between 1899 and 1901, toward the end of the Qing dynasty. They were motivated by proto-nationalist sentiments and by opposition to Western colonialism and the Christian missionary activity that was associated with it.

The Boxer Protocol of 7 September 1901 provided for the execution of government officials who had supported the Boxers, provisions for foreign troops to be stationed in Beijing, and 450 million taels of silver—approximately $10 billion at 2018 silver prices and more than the government's annual tax revenue—to be paid as indemnity over the course of the next thirty-nine years to the eight nations involved. The Empress Dowager then sponsored a set of institutional and fiscal changes in a failed attempt to save the dynasty.

Fought by Britain and her Empire against the descendants of the Dutch settlers (Boers) in the Transvaal region of South Africa, the Second Boer War highlighted the limitations of 19th C military methods, employing for the first time modern automatic weapons and high explosives to decimate the enemy

Edward VII was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Emperor of India from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910. The eldest son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, Edward was related to royalty throughout Europe. During his mother's long reign he was excluded from political power, and personified the fashionable, leisured elite. Despite public approval his reputation as a playboy prince soured his relationship with his mother.

As king, Edward fostered good relations between Britain and other European countries, especially France, for which he was popularly called "Peacemaker", but his relationship with his nephew, the German Emperor Wilhelm II, was poor. The Edwardian era, which covered Edward's reign and was named after him, coincided with the start of a new century and heralded significant changes in technology and society, including steam turbine propulsion and the rise of socialism

Theodore Roosevelt Jr. (October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919) was an American statesman and writer who served as the 26th president of the United States from 1901 to 1909. He also served as the 25th vice president of the United States from March to September 1901 and as the 33rd governor of New York from 1899 to 1900.

He became President at age 42 following McKinley's assassination that September, and remains the youngest person to become President of the United States. As a leader of the Republican Party during this time, he became a driving force for the Progressive Era in the United States in the early 20th century. His face is depicted on Mount Rushmore, alongside those of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Abraham Lincoln. In polls of historians and political scientists, Roosevelt is generally ranked as one of the five best presidents.

Arthur James Balfour, 1st Earl of Balfour, (25 July 1848 – 19 March 1930) was a British statesman and Conservative Party politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1902 to 1905.

He oversaw reform of British defence policy and secured the Entente Cordiale with France, leaving Germany in the cold. Resignations from the Cabinet over tariffs left his party divided. He also suffered from public anger at the later stages of the Boer war and the importation of Chinese labour to South Africa.

Paul Dirac was an English theoretical physicist and one of the pioneers in quantum mechanics and quantum electrodynamics. He proposed the existence of anti-matter purely on the basis of his mathematical logic. The winner of several prestigious awards including the 1933 Nobel Prize for physics which he shared with Erwin Schrödinger, he turned down a knighthood as he did not want to be addressed by his first name.

Roald Amundsen, travelling west of King William Island, sighted an American whaling ship that had come from San Francisco. At this point, he knew that he had achieved the Northwest Passage, a quest that had obsessed explorers for nearly 400 years.

Text and image © The Canadian Encyclopedia

Alberta and Saskatchewan entered Canada as the 8th and 9th provinces by two federal Acts which received royal assent on 20 July. Alberta's boundary with Saskatchewan was set at 110°, though Albertans wanted 107°. The Acts (Autonomy Bills) declared that the West was to have non-denominational schools

Text and image © The Canadian Encyclopedia

Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman (7 September 1836 – 22 April 1908) was a British statesman and Liberal Party politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1905 to 1908. He was the first First Lord of the Treasury to be officially called "Prime Minister", the term only coming into official usage five days after he took office.

When Arthur Balfour resigned as Prime Minister, Edward VII invited Campbell-Bannerman to form a minority government as the first Liberal Prime Minister of the 20th century. At 69, he was the oldest person to become Prime Minister for the first time in the 20th century. He almost immediately dissolved Parliament and called a general election.

Charles Edward Saunders completed the development of Marquis wheat, a fast-maturing variety suited to the Prairies. It was first distributed to farmers in 1909 and greatly extended the area in which wheat could be grown. By 1920 it comprised 90% of the wheat grown on the Prairies.

Text © The Canadian Encyclopedia photo courtesy Grace Taylor.

Air Commodore Sir Frank Whittle, (1 June 1907 – 9 August 1996) was a British Royal Air Force air officer. He is credited with single-handedly inventing the turbojet engine. A patent was submitted by Maxime Guillaume in 1921 for a similar invention; however, this was technically unfeasible at the time. Whittle's jet engines were developed some years earlier than those of Germany's Hans von Ohain who was the designer of the first operational turbojet engine.

Herbert Henry Asquith, 1st Earl of Oxford and Asquith, (12 September 1852 – 15 February 1928), generally known as H. H. Asquith, was a British statesman and Liberal Party politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1908 to 1916.

He was the last prime minister to lead a majority Liberal government. He played a central role in the design and passage of major liberal legislation and a reduction of the power of the House of Lords. In August 1914, Asquith took Great Britain and the British Empire into the First World War. In 1915 his government was vigorously attacked for the shortage of munitions and the failure at Gallipoli. He formed a coalition government with the other parties but failed to satisfy critics. He was forced to resign in December 1916 and never regained power.

William Howard Taft (September 15, 1857 – March 8, 1930) was the 27th president of the United States (1909–1913) and the tenth chief justice of the United States (1921–1930), the only person to have held both offices. Taft was elected president in 1908, the chosen successor of Theodore Roosevelt.

His administration was filled with conflict between the conservative wing of the Republican Party, with which Taft sympathized, and the progressive wing, toward which Roosevelt moved more and more. Controversies over conservation and antitrust cases filed by the Taft administration served to further separate the two men. Roosevelt challenged Taft for renomination in 1912. Taft used his control of the party machinery to gain a bare majority of delegates and Roosevelt bolted the party.

George V's reign saw the rise of socialism, communism, fascism, Irish republicanism, and the Indian independence movement, all of which radically changed the political landscape. The Parliament Act 1911 established the supremacy of the elected British House of Commons over the unelected House of Lords. As a result of the First World War (1914–1918), the empires of his first cousins Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany fell, while the British Empire expanded to its greatest effective extent.

In 1917, George became the first monarch of the House of Windsor, which he renamed from the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha as a result of anti-German public sentiment. In 1924 he appointed the first Labour ministry and in 1931 the Statute of Westminster recognised the dominions of the Empire as separate, independent states within the Commonwealth of Nations.

Sir Robert Laird Borden, (June 26, 1854 – June 10, 1937) was a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the eighth prime minister of Canada, in office from 1911 to 1920. He is best known for his leadership of Canada during World War I. Borden was born in Grand-Pré, Nova Scotia.

He was elected to the House of Commons of Canada in 1896, representing the Conservative Party. He replaced Charles Tupper as party leader in 1901, and became prime minister after the party's victory at the 1911 federal election. As prime minister, Borden led Canada through World War I and its immediate aftermath. For the 1917 federal election (the first in six years), Borden created the Unionist Party, an amalgam of Conservatives and pro-conscription Liberals; his government was re-elected with an overwhelming majority.

RMS Titanic sank in the early morning of 15 Apr 1912, 4 days into its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York. The largest liner in service at the time, her sinking killed over 1,500 people, one of the deadliest peacetime maritime disasters in history. The disaster caused widespread outrage over the lack of lifeboats, lax regulations, and unequal treatment of the 3 passenger classes during evacuation

Computers owe their existence to British mathematician, Alan Turing. A child prodigy, he went on to pursue his PhD at Princeton University. He was an important member of a group of code-breakers in the Government Code and Cypher School in Bletchley Park and was given the daunting task of deciphering the ever-changing German codes sent by Enigma. He and his team of code-breakers were successful. Despite his part in ensuring the defeat of Germany he was prosecuted for his homosexuality, and committed suicide. In 2009 the British government issued a public apology for the way he was treated and in 2013 he was posthumously pardoned.

Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856 – February 3, 1924) was an American statesman and academic who served as the 28th president of the United States from 1913 to 1921.

A member of the Democratic Party, Wilson served as the president of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and as governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913, before winning the 1912 presidential election. As president, he oversaw the passage of progressive legislative policies unparalleled until the New Deal in 1933. He also led the United States during World War I, establishing an activist foreign policy known as "Wilsonianism." He was one of the three key leaders at the 1919 Paris Peace Conference, where he championed a new League of Nations, but he was unable to win Senate approval for US participation in the League.

World War I (often abbreviated as WWI or WW1), also known as the First World War or the Great War, was a global war originating in Europe. Contemporaneously described as "the war to end all wars", it led to the mobilisation of more than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, making it one of the largest wars in history. It was also one of the deadliest conflicts in history; an estimated nine million combatants and seven million civilians died as a direct result of the war, while resulting genocides and the 1918 influenza pandemic caused another 50 to 100 million deaths worldwide.

The Sinking of RMS Lusitania occurred on Friday, 7 May 1915 during WWI, as Germany waged submarine warfare against the UK which had implemented a naval blockade of Germany. The ship was torpedoed by a U-boat and sank in 18 minutes, killing 1,198 and leaving 761 survivors. The sinking turned public opinion in many countries against Germany, and contributed to the American entry into WWI

Born in New Zealand, Maurice Wilkins was a biophysicist awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. He worked in the Manhattan project but lost interest in nuclear weapons and changed to biophysics. He and Rosalind Franklin provided the secondary research to the double helix theory. He shared the Nobel Prize with Watson and Crick as Franklin died in 1958.

The Easter Rising was an armed insurrection in Ireland during Easter, launched by Irish republicans to end British rule in Ireland. 485 people were killed, over 2,600 wounded. Many of the civilians were killed as a result of the British using artillery and heavy machine guns, or mistaking civilians for rebels. Others were caught in the crossfire in a crowded city. It left parts of Dublin in ruins

Francis Crick was an English molecular biologist, biophysicist, and neuroscientist. He is the co-discoverer of the structure of the DNA molecule. He, along with Watson and Maurice Wilkins were jointly awarded the 1962 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine ‘for their discoveries concerning the molecular structure of nucleic acids, the Double Helix and its significance for information transfer in living material’

David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor, (17 January 1863 – 26 March 1945) was a British statesman and Liberal Party politician. He was the final Liberal to serve as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

As Chancellor of the Exchequer (1908–1915) during H. H. Asquith's tenure as Prime Minister, Lloyd George was a key figure in the introduction of many reforms which laid the foundations of the modern welfare state. His most important role came as the highly energetic Prime Minister of the Wartime Coalition Government (1916–22), during and immediately after the First World War. He was a major player at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 that reordered Europe after the defeat of the Central Powers.

The Zimmermann Telegram (or Zimmermann Note or Zimmerman Cable) was a secret diplomatic communication issued from the German Foreign Office in January 1917 that proposed a military alliance between Germany and Mexico. In the event that the United States entered World War I against Germany, Mexico would recover Texas, Arizona and New Mexico. The telegram was intercepted and decoded by British intelligence. Revelation of the contents enraged Americans, especially after German Foreign Secretary Arthur Zimmermann publicly admitted the telegram was genuine on March 3, and helped generate support for the United States declaration of war on Germany in April. The decryption was described as the most significant intelligence triumph for Britain during World War I, and one of the earliest occasions on which a piece of signal intelligence influenced world events.

At Halifax, the French munitions ship Mont Blanc collided with the Belgian relief ship Imo. The resulting explosion, the largest before the advent of the atomic bomb, killed more than 1,600 people and injured 9,000 in Canada's worst disaster.

Text and image © The Canadian Encyclopedia

As WWI moved to its end the world was swept with a pandemic of epic proportions, killing more people than the fighting. It was called Spanish Flu because it only became widely reported when it reached neutral Spain, press censorship having suppressed news of it elsewhere. One theory is that it was brought to Europe by US Troops. patient zero having been traced to a military training camp in the United States

Arthur Meighen (16 June 1874 – 5 August 1960) was a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the ninth prime minister of Canada, in office from July 1920 to December 1921 and again from June to September 1926. Meighen was born in rural Perth County, Ontario. Meighen entered the House of Commons of Canada in 1908, aged 34, and in 1913 was appointed to the Cabinet of Prime Minister Sir Robert Borden. In 1920, Meighen succeeded Borden as Conservative leader and Prime Minister. He suffered a heavy defeat in the 1921 election to Mackenzie King and the Liberal Party.

Meighen's brief second term as Prime Minister came about as the result of the "King–Byng Affair," being invited to form a ministry after Mackenzie King was refused an election request and resigned. He soon lost a no-confidence motion, however, and faced another federal election. Meighen lost his own seat, and the Conservatives lost 24, as Mackenzie King's Liberals re-took power.

Rosalind Franklin was a renowned English chemist who did pioneering work in X-ray crystallography. Her most important discovery was the structure of DNA molecule. Working with Maurice Wilkins and a doctorate student Raymond Gosling, she was able to correctly assess the structure of DNA. Her theory that DNA consists of two helical structures was later confirmed by scientists James Watson and Francis Crick

Warren Gamaliel Harding (November 2, 1865 – August 2, 1923) was the 29th president of the United States from 1921 until his death in 1923, a member of the Republican Party.

At that time, he was one of the most popular U.S. presidents, but the subsequent exposure of scandals that took place under his administration such as Teapot Dome eroded his popular regard, as did revelations of an affair by Nan Britton, one of his mistresses. In historical rankings of the U.S. presidents, Harding is often rated among the worst.

Frederick Banting and Charles Best at the University of Toronto first isolated insulin. The first diabetes patient was treated on 11 January 1922. Banting and J.J.R. Macleod received the Nobel Prize for their achievement. [The award was controversial - see full article]

Text © The Canadian Encyclopedia Photo (courtesy Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, U of Toronto)

William Lyon Mackenzie King (December 17, 1874 – July 22, 1950) was the dominant Canadian political leader from the 1920s through the 1940s. He served as the tenth prime minister of Canada in 1921–1926, 1926–1930 and 1935–1948. He is best known for his leadership of Canada throughout the Second World War (1939–1945) when he mobilized Canadian money, supplies and volunteers to support Britain while boosting the economy and maintaining morale on the home front.

King acceded to the leadership of the Liberal Party in 1919. Taking the helm of a party bitterly torn apart during the First World War, he reconciled factions, unifying the Liberal Party and leading it to victory in the 1921 election. His party was out of office during the harshest days of the Great Depression in Canada, 1930–35; he returned when the economy was on an upswing.

A survey of scholars in 1997 by Maclean's magazine ranked King first among all Canada's prime ministers, ahead of Sir John A. Macdonald and Sir Wilfrid Laurier. As historian Jack Granatstein notes, "the scholars expressed little admiration for King the man but offered unbounded admiration for his political skills and attention to Canadian unity."

Andrew Bonar Law (16 September 1858 – 30 October 1923), commonly called Bonar Law was a British Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1922 to 1923

Bonar Law was the shortest-serving PM of the 20th century. He is often referred to as "the unknown Prime Minister", not least because of a biography of that title by Robert Blake; the name comes from a remark by Asquith at Bonar Law's funeral, that they were burying the Unknown Prime Minister next to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Sir Steven Runciman is reported to have said that he had known all British Prime Ministers in his lifetime, except Bonar Law whom no one knew.

Stanley Baldwin, 1st Earl Baldwin of Bewdley, (3 August 1867 – 14 December 1947) was a British statesman and Conservative Party politician who dominated the government in his country between the world wars. Three times Prime Minister, he is the only British prime minister to have served under three monarchs.

Upon Bonar Law's resignation due to health reasons in May 1923, Baldwin became Prime Minister and Leader of the Conservative Party. He called an election on the issue of tariffs and lost the Conservatives' parliamentary majority, after which Ramsay MacDonald formed a minority Labour government.

John Calvin Coolidge Jr. (July 4, 1872 – January 5, 1933) was an American politician and the 30th president of the United States from 1923 to 1929. In 1920 he was elected vice president of the United States, and he succeeded to the presidency upon the sudden death of Warren G. Harding in 1923.

Elected in his own right in 1924, he gained a reputation as a small government conservative and also as a man who said very little, although having a rather dry sense of humor. Coolidge restored public confidence in the White House after the scandals of his predecessor's administration, and left office with considerable popularity

James Ramsay MacDonald FRS (12 October 1866 – 9 November 1937) was a British statesman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1929 to 1935. He was the first Labour Party politician to become Prime Minister, leading minority Labour governments in 1924 and in 1929–31. He headed a National Government from 1931 to 1935, dominated by the Conservative Party and supported by only a few Labour members.

In 1924, his first priority was to undo the perceived damage caused by the 1919 Treaty of Versailles, by settling the reparations issue and coming to terms with Germany. The king noted in his diary, "He wishes to do the right thing.... Today 23 years ago dear Grandmama died. I wonder what she would have thought of a Labour Government!"

Stanley Baldwin, 1st Earl Baldwin of Bewdley, (3 August 1867 – 14 December 1947) was a British statesman and Conservative Party politician who dominated the government in his country between the world wars. Three times Prime Minister, he is the only British prime minister to have served under three monarchs.

Baldwin's second government saw reforms in areas formerly associated with the Liberal Party. They included industrial conciliation, unemployment insurance, a more extensive old-age pension system, slum clearance, more private housing, and expansion of maternal and childcare. His government also saw the General Strike in 1926 and the Trade Disputes and Trade Unions Act 1927 to curb the powers of trade unions.

John Logie Baird makes the first public demonstration of a mechanical television on 26 January at Selfridge's department store in London (the first successful transmissions were in early 1923 and February 1924). Later, in July 1928, he demonstrated the first colour television.

Arthur Meighen (16 June 1874 – 5 August 1960) was a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the ninth prime minister of Canada, in office from July 1920 to December 1921 and again from June to September 1926. Meighen was born in rural Perth County, Ontario. Meighen entered the House of Commons of Canada in 1908, aged 34, and in 1913 was appointed to the Cabinet of Prime Minister Sir Robert Borden. In 1920, Meighen succeeded Borden as Conservative leader and Prime Minister. He suffered a heavy defeat in the 1921 election to Mackenzie King and the Liberal Party.

Meighen's brief second term as Prime Minister came about as the result of the "King–Byng Affair," being invited to form a ministry after Mackenzie King was refused an election request and resigned. He soon lost a no-confidence motion, however, and faced another federal election. Meighen lost his own seat, and the Conservatives lost 24, as Mackenzie King's Liberals re-took power.

William Lyon Mackenzie King (December 17, 1874 – July 22, 1950) was the dominant Canadian political leader from the 1920s through the 1940s. He served as the tenth prime minister of Canada in 1921–1926, 1926–1930 and 1935–1948. He is best known for his leadership of Canada throughout the Second World War (1939–1945) when he mobilized Canadian money, supplies and volunteers to support Britain while boosting the economy and maintaining morale on the home front.

King acceded to the leadership of the Liberal Party in 1919. Taking the helm of a party bitterly torn apart during the First World War, he reconciled factions, unifying the Liberal Party and leading it to victory in the 1921 election. His party was out of office during the harshest days of the Great Depression in Canada, 1930–35; he returned when the economy was on an upswing.

A survey of scholars in 1997 by Maclean's magazine ranked King first among all Canada's prime ministers, ahead of Sir John A. Macdonald and Sir Wilfrid Laurier. As historian Jack Granatstein notes, "the scholars expressed little admiration for King the man but offered unbounded admiration for his political skills and attention to Canadian unity."

The Representation of the People (Equal Franchise) Act 1928 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. This act expanded on the Representation of the People Act 1918 which had given some women the vote in Parliamentary elections for the first time after World War I. The 1928 Act widened suffrage by giving women electoral equality with men. It gave the vote to all women over 21 years old, regardless of property ownership. Prior to this act only women over 30 who met minimum property qualifications could vote.

James Watson is an American molecular biologist, geneticist and zoologist who co-discovered the molecular structure of DNA. His discovery has been described by other biologists and Nobel laureates as the most important scientific discovery of the 20th C. Crick, Wilkins and Watson discovered the double helix structure of the DNA molecule

The effects of penicillium mould were isolated in 1928 by Scottish scientist Alexander Fleming, in his laboratory in the basement of St Mary's Hospital in London (now part of Imperial College). Fleming coined the term "penicillin"

MartinLuther King Jr was a leader of the African-American Civil Rights Movement. While fighting injustice meted out to African-Americans, he shunned violence. He used Christian doctrines but he looked towards Mahatma Gandhi’s non-violent movement. He dreamt that one day every human being would be judged by their ability, not skin colour. He died from a white fanatic’s bullet aged 39

Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was an American engineer, businessman and politician who served as the 31st president of the United States from 1929 to 1933 during the Great Depression.

A Republican, as Secretary of Commerce in the 1920s he introduced themes of efficiency in the business community and provided government support for standardization, efficiency and international trade. As president from 1929 to 1933, his domestic programs were overshadowed by the onset of the Great Depression. Hoover was defeated in a landslide election in 1932 by Democratic Franklin D. Roosevelt. After this loss, Hoover became staunchly conservative, and advocated against Roosevelt's New Deal policies.

James Ramsay MacDonald FRS (12 October 1866 – 9 November 1937) was a British statesman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1929 to 1935. He was the first Labour Party politician to become Prime Minister, leading minority Labour governments in 1924 and in 1929–31. He headed a National Government from 1931 to 1935, dominated by the Conservative Party and supported by only a few Labour members.

MacDonald's second government was in a stronger parliamentary position than his first, and in 1930 he was able to raise unemployment pay, pass an act to improve wages and conditions in the coal industry (i.e. the issues behind the General Strike) and pass a housing act which focused on slum clearances. In 1931, in the aftermath of the Great Depression, he was forced to form a National Government with the Conservatives and Liberals.

The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression that took place mostly during the 1930s, beginning in the United States. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations; in most countries it started in 1929 and lasted until the late-1930s. It was the longest, deepest, and most widespread depression of the 20th century.

The Great Depression started in the United States after a major fall in stock prices that began around September 4, 1929, and became worldwide news with the stock market crash of October 29, 1929 (known as Black Tuesday). Between 1929 and 1932, worldwide gross domestic product (GDP) fell by an estimated 15%. By comparison, worldwide GDP fell by less than 1% from 2008 to 2009 during the Great Recession. Some economies started to recover by the mid-1930s. However, in many countries the negative effects of the Great Depression lasted until the beginning of World War II.