THINGS TO know
FINAL VOYAGE
On this date in 1845, English explorer Sir John Franklin disappeared while on an expedition in the eastern Arctic trying to chart and navigate the Northwest Passage. It was later learned that Franklin’s ships were frozen in ice west of King William Island. Franklin died June 11, 1847, and his 105 crew members perished while trekking southward.
FAMOUS SONG
On this date in 1874, “The Maple Leaf Forever,” one of Canada’s most famous patriotic songs, was said to have been performed for the first time during the laying of the foundation stone for the Christian Baptist Church in Newmarket, Ont. The song’s composer, Alexander Muir, conducted a choir of schoolchildren. But the song likely had its first public performance years earlier. An 1871 sheet music edition said it had been “sung with great applause by J.F. Hardy, Esquire, in his popular entertainments.”
NEW PARTY
On this date in 1990, the Bloc Quebecois began as an informal coalition of Conservative and Liberal MPs from Quebec. The coalition was led by Lucien Bouchard, who left the federal Tory cabinet to protest possible changes to the Meech Lake Accord.
LAST HURRAH
On this date in 2011, only three months after leading the NDP party to a historic electoral breakthrough, a frail, raspy-voiced Jack Layton, who had been battling prostate cancer, announced he was diagnosed with a new undisclosed form of cancer and would take a temporary leave of absence. (Layton died on Aug. 22.)