Top 10 Events in Canadian History That Impacted the Rest of the World

I'm a proud and true Canadian. Many people know that by now. But Canada's usually overlooked when it comes to history and major events in the past. Nobody really knows what has happened in the second largest country by landmass in the world. So here I am to tell you. There's been much, much more stuff than you think. If these things didn't happen, the world might have been much different right now! Now, without further ado, let's get on into it! Enjoy!
The Top Ten
1 Alexander Bell's Invention of the Telephone Alexander Graham Bell was a Scottish-born scientist, inventor, engineer and innovator who is credited with patenting the first practical telephone.

Alexander Graham Bell has definitely been downplayed over the years because of people saying he's "overrated", and because later inventors like Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla did a ton of work that kind of obscured him. People even say that he stole other inventors' work. You can say what you like, but the world would not be anything like what it is like now without this extremely intelligent and prolific inventor. He invented the telephone! And yes, I mean that thing with the twirling cord that mainly only seniors have now. You're gonna scoff at that and say "cell phones are way better than those ancient devices!", but those evolved from Bell's original telephone, and without him, we would possibly not be able to communicate long distance (other than through emailing), or most likely in an earlier stage of telecommuting, maybe still using telephones to talk instead of cell phones. Without a doubt, he is one of the most important inventors of all time and it's extraordinary and surprising to many people that he is a Canadian. He was born elsewhere, but he lived almost all of his life and died in Canada.

2 The Extraction and Purification of Insulin

The Discovery of Insulin is one of the biggest world changes in history, but why? Firstly, to those of you who don't know what insulin is, I'll tell you. Insulin is a type of hormone, you could say, produced by your own body, in an organ called the pancreas, that allows you to control the amount of sugar in your bloodstream, and it gives energy through that sugar to your muscles, organs, and cells. You may be like "well, insulin is something your body makes anyway! How did discovering it, though interesting, impact the rest of the world?". I'll tell you. Ever heard of Diabetes? Diabetes is a disease kind of thing that happens when your pancreas doesn't produce enough insulin. And when that happens, you can get really sick, and yes, even die. How do we stop that? By taking insulin shots, not produced by your body. Over 8 million people in the United States alone use insulin shots almost every day! When people finally found this interesting type of thing while studying the pancreas, it wasn't long before they had some idea of what it did. But it wasn't until decades later, after many attempts, that some Canadians, in the University of Toronto, were able to isolate, extract, and purify the thing. There's no question, insulin is one of the most important things ever, and it was Canadians who extracted and purified it, saving countless lives.

3 Terry Fox's Marathon of Hope

If you're Canadian, you'll be tired of hearing his name. If you are a cancer victim or know a cancer victim, you won't be. I'm not sure how famous he is outside of Canada, so I'll quickly summarize this amazing man's journey to save countless lives. He was a pretty much ordinary man, except for a few things. He had a rare type of bone cancer, which caused him to have to have his leg amputated, and replaced with a metal one that was mainly just there to keep his balance. It was not long after this that Terry decided what he had to do. He started what would be remembered as the "Marathon of Hope". He ran, with a metal leg that didn't compensate for his real one's loss, almost 6000 kilometers, and almost all the way across Canada, with the hope of raising money for the fight against cancer. His goal was to raise one dollar for every single Canadian. That would be 30-some million dollars, a very large amount. How much did he raise? Well over 200 million. He kept running until the cancer reached his lungs and he died, just around Thunder Bay. What an inspiring man. He saved countless lives not only in Canada but in the rest of the world, through the money he raised to fight cancer.

4 The Assault of Juno Beach on D-Day

You will all have probably heard of the infamous D-Day, known to be the day that the war ended in Europe (to be specific, it was June 6 1944). On this day, allied troops (the so called "good guys" who were against Hitler in the war) did a combined assault of naval, air, and ground on the Nazi-occupied France. They assaulted five main beaches, dropped troops in on parachutes, and it was basically the ultimate invasion. Anyways, possibly the most important assault of a beach was with Juno Beach. Over 10 000 Canadian troops and a ton of ships were contributed to this one assault, and without Canada the invasion would have definitely not succeeded, and who knows what the world would be like today? So many Jews and other people may owe their lives to those brave Canadian soldiers who laid down their lives to end the war in Europe on that day.

5 The Invention of Peanut Butter

What's one of the most popular things when it comes to snacks, due to it being healthy enough, easy to use, delicious, and cheap? Peanut Butter! All you really think about is what it contains and how tasty it is, so barely anyone knows that peanut butter was invented in Canada. Those who do care about where it was invented are actually usually misinformed. It's become popular belief that an American botanist you may have heard of called George Washington Carver (not the president, another guy with a similar name) invented it, but in reality, it was invented in Canada way back in 1884 by a Canadian pharmacist named Marcellus Gilmore Edson, who liked the consistency of his product to be more like a butter or ointment, inventing peanut butter through that. Canada also invented Garbage Bags, Paint Rollers, Road Lines, the Pager, and much more.

6 Viola Desmond's Challenging of Racial Segregation

As a Canadian, I know Viola Desmond well. She's literally on our ten dollar bill! And I'm sure that millions upon millions of people outside of Canada know her, but I'll quickly explain who she is and what she did to those who don't know her. Basically, Viola Desmond was a normal black woman in Canada who decided to go to the movies one night. She was as wealthy as a black person could be at that time, so she didn't cheat her way in, if that's what you were thinking. She paid the person selling tickets the extra money to get to sit in the best spot of the theatre, as you would normally do, and went to sit down. But then she got in a ton of trouble with the security guard, because apparently the good part of the theatre was "whites only". She said she'd go to where she was supposed to if they gave her the extra money she paid back, but they didn't, so she refused to leave her seat and ended up going to jail. Her story got out, and people then continued to realize that these anti-black rules weren't smart, and this eventually ended up helping to start the modern civil rights movement in Canada, which influenced the US greatly and helped Black people all over the world get the freedom they deserve.

7 The Origination of Ice Hockey

While it may be true that Canada and the US is where Hockey's the most famous, and it's not as international as Soccer (football outside of Canada and the US) or other sports, it is still extremely well known and the most popular winter sport in dozens of countries outside of North America. It will probably not come to you as a surprise that hockey also started in Canada. You may also not think that this is a really important thing, but sports are one of the biggest things in the world and hockey fans all around the world probably couldn't imagine what the world would be like if the sport hockey wasn't invented in Canada. Millions of people in India, for example, would be strongly impacted if Hockey didn't exist. They're actually one of the most successful teams in Field Hockey.
Additionally, did you guys know that a Canadian invented the world famous sport basketball, though while in the United States? I only didn't add that because it could be considered an American historic event.

8 The Start of the Seven Years' War

You've probably heard this come up in history class or just in general conversation a few times, and if you're Canadian you probably spent a very long time hearing about it in school, but what is it, and why does Canada somehow relate to it? Well, I'll tell you. The Seven Years' War was this big and global conflict, starting in 1756, involving almost every continent, as primarily a fight between Great Britain and France for global domination, which ended up involving many other countries in Europe. It impacted the entire world, with Great Britain winning it after a long and hard war. If France had won, the world would be much different today. People would probably speak French in Canada and in the USA. Anyways, this sounds like a European thing, so why is it Canadian History? Because it started right in Canada, in 1754, with colonies of Great Britain and colonies of France going against each other with natives on both sides, and eventually it escalated into a global conflict.

9 The "Discovery" of Canada by Jacques Cartier

You've all heard of Christopher Columbus' supposed "discovery" of the USA, or the New World, (actually, it's quite likely that at least ten groups reached there before him) and many people just group Canada into that, as if Christopher Columbus was the first to reach there, too. In reality, he wasn't. They would have kept exploring and eventually gotten to what is now Canada, yes, but Jacques Cartier, a French guy, was the one who really discovered it, named it Canada after "Kanata" which was a word for village, and was also the one who started putting it on maps. This may seem natural, and you may think that it would have happened anyways, but actually this was really important. He claimed it for the French only a couple years before the rest of the world got there, and for all we know the Seven Years' war, the World Wars, and a ton of other stuff wouldn't have happened if it weren't for this important part in the history of Canada.

10 The Sending of Peacekeepers to Haiti

Canada may have stopped a huge war like the one currently going on in Syria, or possibly an even bigger one, through this one decision by Canada. Basically, Haiti's not a very peaceful country. There's been internal violence and civil unrest there for a very, very long time, and the police and judicial systems there are awful. It was quite possible that a war could spark out there anytime soon. Most countries really didn't want to get involved, but Canada decided that someone had to go there and keep it safe. Since 1990, peacekeepers from Canada have gone there on many, many UN missions and have kept everything safe there, as well as improving their Judicial and Police systems quite a bit. Who knows what might have happened without them being there.

The Contenders
11 Hudson's Bay Company is Formed
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