IT HAPPENED HERE FIRST When it comes to being number one, Canadians are often at the head of the pack WHAT TIME IS IT? In 1879, Canadian Sir Sanford Fleming came up with the idea of dividing the world into 24 different time zones. His idea of "Standard Time" was adopted five years later. GIVING THANKS In 1578, the Reverend Wolfal conducted the first Thanksgiving service in North America in the Canadian Arctic. Wolfal was the chaplain aboard British explorer Martin Frobisher’s boat. DOCTOR KNOWS BEST In 1922, doctors Frederick Banting and J.R. Macleod (along with physiologist Charles Best and biochemist James Collip) discovered insulin. This drug gave new life to the many people around the world suffering from diabetes. A KING’S RANSOM In 1685, the first paper money in North America was issued in Canada. The "money" consisted of various values written on playing cards that the holder could exchange for real money when the next ship from France arrived in the New World. I CAN SEE FOR MILES In 1986, Sharon Wood of Halifax became the first woman in North America to reach the top of Mount Everest. It took the 12-person team she was a member of two months to scale the mountain. YOU MIGHT AS WELL JUMP In 1988, figure skater Kurt Browning became the first person to ever successfully complete a quadruple jump in official competition. HOLY DIAPER RASH In 1934, Annette, Emilie, Yvonne, Cecile and Marie Dionne were born in Corbeil, Ontario. The five girls — known as the Dionne quintuplets — were the first surviving quintuplets born in the world. LIGHTS, ACTION, CANADIAN In 1914, Canadian Mary Pickford became the first female film star to earn fabulous amounts of money. Known as "America’s Sweetheart," Pickford was, at that time, the highest paid woman in the world. LIGHTS, ACTION, HELLO? In 1876, the inventor of the telephone, Alexander Graham Bell, made the first long-distance call in the world from Brantford to Paris, Ontario (13 kilometres). HOOP DREAMS In 1891, a physical education teacher from Almonte, Ontario, raised two peach baskets at opposite ends of a gym and had his pupils try to get a soccer ball in the baskets that he had cut the bottoms out of. The teacher’s name was James Naismith and the game he invented has come to be known as basketball. UP, UP AND AWAY In 1934, Canadian Joe Shuster (along with his friend Jerry Siegel) created the character of Superman. WHO WAS THAT MASKED MAN? In 1959, Jacques Plante became the first NHL goalie to wear a mask. Plante, who was born in Shawinigan, Quebec, donned his mask in Madison Square Gardens as his team, the Montreal Canadians, took on the New York Rangers. ALIEN NATION In 1787, Nova Scotian Simeon Perkins recorded in his diary the first sightings of UFOs in North America. He wrote that many people around the Bay of Fundy had seen "ships in the air." MR. POTATO HEAD In 1961, Dr. Edward Asselbergs created the world’s first instant mashed potato flakes while working for the Department of Agriculture in Ottawa. SCREEN TEST In 1907, Montreal became the site of the world’s first luxury movie theatre. The movie house could seat 1,200 people and featured a seven-piece orchestra to accompany the silent films of the day. Incredibly, the cost of admission was only 25 cents. A CAGEY CONCEPT In 1847, Halifax became the site of the first zoo in North America. The zoo was opened by Andrew Downs. LAKE BOUT In 1954, 16-year-old Marilyn Bell became the first person to swim across Lake Ontario. She swam all the way from Youngstown, New York, to around Ontario Place in Toronto — a distance of 51 kilometres — in 21 hours. FORE! In 1873, the Royal Montreal Golf Club was established, the first golf club in North America. ANCHORS AWEIGH In 1898, Joshua Slocum from Nova Scotia became the first person to sail around the world by himself. Slocum had set sail four years earlier in an 11-metre oyster boat called Spray and traveled 73,600 kilometres.