Original title
Heritage Minutes
Released
3/31/1991
Origin country
CA
Genre
Documentary
Production companies
CBC
Status
Returning series
Number of seasons
7
Number of episodes
95
Heritage Minutes, also known officially as Historica Minutes: History by the Minute, are a series of sixty-second short films, each illustrating an important moment in Canadian history. They appear frequently on Canadian television and in cinemas before movies and are now also sold on DVD. The Minutes were first introduced on March 31, 1991 as part of a one-off heavily-promoted history quiz show hosted by Rex Murphy. The thirteen original short films were broken up and run between shows on CBC Television and CTV Network. The continued broadcast of the Minutes and the production of new ones was pioneered by Charles Bronfman's CRB Foundation, Canada Post Power Broadcasting, and the National Film Board. They were devised, developed and largely narrated by noted Canadian broadcaster Patrick Watson, while the producer of the series was Robert Guy Scully. In 2009 Historica merged with The Dominion Institute to become The Historica-Dominion Institute. While the foundations have not paid networks to air Minutes, they have made them freely available, and in the early years paid to have them run in cinemas across the country. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission has ruled that Heritage Minutes are an "on-going dramatic series" thus each minute counts as ninety-seconds of a station's Canadian content requirements.
An African American escapes to Canada along the Underground Railroad.
Three men from Pine Street in Winnipeg win the Victoria Cross in World War I, and the street's name is changed to Valour Road in their honour.
Jacques Plante becomes the first NHL player to wear a goaltender mask in regular play.
Jennie Trout becomes Canada's first woman doctor.
Comic book artist Joe Shuster, en route to visit his cousin, Frank Shuster, creates Superman.
Canadian peacekeepers are stationed in Cyprus to help diffuse tension between Greek and Turkish Cypriots.
Queen Victoria decides to grant Canada responsible government after the crushing of the Rebellions of 1837.
Prairie settlers build a house of sod.
Feminist, politician, and social activist Nellie McClung demands the right to vote in Manitoba.
French Canadian families adopt Irish orphans in the 1850s while allowing them to maintain part of their Irish heritage.
French navigator and explorer Jacques Cartier misunderstands some Natives resulting in the name Canada.
Train dispatcher Vince Coleman sacrifices his own life to save a train from the Halifax Explosion.
A Montreal neurosurgeon makes ground-breaking advances in the treatment of seizure disorders.
New France, under the leadership of French governor Louis de Buade de Frontenac, repels the British invasion at the Battle of Quebec (1690).
A look at the importance of midwives in early Canada.
The first woman to be elected to the Canadian House of Commons Agnes Macphail fights for penal reform.
The British Columbia painter discovers the artistic muse that will drive her life's work.
Geologist and cartographer Joseph Tyrrell discovers a plethora of dinosaur bones in Alberta.
Sports coach James Naismith's invention of Basketball is tested by a group of young students in Springfield Illinois.
One family's quick thinking helps them to survive the 1870 fire in the Saguenay, Quebec.
Joseph Casavant, world renowned organ maker, builds his first organ.
French coureur des bois and explorer Jean Nicolet becomes the first European to reach Lake Michigan, but thinks it's the Pacific.
The formation of the Iroquois Confederacy presented by a First Nations grandfather explaining the significance of the Great Peace to his granddaughter.
Teacher Kate Henderson sways school trustees to embrace new methods, and the event is represented in the famous painting by Robert Harris: A Meeting of the School Trustees.
Women's rights activist, jurist, and author Emily Murphy's quest for equal rights for women.
L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland is settled by Norsemen (Vikings) around the year 1000 CE.
Lawyer and politician Robert Baldwin and Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine build inter-lingual cooperation.
Canadian heroine Laura Secord aids the British in the War of 1812 with an overland trek to warn of an American military advance.
Philosopher of communication theory Marshall McLuhan coins the phrases "the medium is the message" and "global village."
Inventor Guglielmo Marconi receives the first trans-Atlantic radio signals in Newfoundland and is awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics.
The band of this famous French Canadian regiment rehearses for the first performance of O Canada in 1880 at Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day celebrations.
What thoughts ran through Louis Riel's mind as he stood on the scaffold, waiting for the trap door to open to his death?
Journalist and government official Étienne Parent demands equality for French and English.
A young Chinese Canadian risks his life helping to build the Canadian Pacific Railway.
Engineer and inventor Sir Sandford Fleming develops the system of international standard time.
Considered one of the "cathedrals" of ice hockey, the construction and history of the Maple Leaf Gardens is featured.
Engineer Thomas Wardrope Eadie develops the Trans Canada Microwave telecommunications network.
Inventor Joseph-Armand Bombardier and the beginnings of his passion for engineering.
Miner Maurice Ruddick recounts the 1958 Springhill mine disaster.
An Inukshuk a stone landmark or cairn is built on Baffin Island.
The story of how Mary Travers becomes a famed popular singer in Quebec.
Major General and police official Sam Steele (portrayed by Alan Scarfe) of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police bars an unruly American (portrayed by Don S. Davis) from entering the Yukon with pistols, despite being threatened at gunpoint.
The efforts of politician and lawyer Louis-Joseph Papineau give full equality of religion to Jews in Canada.
The art of Paul-Émile Borduas and the Quiet Revolution are featured.
Professional diplomats Georges and Pauline Vanier fight Canadian immigration policy in an attempt to help refugees fleeing Europe in the Second World War.
Canadian Mennonites devise sustainable agriculture practices that aid the Third World.
Lawyer, judge, and politician John Matheson looks at candidates for Canada's new flag.
Native American Chief Sitting Bull seeks refuge in Canada.
Italian navigator and explorer John Cabot discovers the Grand Banks of Newfoundland and runs "aground" on a bounty of fish.
The bear of Canadian soldier Harry Colebourn becomes the inspiration for Winnie the Pooh.
The town of Myrnam, Alberta forms a non-denominational hospital.
The Bluenose, a ship out of Halifax and an important Canadian symbol in the 1930s, wins its last race.
Author, artist and physician during World War I John McCrae pens In Flanders Fields.
The surprise victory of the Paris Crew, a group of unheralded Canadian rowers, at the 1867 World Championships.
Englishman Archie Belaney (played by Pierce Brosnan) rises to prominence as a notable author and lecturer after he took on the First Nations identity called Grey Owl. Adapted from the film of the same name.
How Nat Taylor invents the multiplex theater.
Author, lecturer and social activist J. S. Woodsworth convinces Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King to introduce old age pensions.
December 28, 1944 was moving day for 23 year old Maurice Richard. All day he hefted furniture - including a piano - into his new house. That night he scored 5 goals and 3 assists setting an NHL record
The development of the Avro Arrow (this Heritage Minute was produced based on the 1996 mini-series "The Arrow").
A First Nations family teaches early settlers how to make maple syrup.
The story of female World War II pilot, Marion Orr.
The planning of the Montreal International and Universal Exposition called Expo 67 is featured.
Legal scholar, jurist, and human rights advocate John Humphrey drafts the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Baseball player, Jackie Robinson joins the Montreal Royals on October 23, 1946.
A look back at the beginning of the Stratford Festival of Canada.
Frontier College educates those away from the urban centres.
Surgeon Lucille Teasdale devotes her life to helping the poor in Africa.
In World War II, the troops in Hong Kong were the first Canadians to see combat. During an attack, Sergeant Major John Osborn of Winnipeg protected his company by throwing himself on a live grenade.
Mona Parsons was sentenced to a Nazi prison camp for helping dozens of downed Allied airmen escape.
Tommy Prince of the Brokenhead Objibway Nation is one of the most decorated soldiers in Canada's history.
Canadian General Arthur Currie leads Allied forces to Canada's most significant victory of World War I (1917).
A young Canadian gunner stays behind to save his friend in a flaming Lancaster Bomber and dies in the attempt. He was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross for bravery.
After WWII, veterans confronted a politician about the lack of shelter, launching the construction of 10,000 units of Veterans' Housing.
General Jacques Dextraze of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force rescued a group of hostages from the Katangan rebels in the Congo.
On the evening of D-Day, musician and broadcaster Johnny Lombardi boosts morale on the edge of a Normandy Beach.
Richard Pierpoint was a formerly enslaved Black Loyalist who, at age 68, enlisted black men to fight in the War of 1812.
October 13, 1812, Mohawk Chief John Norton and 80 Grand River warriors surprised hundreds of advancing American soldiers and skirmished with them for hours until reinforcements arrived and the battle was won.
Sir. John A. Macdonald, George-Étienne Cartier and George Brown discuss how to go about uniting the colonies in British North America. The Charlottetown Conference is featured, and highlights the final push toward Canadian confederation.
George-Étienne Cartier was a dominant figure in the politics of Canada East (now Quebec) overseeing its entry into Confederation.
A team of Icelandic-Canadians serve in the First World War before bringing home the very first gold medal in Olympic hockey.
Nursing Sisters serve at the No. 3 Canadian Stationary Hospital in France during the First World War.
Terry Fox inspires the nation with his Marathon of Hope, a cross-country run to raise money for cancer research.
The story of Viola Desmond, an entrepreneur who challenged segregation in Nova Scotia in the 1940s.
The story of Chanie "Charlie" Wenjack, whose death sparked the first inquest into the treatment of Indigenous children in Canadian residential schools.
The making of Treaty 9 from the perspective of historical witness George Spence, an 18-year-old Cree hunter from Albany, James Bay.
As a founding member of Cape Dorset's famed print making cooperative, Kenojuak Ashevak introduced Inuit art to the world (1927-2013).
The Grads challenge the self-proclaimed 'world champions' the Cleveland Favorite Knits to a two game tournament in 1923. They would go on to become the most successful team in Canadian sports history.
A family escapes persecution in Vietnam, traveling by boat to a Malaysian refugee camp before finding a new home in Montreal (1980).
Neighbourhoods like Toronto's Kensington Market have helped shape our country by providing newcomers a first stop in Canada. In the first animated Heritage Minute, a single store is transformed as it passes between generations and cultures.
Lucy Maud Montgomery battled depression, rejection, and sexism to become known around the world for Anne of Green Gables and 19 other novels. This Heritage Minute tells her story in her own words, as drawn from her journals.
James Egan was a Canadian LGBT rights activist, best known for his role in the landmark Supreme Court of Canada case Egan v. Canada. He is considered Canada's first prominent LGBTQ activist, due to his initial period of activism from 1949 to 1964.
From 1914-1941, the Vancouver Asahi were one of city's most dominant amateur baseball teams. In 1942, after Canada declared war on Japan, 22,000 Japanese Canadians were interned in the interior of BC, including the Asahi players
On June 6, 1944, Canadian Forces landed on Juno Beach. D-Day, as this day would become known, was the largest amphibious invasion of all time, led to the liberation of France, and marked the beginning of the end of the Second World War.
The Acadians are descendants of early French settlers who arrived in Nova Scotia in 1604 and built a distinct culture and society over generations. Their peaceful existence was uprooted in 1755 when over 10,000 Acadians were ripped from their homeland to ensure British rule in North America. This Heritage Minute portrays the deportation through the eyes of an Acadian mother.
Oscar Peterson is one of Canada's most honoured musicians and widely regarded as one of the greatest jazz pianists of all time. His interest in music began at the age of five growing up in the Black working-class community of Little Burgundy in Montreal. This Heritage Minute recounts the circumstances in which Peterson was raised and follows his rise to fame.
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