Backstreets

Hello there and wel­come to the Jan­u­ary 23rd edi­tion of Hangin’ in the Ham­mer; we take a daily look at some of the peo­ple and events from Cana­dian his­tory, sports and enter­tain­ment related to the day’s date.

Yes, it’s Mon­day again and we all must head back to the trenches for another tour of duty for the man but, before you start the daily grind, you can join me in enjoy­ing a cup of cof­fee while we let Gordie run through our daily list.

On this day in 1836, Fran­cis Bond Head arrives in Toronto to replace John Col­borne as Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada. After a brief coun­cil, he appoints Reform­ers Robert Bald­win, John Rolph and John Henry Dunn to the Exec­u­tive Coun­cil of the province in an effort to quell any poten­tial for rebel­lion. John Col­borne moves to Mon­treal to take com­mand of the mil­i­tary in the Canadas. The major play­ers have for the most part at this point, assumed their posi­tions and the Rebel­lion of Canada is set to play out.  (Dunn was a part of the Welland Canal Coma­pany and his son was the first Cana­dian to be awarded a Vic­to­ria Cross.)

On this day in 1895, Romaine Cal­len­der, an inven­tor from Brant­ford ON, demon­strated his auto­matic tele­phone switch­ing sys­tem in New York but, It does not catch on and his busi­ness fails. Two of his young staff (James and Egbert Lorimer), do take the idea and start their own adven­ture and their patent is pur­chased in 1903 by AT&T.

On this day in 1935, at Iro­quois Falls ON, the ther­mome­ter hits an incred­i­ble –60C, the low­est tem­per­a­ture ever recorded in the province of Ontario. (Makes –10 seem quite mild.)

On this day in 1936, Saskatchewan becomes the first province of Canada to offi­cially rec­og­nize the Norse dis­cov­ery of Canada, by mak­ing Octo­ber 9 Leif Erik­son Day.

On this day in 1941, Ger­man pris­oner of war Franz von Werra, escapes from a train and some­how man­ages ot make it back to Ger­many, where he rejoins the army, only to die in action a year later. He was the only Ger­man POW to make a suc­cess­ful escape in Canada.

On this day in 1984, the Kelly’s of Brant­ford col­lect $13,890,588.80 for win­ning ticket in Lotto 6–49, becom­ing the biggest lot­tery win­ners in Cana­dian his­tory to that date.

From the world of sports, on this day in 1902, the Win­nipeg Vic­to­rias won their third and final Stan­ley Sup title defeat­ing the Toronto Welling­tons in a two game series held in Win­nipeg.  Both games ended in a 5–3 vic­tory for the Win­npeg side, who would­later lose the cup in March of the same year in a chal­lenge series with the Mon­treal Club du Hockey.

Some other notable Cana­di­ans born on this date include a for­mer all-star CFL line­man and CFHoF mem­ber since 2007, Hamilton’s own, Rocco Romano; the win­ner of the 1986 Nobel Chem­istry prize, John Polyani; Lyne Beau­mont, who won a bronze in syn­chro­nized swim­ming at Syd­ney; the cur­rent NHL hang­man and a for­mer NHL player with hockey’s rare Golden Triple to his credit, Bren­dan Shana­han and an extra­or­di­nary Cana­dian who invented a process that sent pho­tographs over wire, served in the RAF dur­ing WWI and later was a key fig­ure in the spy games off WWII, Sir William Samuel Stephen­son.

Today’s Juno Moldy Oldy Bul­let­proof comes from multiple-time win­ners, Blue Rodeo.

Born on this day in 1953, Robin Zan­der from Cheap Trick. When was the last time you heard Surrender?

Today’s musi­cal title, Back­streets, was inspired in part by the late Danny Fed­erici, who was part of the E-Street Band for many years and was born on this day in 1950.

And this is the point I say good day to you and go fetch another jolt of java while Puck fin­ishes the day.

Is it a weird coin­ci­dence that one of the most pop­u­lar TV spy guys, Mac­Gyver (Richard Dean Ander­son) born this day 1940 and shares this birth­date with the Cana­dian whom some say inspired the fic­tional char­ac­ter James Bond? Ander­son was born in Min­nesota, loves hockey and spent some time in Canada while shoot­ing the Star­gate Series and was eas­ily a nom­i­nee to become an Hon­orary Great Cana­dian Gordon.

Thanks for drop­ping by and see­ing what we are up to. We hope you have a safe and pleas­ant day no mat­ter what you are up to from here on out. And we really hope we’ll see you here again tomor­row, when we do it all again.

Hidin’ on the back­streets, Hidin’ on the backstreets…