Top Of The World

Hello there and wel­come to our Jan­u­ary 26th edi­tion of Hangin’ in the Ham­mer; where we take a brief daily look at some of the peo­ple and events from Cana­dian his­tory, sports and enter­tain­ment related to the day’s date.

It’s nice to have you here fo today’s edi­tion of Hangin’ in the Ham­mer and we are fully loaded with plenty of fea­tures so le’s haul Gordie on out here and make him do his thing while we enjoy our coffee.

On this day in 1700, at around nine pm local time, the area around present day Van­cou­ver and Vic­to­ria is struck by a mas­sive earth­quake. Esti­mated at around nine on the Richter scale, the Cas­ca­dia Earth­quake was a megath­rust quake that also caused tsunamis to strike as far away as Japan.

On this day in 1885, Fred­er­ick Deni­son reaches the north­ern out­skirts of the city of Khar­toum with his Cana­dian Nile Voyageurs on the expe­di­tion led by Gen­eral Gar­net Wolse­ley (who had also led the Red River Expe­di­tion of 1870.) unfor­tu­nately, they will be too late to res­cue British Gen­eral Charles Gor­don, who had been trapped in the city of Khar­toum and killed dur­ing a Mus­lim upris­ing. A total of 16 Cana­di­ans lost their lives in what was Canada’s first over­seas mil­i­tary expedition.

Born on this day in Mim­ico, ON, in 1910, David Ernest Hor­nell, who was a pilot in the RCAF dur­ing WWII. On June 24th, 1944, while fly­ing patrol, Hornell’s crew spot­ted and sunk U-1225 but, the plane received dam­age in the exchange and was forced to ditch in the North Sea. With only one small life raft for the entire crew, they took turns in the water to hope­fully avoid hypother­mia. Although, wounded and weak, Hor­nell fre­quently stayed in the water longer than the oth­ers and later died from the effects of the expo­sure. For his coura­geous lead­er­ship in the face of a dire sit­u­a­tion, David Ernest Hor­nell of the RCAF was posthu­mously awarded a Vic­to­ria Cross.

On this day in 1924, Par­lia­ment approves the use of the Red Ensign as Canada’s offi­cial flag for gov­ern­ment build­ings at home and abroad. It remained the offi­cial flag of Canada until the Maple Leaf design was adopted in 1965.

From the world of sports, it was on this day in 1956, that the Cana­dian team attended the open­ing cer­e­monies of the 1956 Win­ter Olympics in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy.  A total of 37 ath­letes would come home with a sil­ver and two bronze medals from these games.  The great­est dis­ap­point­ment may have been in hockey, where the Sovi­ets won the gold medal.

On this day in 1980, Cana­dian Prime Min­is­ter Joe Clark warns the USSR that Canada will boy­cott Sum­mer Olympics in Moscow if Soviet troops do not leave Afghanistan by Feb­ru­ary the 20th. When the Soviet troops remain past the dead­line, Canada joins a group of nations who refuse to attend the Moscow Olympics.

Some notable Cana­di­ans born on this day include noted neu­rol­o­gist Wilder Pen­field; the man who invented Canola Oil (Cana­dian Oil Low Acid), Richard Keith Downey; the cap­tain of the 1976 Memo­r­ial Cup win­ning Hamil­ton Fin­cups, Dale McCourt; Paul Con­lin, who was part of Canada’s bronze medal win­ning hockey team in 1968 at Greno­ble; a win­ner of a sil­ver medal in Judo at the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo, Dou­glas Rogers; a mem­ber of the HHoF since 1947, the Pem­broke Peach, Frank Nigh­bour and the high­est scor­ing player in hockey his­tory and mem­ber of the HHoF since 1999, Wayne Gret­zky, who was born on this day in 1961, in Brant­ford, ON.

Today’s Juno Moldy Oldy, Shine, was inspired by Hamilton’s own Colin Cripps of Junkhouse, who was born on this day in 1961.

Born on this day in 1951, David Briggs, who was a mem­ber of the Lit­tle River Band. When was the last time you heard Help Is On Its Way?

Born on this day in 1955, gui­tar god Eddie Van Halen, who helped to inspire today’s musi­cal title Top Of The World.

And once more I have come to the end of another daily list and must now cede the floor to my big brother. Have a great day.

We also wanted to add that Reg Dun­lop aka the late, great, Paul New­man, was born on this day in 1925. Paul was in some great movies over the years but, Slap Shot is still our favourite.

Thanks for com­ing by today. It’s always nice hav­ing you here and we look for­ward to see­ing you again real soon.

Have a great day and please be safe.

Stand­ing on top of the world…