I Will Remember You

Hello there and wel­come to the Jan­u­ary 28th edi­tion of Hangin’ in the Ham­mer; where we’re really glad its the week­end (admit it, so are you.)

It’s great to have you come join us as we take another look at some of the inter­est­ing peo­ple and events from Cana­dian his­tory, sports and enter­tain­ment related to the day’s date.

There’s plenty for us to go over today so I’ll save my ram­blings for a lit­tle later and get Gordie on here so we can get going so grab a seat and enjoy.

Born on this day in 1822, in Perthshire, Scot­land, Alexan­der Macken­zie, the sec­ond man to be Prime Min­is­ter of Canada.  Macken­zie was a stone­ma­son by trade when he came to Canada and was the only one of our first eight PMs not to be knighted, but that was only because he refused the offer three times. Dur­ing his time in office Canada gained the Royal Mil­i­tary Col­lege in Kingston, the Supreme Court of Canada and the office of the Audi­tor General.

On this day in 1914, in Win­nipeg, MB, Nel­lie McClung and her Polit­i­cal Equal­ity League stage a mock par­lia­ment in a local the­atre. The debate in the pre­sen­ta­tion is whether men deserve the right to equal­ity and presents peti­tions to gov­ern the kind of cloth­ing men can wear.

On this day in 1946, an acci­dent off Haiti leaves the Cana­dian sail­ing leg­end The Bluenose suck on a reef and sink­ing.  The great ship that had defeated every chal­lenger and thrilled a nation in the 1920s was no more.

On this day in 1965, Alan Bed­doe sees the Cana­dian Par­lia­ment pass an act adopt­ing his Maple Leaf design for a national new flag. Cho­sen from the more than 2,000 designs that were sub­mit­ted, Beddoe’s design is given Royal Assent on that day. Queen Eliz­a­beth II issues a royal procla­ma­tion, declar­ing a new National Flag of Canada, effec­tive Feb­ru­ary 15th, 1965. Bed­doe was a vet­eran of WWI and he was cap­tured dur­ing the Sec­ond Bat­tle of Ypres in 1915.

On this day in 1980, Canada’s Ambas­sador to Iran, Ken­neth Tay­lor, engi­neers the escape of six US diplo­mats from the coun­try. The six Amer­i­cans had been housed at the Cana­dian Embassy since Novem­ber 22, 1979, when the US Embassy was over­run dur­ing the Iran­ian rev­o­lu­tion, and 66 hostages taken. The Amer­i­cans leave with Cana­dian pass­ports that had been issued to them. Tay­lor him­self leaves a few hours later and he arrives home to find him­self a hero in the US, for mas­ter­mind­ing ‘The Cana­dian Caper’.

Some notable Cana­di­ans born on this day include the hero of the Sum­mit Series in 1972 and a mem­ber of the 1962 Memo­r­ial Cup win­ning Hamil­ton Red Wings, Paul Hen­der­son;  swim­mer Tom Ponting, who won two sil­vers and a bronze at the Olympics (84, 88, 92); Paul Cote, who won a bronze in sail­ing at the 1972 Olympics in Munich; Anne Mont­miny, who won a sil­ver and a bronze at the 2000 Olympics; Ellen Fair­clough, who was the first woman to hold a cab­i­net posi­tion in Canada and was born right here in Hamil­ton and Olympic rower Marnie McBean, who won three golds and a bronze while com­pet­ing in the 1992 and 1996 Olympics.

Born on this day in 1968, Sarah McLach­lan. She has inspired today’s Juno Moldy Oldy, I Will Remem­ber You, which is also today’s musi­cal title.

Born on this day in 1944, Brian Keenan , who part of the band The Cham­ber Broth­ers. When was the last time you heard, Time Has Come Today?

And a musi­cal bonus for today, just because we love him so much, here’s some Van Mor­ri­son, Days Like This.

And that is where I will leave off today and per­mit Puck to con­clude the day. Have a good one.

It was on this day in 1918, that Dr John McCrae, who penned the immor­tal poem, In Flan­ders Fields, about the hor­rors of WWI bat­tle, died from pneu­mo­nia, in a field hos­pi­tal in France.

And lastly, we are still wait­ing for Paul to get the call from the HHoF and we think it’s also long over­due. The dude scored the game win­ning goal in three straight games and he brought glory to the game in the process. Those are Hall-worthy qual­i­fi­ca­tions that should not be ignored.

We hope you enjoyed what we had today and we hope you enjoy the day as well. What­ever you do, please be safe; we’d like to see you back sometime.

I will remem­ber you…