On December 7, 1896, the Globe heralded “the dawn of the horseless era” in Toronto, following the test of a motor vehicle at Dixon’s Carriage Works at Bay and Temperance streets. Dixon’s had hitherto dealt exclusively in horse-drawn vehicles, and this “motor carriage” was the first of its kind in Toronto, the personal property of [...]

Although she only lived in Toronto on three occasions over a 14-year period, and never for more than a year and a half at a time, Emma Goldman had an outsized cultural impact on the city. The well-known anarchist and feminist whom J. Edgar Hoover dubbed “the most dangerous woman in America” filled local lecture [...]

The summer of 1972 was a momentous one for the Borough of North York. The growing suburban municipality celebrated its 50th anniversary that year with a series of special events throughout that spring and summer. Among the souvenirs was a special edition of the Mirror newspaper which traced North York’s past, present, and future, excerpts [...]

“We want you to forget about today, about yesterday, and about tomorrow,” the singer proclaimed to the crowd of 10,000 at Maple Leaf Gardens. “Tonight we’re gonna create a whole new world,” he added as the band roared in “Fire,” their traditional opening number. By the time he played Toronto on May 3, 1969, Jimi [...]

In January of 1936, Mrs. Nelle Brooke Stull came to Toronto with a rich Texan businessman, in the apparent hopes of finding him a bride. A week later, she found herself in police custody, awaiting trial for conspiracy to commit fraud. Nelle Brooke Stull’s professional career began in Elyria, Ohio, some time in the early [...]

With the passage of provincial legislation on April 2, 1953, the Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto became a legal reality, joining together the City of Toronto with its twelve neighbouring municipalities in a regional federation. But few of the region’s 1.1 million inhabitants perceived Metro Toronto, with its combination of dense urbanization and abundant farmland, as [...]

Mass power outages can make the imagination run wild. Take the case of Mrs. Joe Clarke, who was driving through downtown Toronto during the Great Northeast Blackout of 1965. According to the Telegram, Mrs. Clarke “got the fright of her life when she saw a shadowy monster silhouetted in the moonlight.” After a moment of [...]

Toronto-born Arthur Irwin was one of the unique figures in sports in the late nineteenth century. As a star shortstop in the major leagues, he was an innovator, credited with inventing the baseball glove and the squeeze play. As an entrepreneur, he helped establish professional baseball in Toronto, among other successful business ventures. And, after [...]

This week marked the anniversary of the assassination of George Brown, father of Confederation and founder of the Globe. We bring you this piece from our archives, originally published on May 2, 2009. Late afternoon, Thursday, March 25, 1880. The front page of the 5 p.m. edition of The Evening Telegram bore breaking news occurring [...]

The Toronto Symphony Orchestra was founded in 1922 under Viennese-born conductor Luigi von Kunits. After Kunits’ death in 1931, the baton was raised by Mimico-born Sir Ernest MacMillan, the internationally renowned conductor, composer, and educator. Knighted in 1935, MacMillan was the leading figure in Canadian music. Under MacMillan’s directorship, the TSO became one of the [...]

The Toronto World once declared that “A newspaper editorially has no inherent personality of its own nor apart from that of the individuals who direct and control its policy. That is the basic element in journalism, though it is often forgotten or ignored by the public to whom it is of vital interest.” Readers of [...]

At centre ice, waiting for his music cue, Donald Jackson took a deep breath and mentally prepared himself for his figure skating routine. A standing-room-only crowd of over 18,000 spectators at Prague’s Julius Fučík Sports Hall looked on and ABC-TV cameras captured the action of the 1962 World Figure Skating Championships for a North American [...]