Wainfleet Historical Society

12/21/2025

12/21/2025

History, politics, arts, science & more: the Canadian Encyclopedia is your reference on Canada. Articles, timelines & resources for teachers, students & public.

12/20/2025

History, politics, arts, science & more: the Canadian Encyclopedia is your reference on Canada. Articles, timelines & resources for teachers, students & public.

12/20/2025

In 1812, critics dismissed it as a messy academic exercise. By 1857, it had become the second most important book in German households, right after the Bible.

Most people assume the fairy tales we know today were always written for children.

But the original vision was far darker and much more serious.

On December 20, 1812, Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm were living in a fractured land. Germany was not yet a unified nation, and the shadow of Napoleon’s French empire loomed large over their culture.

The brothers were not trying to entertain toddlers.

They were librarians and scholars, desperate to preserve the dying oral traditions of the German people before they were washed away by foreign influence.

But the task seemed impossible.

The stories were disappearing, held only in the memories of local storytellers and grandmothers in small villages.

So, the brothers took action.

They listened to middle-class women, oral storytellers, and family acquaintances, meticulously recording the tales exactly as they were told.

They didn't sanitize them initially. They documented the roughness, the violence, and the raw justice of the folk tradition.

On this day, they published the first volume of *Children’s and Household Tales* containing 86 stories.

It included early versions of Cinderella, Hansel and Gretel, and Rapunzel.

The reaction was mixed, but the brothers didn't stop.

Over the next several decades, Wilhelm, in particular, began to reshape the collection.

He recognized that for these stories to survive in homes, they needed to speak to the moral formation of children.

He softened the coarse language.

He emphasized the triumph of good over evil.

He strengthened the Christian themes and prayers within the narratives to align with family values.

The result was a literary monument that transcended borders.

They preserved the wisdom of the past.

They preserved the warnings of the woods.

They preserved the wonder of childhood.

Today, these stories are often stripped of their moral weight by modern adaptations, but the Grimms’ legacy remains the bedrock of storytelling.

They taught us that wolves are real, but they can be defeated.

It started with two brothers in a study, trying to save the soul of their nation.

Sources: Britannica / National Dictionary of Biography

12/19/2025

In the early 19th century, Christmas was a dying tradition. It was barely celebrated, often ignored, and treated as a minor religious observance.

By the dawn of 1844, one man had changed the holiday forever.

On December 19, 1843, Charles Dickens published a little novella that arguably saved the spirit of the season.

The context was grim. Britain was in the throes of the Industrial Revolution.

Poverty was rampant, workhouses were full, and children were laboring in factories for pennies.

Dickens himself was deeply troubled by these conditions. He had visited charity schools and read shocking parliamentary reports on child labor.

But he was also facing a personal crisis.

His finances were widely strained. His previous novel, "Martin Chuzzlewit," had been a commercial flop. With a growing family to support and creditors knocking, he needed a hit.

Instead of playing it safe, Dickens took a massive gamble.

He refused to publish his new idea in a magazine serial. He wanted a stand-alone, high-quality book.

He financed the printing himself, insisting on a luxurious but affordable volume with a red cloth binding and gilt edges.

He wrote with a frantic energy, finishing the manuscript in just six weeks during the autumn of 1843.

The result was "A Christmas Carol."

It told the story of Ebenezer Scrooge, a miser forced to confront his own soul by four spirits: Jacob Marley and the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet to Come.

Through the transformation of Scrooge and the plight of Tiny Tim, Dickens delivered a thunderous message to Victorian society.

He demanded charity. He demanded empathy. He demanded social responsibility.

When the book hit the shelves on December 19, the reaction was instant.

The first run of 6,000 copies sold out by Christmas Eve.

Rich and poor alike were moved to tears. Reports from the time describe factory owners giving their staff unexpected turkeys and families gathering with renewed warmth.

Dickens didn't just write a story; he reinvented a holiday.

He brought the focus back to the domestic hearth, the feast, and the care for the less fortunate.

The legacy of that little red book is still felt every time we wish someone a "Merry Christmas."

From a desperate financial gamble came a timeless lesson in redemption that continues to shape our culture today.

God bless us, everyone.

Sources: British Library / Charles Dickens Museum

12/19/2025

Today is , highlighting the contributions and rights of migrants around the world.

All four versions of the Welland Canal were constructed primarily by workers who came from other countries in search of work and a better life for their families. Migrants continue to contribute to St. Catharines' economy and identity today.

This photo shows construction near Lock 4 of the current Welland Canal in 1914.

1986.14.10

12/18/2025

In 1903, the U.S. government had poured $50,000 into the pockets of Samuel Langley, the Secretary of the Smithsonian, to invent a flying machine. He failed spectacularly. By the end of that same year, two bicycle mechanics from Ohio had succeeded for pennies on the dollar.

It is one of the greatest examples of American ingenuity in history.

The date was December 17, 1903. The setting was the desolate, wind-swept dunes of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

Orville and Wilbur Wright were not famous scientists. They were not wealthy aristocrats. They were self-taught engineers with a high school education and a God-given drive to solve problems.

But the establishment didn't believe in them.

The leading scientific data of the time said their calculations were impossible. The experts claimed heavy flight was a fool’s errand and that the lift tables established by German pioneers were accurate.

So, the brothers threw out the textbooks.

They realized the accepted science was wrong. They built a crude wind tunnel in their small Dayton shop. They tested over 200 miniature wing shapes, creating their own tables of lift and drag. They barely slept. They funded every dime of it from their bicycle business.

When automobile manufacturers couldn't provide an engine light enough for their frame, they didn't ask for a grant. They asked their shop mechanic, Charles Taylor, to build one by hand. It weighed 180 pounds and produced just 12 horsepower.

Conditions that morning were brutal. The headwind was howling between 20 and 27 mph. Most would have packed up.

At 10:35 a.m., with a small group of locals from the U.S. Life-Saving Service watching, Orville released the wire.

The machine lurched forward along the wooden launch rail. Wilbur ran alongside, his hand on the wingtip to steady the craft.

And then, a miracle.

It lifted.

For 12 seconds, man was no longer bound to the earth.

They flew 120 feet. They flew 175 feet. They flew 852 feet.

It wasn't luck. It was the result of the first three-axis control system—pitch, roll, and yaw—that pilots still use today. They treated the propellers not as screws, but as rotating wings.

He conquered the pitch. He conquered the roll. He conquered the air.

Later that afternoon, a gust of wind flipped the machine, destroying it forever. But the deed was done.

A local telegraph operator sent the news, but the media largely ignored it. It took years for the world to fully accept what two modest men from Ohio had accomplished in the middle of nowhere.

Today, that wood-and-fabric flyer sits in the Smithsonian, a permanent reminder that grit, faith, and determination are worth more than all the government funding in the world.

Sources: National Air and Space Museum / Library of Congress

12/18/2025

12/17/2025

12/17/2025

Loyalists were American colonists, of different ethnic backgrounds, who supported the British cause during the American Revolutionary War (1775–83). Tens of ...

12/16/2025

12/16/2025