Happy Canada Day! From the Canadian Encyclopedia, here's an article on Calixa Lavallée and the Origins of "O Canada".
Canada's national anthem was first heard one fine June evening in 1880, on the campus of Laval University in Quebec City. Joseph Keaney Foran and some fellow law students were relaxing in one of the buildings when they heard a commotion at the front door. They saw Father Pierre Rouselle, the university secretary, and three other men enter the building and head straight for the piano. In the lead was a small man with a halo of black hair around his balding dome. "He was very excited," Foran later wrote of the little man, "and kept tapping his hands and saying 'I've got it! I've finally found it; I've succeeded; come, listen." He arranged himself at the piano and the others perched on a nearby dais. "Throwing back his head he played for us, for the first time, the masterpiece of his genius - it was Calixa Lavallée; he played O Canada." [continue]
So go read the rest, then sing with us! Should you need help with the tune or lyrics, see Sing for Canada.
Related Mirabilis.ca content:
The Maple Leaf Forever!
Elsewhere:
National Anthem: O Canada - Canadian Heritage
Canada Day - Canadian Heritage