The Entire History of Halifax: The City That Blew Up

At 9:04 on the morning of 6 December 1917, a burning French freighter loaded with close to three thousand tonnes of explosives blew up in the middle of Halifax Harbour. It was the largest man-made explosion the world had seen until the atomic bomb. About two thousand people died, nine thousand were injured, and the next morning a blizzard buried the ruins. But the explosion is only one chapter in the story of a city that was never meant to be a city. Halifax was founded in 1749 as a weapon: a British naval base built to answer the French fortress of Louisbourg. This is the entire history of Halifax, Nova Scotia: Kjipuktuk, the great harbour of the Mi'kmaq; Edward Cornwallis and the settlers of 1749; the fleets that took Louisbourg and Quebec; the first newspaper and the first elected assembly in what is now Canada; the Black Loyalists who sailed from Halifax to found Freetown in Sierra Leone; Prince Edward's Town Clock and the Citadel that nobody ever attacked; the Shannon and the Chesapeake; Samuel Cunard and Joseph Howe; the Titanic's dead at Fairview Lawn; the Halifax Explosion, Vince Coleman and the Boston Christmas tree; the Hydrostone; Pier 21, where close to a million immigrants entered Canada; the convoys of the Second World War and the VE-Day riots; the destruction of Africville; and the growing city of today. Built from 18th-century maps and engravings, photographs of the 1917 devastation, W. G. MacLaughlan's film of the ruined city (Nova Scotia Archives), Library and Archives Canada photographs, and today's views of Halifax. CHAPTERS 0:00 The narrows 2:20 The great harbour 4:49 Warden of the north 6:56 The garrison town 10:03 The edge of the ocean 10:58 December the sixth 14:38 Rebuilt 15:28 The convoys 16:36 Africville 17:43 Today Which city should we tell next? Write it in the comments. SOURCES The Canadian Encyclopedia; Nova Scotia Archives; Province of Nova Scotia; Dictionary of Canadian Biography; Parks Canada; Encyclopaedia Britannica; CBC; APTN News; Dalhousie University; Halifax Public Libraries; Hakai Magazine; Vimy Foundation; Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21. ARCHIVE & IMAGE CREDITS Public domain: Nova Scotia Archives, Halifax Municipal Archives, Library of Congress, Library and Archives Canada, City of Toronto Archives, New York Public Library, Royal Museums Greenwich, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Nationaal Archief, David Rumsey Map Collection, UK Hydrographic Office. Film: W.G. MacLaughlan, 1917–1920 (Nova Scotia Archives). CC BY (via Wikimedia Commons): Library and Archives Canada; Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, University of Toronto; Boston Public Library, Leventhal Map Center; City of Toronto Archives; Hayden Soloviev; Quintin Soloviev; Paulo O; Chris Breeze; Paul from Hacketts Cove; Jesse David Hollington; Janice Waltzer; Michael Stokes; Shawn Kent; William Belfield; Letterofmarque; Thomas Quine; B*lly Frank; Verne Equinox; Janayna Velozo; Tony Webster; Greg Schechter. Drone footage: Max Medyk (Pexels). Scenes nobody photographed (Kjipuktuk before 1749, the settlers' ships of 1749, the fleet of 1758, the Black Loyalist ships of 1792, a privateer bringing in a prize in 1813, Joseph Howe's trial, the Titanic's last night, the Mont-Blanc collision and fire, the crowds watching, the blast of 6 December 1917, the blizzard, the Boston tree, the convoys in Bedford Basin, Africville and its church) are AI reconstructions in the style of the period. Narration: AI voice. Music: original score. #Halifax #NovaScotia #HalifaxExplosion #CityHistory #EntireHistory #Founded