The words for the Canadian national anthem were written in 1880 in French by Sir Adolphe Basile Routhier. The music was written by a prominent music teacher, Calixa LaVallee. They had been asked to write a song to celebrate St. Jean-Baptiste day, a holiday that celebrates both the patron saint of French Canadians and the summer solstice. The song grew slowly in popularity. When LaVallee died, it was not even mentioned in his obituary as one of his accomplishments.
Several attempts were made to write an English version of the song, but none of them achieved much popularity until 1908, when a lawyer, Robert Stanley Weir, wrote the words familiar today. Weir died in 1926, which meant that the copyright did not expire until 1976, fifty years after his death. To make sure that no one could claim to own the song, the act of the Canadian parliament that made Oh! Canada the official national anthem also declared it to be free of copyright restrictions.
The Flag of Canada