Murdoch Mysteries Reference
(Season/Episode)
Real Life Characters - episodes with individuals playing a role
Nikola Tesla (S1E1, S3E13, S12E13) - 40 years old; pursuing wireless communication in 1893
Arthur Conan Doyle (S1E4, S1E9, S6E4) - 40 years old; chose to end Sherlock Holmes series in 1893 to work on more history novels but continued the series in 1901 due to public outcry
*Sherlock Holmes (S6E4, S7E4) - person believes and behaves as if he is the fictional character
Prince Alfred (S1E12) - 21 years old; died in 1899 under circumstances unclear.
Buffalo Bill (S2E1) - 50 years old; took Buffalo Bill's Wild West show on tour in 1883
*Annie Oakley (S2E1) - 39 years old; woman sharpshooter also participated in the tour
Jack the Ripper (S2E2) - serial killer in 1888
Harry Houdini (S2E4) - 22 years old; escape act performer
H.G. Wells (S3E8) - 31 years old; a futurist, visionary, and writer
Wilfrid Laurier (S4E7) - 58 years old; Prime Minister between 1896 and 1911
Jack London (S5E1) - 23 years old; publisher of The Call of the Wild in 1903
Emma Goldman (S5E4, S7E15) - 30 years old; development in anarchist political philosophy
Alexander Graham Bell (S5E9, S5E11, S11E8) - 52 years old; worked with electricity, sound, and the deaf
Wright Brothers (S6E1) - 29 years old; briefly seen with the design of their plane before their first powered flight in 1903
Winston Churchill (S6E2) - 26 years old; writer of books with his involvement in the British Army during the Mahdist War in 1895 and later becomes Prime Minister in 1940 - 1945
Oliver Mowat (S6E7) - 80 years old; the original Lieutenant Governor of Ontario at the time who is played by the actual current one who also provided inspiration for the episode using his own uniform from 120 years ago, allowed shooting of Queen's Park despite a ban on lights and persuaded the authorities to allow filming in the historic building.
Annie Edson Taylor (S7E1) - 63 years old; went over Niagara Falls in a barrel in 1901
Major Taylor (S7E2) - 23 years old; black man who won the World 1 Mile (1.6 km) track cycling championship in 1899.
Thomas Edison (S7E3, S8E8) - 54 years old; inventor who accumulated 2,332 patents in his life time
*Thomas Edison Jr. (S8E8) - sold his name to shady products and given an allowance to stop.
Guglielmo Marconi (S7E8) - 27 years old; reportedly received first transatlantic radio transmission at Signal Hill near Newfoundland on 1901.
*Wireless Telegraphy (S7E1) - this feature was used to send and receive message while on a boat
Andrew Carnegie (S7E13) - 66 years old; philanthropist and investor
Cassie Chadwick (S7E13) - 44 years old; woman con artist defrauded banks out of millions of dollars.
William McKinley (S7E15) - 58 years old; US president shot by Leon Czolgosz (also shown).
Margaret Haile (S8E1) - first woman to run for legislative office in Canada in 1902 and did indeed receive a total of 79 votes (from men only) in the election.
Clara Brett Martin (S8E2) - 28 years old; graduated Law School in 1897 and the only woman on the Toronto Board of Education in 1901 for a decade.
George Dixon (S8E2) - 32 years old; first ever black athlete to win a world championship in any sport and first Canadian-born boxing champion.
Bat Masterson (S8E3) - 49 years old; well-known lawman
Theodor Roosevelt (S8E5, S11E14) - 44 years old; US President from 1901 to 1909
W.C.Fields (S8E8) - 22 years old; actually known as the world's greatest juggler in early 1900s
Tom Thomson (S8E11, S11E8) - 25 years old; a famous painter who died under mysterious circumstances
Mark Twain (S9E2) - 68 years old; writer of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, became vice president of the American Anti-Imperialist League from 1901 to 1910 against war and colonialism. He did indeed lose most of his money on the Paige Compositor and paid back despite not required to do so through bankruptcy with the help of Henry Rogers. Played by William Shatner.
Carrie Nation (S9E6) - 57 years old; radical member of the temperance movement who would use a hatchet to destroy taverns serving alcohol. She would also refuse the wearing of a corset.
Mary Pickford (2015 Special) - 11 years old; famous actress from Toronto
Joseph Bernier (S9E10) - 51 years old; commanded a ship through the Canadian Arctic.
George Lyon (S9E11) - 45 years old; founding member of the Country Club in 1903 and Gold Olympic Canadian golfer in 1904.
Lucy Maud Montgomery (S9E12) - 29 years old; writer of Anne of Green Gables in 1908
William Hubbard (S9E13, S9E16) - 61 years old; Toronto's first black elected official creating better transit and fire protection with publicly owned water systems.
Edmund Sheppard (S9E15) - founder of the Saturday Night newspaper from Toronto in 1887
H.P. Lovecraft (S10E16) - 14 years old; after his father was put in the asylum and died in 1898, Lovecraft did indeed write his first pieces in the same year of the episode in 1904.
Doctor William Osler (S11E5) - 56 years old; the episode is based on an actual incident around his speech being taken out of context that ruined his reputation for a time.
Frank Lloyd Wright (S12E1) - 39 years old; designer of the modern Murdoch's house.
Elizabeth Arden (S12E2) - 29 years old; first to offer in-store makeovers using facial cream in beauty salons and residential spas.
Tom Longboat (S1217, S1218) - 24 years old; runner who won 1907 Boston Marathon and 1909 Madison Square Gardens race.
Martha Matilda Harper (S13E16) - 50 years old; helped redesign the salon for women
Charlie Chaplin (S14E1) - 19 years old; Although the episode eludes to his persona from George Crabtree and the show takes place in 1908, this silent film star started his career in 1914.
Mary Pickford (S15E12) - 15 years old; a famous actress that started her career in 1907.
Real Life Events - locations or groups shown during an episode
1896 Summer Olympics (S1E8) - first Olympics held
Home Children (S1E10) - children sent to help with labor as early as 1869
Irish Republican Brotherhood (S1E12) - long established in Ireland between 1858 and 1924
Temperance League (S2E1) - founded in 1893 against alcohol and other things
Royal Canadian Mounted Police (S2E13, S5E1) - a police force in the northwest that has undergone many different names between 1873 and 1920.
First Chinatown (S3E2) - place established after the Chinese Immigration Act of 1885
Klondlike Gold Rush (S5E1) - gold rush in Yukon between 1896 and 1899
Toronto Wellingtons (S5E12) - organized hockey team in 1895
Eaton Department Store (S6E8) - founded in 1869 and Canada's Greatest Store in 1896
Temple Building (S3E6) - one of the city's first skyscrapers in 1896
Lewis Carroll (S4E13) - costume party during the show was made in the style of Alice of Wonderland to honor the author's death that same year of 1898.
Toronto Athletic Club (S6E10, S7E2) - aka Steward Building built in 1894.
McMaster University (S6E10) - opened in Toronto in 1890, though filmed in Trinity College School.
Victoria Day (S7E1) - holiday made for Queen Victoria's birthday after her death that same year in 1901
Jubilee Singers (S7E10) - although the real characters aren't quite known, there was an actual group.
*Ragtime (S7E10) - music style in episode peaked from 1890s to 1910s. In honor to the "King of Ragtime", Maple Leaf Rag is played during the credits.
Curling (S7E14) - Canada is the only country that often used "irons" rather than stones until the early 1900s where others experimented with wood or ice-filled tins.
Edgar Allan Poe Cipher (S7E18) - Gil Broza of Toronto solved real life puzzle 150 years later.
Bertillon System (S8E7, S13E3) - method of identification for law enforcement in 1888
Cobalt Silver Rush (S8E11) - various individuals finding silver on staked claims in Ontario
Empire Club of Canada (S9E2) - speaker forum established in 1903
Algonquin Provincial Park (S9E7) - oldest park in Canada established in 1893
Sheffield Wednesday (S9E9) - professional football club winning their first League Championship in 1903. The tattoo shown for the club by the inspector is a real tattoo the actor has in real life.
Nanook of the North (S9E10) - documentary silent film in 1922 based on a family that lives in the Canadian Arctic that can be seen on Youtube. The show alludes to this by showing a man named Nuniq that accompanies Constable Crabtree.
Toronto Board of Control (S9E16) - created in 1896 as a way of governmental reform measure.
Great Fire of Toronto (S10E2) - there was indeed a fire that destroyed over 100 Toronto buildings in 1904. While the exact cause was never determined, the inspector eluded to the same suspected cause of a faulty stove. Actual film is used in the episode.
Immigration Act of 1906 (S12E4) - first legal action of deportation for "undesirable" immigrants.
Triple Entente (S12E5) - agreements between Great Britain, France, and Russia between 1894 and 1907.
Halley's Comet (S12E6) - the show smudges the 1910 date a little early for their Halloween episode as this comet appears in the solar system every 75 years.
1907 Bell Telephone Strike (S13E14) - 400 operators walk out in protest against hard working conditions.
Salvation Girls (S14E6) - inspired by an article published in The Globe and Mail in 1906 with a program that sponsored women convicted of various offenses a chance to start new in Canada.
1907 Vancouver Anti-Asian Riots (S14E9) - growing enmity toward the Asian immigrants.
Grey Cup (S15E1) - Awarded for amateur rugby football championship of Canada.
Mintonette aka volleyball (S15E3) - sport adopted in 1895 from badminton.
Mother's Day (S15E14) - Adopted in 1907 and established as a holiday.
Real Life Items - devices or discoveries shown during an episode
Kinetoscope (S1E7, S12E13) - first motion picture developed between 1889 and 1892
*Fred Ott's Sneeze, the first motion picture patented in the US, is also shown during the episode.
Snakes and ladders (S2E2) - board game brought to United Kingdom in 1890s
X-ray (S2E3) - discovery by Röntgen in 1895 who later wins Nobel Peace Prize in 1901
The Time Machine (S2E4) - book written in 1895
The Gold Cure (S2E10) - a treatment cocktail for alcoholism in 1879 to 1965
Microwave (S3E13) - radio waves generated in the 1890s
Methamphetamine (S4E2) - drug synthesized in 1893
Jell-O (S4E4) - gelatin dessert trademarked in 1897
Dracula (S4E11) - book written about a blood-sucking vampire in 1897
Mescaline (S4E13) - drug isolated in 1897
Heroin (S5E9) - marketed by Bayer since 1895
Adrenalin (S5E10) - extraction from the gland and other research started in 1895
Radium (S6E7) - discovered by Madame Curie in 1898
Hot Dog (S7E11, S15E1) - aka hot sausage appeared in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Canadians had a version called steamie.
Apache Revolver (S8E14) - manufactured until the end of the 1870s, three weapons in one actually made with a letter opener, gun, and 3D printed parts in the show.
Opium (S9E8, S14E9) - drug that was legal until Opium Law in 1908.
Banana Split (S9E15) - recipe speculated to begin sometime in 1904.
Nickelodeon (S9E10) - early versions of motion picture theaters as early as 1888.
Syphilis (S10E5) - the organism behind the cause was indeed discovered in 1905.
Balloon Lung Tester (S10E16) - a machine debut in 1904 that's seen in the episode.
Vitamin (S11E4) - although the concept is a few years early in the episode, the booth and the idea of renaming the combination of nutrients did take place beginning in 1910.
Hormone (S11E5) - Ernest Starling and William Bayliss isolated a substance they called secretin in 1902. They later coined the term hormone in 1905 to denote such substances released in the restricted part of the body by the bloodstream.
Ensignettes (S13E2) - Although not widely-known after being overtaken by the Vest Pocket Kodak in the market, this camera was manufactured between 1909 and 1927 and designed by Swedish Engineer Magnus Neill.
Mayonnaise (S14E9) - Despite being around since the 1700s, the ingredient wasn't jarred and sold until 1907.
Checkered Game of Life (S14E11) - An early version of the Game of Life
Candy Apple (S14E11) - apples dipped into mixture while experimenting with red cinnamon candy.
Real Life References - people, places, events, or items mentioned but not shown in an episode
Three Little Maids From School Are We (S1E2) - song listed from The Mikado in 1885
Oscar Wilde (S1E5) - writer of The Picture of Dorian Gray in 1891 and convicted of gross indecency in 1895
Fred Russell (S1E9) - started using ventriloquism in 1882
Percival Lowell (S1E13) - study of Mars in the 1890s
Basketball (S3E3) - game invented in 1891
Dissociative identity disorder (S3E5) - medical study between 1880 and 1920
The Importance of Being Earnest (S3E9) - play the characters watched that started in 1895
Hague Convention of 1899 (S6E6) - similar to Geneva Conventions, international rules of warfare
Alois Alzheimer (S6E11) - clinical research on psychosis in senile patients beginning in 1888
Karl Landsteiner (S7E2) - discovered blood types in 1901
Hollywood (S7E3) - place in California where the motion industry went to evade Thomas Edison in the early 1900s.
Lobotomy (S7E5) - although not directly mentioned, there were actual tests made as early as 1888.
Boxer Rebellion (S7E16) - Uprising in North China between 1899 and 1901.
*Guangxu Emperor (S7E16) - under house arrest in 1898
The Famous Five (S8E2) - Although there were only four women representing the "Furious Four" in the show, these women were identified as Canadian suffragettes who advocated for women and children rights. They were featured on the back of the Canadian $20 bill from 2001 to 2012.
Decoration Day (S8E5) - The name given for United States Memorial Day.
A Trip to the Moon (S9E5) - silent film referenced and can be watched on Youtube
Hendrik Zwaardemaker (S9E9) - invented the olfactometer to detect odors in 1888 and credited with the discovery that babies and children can hear much higher frequencies than adults.
Nettie Stevens (S10E15) - a woman in the show researches a way to isolate the sex chromosomes when this geneticist does research in 1900 that leads to the discovery of sex chromosomes in 1905.
Russian Revolution of 1905 (S11E15) - created mass political and social unrest.
Hughie Cannon (S11E15) - composer of Bill Bailey, Won't You Please Come Home? (covered by Louis Armstrong).
Pink Pills for Pale People (S11E18) - cure marketed in the early 19th century.
San Francisco Earthquake of 1906 (S12E3) - one of the most devastating earthquakes of all time causing 3,000 deaths and destroying much of the city.
1906 Eruption of Mount Vesuvius (S12E10) - The volcano in Italy has erupted more than 50 times with the one recorded at the time of the show having 100 casualties. The last one recorded in 1944 disrupted Allied Forces during World War II.
Blood Brain Barrier (S14E3) - Starting from an 1898 study when bile salts failed to affect behavior when injected into the blood of animals, the idea of a separation of the circulatory and central nervous system began.
Gustav Mahler (S15E10) - Composer and leading conductor in the early 19th century.
Chromatography (S15E10) - a laboratory technique that separates a mixture into its components.
- For a list of Murdoch inventions in early episodes that parallel real items, check out the list of inventions page on the wiki or inventions from the future page on Reddit.