Why is the birth of the Dionne Quintuplets a defining moment in Canadian history?
1. The Dionne quintuplets (born May 28, 1934) are the first quintuplets known to survive their infancy. 2. They are the only female identical set of five ever recorded. 3. The Dionne girls were born two months premature. 4. After four months with their family, they were made wards of the King for the next nine years under the Dionne Quintuplets’ Guardianship Act, 1935. The government and those around them began to profit by making them a significant tourist attraction in Ontario. 5. The identical quintuplet sisters were (in order of birth): Yvonne Edouilda Marie Dionne (died June 23, 2001 (aged 67) of cancer) Annette Lillianne Marie Dionne (Allard) (age 75) Cécile Marie Emilda Dionne (Langlois) (age 75) Émilie Marie Jeanne Dionne (died August 6, 1954 (aged 20) of accidental suffocation during an epileptic seizure at her convent) Marie Reine Alma Dionne (Houle) (died February 27, 1970 (aged 35) of an apparent blood clot of the brain in Montreal) 6. They were all sexually abused by their
