O Canada was originally composed in 1880 with French lyrics. Several English versions were written between 1900 and 1920, with (an edited version of) Robert Stanley Weir’s lyrics finally winning out.

In the late ’60s, the government sought to adopt O Canada as the national anthem. The music and original French lyrics had passed into the public domain, but the English version was still under copyright and the government had to buy the rights to the English lyrics for a dollar.

Ironically, the copyright to the English lyrics would have expired anyways by the time the National Anthem Act was finally passed in 1980.