This Day in History: Canadian hockey player Tim Horton died on this day in 1974 due to a single-vehicle crash in 1974 at the age of 44. Before he departed this mortal coil he did leave us with Tim Horton's donuts. In 1964, Horton opened his first Tim Horton Doughnut Shop in Hamilton, Ontario on Ottawa Street (the site of an old Esso gas station). After his death, his business partner Ron Joyce bought out the Horton family's shares for $1 million and took over as sole owner of the existing chain, which had 40 stores at the time, and later expanded to nearly 4,600 stores in Canada alone by 2013. Today, Tim Hortons is a flagship of Restaurant Brands International, a conglomerate that includes Burger King and Popeyes. Restaurant Brands International is majority-owned by 3G Capital...a company in Brazil.
Though Tim Hortons may be ubiquitous in Canada, there are actually 653 locations in 12 US states (all in the northeast).
Tim Hortons used to have an apostrophe in the name, but because the Parti Québecois banned all English signs in 1977, the apostrophe (which is an English thing) had to be dropped.
Tim Hortons represents 76 percent of the baked goods and coffee market in the Canada and almost a quarter of all fast food. It's easy to see why Canada can be called Timbit Nation.
See also: Tales from Under the Rim: The Marketing of Tim Hortons
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