Some odd stuff has happened in Vancouver's past. Here's a sampling (click to view):

· 1792 to 1899
· 1900 to 1922
· 1923 to 1930
· 1931 to 1935
· 1936 to 1940
· 1941 to 1946
· 1947 to 1954
· 1955 to 1960
· 1961 to 1965

From 1931 to 1935

For more details on these items see the Chronology for the year cited.

• In 1931, on July 3, Canada’s first baseball game played under lights took place at Athletic Park in Vancouver.
• In 1931 Vancouver International Airport opened. Cowley Crescent, a road surrounding the first terminal, was created when the airport’s designer, William Templeton, took a pencil and traced a line around a light bulb held down on the plans. You can still see that bulb-shaped road from the air today.
• A party of local dignitaries was taken up in a plane on the day the airport opened to see what it looked like from the air. A well-known city alderman became airsick up there and threw up in the police chief’s hat.
• Jack Kendrick, who worked as a commissionaire at the airport in the early 1990s, was born the same day it opened.
• In 1931, on August 2, the Province had this startling lead to a story: “One person in every 300 in British Columbia is insane.”
• In 1931, on October 10, in the depths of the Depression, West Vancouver sold 4,000 acres of land to a British syndicate for $18.75 an acre. We know that land today as British Pacific Properties.
• In 1931 Vancouver’s Charlie Crane became the first blind person to attend a Canadian university when he was accepted at UBC. His achievement becomes remarkable when you learn that he was also deaf.
• In Port Coquitlam a Mrs. Struthers donated a chair to serve as the May Queen’s throne. In the more than 75 years since, the only change to the chair has been the trim.
• When the Burrard Bridge opened in 1932 Cedar Street disappeared. When the bridge went in, it connected to Cedar Street south of the bridge—the name Burrard was simply extended and Cedar disappeared.
• In 1932, on December 8, businessman (and ex-politician) H.H. Stevens walked around Stanley Park on his 54th birthday. He would continue that birthday walk for 40 more years. His last was December 8, 1972 when he was 94.
• In 1932 the M.V. Scenic began service, the only floating post office in the British Empire. She will serve to 1968, known as the Burrard Inlet T.P.O. (Travelling Post Office.)
• In 1932, thanks to the Depression, construction on the CNR’s huge chateau-style hotel at Georgia and Hornby Streets came to a halt. The building stood uncompleted for five years. (We know it today as the Hotel Vancouver.)
• In 1932 a 14-year-old boy named Gerald Hobbis, nicknamed ‘Cap,” traded a bunch of old magazines for his first bicycle. He repaired it in his basement and sold it for $10. Cap will become a hugely successful bicycle retailer.
• In 1933, on June 9, Vancouver City Council voted to allow men to go topless on city beaches.
• In 1933 Vancouver businessman Dominic Burns died. He had lived in the penthouse of the Vancouver Block on Granville Street since 1912.
• In 1934 the first United Airlines flight arrived at Vancouver International Airport. For the first three years of the airport’s life, no airline company flew there.
• In 1934 a 20-year-old named Foncie Pulice set up a camera on the sidewalk on Granville Street in downtown Vancouver and began taking pictures of passersby. He would continue doing that for 45 years. It is said Foncie may have taken pictures of more people—millions—than anyone else in the world.
• In 1934 the Pacific National Exhibition gave away a home, the first Home Lottery. This was the first time such a significant prize had ever been awarded. The prize—which included a lot in East Vancouver and all the furnishings—was valued at more than $5,000.
• In 1935, on January 21, Vancouver got 43 centimetres (17 inches) of snow, still the city’s 24-hour record for snowfall. One result: the roof of the Hastings Park Forum collapsed. There were no injuries.
• In 1935, on March 28, architect Francis M. Rattenbury, who gave us the legislative buildings and the Empress Hotel in Victoria, and a provincial courthouse in Vancouver that is now our art gallery, was murdered by his wife’s 19-year-old lover, the family chauffeur.

1936 to 1940 »