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 1961 to 1965

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

• On October, 1961 the RCMP raided Vancouver bookstores and the main library to seize copies of Henry Miller’s novel Tropic of Cancer. Today, you can buy Miller’s book at any bookstore.
• By 1961 the metropolitan Vancouver population had climbed to more than 800,000, double the figure of 20 years earlier, and pushing Vancouver’s share of the population down to 46 per cent. For the first time there were more people outside the city proper than in.
• Writer Sean Rossiter says 1961 was an architectural turning point for Vancouver. “The history of Vancouver architecture,” he wrote in The Greater Vancouver Book, “consists of everything before Arthur Erickson, and everything since.”
• On May 30, 1962 there was a near riot at the Forum as Prime Minister John Diefenbaker addressed a rowdy crowd at an election rally. A number of Sons of Freedom Doukhobor women in the audience disrobed as a sign of protest against government policies toward the Doukhobors.
• On July 30, 1962 the 7,821-kilometre-long Trans-Canada Highway, the longest national highway in the world, was opened to traffic at Rogers Pass in the Rockies. It had taken 12 years to build, and more than 3,000 km were still to be paved, but it was now possible to drive right across Canada on one highway . . . 95 years after Confederation.
• On December 9, 1962 Bill Rathie was elected mayor of Vancouver, the first to have been born in the city . . . 76 years after incorporation.
• In 1962 attendance at the PNE passed the one million mark for the first time. It has rarely dropped below that since.
• In 1962 the Abbotsford International Air Show was born. Forty enthusiastic members of the Abbotsford Flying Club passed the hat and came up with $700 to put on the first one. Since then the show has become one of the world's premium flying and aviation-technology extravaganzas.
• On January 2, 1963 the Ubyssey, the student newspaper at UBC, was named the best college newspaper in Canada. In 1955 a local minister had denounced it as the “vilest rag” you can imagine.
• In May of 1963 former Vancouver police chief Walter Mulligan, forced out of his job in 1956 through scandal, returned to Canada from the USA. He and his wife Violet retired to Oak Bay, a Victoria suburb.
• In 1963 pollution coming down the Nicomekl and Serpentine Rivers put an end to oyster farming at Crescent Beach, which had flourished for decades.
• In June of 1964 the Port Mann Bridge was just about to be opened. The first “civilian” to drive across the bridge was CKNW reporter Marke Raines—it was an unauthorized crossing, so he put the pedal to the metal and drove across at teeth-clenching speed.
• On August 22, 1964 the Beatles hit Vancouver. There had been a delay at Customs, and at a press conference later a reporter asked the boys why it had happened. John Lennon replied: “We had to be deloused.”
• In 1964 Vancouver's Mayor Bill Rathie and Park Board Chairman George Wainborn drove the last spike in the Stanley Park miniature railway.
• In 1964 the Vancouver Public Aquarium captured the first killer whale ever to be studied alive in captivity. He (yes, he) became known as “Moby Doll.” They originally thought he was a female.
• In 1964 the New Westminster Museum was opened. One of its most interesting holdings is the material on New Westminster’s annual Mayday celebrations, an unbroken tradition since 1870. Check out more than 100 photographs of each year’s May Queen.
• On February 15, 1965 the new Canadian flag was hoisted at 6 a.m. at Vancouver city hall. Because of the time differential, this was the first appearance of the flag in Canada after its official proclamation.
• On August 16, 1965 the largest crowd in B.C. racing history turned out to watch as jockey Johnny Longden rode his 6,000th winner (Prince Scorpion) at Exhibition Park.
• In 1965 politician Grace McInnis became the first woman to be a British Columbia Member of Parliament. (She continued a tradition of distinguished public service: her father, J.S. Woodsworth, was the founder of the CCF, forerunner of the NDP.)
• By 1965 the funky old building at Main Street and East 15th Avenue in Vancouver, originally Postal Station C, later a federal Department of Agriculture office block, had been empty for three years. A special investigation branch of the RCMP moved in this year. The Mounties would be there until 1976. (Today, it’s Heritage Hall.)
• In 1965 Whistler Resort was born. It had originally been called London Mountain, but the name was changed to Whistler, writes Constance Brissenden, “inspired by the whistler marmot that frequents its rocky outcrops.”
• In 1965 the tunnel at Vancouver’s main Post Office, built to carry mail to the CPR station, was closed permanently for that purpose, having proved impractical. It will be used for storage and creepy movie scenes.
• In 1965 the eight-storey Henry Angus building—home to the Faculty of Commerce and Business Administration, and known as UBC's first “skyscraper”—opened. It was the first fully air-conditioned building on the university’s campus.
• In 1965 Vancouver built its first curb ramps for wheelchair users. (Today, virtually all the sidewalks in the downtown core have sloping ramps, called curb cuts, for easy access.)
• In 1965 the Great Northern Railway station, next door to the CN terminal and unused since 1962, was demolished. Using the CN station, the American railway would continue to operate a Vancouver-Seattle train service for 15 years.

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