Author: Vancouver History

January 11 Harry Hooper died in Vancouver, aged 81. “When he offered himself and his wheezy, two-cylinder Ford for hire in 1903,” Tom Hawthorn has written, “he became Vancouver’s first taxi driver. Seven years later, he opened Harry Hooper Ltd., the city’s first taxi company.

January 24 One of the great stories in B.C.’s history began today when 214 Hungarian refugees (200 students and 14 faculty members) arrived at the Matsqui train station. They were from the Forestry School in Sopron, Hungary.

January 16 The Sun reported that Boyd Haskell, 43-year-old Simpsons-Sears executive (he was the General Manager of the Burnaby store) had been named President of the Greater Vancouver Tourist Association.

January A four-day Chinese New Year celebration was held in Vancouver’s Chinatown for the first time, sponsored by Chinese-Canadian businessmen.

January 10 Parm (Richard Parmater) Pettipiece, labor union organizer and printer, died in Vancouver, aged about 84. He was born in Ontario in 1875. Calgary’s first newsboy, Pettipiece began his printing career in 1890.