January 1 At 2:00 a.m. motor vehicles in British Columbia changed from driving on the left to driving on the right hand side of the street. The change went surprisingly smoothly; there were no accidents.

February 14 Irving K. “Ike” Barber was born in Edmonton. On October 3, 2002 Barber, a UBC alumnus and founding chairman of Slocan Forest Products Ltd., announced a $20 million donation to transform UBC’s Main Library. The B.C. Government is contributing $10 million, and UBC is matching the sum of these donations for a total of $60 million to build the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre.

March 20 Sara Ann McLagan, newspaper publisher, died in Vancouver, aged about 69. She was the first woman telegrapher in BC, probably in Canada, came here from Ireland in 1858 at age 3. Her father taught her telegraphy. When she was 12 a major forest fire threatened their Matsqui home, but Sara tapped a message through to New Westminster and that brought help. …

January 5 (Included only because of the accused’s age) Newspaper report: “Bail in a dope case will be set at $5,000. L. O’Neil, 87, is to be arraigned before Magistrate Findlay in Police Court and charged with trafficking in narcotics under the Drug Act. Police will state that O’Neil did a brisk trade with a number of women, the tip to his activities coming from three women arrested recently.

January 19 Charles Gardiner Johnson, called “the father of Vancouver’s shipping industry,” died in Vancouver, aged 68. Born February 8, 1857, near Dunblane, Scotland, he went to sea in 1870. In the 1880s he left seafaring to farm in Manitoba….