March 7: Grandview's Exponent; Patrick Shea's brewery.

March 7, 1901 - The Grandview Exponent begins publication. It is one of Manitoba's younger rural, weekly papers !

March 7, 1996 - André Lewis is named Artistic Director of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet.

March 7, 1854 - Patrick Shea is born in Ireland. He came to Manitoba in 1882 and co-founded Shea’s Brewery. An avid horseman, Shea’s teams of Clydesdales that were sold to Anheuser Busch in the 1930s and became a marketing icon for Budweiser.

For more on Shea's see my post: Budweiser's Clydesdales and their Winnipeg Origin.

March 6: Winnipeg supply; Speaker Bird tarred and beaten.

March 6, 1904 - The Winnipeg Supply Company is incorporated by a Toronto-based consortium of lime manufacturers and contractors. The company began as a fuel distribution business and ran a limestone quarry at Stonewall. It is now part of Service Experts.

March 6, 1873 - Dr. Curtis James Bird, speaker of the legislature, is lured from his bed in the middle of the night on a false medical call. He is seized, beaten unconscious and smeared in warm tar. It was retribution for a procedural call that he made that prevented the first City of Winnipeg Act to pass.

March 5: Capote nominated; Actor Donald Woods.

March 5, 2006 - The movie Capote, filmed mostly in Manitoba, is nominated for 5 Academy Awards. Philip Seymour Hoffman won for best actor.

October 12, 1933, Winnipeg Free Press

March 5, 1998 - Actor Donald Woods dies in Palm Springs, California.

Born in Brandon as Ralph Zink on December 2, 1904, he moved with his family to California as a child.

Between the 30s to 70s he is credited with 75 film roles including The Frisco Kid, The Return of Tin Tin Tin, and True Grit as well as a long string of B movies. He also appeared in 150 TV shows and nearly 100 stage productions.

Roundup of recent Manitoba heritage-related media

Auditorium Theatre, Virden:
Stately Aud an enduring structure in Virden Westman Journal
Rescued Concert Hall Going Strong Again Winnipeg Free Press
Virden's Aud Turns 100 This Was Winnipeg

Lord Selkirk Monument
Monument easy to miss Winnipeg Free Press
Lord Selkirk Monument Winnipeg Downtown Places

Clarendon Hotel etc.
Farewell, core eyesore Winnipeg Free Press
Demolition begins on Portage West End Dumplings

Criddle-Vane Homestead
Vandals target rural Lanmark Winnipeg Free Press/Brandon Sun
Criddle-Vane Homestead Manitoba Historical Society

Airport
Doom stalks modernist gem Winnipeg Free Press

Fleming Grain Elevator
Jail sentence imposed for arson of grain elevator CBC

March 4: Carstairs as leader; the Blizzard of '66.

March 4, 1984 - Sharon Carstairs becomes leader of the Manitoba Liberal Party, the first woman in Manitoba, and only the second in Canada, to lead a major political party.

Stranded employees at Sears, (source)

March 4, 1966 – The Blizzard of 1966 strikes Winnipeg. Over the course of the day 35 centimetres of snow combined with 120 kilimetre per-hour winds to quickly grind the city to a halt.

Most of the snow fell during the workday stranding thousands and killing two. Department stores acted as temporary shelters for the night making room for 1,600 stranded people.

For more on the blizzard of 1966. For more Tribune photos

March 3; Thomas Scott executed; fire on Main Street; Carman's Leader.

March 3, 1898 - The Carman Valley Leader begins publishing as the Dufferin Leader.

Images of the fire: Winnipeg Fire Museum

March 3, 1954 - The Manitoba Hotel, The Imperial Hotel and four other businesses at 509-517 Main St., (across from city hall), burn to the ground.

March 3, 1975 - The first all-female troop, (a total of 32 women), graduate from the RCMP Depot in Regina. For more.

March 3, 1870 - Thomas Scott is convicted of taking up arms against Riel’s provisional government and was executed the following day.

Scott’s death made him a martyr to some and hardened Eastern Canadian sentiment toward Riel. In Winnipeg the former Orange Hall on Princess Street was named the Thomas Scott Memorial Orange Hall.

March 3 1966 - Neil Young, Stephen Stills, and Richie Furay form Buffalo Springfield in Los Angeles.

March 2: First Métis in the house; Manitoba's first Brier win.

March 2, 1871 - In a federal by-election Angus Mckay is elected to the House of Commons representing the riding of Marquette. He is the first declared Métis elected to the House served for nearly two years.

March 2, 1928 - Gordon Hudson of the Stratchcona Curling Club becomes Manitoba’s first Brier winner. Manitoba rinks won and impressive five of the first six championships held. For more on Hudson and of Brier history.)

March 1: The Flying Bandit's heist; Aikins dies; Aqueduct begins;

March 1, 1878 – The first telephone is installed in Winnipeg. A Mr. McDougall rented a set to run from his apartment to the Telegraph newspaper office, both located at 152 Garry Street. The rental rate: $60 per year. (For more on early telephony in Brandon.)

March 1, 1929 - James Aikins (also) dies on the eve of a dinner to celebrate his 50th anniversary as a lawyer.

Aikins was a former M.P. and Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba. The law firm he founded, now called Aikins, is the oldest and largest in Manitoba. For more on the history of the firm.

March 1, 1966 - The "Flying Bandit" Ken Leishman pulls off Canada's largest gold heist, $400,000 of gold bullion from the tarmac at Winnipeg International Airport. (For more on The Flying Bandit.)

March 1, 1966 - Speed skating Olympic medalist Susan Auch is born in Winnipeg.

March 1, 1948 - Winnipeg briefly has a third daily newspaper called The Winnipeg Citizen.

Not to be confused with the pro-business / anti-general strike Citizen published in 1919, this labour-backed paper was published around the time of the typographers strike against the Trib and Free Press in 1948-49. The strike forced the two major dailies to publish joint editions.

The Citizen folded in April 1949.

March 1, 1928 - The first issue of Chatelaine Magazine hits the shelves with an initial subscription base of 57,053. Subscriptions would hit 950,000 by 1994 and in the mid 2000's the readership was around 4.5 million, second in Canada only to Reader’s Digest.

For more covers from Chatelaine's past check out Little Miss Chatelaine.

March 1, 1914 - Work begins on the Winnipeg Aqueduct.

February 29: WestJet flies; Virden's "Aud" turns 100.

February 29, 1996 – Calgary-based airline WestJet begins operations in five Western Canadian cities. The first flight to touch down in Winnipeg was from Edmonton.

The "Aud" Source: Virden Heritage

February 29, 1912 - Virden's Auditorium Theatre opens.

The theatre was built as part of a municipal complex that opened on the same day. Mayor Bridgett first took guests, mainly businessmen and elected officials from around the region, through the $33,000 municipal building which housed the telephone exchange, county court and town offices.

February 29, 1912, Brandon Daily Sun

It was then onto the Auditorium, a 500 seat opera house, theatre and lecture hall boasting a professional-sized stage, steam heating and lit with acetylene gas lamps. It cost $25,000 and was designed by W. A. Elliott of Brandon and constructed by W. T. Manser of Virden.

After the tour and some speeches by the hosts people settled in to watch the local drama club's production of “The Mysogonist.” (Virden also had an operatic society, created in October 1911.)

Today Magazine, June 27, 1981

The town hall and neihgbouring fire hall were demolished in 1981 -1982 but a group of citizens rallied to save the "Aud" by raising $70,000 to bring it up to code. Since then it has been restored and is considered a jewel among prairie theatres.

In a 1981 national magazine it was voted Canda's best concert hall, behind Vancouver's Orpheum Theatre. On May 1, 1986 it was made a Provincial Heritage Site.

Related:
Auditorium Theatre Canada's Historic Places
Rescued Concert Hall Going Strong Again Free Press
Stately Aud an enduring structure Westman Journal

February 28: Furby Theatre burns; Maddin is born; Ross becomes postmaster.

image: Winnipeg Fire Museum

February 28, 1952 - The ca. 1910 Furby Theatre burns to the ground. It was located on the north side of Portage in front of where the Winnipeg Roller rink was. The owners declared that the theatre would be rebuilt bigger and better but it never happened.

February 28, 1956 - (In a black and white, Vaseline smeared hospital room), filmmaker Guy Maddin is born in Winnipeg. Madden grew up above Lil's Beauty Shop on Ellice Avenue.

February 28, 1855 - The first post office in Western Canada opens in the Point Douglas home of postmaster William Ross. That home is now Ross House Museum in Joe Zuken Park.

February 27: Winnipeg Hydro sold; Whalers acquire Bobby Hull.

February 27, 2002 -Winnipeg City Council approves the sale of Winnipeg Hydro to Manitoba Hydro. The deal provides the city $25 million per year for the first five years, $20 million for each of the next four years and then $16 million per year in perpetuity. (For a backgrounder on the terms of sale.)

February 27, 1980 - The Hartford Whalers acquire Bobby Hull from the Jets for future considerations. Hull played the 1980-81 season, his final one, with the Whalers.

February 27, 1961 - River East Collegiate on Sutton Avenue is officially opened. For more on the history of the school.

February 26: Actress Lehmann born; Nelson Eddy plays; botched hanging at Portage.

Source

February 26, 1917 – Actress Carla Lehmann is born in Winnipeg. After graduating from Riverbend Girls' School, (now Balmoral Hall), she performed with the Winnipeg Little Theatre before moving to England in 1938 to study drama. She went on to become a star of the London stage and British cinema.

A July 1944 Time Magazine review of Candlelight in Algeria noted: “Canadian Carla Lehmann, with her prairie voice, is about twice as American as the average U.S. screen heroine.”

For more on Carla Lehmann see my West End Dumplings post !

February 26, 1961 - Vicki Keith Munro is born in Winnipeg. She represented Canada at a number of international meets but is best known for being the first person to swim across all five Great Lakes in 1988. She also conquered the Sydney Harbour, English Channel, Lake Winnipeg and the Juan de Fuca Strait. She was made a Member of the Order of Canada in 1992

February 26, 1915 - Winnipeg fireman Frank Lunny, 30, dies.

Lunny was riding the tailboard of a fire engine from Fire Hall No. 2 to a call on Kennedy Street when it was "T-boned" by a streetcar at the intersection of Donald and York. Lunny was thrown and died of head injuries three hours later at General Hospital.

Ironically, Lunny worked for the Winnipeg Street Railway Company before becoming a fireman.

February 26, 1988 - St. Peter's Dynevor Anglican Church Rectory, 1147 Breezy Point Road, R.M. of St. Andrews (near Selkirk), is designated a Provincial Heritage Site.

Click to read the program !

February 26, 1940 - Nelson Eddy plays the Winnipeg Auditorium.

Brandon Sun, April 21, 1917

February 26, 1918 - Thomas Fletcher (23) is hanged at the Portage la Prairie Gaol for the murder of little Gordon Rasmussen (10).

When Gordon's father died his mother remarried a Carberry-area man named Storyak. In 1916, while Mr. Storyak was off at war, Gordon was sent to the Spence farm near Carberry. It appears that the Spences were interested in adopting the boy.

At the farm there was a farm hand named Thomas Fletcher who came from Britain to live there in his teens. He became jealous of the affection shown to Gordon by the Spence family and on April 15, 1916 took Gordon into the woods and executed him with a close-range shotgun blast to the base of the skull. When he returned to the farmhouse, Fletcher confessed to the Spences and the RCMP was contacted.

On November 23, 1917 Fletcher was found guilty of murder and sentenced to hang but "Elliott" the hangman botched the job.

Manitoba Free Press, February 27, 1918

The Voice, a weekly labour paper opposed to capital punishment, wrote on March 1, 1918 that: "Poor Fletcher hung on the rope with feet touching the ground and his pulses did not cease to beat for half an hour. It was one minute short of three quarters of an hour before the physician pronounced him dead."

The February 27, 1918 Manitoba Free Press reported that "Hangman Elliott bungled the affair and the scene was most revolting to those who who had been summoned as witnesses" and describes Elliott's unsuccessful attempt to hoist the man part-way back up so that he could strangle. Others had to assist by grabbing the dying body by the legs and lifting them off the ground. They held him in place for over half an hour until the doctor finally declared him dead.

Manitoba Free Press, August 14, 1918

For Mrs. Storyak, her sadness continued. Just months after the hanging she was informed that Private John Storyak, her second husband, was killed in action.

February 25: Avenue Building burns; Brandon's last hanging; Vehicles to be registered.

MB Free Press March 1905:

February 25, 1913 - The Avenue Building on Portage Avenue burns. Fire gutted the top floor and caused extensive water damage. It was rebuilt and three more floors were added to the structure.

It was razed by fire again in 1931.

February 25, 1915 - Harry Green is hanged in Brandon Gaol for the shooting death of Thomas Hill on May 17, 1914 in Hartney. The Minnedosa Tribune notes that his end was peaceful and quick. Green was the third, and final, person hanged in Brandon.

February 25, 1908 - Manitoba requires all motorized vehicles to be registered at a cost of $2.00.

February 25, 1958 - The Wilson Furniture Warehouse fire on Rupert Avenue.


February 25, 2012 - Edohei Sushi and Japanese Restaurant on Ellice Avenue closes. When Sadao Ohno opened the restaurant in 1988, it was Winnipeg's first sushi restaurant. (See.)

February 24: MB Sports Hall of Fame created.

February 24, 1989 - First Presbyterian Church, 6l Picardy Place, Winnipeg, is designated a Provincial Heritage Site.

February 24, 1989 - The Stonewall Post Office Building, 36l Main Street, Stonewall, is designated a Provincial Heritage Site.

February 24, 1980 - The Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame and Museum is created. It is located inside the Sport Manitoba building at 145 Pacific Avenue.

February 23: Richardson Building announced; Concourse opens; Winnipeg Police Department created.

Jan. 22, 1979, Winnipeg Free Press

February 24, 1979 -The Portage and Main Concourse is officially opened by Mayor Steen. The $7.3 project, which came in $820,000 over budget, prohibits pedestrian traffic at the intersection for a period of 40 years.

February 23, 1874 - The Winnipeg Police Force is created. The first and only officer was Chief Constable John Ingram, 23. For more on Winnipeg's pioneer police force.

February 23, 1925 – The first International Goodwill Meeting of Rotary International is held in Winnipeg. In 1910 Winnipeg became the first Rotary Club established outside the U.S..

February 23, 1928 - William W. McMillan dies while on vacation on Florida. He was a mover and shaker in Winnipeg's early grain trade and president of the Dominion Elevator Company when he died.

February 23, 1967 - James Richardson and Sons announce that they will build Winnipeg's first modern skyscraper at the intersection of Portage and Main.

The announcement was almost forty years in the making. In October 1929 the site was cleared to make way for a Richardson building but the project was postponed after the stock market crash.

For a history of the Richardson Building site.