September 29: 'Terror of the Scorchers' dies; Ste. Agathe fire; Uptown Lanes opens.

September 29, 2000 - Bomber receiver and 1986 CFL MVP James Murphy is inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame. For his bio, stats and awards.

September 29, 1881 - Le Métis, Manitoba's first French newspaper, closes after a decade. It is replaced by Le Manitoba.

September 29, 1962 - Fire starts in the Manitoba Pool Grain elevator in Ste. Agathe. By morning the elevator, 65,000 bushels of wheat and the town's train station were destroyed. Damage was estimated at $100,000. Nobody was injured.

September 29, 1960
- Uptown Academy Lanes opens as Winnipeg's largest bowling lanes. It was built in 1911 as the Uptown Theatre.


September 29, 1957 - Warren Beggs dies.

As a young police constable, Beggs was Winnipeg's first bicycle law enforcer. Nicknamed the "Terror of the Scorchers" (scorchers were cyclists that rode too fast on trails) his job was to "... round up dilatory wheel owners and other delinquents against the laws of Winnipeg regarding fast riding, traveling on sidewalks and other overt acts against the public safety".

From 1908 to 1920 Beggs was chief of the St. James police department. After retiring, the Northern Ireland native went back to work for various departments within the city and retired in 1946.

Beggs lived on Atlantic Avenue and died in King Edward Hospital at the age of 91.

For more on early cycling in Winnipeg. To read a bit of Beggs in action.

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