Feb. 19: Nazis invade Winnipeg; Rachmaninoff plays; Kooting hanged.

February 19, 1923 - Composer and pianist Sergei Rachmaninoff played his first Winnipeg concert. (he performed here again in 1925.) it was held at the Winnipeg Board of Trade Auditorium located at Water and Main. (Also see Rachmaninoff in Winnipeg.)

February 19, 1926 - John Kooting, 47, is hanged in Portage La Prairie for the 1921 murder of Dymetro Czayka in Shoal Lake, MB.

Kooting, the last man seen with Czayka, was questioned in 1921, but without a body no charges were laid. In 1925, a gravely ill Kooting made a death-bed confession that he killed the man with an axe, burned the body and hid the remains under the floorboards of a pig pen. His motive? To take Czayka's money and give it to the estranged Mrs. Czayka who was left homeless and destitute after he left her.  Unfortunately for Kooting, he recovered from his illness and was tried and convicted for the murder.

February 19, 1928 - Universal Motors opened is showroom at 640 Portage Avenue. For nearly a century, the building was associated with the automotive trade. Its last incarnation was McNaught Motors.

February 19, 1942 - At 6:00 a.m. air raid sirens sounded over Winnipeg and within the hour, 3,500 Nazi troops in convoys of armoured vehicles seized many key points in the city, including city hall and the legislature. For more on Winnipeg's IF Day.

©2012, 2020 Christian Cassidy