October 20: Nelly McClung born; Ashdown's hardware empire begins; CBC's Eye to Eye.

October 20, 1873 - Nelly Letitia McClung (1873-1951) is born in Ontario. Her family moved to Manitoba when she was seven and by age sixteen she was teaching at a school in Manitou, Manitoba. McClung soon became an author and activist for women’s suffrage and went on to be one of “The Famous Five”.

October 20, 1901 - The James H. Ashdown Hardware Company Limited is incorporated. From a small hardware dealership it grew into a prairie retail empire with stores and warehouses in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta.

For more about the man and his company see here and here.

October 20, 1914 - Hugh Montgomery, a Royal Bank employee in Winnipeg, enlists for the war. He was killed on July 13, 1916 at the age of 23 and is body lies in Belgium.

October 20, 1961 - CBWT’s (CBC Manitoba's) hard-hitting current affairs show Eye to Eye debuts. Hosted by Warner Troyer, the show ran on Tuesday nights until 1964.

Episodes included:

- exploring "Fringe Areas”, predominantly Metis communities on the outskirts of cities and towns where people lived in plywood shacks;

- consumer "rip offs" like the cost of prescription drugs and TV repair service; 

- Winnipeg's introduction of a city-wide "999" emergency phone number, (watch it here);

- an interview with ex-Premier Bracken on what it was like to govern during the Depression.