July 10: Sam Bronfman dies; Mestache's plane crash; "Cigarette Week" begins !

July 10, 1971 - Samuel Bronfman dies.The Bronfman family lived in the Brandon area and owned a number of rural hotels. In 1912 they purchased the Bell Hotel on Winnipeg's Main Street and Sam came to run it. In 1916 prohibition came to Manitoba and he moved on to Montreal to start a distillery business. It eventually merged with another Montreal distillery to become multinational Seagrams.

By the time he died, he was one of Canada's richest men and leading philanthropists.

 
Manitoba Free Press July 11, 1912

July 10, 1912 - Famed French aviator Georges Mestache crashes his plane, "The Big Bird", into a field filled with overflow spectators at the Winnipeg Industrial Exhibition.

The horrified audience, including the Duke of Connaught and Princess Patricia, were relieved when Mestache regained consciousness a few minutes after being pulled from the wreckage. Nobody on the ground was seriously injured.

July 10, 1944 - Cigarette Week begins in Winnipeg. It was a city-wide effort to raise money to send cigarettes to soldier and prisoners of war.