July 24: Remembering Percy Haynes; Royal Visit; Don Percy's farewell; Officer down.

Source: U of M Tribune Archives

July 24 - 25, 1959 - The Royal Visit of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh comes to Manitoba. The 45 day tour, the longest official tour to Canada, took them to all ten provinces and both territories. The highlight of the tour was the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway. 

July 24, 1982 – Actress Anna Paquin is born in Winnipeg.

July 24, 1944 - Albert Victor Westgate, 43, is hanged Headingly for murdering 16 year old Edith Cook.

July 24, 1981 - Long-time CKY radio personality Don Percy says his on-air goodbye to Winnipeg but it is from the studio of rival station CFRW. CKY was upset with his decision to leave Winnipeg for Edmonton after his six year term and would not let him do a farewell show.

Percy, who began his radio career in Chatham ON in Sept 1956, returned to Winnipeg's airwaves in 1991 with CKY, then CFRW and now Breeze FM.

July 24, 1934 - St. Boniface Police Department Sergeant John Verne is murdered.

The killer was George "Shea" Jayhan, a known criminal from B.C.. While visiting Winnipeg in the summer of 1934 he held up five drugstores at gunpoint demanding narcotics. On this date, he tried for a sixth: the Norbridge Drug Store at 11 St. Mary's Road.

While escaping the parking lot he crashed his stolen getaway car and commandeered another one, ordering the driver at gunpoint to speed away.

July 25, 1934, Winnipeg Free Press

When Sargent Verne arrived at the scene, an eye witness described the getaway car and he gave chase. He blocked in Jayhan's car off Main Street near the CPR sheds, (today the Forks) and a gunfight ensued. Verne was hit twice in the stomach.

Jayhan again ordered his driver to speed off but by this time other police cars were in pursuit. At Bannatyne and Albert there was another gunfight and the suspect was captured.

Jayhan was hanged in Headingley Jail on February 12, 1935.

Percy Haynes ca. 1964. Source.

July 24, 1992 - Percy Haynes dies. He and wife Zena ran the iconic Haynes' Chicken Shack on Lulu Street. Aside from its famous chicken, the restaurant became a musical hotspot, visited by the likes of Billy Daniels, Oscar Peterson and Harry Belafonte.

July 25, 1906, Manitoba Free Press

July 24, 1906 - Freddy Foote, child of iconic Winnipeg photographer L.B. Foote, has his foot crushed by a streetcar.