September 18: E Cora Hind; Terry Fox an OC; Farewell, Mr. Dressup.

September 18, 2001 – 'Mr. Dressup', Ernie Coombs, dies of a stroke at age 73. Generations of Canadian children watched his television show that ran from 1967 to 1996.

In 1998 Coombs spoke at the University of Manitoba's Festival of Life and Learning. For CBC coverage of his passing. To watch the show's opening sequence !

September 18 - 19, 1955 – it's the final day for streetcar service in Winnipeg. People line the streets to watch the final cars run. (For more, see tomorrow's entry as the last car pulled into the garage at 3 a.m. !)

September 18, 1980 - Winnipeg-born Terry Fox becomes the youngest Companion of the Order of Canada, the highest level of the award. Due to Fox’s ailing health Governor General Ed Schreyer flies to Port Coquitlam B.C. to present the award.

For CBC news coverage of the presentation.

September 18, 1931 - John Arbuthnot dies in Victoria, B.C. He was a Winnipeg businessman, involved in the lumber industry, and Mayor of Winnipeg from 1901 - 1903.

September 18, 1861 - E. Cora Hind is born in Toronto.

Hind came to Manitoba in 1882 to practice journalism, becoming the Winnipeg correspondent for many eastern newspapers and Maclean's magazine. In 1901 she was hired by the Manitoba Free Press eventually specializing in agriculture. Her crop reports and estimates were read around North America. In 1906 Hind was appointed the Free Press' Commercial Editor.

Hind was also a driving force in the temperance and suffragette movement.

"There is much more interest taken in breeding hogs in Western Canada than there is in breeding children". (E. Cora Hind)