Mar. 31: Minnedosa Tribune; Toilers plane crash; Air Training Plan ends.

March 31, 1883 - The first edition of the Minnedosa Tribune hit the streets. It's the oldest weekly newspaper in Western Canada. 

March 31, 1890 - The Manitoba legislature passes the Manitoba Schools Act which abolished separate schools for Catholics and Protestants effective May 1, 1890.

March 31, 1891 - The City of Winnipeg introduced a plan to change its street names to numbers. For more on the failed scheme.

March 31, 1933 - A plane carrying the three-time national champion Winnipeg Toilers basketball team crashed in Kansas. Only one member escaped death or serious injury. For more, read my post Remembering the Winnipeg Toilers.

March 31, 1940 - Winnipeg firefighter James Thomas Murray, 50, died of a heart attack while fighting a chimney fire on Jubilee Avenue. A 21-year member of the department and WWI Veteran left behind a wife and three daughters.

March 31, 1945 - The British Commonwealth Air Training Plan agreement ended. The joint effort of Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand was created as a means to quickly train thousands of pilots and support staff for the war.

Canada became a centre for most of the activity with 107 training schools. By the time it ended, the program ended a total of 131,553 students, (50,000 of them pilots), would be trained. Brandon's restored CATP hangar is a national historic site and museum.

March 31, 1992 - Westminster United Church in Winnipeg was declared a provincial historic site.

© 2012, 2020 Christian Cassidy