THIS DATE IN history

March 13

In 1928, Eileen Vollick of Hamilton, Ont., took her final flying tests and became the first Canadian woman to receive her pilot’s licence. Vollick said after her first flight that she felt “at home’’ in the cockpit. Instead of taking companies up on their offers to demonstrate their planes, she entered the world of aerobatic flying and skydiving.

In 1984, veteran NDP MP Stanley Knowles was made an honorary officer of the Commons. The retirement gift, after 38 years of service, gave Knowles, then 75, a place for life at the clerk’s table as a procedural adviser to the Speaker of the House of Commons. The member for Winnipeg-North Centre was also appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1985. In 2008, the price of gold hit US$1,000 for the first time.