TODAY IN HISTORY: Radio’s first hockey broadcast
In 1923, CKCK Regina radio broadcaster Pete Parker made the world’s first complete play-by-play of a professional hockey game when the Regina Capitals hosted the Edmonton Eskimos in a Western Canada Professional Hockey League match.
In 1946, Fred Rose, the only Communist MP in Canadian history, was charged with conspiracy to transmit wartime secrets to the Soviet Union. In 1945, Igor Gouzenko, a clerk in the Soviet Embassy, defected to Canada to give evidence that Rose and others were part of a widespread Soviet spy ring. Rose was among those convicted of espionage. He served four years in prison and then moved back to his native Poland. In 1964, Jack Ruby was convicted of killing Lee Harvey Oswald, the accused assassin of U.S. President John F. Kennedy the previous November in Dallas. Ruby was sentenced to death. Both the conviction and death sentence were later overturned, but Ruby died in 1967 before he could be re-tried.
In 1972, Howard Hughes, the billionaire U.S. recluse, arrived in Vancouver with a staff of about 14 and took over the top floor of a hotel. In June, Hughes was granted a one-year extension to his Canadian visitors permit, once he had assured an immigration officer he would neither look for work nor apply for welfare assistance.
In 1972, California Gov. Ronald Reagan pardoned country star Merle Haggard, who had served nearly three years in San Quentin on a burglary charge.
In 1984, Marc Garneau, Canada’s first man in space, was selected to fly aboard a mission of the U.S. space shuttle “Discovery.” During his eight-day space mission, Garneau carried out tests on a space vision system and on space-induced nausea. He returned to space on the space shuttle “Endeavour” in 1996, becoming the first Canadian to fly two shuttle missions.
In 1991, Kurt Browning of Carolina, Alta., won his third consecutive men’s world championship figure skating title.
In 1994, the B.C. Social Credit party came close to collapse after half of its six-member caucus quit to join the B.C. Reform party.
In 1995, a record high temperature was recorded in Metro Toronto when the mercury soared to 20.1 C, topping the previous high of 20 degrees set in 1946.
In 2011, former radio talk show host Christy Clark was sworn in as B.C.’s 35th premier.
In 2016, 18-year-old Brooke Henderson became the first Canadian women to crack the top-10 in the Rolex women’s world golf rankings. (She climbed as high as No. 2).
renowned theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, whose brilliant mind ranged across time and space though his body was paralyzed by ALS, died at the age of 76.
In 2020, the Federal Court closed its buildings and offices to visitors in response to the growing novel coronavirus outbreak. Childcare, schools, libraries, jail visits and jury trials were also shut down across the country.