B.C. passes law barring Chinese people

In 1456, according to tradition, Johann Gutenberg first published the Bible using movable type.

In 1462, the first dated Bible was printed in Latin in Mainz, Germany. It was also the first to contain the names of its printers. They were Johann Fust and Peter Schoeffer.

In 1885, British Columbia passed a law barring Chinese people from entering the province. The federal government disallowed the law 18 days later.

In 1894, a Paris nightclub presented the first professional striptease.

In 1914, Canadian writer W.O. Mitchell was born in Weyburn, Sask. The author of “Who Has Seen the Wind” and “Jake and the Kid” died in Calgary in 1998.

In 1916, Manitoba became the first province to vote for prohibition.

In 1927, Canada’s old age pension bill received royal assent.

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 1953, the Soviet Union vetoed a recommendation by the UN Security Council that Canada’s External Affairs Minister, Lester Pearson, be named UN secretary-general.

In 1959, more than 12,000 B.C. government employees staged a fourhour strike before returning to work after the province obtained a court injunction.

In 1964, Catherine “Kitty” Genovese was murdered in Queens, N.Y. Dozens of neighbours heard or witnessed the stabbing attack, which lasted nearly half an hour, but did not want to get involved. March 13th is the annual Good Samaritan Involvement Day – named in Genovese’s memory.

In 1967, a law took effect granting federal government employees the right to bargain collectively and strike.

In 1971, Paul Rose was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Pierre Laporte, the Quebec labour minister. During the October Crisis of 1970, Laporte and James Cross, the British trade commissioner in Montreal, were kidnapped by members of the separatist Front de Liberation du Quebec. FLQ demands included the release of convicted or detained members, and the broadcast of the FLQ manifesto. Cross was eventually released. In November 1971, Rose was sentenced to an additional life term for kidnapping Laporte. He was granted full parole in 1982.

In 1974, Northern Affairs Minister Jean Chretien announced that no drilling for oil or gas was allowed in the Beaufort Sea before the summer of 1976.