Toronto, Edmonton on Flair’s radar

Flair Airlines will relaunch some familiar Kelowna routes.

Flights to and from Edmonton and Toronto will be offered when Flair launches its summer schedule in May.

There will be Wednesday and Saturday flights to and from Toronto on the discount airline, as well Monday and Friday flights coming and going to Edmonton

The Edmonton-based airline is adding Ottawa, Kitchener-Waterloo, Halifax, Saint John, Thunder Bay, Charlottetown, Victoria and Abbotsford to its network.

The recent acquisition of new planes meant an expansion was in the works. Flair is offering limited service for the first couple months of the year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 1765, London wig-makers, dismayed that fewer men were wearing wigs, asked King George III to buy their products to spur sales. He declined.

In 1834, William Lyon Mackenzie was forcibly ejected from Upper Canada’s legislature.

In 1869, Patrick James Whalen, who murdered federal politician Thomas D’Arcy McGee the previous year in Ottawa, was hanged. Five-thousand people turned out in a snowstorm to witness Canada’s second-last public execution.

In 1920, the council of the League of Nations held its opening session in London.

In 1922, the first paper was published announcing the discovery of insulin to treat diabetes. The finding was made by University of Toronto researchers Dr. Frederick Banting and Charles Best, supervised by Dr. J.J.R. Macleod and assisted by James Collip.

In 1927, the casket of Egypt’s King Tutankhamen was opened.

In 1929, the Lateran Treaty was signed by Italian dictator Benito Mussolini and the Roman Catholic Holy See, recognizing Vatican City as a sovereign state. At a mere 44 hectares, it became the smallest country in the world.

In 1937, a six-week-old sit-down strike against General Motors ended, with the company agreeing to recognize the United Automobile Workers Union.

In 1945, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Josef Stalin signed the Yalta Agreement during the Second World War.

In 1956, former British diplomats — and Soviet spies — Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean turned up in Moscow after being missing for five years.

In 1965, American war planes bombed North Vietnam for the first time.

In 1967, the first Canada Winter Games opened in Quebec City.

In 1971, a treaty banning nuclear weapons from the ocean floor was signed by 63 countries in ceremonies in Washington, London and Moscow.

In 1975, Margaret Thatcher became the first woman to head a British political party when she won the Conservative party leadership. Thatcher became prime minister in 1979.

In 1978, a Pacific Western Airlines plane crashed while attempting to land in Cranbrook. The crash, which killed 43 people, was blamed on a snowplow left on the runway.

In 1979, the Ayatollah Khomeini rose to power in Iran as Prime Minister Shahpour Bakhtiar resigned and fled the country.

In 1986, Soviet dissident Anatoly Scharansky was released after nine years in captivity. Scharansky moved to Israel, changed his first name to Natan, and entered politics.

In 1990, Nelson Mandela was freed by the South African government at the age of 71. The leader of the African National Congress spent 27 years in jail for treason.

In 1999, the largest Canadian single-day snowfall was recorded when 145 centimetres fell in Tahtsa Lake, B.C., a remote area west of Prince George, within a 24-hour period.

In 2002, a major Olympic controversy was ignited at the Salt Lake City Games in pairs figure skating when a Russian couple was awarded the gold medal over Canadian skaters Jamie Sale and David Pelletier. After the French judge said she was pressured into voting for the Russians, Sale and Pelletier were also awarded gold medals.

In 2013, the Vatican announced that 85-year-old Pope Benedict XVI would resign Feb. 28, the first pontiff to do so since Gregory XII in 1415.