British Columbia History Timeline

• 1791-06-15 Spaniard Jose Maria Narvaez is the first European to explore the Strait of Georgia (British Columbia)
• 1792-06-12 British explorer Captain George Vancouver lands on the site of what is now Vancouver, British Columbia
• 1792-06-21 British George Vancouver meets Spanish ships Sutil and Mexicana off Vancouver, British Columbia

• 1808-07-02 Simon Fraser completes his trip down Fraser River, British Columbia, lands at Musqueam
• 1858-04-25 Fraser River Gold Rush begins in British Columbia as miners arrive from California [1]
• 1864-11-09 1st export of goods from Burrard Inlet, British Columbia to a foreign country
• 1871-07-20 British Columbia joins the confederation of Canada.
• 1874-09-12 1874 The District of Maple Ridge, British Columbia, Canada is founded.
• 1885-11-07 Canadian Pacific Railway completed at Craigellachie - connects British Columbia with Eastern Canada
• 1886-04-06 City of Vancouver, British Columbia incorporated
• 1886-05-03 M. A. Maclean elected 1st mayor of Vancouver, British Columbia
• 1886-06-13 Fire destroys nearly 1,000 buildings in Vancouver, British Columbia
• 1886-07-04 1st scheduled transcontinental passenger train reaches Port Moody, British Columbia

• 1887-05-03 Nanaimo Mine Disaster: explosion in the mine kills 150 men - British Columbia's worst mine disaster [1]
• 1887-05-23 1st transcontinental train arrives in Vancouver, British Columbia
• 1888-05-16 CPR opens Hotel Vancouver, Vancouver, British Columbia
• 1889-10-29 Stanley Park dedicated in Vancouver, British Columbia
• 1896-05-26 Worst streetcar disaster in North American history when part of Port Ellice Bridge collapses killing 55 people at Victoria harbour, British Columbia [1]
• 1906-01-22 SS Valencia runs aground on rocks on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, killing more than 130
• 1909-08-30 Burgess Shale fossil site - one of most diverse and best-preserved in the world, discovered by Charles Doolittle Walcott in Candaian Rocky Mountains (now British Columbia's Yoho National Park)
• 1910-03-04 Avalanche at Bear Creek in Rogers Pass, British Columbia, kills 58 railway line workers - Canada's worst avalanche disaster [1]
• 1912-08-21 Francis Carter-Cotton chosen 1st chancellor of University of British Columbia
• 1921-12-25 Last major Potlatch (ceremony) by Chief Daniel Cranmer (Kwakwaka’wakw) from Alert Bay, British Columbia. Twenty-six people arrested, their masks and regalia sold by Canadian government. [1]
• 1922-01-01 Vancouver, British Columbia starts driving on the right side of road
• 1935-06-03 One thousand unemployed Canadian workers board freight cars in Vancouver, British Columbia, beginning a protest trek to Ottawa, Ontario
• 1940-06-21 The first successful west-to-east navigation of Northwest Passage begins at Vancouver, British Columbia
• 1942-11-20 The Alaska Highway 2,451km long from Dawson Creek, British Columbia to Fairbanks, Alaska, first opens to military traffic [1]
• 1963-06-03 A Northwest Airlines DC-7 crashes in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of British Columbia, killing 101
• 1965-02-18 27 copper miners die in avalanche, Granduc Mountain, British Columbia
• 1965-07-08 Canadian Pacific airliner crashes into Gustafsen Lake, British Columbia, due to a bomb on board killing 52 people - one of the great unsolved aviation mysteries [1]
• 1977-09-24 Ken Hinton of CFL British Columbia Lions returns a punt 130 yards
• 1985-05-29 Amputee Steve Fonyo completes cross-Canada marathon at Victoria, British Columbia, after 14 months
• 1994-11-27 CFL Grey Cup, BC Place, Vancouver: BC Lions beat Baltimore FC, 26-23; first-ever championship in pro football history featuring a US v Canada matchup; Lions win on last second Lui Passaglia field-goal
• 2006-03-22 BC Ferries' M/V Queen of the North runs aground on Gil Island British Columbia and sinks; 101 on board, 2 presumed deaths
• 2007-01-22 The jury portion of the trial against Robert Pickton, accused of being Canada's worst serial killer, opens in New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada.

• 2018-08-16 British Columbia, Canada, declares State of Emergency with 566 wildfires burning, prompting evacuation of 3,000 people
• 2019-01-10 Canadian astronomers report fast radio bursts (FRBs) of probable extragalactic origin, one repeating six times at the CHIME observatory, British Columbia
• 2019-08-07 Bodies of two teenagers at center of huge manhunt and suspected of killing three people on remote British Columbia roads found after apparent suicides
• 2021-05-28 Discovery of a mass grave with the remains of 215 children from Kamloops Indian Residential School announced by First Nation in British Columbia, Canada [1]
• 2021-06-27 Hottest temperature ever recorded in Canada at 46.6 C (116 F) in Lytton, British Columbia (breaks record 2 days later with 49.6 C)
• 2021-06-29 Lytton, British Columbia, records Canada's highest-ever temperature of 49.6C (121.3F), before being destroyed by a wildfire the next day
• 2021-06-30 Extreme heat wave caused at least 100 deaths in British Columbia according to state Coroners' Office [1]
• 2021-11-17 British Columbia declares a state of emergency after an "atmospheric river" storm causes widespread rain and flooding [1]

• 2023-08-18 Canadian province of British Columbia declares state of emergency as two major wildfires combine near Adams Lake, forcing the evacuation of 30,000 people [1]

Birthdays 1 - 100 of 206

• 1803-08-15 James Douglas, British-Canadian fur trader and politician (1st Governor of British Columbia 1858-64) called "The Father of British Columbia", born in Demerara, Guyana (d. 1877)
• 1829-12-05 Henri-Gustave Joly de Lotbinière, French-Canadian politician (7th Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia), born in Épernay, France (d. 1908)
• 1871-12-13 Emily Carr, Canadian painter, born in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada (d. 1945)
• 1899-07-24 Chief Dan George [Tes-wah-no], Canadian Indian author, poet and actor (Harry & Tonto, Little Big Man, Smith!), born in Vancouver, British Columbia (d. 1981)
• 1899-12-08 John Qualen, Canadian actor (Casablanca, The Grapes of Wrath, The Searchers), born in Vancouver, British Columbia (d. 1987)
• 1906-07-18 S. I. Hayakawa, U.S. senator from California (1977–83) and educator (Language in Action), born in Vancouver, British Columbia (d. 1992)
• 1908-02-10 Jean Coulthard, Canadian composer, and music educator, born in Vancouver, British Columbia (d. 2000)
• 1908-05-19 Percy Williams, Canadian athlete (Olympic gold 100m / 200m 1928), born in Vancouver, British Columbia (d. 1982)
• 1908-11-10 Charles Merritt, Canadian Army officer and recipient of the Victoria Cross during World War II, born in Vancouver, British Columbia (d. 2000)
• 1909-10-24 Sheila Watson, Canadian writer (Double Hook), born in New Westminster, British Columbia (d. 1998) [1]
• 1910-09-15 George Kilpatrick, Canadian-British bible scholar (University of Oxford), born in Coal Creek, British Columbia (d. 1989)
• 1912-06-03 Richard D'Aeth, British educationist (Hughes Hall Cambridge), born in Vancouver, British Columbia (d. 2008)
• 1912-11-08 June Havoc [Ellen Evangeline Hovick], Canadian-born American stage and screen actress, born in Vancouver, British Columbia (d. 2010)
• 1914-01-30 John Ireland, Canadian actor (All the King's Men, Rawhide, Gunfight at OK Corral), born in Vancouver, British Columbia (d. 1992)
• 1914-06-21 William Vickrey, Canadian economist (Nobel 1996), born in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada (d. 1996)
• 1914-07-24 Frances Oldham Kelsey, Canadian-American FDA Director (stopped thalidomide use in the US), born in Cobble Hill, British Columbia (d. 2015)

• 1915-11-04 Court Benson, Canadian-American actor and broadcaster, born in Vancouver, British Columbia (d. 1995)
• 1916-05-16 Bernard Braden, Canadian-born British broadcaster and actor (All Night Lone, Full Treatment), born in Vancouver, British Columbia (d. 1993)
• 1917-05-21 Raymond Burr, Canadian-American actor (Perry Mason, Ironsides, Godzilla), born in New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada (d. 1993)
• 1917-10-31 William H. McNeill, Canadian-born historian (Rise of the West), born in Vancouver, British Columbia (d. 2016)
• 1918-01-05 Dal Richards, Canadian musician, bandmaster and composer (discovered Michael Bublé), born in Vancouver, British Columbia (d. 2015) [1]
• 1919-09-16 Laurence J. Peter, Canadian author (Peter Principle), born in Vancouver, British Columbia (d. 1990)
• 1919-10-11 Douglas Munro, American military mariner (only WWII US Coast Guard member awarded Medal of Honor), born in Vancouver, British Columbia (d. 1942)
• 1920-03-03 James Doohan, Canadian actor (Star Trek), born in Vancouver, British Columbia (d. 2005)
• 1920-11-02 Ann Rutherford, Canadian actress (Gone With The Wind; Whistling in the Dark), born in Vancouver, British Columbia (d. 2012)
• 1921-06-08 Alexis Smith, Canadian actress and singer (The Age of Innocence; Follies), born in Penticton, British Columbia (d. 1993)
• 1922-09-01 Yvonne De Carlo [Middleton], Canadian-American actress (10 Commandments; The Munsters-Lily), born in Vancouver, British Columbia (d. 2007)
• 1923-06-08 Jean Maxwell-Scott, Lady-in-Waiting (Princess Alice Duchess Gloucester), born in Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada (d. 2004)
• 1924-06-21 Wally Fawkes [pen name Trog], British-Canadian cartoonist and jazz clarinetist, born in Vancouver, British Columbia (d. 2023)
• 1924-10-05 Barbara Kelly, Canadian-born actress (What's My Line?, United Kingdom), born in Vancouver, British Columbia (d. 2007)
• 1927-03-09 John Beckwith, Canadian composer, pianist, educator, and musicologist, born in Victoria, British Columbia (d. 2022)

• 1929-03-31 Lee Patterson, Canadian actor (Dave-Surfside Six, Another World), born in Vancouver, British Columbia (d. 2007)
• 1929-10-11 Raymond Moriyama, Canadian architect (Canadian War Museum), born in Vancouver, British Columbia (d. 2023) [1]
• 1930-10-02 Dave Barrett, 26th Premier of British Columbia (1972-75), born in Vancouver, British Columbia (d. 2018)
• 1931-07-02 Robert Ito, Canadian-born actor (Quincy, ME - "Sam"), born in Vancouver, British Columbia
• 1932-02-28 Don Francks, Canadian actor, singer and musician (Terminal Choice; Finian's Rainbow), born in Vancouver, British Columbia (d. 2016)
• 1932-04-14 Bill Bennett, Canadian politician, Premier of British Columbia (1975-86), born in Kelowna, British Columbia (d. 2015)
• 1932-06-24 David McTaggart, Canadian co-founder of Greenpeace, born in Vancouver, British Columbia (d. 2011)
• 1933-09-25 Ian Tyson, Canadian folk singer-songwriter (Ian & Sylvia), born in Victoria, British Columbia (d. 2022) [1]
• 1935-04-22 Rita Johnston, Canadian politician (first female premier in Canada, Premier of British Columbia 1991), born in Melville, Saskatchewan [1]

• 1942-05-22 Barbara Parkins, Canadian-American actress (Betty-Peyton Place, Asylum), born in Vancouver, British Columbia
• 1942-07-24 Gloria George, Canadian Indigenous politician and activist (first woman to lead major Indigenous political organization - Native Council of Canada), born in Hubert, British Columbia [1]
• 1943-11-07 Judith Forst, Canadian mezzo-soprano, born in New Westminster, British Columbia
• 1944-11-06 Bill Henderson, Canadian rock vocalist and guitarist (Chilliwack), born in Vancouver, British Columbia
• 1945-07-31 Charlotte Diamond, Canadian Juno Award-winning children's singer-songwriter ("I Am A Pizza"), born in Richmond, British Columbia
• 1945-08-07 Kerry Chater, Canadian musician (Gary Puckett & Union Gap - "Young Girl") and Nashville songwriter, born in Vancouver, British Columbia (d. 2022)
• 1946-01-24 Michael Ontkean, Canadian actor (The Rookies, Slap Shot, Twin Peaks), born in Vancouver, British Columbia
• 1946-02-19 Paul Dean, Canadian rock guitarist (Loverboy - "Working For The Weekend"), born in Vancouver, British Columbia
• 1946-04-05 Jennifer Penney, Canadian ballerina, born in Vancouver, British Columbia
• 1946-05-19 Trevor Veitch, Canadian-American folk-rock musician (3's a Crowd, Tom Rush), and pop record producer (Toni Basil's "Mickey"), born in Vancouver, British Columbia

• 1948-01-16 Cliff Thorburn, Canadian champion snooker player, born in Victoria, British Columbia
• 1948-01-29 Marc Singer, Canadian-American actor (V, Dallas), born in Vancouver, British Columbia
• 1948-07-13 Don Sweet, Canadian CFL, NFL place kicker (Montreal, Green Bay), born in Vancouver, British Columbia
• 1948-09-10 Margaret Trudeau, Canadian 1st lady, born in Vancouver, British Columbia
• 1949-10-24 Robert Pickton, Canadian serial killer charged with the first degree murder of twenty-six women, born in Port Coquitlam, British Columbia
• 1949-11-01 David Foster, Canadian musician, composer, and record producer (Chicago; Celene Dion, Andrea Bocelli; "The Prayer"), born in Victoria, British Columbia
• 1949-12-30 Bruce Fairbairn, Canadian musician and record producer (Loverboy; Bon Jovi; Aerosmith), born in Vancouver, British Columbia (d. 1999)
• 1950-02-28 Stephen Chatman, American-Canadian composer (Choir Practice), and educator (University of British Columbia, 1976-present), born in Faribault, Minnesota
• 1950-07-04 David Jensen, Canadian-British radio DJ, born in Victoria, British Columbia
• 1950-07-23 Blair Thornton, Canadian rock guitarist (Bachman-Turner Overdrive, 1974-79), born in Vancouver, British Columbia
• 1951-02-22 Elaine Tanner, Canadian swimmer (WR 220yd butterfly, 440yd IM, 100/200m backstroke; Olympic silver 100/200m backstroke 1968), born in Vancouver, British Columbia
• 1952-03-01 Dave Barr, Canadian golfer (US Open 1985 runner-up), born in Kelowna, British Columbia
• 1952-03-12 Larry Nickel, Canadian composer (Requiem for Peace), conductor, and music publisher, born in Vancouver, British Columbia
• 1952-05-08 Peter McNab, Canadian ice hockey center (Boston Bruins and 3 other teams) and broadcaster (New Jersey Devils, 1987-95; Colorado Avalanche, 1995-2022), born in Vancouver, British Columbia (d. 2022)
• 1952-05-20 Warren Cann, Canadian rock drummer (Ultravox), born in Victoria, British Columbia
• 1952-05-31 Jim Vallance, Canadian songwriter, arranger and producer (Bryan Adams - "Cuts Like a Knife"; "Heaven"; "Summer of '69"), born in Chilliwack, British Columbia
• 1953-02-20 "Uncle" Dave Taylor, Canadian bass player (Bryan Adams, 1982-98), born in Vancouver, British Columbia
• 1953-08-17 Robert Thirsk, Canadian astronaut (STS 78), born in New Westminster, British Columbia
• 1953-08-27 Alex Lifeson [Živojinović], Serbian-Canadian rock guitarist (Rush - "Limelight"), born in n Fernie, British Columbia
• 1954-06-07 Lui Passaglia, Canadian CFL playerr (BC Lions), born in Vancouver, British Columbia
• 1955-01-08 Mike Reno [Ryanoski], Canadian rock vocalist (Loverboy - "Working For The Weekend"), born in New Westminster, British Columbia
• 1955-10-09 Linwood Boomer, Canadian-American actor (Adam-Little House on the Prairie), born in Vancouver, British Columbia
• 1956-01-14 Ben Heppner, Canadian tenor, and broadcaster, born in Murrayville, British Columbia

• 1957-12-19 Doug Johnson, Canadian rock keyboardist (Loverboy - "Working For The Weekend"), born in Surrey, British Columbia
• 1958-08-07 Russell Baze, Canadian Racing Hall of Fame jockey (10 x US Champion Jockey by wins; 12,844 career victories; US Racing HOF), born in Vancouver, British Columbia
• 1959-02-05 Jennifer Granholm, Canadian-American politician, born in Vancouver, British Columbia
• 1959-02-13 Gord Hampson, Canadian ice hockey player, born in Vancouver, British Columbia
• 1959-05-30 Claudia Alexander, Canadian-born American NASA Scientist (led Galileo mission to Jupiter), born in Vancouver, British Columbia (d. 2015)
• 1959-06-04 Rod Connop, Canadian CFL corner (Edmonton Eskimos), born in North Vancouver, British Columbia
• 1960-01-09 Lisa Walters, Canadian golfer (Hawaiian Open 1992-93), born in Prince Rupert, British Columbia
• 1960-02-28 Dorothy Stratten [Hoogstraten], Canadian playmate (August, 1979), model and actress (Galixina), born in Vancouver, British Columbia (d. 1980)
• 1960-07-05 Brad Loree, Canadian actor and stunt performer, born in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada
• 1960-09-22 Victor Stevenson, Canadian CFL tackle (Edmonton Eskimos), born in New Westminster, British Columbia
• 1960-10-02 Glenn Anderson, Canadian Hockey Hall of Fame right wing (6 Stanley Cup wins; Edmonton Oilers [5]), born in Vancouver, British Columbia
• 1960-10-19 Dawn Coe-Jones, Canadian golfer (3 LPGA titles), born in Campbell River, British Columbia (d. 2016)
• 1961-07-21 Don Wilson, American CFL football linebacker, 1987-98 (Edmonton Eskimos; Toronto Argonauts, British Columbia Lions), born in Washington, DC
• 1962-11-09 Teryl Rothery, Canadian actress (Stargate SG-1), born in Vancouver, British Columbia
• 1964-01-16 Gail Graham, Canadian golfer (2 LPGA Tour titles), born in Vanderhoof, British Columbia
• 1964-08-23 Ray Ferraro, Canadian ice hockey center (Hartford Whalers, New York Islanders) and broadcaster (TSN Radio, TSN, NBCSN), born in Trail, British Columbia
• 1964-11-16 Diana Krall, Canadian Juno and Grammy Award-winning jazz pianist and singer, born in Nanaimo, British Columbia
• 1965-01-28 Lynda Boyd, Canadian actress, born in Vancouver, British Columbia

• 1965-08-13 Leo Groenewegen, CFL guard (Edmonton Eskimos), born in Vancouver, British Columbia
• 1965-11-27 Kathleen Heddle, Canadian rower (Olympic gold coxless pair, 8's 1992; double sculls 1996), born in Trail, British Columbia (d. 2021)
• 1966-01-12 Ingrid Jensen, Canadian Juno Award-winning jazz trumpeter (Vernal Fields), born in North Vancouver, British Columbia
• 1966-06-07 Dan Payne, Canadian football tackle (Grey Cup: Saskatchewan Roughriders 1989; Toronto Argonauts 1996, 97; B.C. Lions 2000), born in New Westminster, British Columbia

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