Looking Back — April 19, 2023

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 19/04/2023 (1249 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

SIXTY YEARS AGO

The Progressive Conservative government entered its final days with Prime Minister John Diefenbaker tendering his resignation and Liberal Leader Lester Pearson accepting Gov. Gen. Georges Vanier’s invitation to form a government and become Canada’s 14th prime minister.

Elden McLean and his foursome captured the Heming trophy, symbolic of Brandon Curling Club supremacy, and were presented with the silverware at the club windup.

FIFTY YEARS AGO

Fire has destroyed the United Grain Growers elevator and annex in Belmont.

FORTY YEARS AGO

Mike Kator, Ted Taylor, Dave Schmidt and Al Mitchell, members of the Brandon Chapter of the Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barbershop Quartet Singing in America, blended their voices in close harmony as they serenaded a packed house last night at the Western Manitoba Centennial Auditorium.

Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau has claimed credit on behalf of the federal government for slashing inflation rates and igniting the beginning of an economic recovery.

THIRTY YEARS AGO

David Koresh and as many as 85 others, including 24 children, were thought to have died in a fiery blaze at the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas. The fire broke out after FBI agents used armoured vehicles to batter in the walls of the compound and pump in tear gas in an attempt to drive the cult members out after a 51-day standoff. Koresh’s followers apparently spread lantern fuel from room to room and took nearly everyone to their death in the ghastly inferno, which had fulfilled their leader’s apocalyptic vision.

TWENTY YEARS AGO

Harvey Laluk, assistant superintendent of the Brandon School Division, confirmed Crocus Plains Regional Secondary School is losing four and a half teaching positions. He also said Harrison middle years school, George Fitton school and King George school will be losing one or less teaching positions.

The dream is as big as the budget. The Asper Foundation, federal, provincial and city governments are backing a national human rights museum for Winnipeg which they say will eventually cost $270 million and will be a beacon seen around the world. Heritage Minister Sheila Copps was on hand yesterday for the splashy formal announcement of the project.

TEN YEARS AGO

The Keystone Centre’s roof will undergo a much-needed, “full-blown renovation,” with work to begin next week. Premier Greg Selinger announced the province will provide $2 million toward the project, matching the City of Brandon’s pledge for a total of $4 million in upgrades to the roof above the City Square and Exhibition Hall buildings.

Rescuers searched the smoking remnants of a Texas farm town Thursday for survivors of a thunderous fertilizer plant explosion, gingerly checking smashed houses and apartments for anyone still trapped in debris or bodies of the dead. Initial reports put the number of fatalities as high as 15, but later in the day, authorities backed away from any estimate and refused to elaborate. More than 160 people were hurt.