By Alexander DeVeiteo
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April 1, 1949 – After seven years of intern-ment, all restrictions are lifted on people of Japanese ancestry in British Columbia.
April 2, 1977 – Opening of Vancouver’s restored Orpheum Theatre in Vancouver, British Columbia; it becomes the new home for Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. Originally built in 1927 it was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1979.
April 3, 1929 – Writer Ernest Callenbach, author of Ecotopia, is born.
April 4, 1917 – British Columbia gives women the provincial vote.
April 5, 1958 – Ripple Rock, an underwater, twin-peaked mountain in the Seymour Narrows of British Columbia, is destroyed in one of the largest non-nuclear controlled explosions.
April 6, 1886 – Vancouver, British Colum-bia is incorporated as a city.
April 7, 1914 – H. B Kelliher, chief engi-neer of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway, drives in the last spike of the western divi-sion of the line at Nechako River Crossing west of Prince George, British Columbia.
April 8, 1994 – Nirvana frontman Kurt Donald Cobain, labeled by Time as “the John Lennon of the swinging Northwest,” is found dead in his home in Seattle, Wash-ington from an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound.
April 9, 1914 – The first train arrives in Prince Rupert, British Columbia via the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway
April 10, 1790 – The Spanish start building forts in Nootka Sound, located on the rug-ged west coast of Vancouver Island to ex-ploit sea otter harvest, while trying to head off English traders after the recent visit by Captain Cook.
April 11, 2000 – AT&T Park, a Major League baseball park, opens in San Fran-cisco, Northern California.
April 12, 1887 – The US seizes Canadian sealing ships in North Pacific near Juneau, Alaska.
April 13, 1993 – British Columbia govern-ment in Victory allows limited logging of half of Clayoquot Sound; last major old-growth rainforest on Vancouver Island.
April 14, 2005 – The Oregon Supreme Court nullifies marriage licenses issued to gay couples a year earlier by Multnomah County.
April 15, 1957 – White Rock, British Co-lumbia officially separates from Surrey, British Columbia and is incorporated as a new city.
April 16, 1856 – Governor James Douglas declares all gold found in British Columbia to be the property of the British Crown. Douglas’ actions in asserting British sover-eignty over the mainland exerts control over American miners, and undermines American territorial ambitions toward this part of British North America. Shortly thereafter, the Colonial Office formally ratified Douglas’ proclamation of sover-eignty and established a new colony en-compassing the mainland.
April 18, 1906 – The 1906 San Francisco earthquake, measuring 7.9 on the Richter scale, and fire destroys much of San Fran-cisco, California, resulting in over 3,000 deaths.
April 20, 1955 – Don Pettit, Oregonian as-tronaut and inventor, is born.
April 21, 1962 – The Century 21 Exposition (also known as the Seattle World’s Fair) opens. It is the first World’s Fair held in the North America since World War II. The fair sees the construction of the Space Nee-dle and Alweg monorail, as well as several sports venues and performing arts buildings.
April 22, 1970 – The first Earth Day is celebrated in San Francisco.
April 23, 1995 – British Columbia blocks Alcan’s $1.3-billion (Canadian) Kemano power dam development, citing the threat to its salmon fishery.
April 24, 1866 –Victoria is connected to British Columbia mainland via cable and telegraph.
April 25, 1945 – Fifty nations gather in San Francisco, California to begin the United Nations Conference on International Or-ganizations.
April 26, 1778 – Captain Cook sets sail to the north west from Nootka Sound, tracing the coast of British Columbia and Alaska.
April 28, 2005 –Portland becomes the first (and currently only) city to withdraw from the American Joint Terrorism Task Force.
April 29, 1891 – CP steamship Empress of India arrives in Vancouver, British Colum-bia from Yokohama, Japan to open regular service to the Far East; breaks record Pa-cific crossing by two days.
April 30, 1970 – The first computer-controlled CP Rail coal train reaches Rob-erts Bank south of Vancouver, BC from Alberta.
April 19, 1987 – The Simpsons, creation of Oregon native Matt Gro-ening, premieres as a short cartoon on The Tracey Ullman Show. The Simpsons has since gone on to be-come not only the longest running animated program but also the long-est running television sitcom, cur-rently in their 23rd season on FOX. Congratulation to Matt Groening on 25 years of success!