Renowned Vancouver historian Chuck Davis left an incredible legacy when he passed away in 2010. All told, he wrote 16 books telling the stories of our city's past, the last (and certainly most awesome) being The Chuck Davis History of Metropolitan Vancouver. Released posthumously in 2011, he was working on it when he was diagnosed with cancer, and after his death it was completed with help of some 40 volunteers. Marsha Lederman wrote an excellent piece about it for The Globe and Mail which can be found HERE. Two days after he was told his cancer had become untreatable, Chuck gave THIS TALK at Sam Sullivan's Public Salon, noting that he had over 2,000 pages of data on his website, vancouverhistory.ca. As a digital storyteller myself (and obviously a fan of the history of our city), I often drop in to the site, which is still live, and take in a few pages. The contents of the site made up a lot of his last book but I still worry that one day the server will get turned off, so I've decided to share a bunch of the information from it, mostly verbatim. Below as some "oddities" that I gleaned, spanning from 1889-1937.

10 Odd Historical Vancouver Facts 1889-1937

By Vancouver Is Awesome

Quoted from Chuck Davis' website, The History of Metropolitan Vancouver

The NOON O'Clock Gun?
By Vancouver Is Awesome
In 1898, on October 15, the Nine O’Clock Gun was fired for the first time in Stanley Park . . . at noon.
Rudyard Kipling, Real Estate Baron
By Vancouver Is Awesome
In 1889, the writer Rudyard Kipling visited Vancouver and bought land here: two lots at the southeast corner of East 11th Avenue and Fraser Street.
Summer Snowmaggedon
By Vancouver Is Awesome
In 1901, on June 23, there was snow in South Vancouver.
The Birth of Traveler's Insurance?
By Vancouver Is Awesome
In 1909 Vancouver took its first mechanized ambulance out for a test drive and ran over and killed an American tourist.
Subprime Mortgage, Anyone?
By Vancouver Is Awesome
In 1919 more than two thousand pieces of Vancouver property were listed in the newspapers for sale by auction. They had been seized for non-payment of taxes, some for amounts less than $10.
Cross Country Remembrance
By Vancouver Is Awesome
The statue (erected in 1921) in front of Vancouver’s CPR station of the angel bearing a fallen soldier heavenward is an exact replica of statues in Winnipeg and Montreal.
Rezone THIS
By Vancouver Is Awesome
In 1927, on October 17, the business magazine Journal of Commerce ran an editorial against the building of skyscrapers in Vancouver.
Gold at City Hall
By Vancouver Is Awesome
The ceiling on the second floor of the rotunda in Vancouver City Hall, opened in 1936, was covered with gold leaf from several B.C. mines.
Floating Posties
By Vancouver Is Awesome
In 1932 the M.V. Scenic began service, the only floating post office in the British Empire. She will serve to 1968, known as the Burrard Inlet T.P.O. (Travelling Post Office.)
The Best Thing Since 1937
By Vancouver Is Awesome
Sliced bread came to Vancouver in 1937.

Pick up a copy of Chuck's opus HERE, and bookmark vancouverhistory.ca. I'll be sharing more lists like the one above in the future as reminders, just in case you forget.