Eighty Years Ago
May 5, 1938
• Local pugilist Eric Burnell pounded his way to the provincial middleweight boxing title in Powell River.
• The school board planned a visit to the Children’s Aid Society of Vancouver, upon learning that 31 Aid children were attending Langley schools.
• Mail carrier Mr. Burrows had not missed a round in 16 years. He estimated that he had walked the equivalent of 10 times around the world in that time.
Seventy Years Ago
May 6, 1948
• The Vancouver Building Trades Council objected to children painting Murrayville School: “The painting of the school by boy labour will undermine the workers in your municipality,” council was informed by letter.
• Langley Memorial Hospital Society opened its campaign for a hospitalization and medical scheme.
Sixty Years Ago
May 8, 1958
• Negotiations between city council and developers over proposed sale of part of Douglas Park were “just talk,” claimed mayor E.E. Sendall. Part of the deal would allow the City to acquire more land to the south of the park.
• The hospital board asked Langley’s councils for $90,000 to cover unexpected expenses for Langley Memorial Hospital, including a $24,000 well hole that came up dry.
Fifty Years Ago
May 9, 1968
• Langley 15-year-old Debbie Brill set a Canadian girls high jump record in her own age class, and the next one up, for under-20. Her jump of 5’5½” – an inch higher than she was tall – was accomplished at the Vancouver relays held in the Brockton Oval at Stanley Park.
• First to finish the 16¾-mile (27 km) Langley Walk was 16-year-old Guyle Coon, in one hour and 54 minutes. There were 3,401 starters and 3,265 finishers.
• The Regional Parks District purchased 1,200 acres of the Bruce McLean estate straddling Campbell River in the North Bluff area. Work was not expected to begin on the proposed park site for five years.
Forty Years Ago
May 10, 1978
• Terry Jongedyk and Richard Boulton finished the 17.5-kilometre Langley Walk first together, clocking in at one hour and 26 minutes. There were 3,533 walkers.
• Despite his claims that he had acted in self-defence, the man charged with second-degree murder in the stabbing death of a 23-year-old man outside the Langley Hotel in November was convicted of manslaughter in a jury trial held in New Westminster.
• Despite objections by two aldermen and the mayor, Lngley City council voted to increase spending for the upcoming year by 18 per cent.
Thirty Years Ago
May 4, 1988
• The annual Langley Walk drew 1,146 participants.
• Residential property owners in Langley were told to expect a 6.9 per cent tax increase.
Twenty Years Ago
May 8, 1998
• Opposition leader Gordon Campbell offered a rousing speech to his B.C. Liberal Party at its convention in Langley.
• Hundreds of teens lined up at the Langley Motor Vehicle Branch office, hoping to beat the May 4 deadline marking the institution of a new, more stringent licensing system.
• Organizers estimated that about 1,000 participants took in the 36th annual Langley Walk.
• The Langley Leadership Team-dominated Township council decided to go ahead and build a freeway overpass at 208th Street. The flyover was expected to be completed in about a year.
• Promoters of an 18-theatre entertainment complex slated for 200th Street and Langley Bypass announced it would open in about a year.
• Plans for another 18-theatre complex proposal, slated for the corner of 200th Street and the freeway, won approval in a 4-2 vote of Township council.
• Horse feed made by the Otter Co-op was declared the best in the world by experts in Kentucky.
