PuckDat.com

Hello there and wel­come to the Jan­u­ary 31st edi­tion of Hangin’ in the Ham­mer; where we don’t hear any­one com­plain­ing about the fact there were five Tues­days this month.

It nice to have you along as we do our daily run-through of some of the inter­est­ing peo­ple and events from Cana­dian sports, his­tory and enter­tain­ment related to today’s date.

And here to deliver those facts in his smooth, steady tones, is our chief spokesman, Gordie Cornforsale.

On this day in 1839, for­mer Cana­dian Gov­er­nor Gen­eral Lord Durham hands his Report on the Affairs of British North Amer­ica to British Prime Min­is­ter Lord Mel­bourne. The for­mer Gov­er­nor of the colony blames the power of the Fam­ily Com­pact and Chateau Clique for the 1837 rebel­lions, and rec­om­mends unit­ing the Canadas under one respon­si­ble gov­ern­ment, with Eng­lish the only offi­cial lan­guage, so as to assim­i­late the French Cana­di­ans once and for all into Eng­lish society.

On this day in 1851, the lives of Hamil­to­ni­ans got a lit­tle brighter as the Hamil­ton Gas Light Com­pany installs the first street lamps in Canada.

On this day in 1957, the fed­eral gov­ern­ment makes Thanks­giv­ing Day a statu­tory hol­i­day, as Par­lia­ment pro­claims: ‘A Day of Gen­eral Thanks­giv­ing to Almighty God for the boun­ti­ful har­vest with which Canada has been blessed.’ The new statu­tory hol­i­day is to be observed on the 2nd Mon­day in every October.

On this day in 1969, Saska­toon nurs­ing assis­tant was Gail Miller raped and mur­dered in a back lane. The city police rounded up a young man named Albert (Shorty) Cadrain and ques­tion him about the mur­der but, let him go. Two weeks later, after hear­ing about a $2,000 reward, Cadrain impli­cated his friend David Mil­gaard, who is later charged and con­victed in Jan­u­ary 1970 of the crime. After 8,355 days in prison, Mil­gaard is released after a Supreme Court of Canada review of the case deems he was wrong­fully convicted.

Form the world of sports, it was on this day in 1901 that the vis­it­ing Win­nipeg Vic­to­rias won the sec­ond game of their two game series with the Mon­treal Sham­rocks 2–1, allow­ing them to go home with the Stan­ley Cup. The Vic­to­rias had also won the pre­vi­ous game played on Jan­u­ary 29th by a score of 4–3. The Win­nipeg side was led by Cap­tain Dan Bain, who was inducted into the HHoF in 1945.

On this day in 1920, Joe Mal­one (mem­ber of the HHoF since 1950) scores seven goals against Toronto in a 10 — 6 Que­bec Bull­dogs vic­tory. It is one of the few high­lights of a dis­mal 1920 sea­son for the Bull­dogs, who would fin­ish 4–20 with a league worst 7.13 GAA. The poor per­for­mance on the ice led to another poor sea­son at the gate and the Bull­dogs relo­cated for the 1921 sea­son to Hamilton.

Some notable Cana­di­ans who were born on this day include one of the play­ers who was traded with Wayne Gret­zky to the Oil­ers, Eddie Mio and diver Sylvie Bernier, who won a gold medal at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles.

Today’s Juno Moldy Oldy comes from for­mer win­ners The Trag­i­cally Hip; here’s their song Wheat Kings. (No one’s inter­ested in some­thing you didn’t do.)

Born on this day in 1951, Mr Harold Wayne Casey and that inspired us to ask when was the last time you heard I’m Your Boo­gie Man?

Our musi­cal title today, Search­ing So Long took some inspi­ra­tion from a man who was born on this day in 1946, Terry Kath. Kath was a found­ing mem­ber of the band Chicago and he played lead gui­tar for the band until his untimely death in 1978.

And that is all I have for you today folks so here’s where I bo out and Puck takes the reigns.

I sup­pose you could say today’s title is a lit­tle tongue in cheek because if they had searched a lit­tle longer per­haps Mr Mil­gaard would not have lost those 8,355 days. Now imag­ine if the guy who screwed up was forced to pay the same penalty. With that hang­ing over your head, maybe then they would have mea­sured twice and cut once as the adage goes.

It’s always a plea­sure to have you drop by and sit a spell. Come back any time you like and help your­self to the coffee.

Have a fun day today and above all, please be safe.

I’ve been search­ing so long, to find an answer.…