The Canadian Encyclopedia is proud to present its first free app, Vancouver In Time, highlighting the quirky, little-known stories of Vancouver’s history. Download and enjoy!

In 1922, UBC was just a muddy construction site. Frustrated students organized a march to challenge the government to live up to its promise to build the university.

While Expo 86 was revolutionizing Vancouver’s image to a world-class centre for tourism and upscale development, a very different revolution was happening in its counter-culture.

Vancouver is a hockey-mad city. At the start of each season, fans expect that it will be “their time” — when their beloved Canucks will go all the way to become Stanley Cup champions. It happened once before when Cyclone Taylor led the Vancouver Millionaires to hockey glory in old Denman Arena.

The steamer Komagata Maru arrived in Vancouver harbour in May 1914 with more than 370 passengers from India on board. They were looking to begin new lives in Canada, but the authorities said No. The standoff lasted two months and ended in mayhem and murder.

A Parks Board gardener, clearing leaves near Beaver Lake, came across a cheap fur coat. Lifting it up, he made a grisly discovery — the skeletal remains of two young children. Dubbed the Babes in the Woods by the press, the sensational, unsolved case remains a haunting piece of Vancouver lore.

Vancouver may be known as a No Fun City, but in the 1950s, the city had the exotic Cave. To find sophisticated entertainment in old Vancouver you went underground, into a grotto where stalactites hung from the ceiling and pirate’s gold shimmered in darkly lit corners.

When Capt. Jack Deighton and his family pulled their canoe onto the south shore of the Burrrard Inlet in 1867, Jack was on one more search for riches. He was broke again, but he wasted no time in starting a new business and building the settlement that would become Vancouver.

The sparkling white terra cotta tiles of the Birks building lit the southeast corner of Granville and Georgia from 1913. Inside, sparkling jewelry, silver and fine china attracted the most demanding, and wealthy, clientele. It was a shock to the city when the Birks family decided to tear the impressive grand dame down in 1975.

If you were strolling down Granville Street in post-war Vancouver, chances are that an affable photographer would step out from behind his camera to tell you that he’d just snapped your picture.

When BC Electric chairman Dal Grauer decided to move to new headquarters south of Georgia Street, he wanted a building that would symbolize optimism and progress. What he got was a gleaming 21-storey modernist structure that glowed with electric light 24 hours a day.