Mike Dobray (1886 - 1976)

Refresh this page to see various historical events that occurred during Mike's lifetime.

In 1886, in the year that Mike Dobray was born, on June 13th, the "Great Vancouver Fire" destroyed most of Vancouver, British Columbia. A small brush fire got out of control and spread to the rest of the city. Dozens of people died and it was only after the fire that money was raised for a fire hall. The local Squamish tribe rescued people who had jumped into bodies of water to escape the conflagration.

In 1891, Mike was only 5 years old when on June 25th, in the July issue of The Strand Magazine in London, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's character Sherlock Holmes appeared in a series of short stories for the first time. Doyle eventually wrote 4 novels and 56 short stories with Holmes as the main character.

In 1917, when he was 31 years old, on July 28, between ten and fifteen thousand blacks silently walked down New York City's Fifth Avenue to protest racial discrimination and violence. Lynchings in Waco Texas and hundreds of African-Americans killed in East St. Louis Illinois had sparked the protest. Picket signs said "Mother, do lynchers go to heaven?" "Mr. President, why not make America safe for democracy?" "Thou shalt not kill." "Pray for the Lady Macbeth's of East St. Louis" and "Give us a chance to live."

In 1938, by the time he was 52 years old, on October 30th, a Sunday, The Mercury Theatre on the Air broadcast Orson Welles' special Halloween show The War of the World's. A clever take on H.G. Wells' novel, the show began with simulated "breaking news" of an invasion by Martians. Because of the realistic nature of the "news," there was a public outcry the next day, calling for regulation by the FCC. Although the current story is that many were fooled and panicked, in reality very few people were fooled. But the show made Orson Welles' career.

In 1976, in the year of Mike Dobray's passing, on August 4th, a mysterious illness struck an American Legion convention in Philadelphia. Within a week, 25 people had died and 130 people had been hospitalized. It was the first known instance of what came to be called "Legionnaires Disease."