Perhaps I am missing something, but it appears that some events are not implement for the nbagg backend? Using the script below, I have seen the following work: motion_notify_event, axes_enter_event, button_press_event. The following have not worked: figure_enter_event, resize_event, key_press_event, scroll_event. The only one I'm really missing is key_press_event.

import matplotlib
matplotlib.use('nbagg')
from matplotlib import pyplot as plt
plt.plot(range(3))
evt = None
def on_event(event):
    global evt
    evt = event
plt.gcf().canvas.mpl_connect('button_press_event', on_event)
plt.show()

I then check the value of evt in another cell to make sure it is getting updated. I am using matplotlib ab549ac and IPython 2.3.1.