“Pages of history” features excerpts from The News Journal archives including the Wilmington Morning News and The Evening Journal.
Sept. 26, 1957, Wilmington Morning News
Bayonets clamp quiet on Little Rock; High school integrated by iron fist
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – Nine Black students put in their first full integrated class day at Central High School yesterday, shepherded to and from classes by tough, seasoned U.S. Army paratroopers.
Awed by the bayonet-pointed display of military force at the school, the city remained quiet last night.
There were minor disorders by white non-student crowds outside the two-block square school during the day. But inside a cautious harmony prevailed in classrooms and hallways. White and Black students shared luncheon tables in the cafeteria….
Students of both races exchanged smiles, talked with each other and made tentative gestures of friendship. Attempts were also made to pressure other white students to boycott the integrated classes.
Throughout the day, the white troops of the 101st Airborne ringed the sprawling, buff brick school. They were part of a 1,000-man task force airlifted to Little Rock yesterday from Fort Campbell, Ky., after President Eisenhower invoked the might of the federal government to back court-ordered segregation….
Sept. 27, 1960, Wilmington Morning News
Nixon, Kennedy dispute U.S. power in first broadcast of presidential debate
CHICAGO – Vice President Richard M. Nixon and Senator John F. Kennedy came to grips in an unprecedented face-to-face debate last night on the issue of how to keep the United States strong enough to withstand the threat of Communist Russia.
Kennedy said, “I do not think we are doing enough” to keep the nation moving. “I am not satisfied as an American with the progress we are making.”
Nixon retorted, “We are ahead of the Russians” and charged that the program Kennedy has urged to spur the nation’s economic growth “will lead to stagnation of the motive power which we need so badly in this country.”
An estimated 60 to 100 million Americans – half the nation’s population – tuned in their television sets and radio stations for modern history’s first head-on debate between the two candidates for president. The only comparable clash between top political leaders occurred 102 years ago in this same state of Illinois when Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglass – then campaigning for the Senate – debated the issues of human slavery and freedom on the eve of the Civil War….
At no time in the hour-long program did the issue of Kennedy’s Roman Catholic religion enter into the discussions….
Catch up on history:The News Journal archives, week of May 22
Sept. 29, 1941, Wilmington Morning News
H.G. Wells gives peace formula
LONDON – H.G. Wells, British author and historian, proposed yesterday to world science leaders an international language, federal control of all natural resources and sweeping social and economic reforms for the post-war world.
The creator of the fictional invisible man and the Martian invasion told the British Association for Advancement of Science “if there is to be any peace on Earth henceforth there must be federal control of the air and the material of international transport.”
“Next,” he declared, “we have to rescue our planet from devastation by ruthless political and mercenary appropriation….”
He said this could be done by adopting a plan of Gifford Pinchot, former governor of Pennsylvania and ardent conservationist, for federal conservation of the world’s resources.
“Thirdly,” Wells said, “we have to impose as the fundamental law upon Earth a plain declaration of human rights that will insure for every man fair participation in these resources and a sense of responsible ownership in our planet.”
Williams hits .406 for season
PHILADELPHIA – Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox yesterday became the first American Leaguer to hit .400 for a season since 1923 when Harry Heilman batted .403 for Detroit. Bill Terry was the last National League player to turn the trick, batting .401 for the Giants in 1930.
Making six hits in eight times at bat while the Red Sox and Athletics split a doubleheader, Williams finished with a mark of .406.
Boston won the first game, 12 to 11, and the second was called on account of darkness after eight innings with the A’s on top, 7 to 1….
Delaware baseball news:Shockley’s prolific baseball life was highlighted by Georgetown World Series win
Sept. 30, 1922, The Evening Journal
Society news
Christopher L. Ward Jr., a Rhodes scholar from Delaware, who has been spending the summer with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. C.L. Ward, here, will sail for England on Oct. 5 to resume his studies.
Mr. and Mrs. C.P.M. Rumford have returned from a trip to the New England states. Their daughter, Miss Generva Rumford, is in Andover, Mass., where she is attending Abbot Academy.
Miss Katherine Hilles left yesterday for Long Island, where she will spend a week with friends.
Mrs. Charles A. Patterson and daughter Margaret have returned from Yama Farms in the Catskills…..
Captain William H. Haley and Joseph A. Haley have returned from a fishing trip in the lower part of the state. They exhibited quite a string of fish to their friends.
Mrs. Madison H. Elliott, of Roselle, has returned home after being a patient in St. Agnes Hospital, Philadelphia.
Reach reporter Ben Mace at rmace@gannett.com.
