“Pages of history” features excerpts from The News Journal archives including The Morning News and the Evening Journal.
Oct. 17, 1987, The News Journal
Rescuers free toddler from well
MIDLAND, Tex. – Eighteen-month-old Jessica McClure was rescued last night from an abandoned well by workers who spent 2½ days drilling through solid rock to reach her as the nation waited anxiously to learn her fate.
Barefoot, caked with dirt and strapped with gauze to an immobilizing backboard, Jessica was hoisted by cable out of the shaft just before 9 p.m. EDT to the cheers of her parents, neighbors and rescue workers. She had been in the well nearly 58½ hours….
The toddler, who had gone without food or drink since plunging into the narrow well Oct. 14 in her aunt’s backyard, appeared alert as she rubbed her eyes in the glare of floodlights.
ABC, NBC and CBS all interrupted their prime-time shows to televise the final minutes of the rescue, and CNN carried reports throughout the ordeal….
Bob Hawk, a local contractor who was at the scene, said the abandoned well was covered immediately and that the rescue hole was to be filled in soon….
The toddler fell into the narrow well while playing with other children at the private daycare center her mother and aunt operate at her aunt’s house….
Oct. 17, 1995, The News Journal
Estimated 400,000 black men attend Washington march
In an unprecedented revival-style rally, hundreds of thousands of black men bonded, prayed and echoed Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan in a litany of promises in Washington, D.C. yesterday to heal black America.
“I pledge that from this day forward, I will never raise my hand with a knife or gun to beat, cut or shoot any human being, except in self-defense,” they repeated after Farrakhan, vowing to better themselves and all of black America. Some wept.
The dramatic recitation captured the rally’s spirit of atonement and brotherhood much as Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I have a dream” summed up the 1963 March on Washington.
The “Million Man March” was the fourth-largest demonstration in Washington and the largest predominantly black gathering. The U.S. Park Police estimated that 400,000 men came together for the peaceful day of praying, signing and reveling in racial unity. The crowd, eclipsing the 250,000 who gathered in 1963, stretched 12 blocks….
Farrakhan urged the men to go home and join black organizations to take hold of political power, unite against racism, and cleanse black communities of crime and drugs….
Delaware racial justice protests:Weekend rallies planned in Wilmington to protest George Floyd’s death
Oct. 18, 1989, The News Journal
California quake kills over 200, collapses roads, buildings
A catastrophic earthquake rocked Northern California yesterday, killing more than 200 people and injuring 400, caving in bridges and freeways, igniting fires and causing widespread damage to buildings.
The quake, which struck during the evening rush hour, registered 6.9 on the Richter scale and was on the notorious San Adreas Fault. It was the second deadliest in the nation’s history, exceeded only by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake that destroyed much of the city and killed more than 700 people.
At least 200 people were crushed to death in their cars when a mile-long stretch of the upper level of Interstate 880 in Oakland collapsed onto the lower level….
Oct. 19, 1977, The Morning News
Yanks ride 3 Jackson HRs to title
By Hal Bodley
“You can love me…you can hate me, but you cannot ignore me.” – Reggie Jackson, Oct. 13 at Dodger Stadium.
If anybody had any doubts about Jackson’s off-hand comment during a workout at Dodger Stadium last Thursday, they were destroyed last night in New York.
On a day when Billy Martin admitted both he and the controversial right fielder had benefitted from a fiery relationship, Jackson staged an incredible performance as the Yankees romped to their first World Series championship since 1962.
Jackson blasted a Series-record three consecutive home runs at the mad house that was Yankee Stadium as New York blitzed Los Angeles 8-3.
Jackson, who blasted Martin and threatened to pull out of the Series after the second game, slammed two-run homers off loser Burt Hooten in the fourth, off Elias Sosa in fifth and brought the Yankee Stadium crowd of 56,407 to a fever pitch when he completed the hat trick with a shot far over the centerfield fence off Charlie Hough to lead off the eighth….
Catch up on history:9/11 attack, railroad strike in News Journal archives, week of Sept. 11
Oct. 20, 1987, The Morning News
Panic on Wall Street: Market meltdown rivals 1929 crash
The stock market plunged out of control Monday in a selling panic that rivaled the Great Crash of 1929, pushing the Dow Jones average down more than 500 points, draining more than $500 billion from the value of stocks and sending shock waves around the world.
The market fed on itself in wave after wave of selling exaggerated by computer trading in the busiest day ever on the New York Stock Exchange.
The Dow industrials fell 508.00 points to 1,738.74, a one-day plunge of 22.6%, bringing the loss since the market’s Aug. 25 peak to nearly 1,000 points….
“We’re having extreme panic in the marketplace. It’s like Armageddon,” said Alfred E. Goldman, director of market analysis for A.G. Edwards & Sons in St. Louis….
Reach reporter Ben Mace at rmace@gannett.com.
