“Pages of history” features excerpts from The News Journal archives including the Wilmington Morning News, The Morning News, the Every Evening and the Evening Journal.
Feb. 6, 1937, Wilmington Morning News
President asks to increase Supreme Court to 15 members
A history-making proposal by President Franklin Roosevelt to inject “new blood” into a Supreme Court hostile to many New Deal acts, by raising the tribunal’s membership to 15 if necessary, went to a surprised Congress Feb. 5.
It produced a sensation almost beyond comparison. Congress split into warring camps, with many New Dealers rejoicing and their foes crying “dictator!”
The President’s plan, regarded generally in Congress as his long-awaited answer to the invalidation of New Deal efforts to regulate industry and farming, proposed a revamping of the entire federal judicial system, including lower courts.
Under it, six Supreme Court justices now past 70 would be given his choice of retiring or having six new judges of the President’s own choosing take places as their peers on the bench. The judges who have been most implacable in their opposition to Roosevelt’s legislation thus would be a minority of the tribunal, which would consist of 15 instead of nine justices.
Four justices generally labelled as “conservative” are now past 70. They are: Van Devanter, McReynolds, Butler and Sutherland. A “liberal” justice, Brandeis, also is in that age classification, as is Chief Justice Hughes, who has voted against the New Deal eight times and for it seven….
Feb. 7, 1952, Wilmington Morning News
Elizabeth flying home to take throne; World grieved by death of King George
Much of the civilized world joined Britain Feb. 6 in mourning for gallant King George VI.
Men and women of every color and creed paid tribute to the modest monarch whose simple devotion to duty through 15 troubled years won him the respect and admiration of millions.
President Harry Truman expressed the feelings of many in a message of sympathy to the British people. He termed the king a “world personage who maintained the highest traditions of the English constitutional monarch.”
…He asked God’s blessing on the new queen, Elizabeth, who was a guest of the Trumans in Washington last fall….
Queen Elizabeth II winged homeward today from East Africa in deep, bravely-borne grief over the death of her father in England. At age 25, the young matron monarch, mother of two children, faced the task of ruling the far-flung commonwealth empire left suddenly to her….
MORE ABOUT ROYALTY:President Biden is set to meet Queen Elizabeth II. Here’s why he likely won’t ‘kiss the ring’
Feb. 10, 1964, Evening Journal
Screamies pester Beatles before Ed Sullivan show
For pure showmanship, those screaming teen-age victims of Beatlemania are giving the four British lads with the rag-mop haircuts a run for their money.
The Beatles, who reportedly have grossed $17 million already, take it philosophically.
“Here’s another bunch of screamies,” said one as their limousine, surrounded by policemen, arrived at Columbia Broadcasting System television studio last night.
Hundreds of teen-age girls besieged the quartet there and at the usually sedate Plaza Hotel. The Beatles’ theme, “Yeah, yeah, yeah,” sung by jumping, mooning, screaming girls, followed the boys everywhere.
Only 721 of the most persistent fans got into a CBS studio audience for the Ed Sullivan show, where the Beatles gave their first performance in the United States. CBS said it had 50,000 requests for tickets.
The shrieking girls, bouncing in their chairs, bobbing back and forth and grabbing fistfuls of their hair, all but outdid the Beatles in dramatic pyrotechnics.
On stage, the Beatles – three guitars and drums – appeared a bit bemused by it all as they rendered in a comparatively austere fashion several of their rock ‘n’ roll selections, including the No. 1 record seller in America, “I Want to Hold Your Hand.”
…The quartet, George Harrison, John Lennon, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, will have two Carnegie Hall concerts Wednesday, another appearance on the Sullivan show Sunday from Miami Beach, and a concert in Washington, D.C.
CATCH UP ON HISTORY:News Journal archives, week of Nov. 21
Feb. 12, 1990, The News Journal
Throngs cheer a free Mandela, but violence mars joyous day
Cape Town, South Africa – Nelson Mandela walked through a prison gate to freedom Sunday, setting off joyous celebrations and violent clashes as blacks nationwide welcomed their leader back from 27 years in jail.
“Comrades and fellow South Africans, I greet you all in the name of peace, democracy and freedom for all,” Mandela told tens of thousands of cheering supporters who thronged outside City Hall at twilight, many getting their first look at the 71-year-old African National Congress leader.
But he emphatically reaffirmed his commitment to the ANC’s guerilla campaign and called for increased pressure to end white-minority domination – the same cause that resulted in his life sentence on charges of plotting against the government….
“Today, the majority of South Africans, black and white, recognize that apartheid has no future. It has to be ended by our decisive mass action,” he said….
Violence broke out about the same time Mandela’s motorcade arrived in Cape Town and delayed his speech. Police said a black looter was shot to death by officers, while a first aid worker and more than 100 other people were injured when riot police fired shotguns after groups of black youths smashed shop windows….
Reach reporter Ben Mace at rmace@gannett.com.
