“Pages of history” features excerpts from The News Journal archives including the Wilmington Morning News and the Evening Journal.
April 10, 2003, The News Journal
Bagdad falls; citizens rejoice freely
Their hour of freedom at hand, jubilant Iraqis celebrated the collapse of Saddam Hussein’s murderous regime yesterday, beheading a toppled statue of their longtime ruler in downtown Baghdad and embracing American troops as liberators.
“I’m 49, but I never lived a single day. Only now will I start living,” said Yussuf Abed Kazim, a mosque preacher.
A young Iraqi spat on a portrait of Saddam. Men hugged Americans in full combat gear, and women held up babies so soldiers riding on tanks could kiss them.
Iraqis released decades of pent-up fury as U.S. forces solidified their grip on the capital. Marine tanks rolled to the eastern bank of the Tigris River. The Army was on the western side of the waterway that curls through the ancient city….
“We are not seeing any organized resistance,” said Navy Capt. Frank Thorp at the U.S. Central Command. “The Iraqi military is unable to fight as an organized fighting force.”
At a Pentagon briefing, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Saddam “is taking his rightful place” alongside such brutal dictators of the past as Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin and Vladimir Lenin….
UPDATE ON FALLEN VETERANS:More than 20 Delaware service members have died since 9/11. These are their stories
April 13, 1945, Wilmington Morning News
Roosevelt dies suddenly; Truman takes oath as 32nd president
President Franklin D. Roosevelt died unexpectedly Thursday at 4:35 p.m. of a cerebral hemorrhage in Warm Springs, Ga.
Mr. Roosevelt’s last words were: “I have a terrific headache.”
He spoke them to Commander Harold Bruenn, naval physician.
The funeral will be in the White House East Room in Washington at 4 p.m. Saturday. Burial will be at the Roosevelt ancestral home at Hyde Park, N.Y., Sunday. The body will not lie in state….
Mr. Roosevelt, in the third month of his fourth term as President, went to Warm Springs three weeks ago to rest.
Mrs. Roosevelt flew to Georgia last night. She left the White House at 7:15 after informing their four sons by wire of their father’s death.
The death removed from world councils one of the Big Three – Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin – who worked together to win the war and laid joint plans for keeping the peace….
Harry S. Truman, who 11 years ago was a Missouri county judge, became the 32nd President of the United States at 7:09 p.m. Thursday and solemnly pledged himself to the policies of Roosevelt….
April 13, 1970, The Morning News
White Clay Creek dam debate continues
While government officials and conservationists debate the wisdom of damming White Clay Creek, the Du Pont Co. holds the land on which the proposed reservoir would be built.
New Castle County Executive William J. Conner said there is a critical water shortage now, and the county must do something to alleviate it. The dam, he said, seems to be the best solution.
Dennis Neuzil, president of the Delaware section of the Sierra Club, said building the dam would forego a precious, relatively wild area to provide for projected population growth….
Samuel Lenher, vice president and chairman of the environmental control committee of the Du Pont Co., said in a statement that the company owns 95 percent of the 1,400 acres that would be needed for the reservoir north of Newark.
“The company now plans to hold on to the land until appropriate government agencies decide whether or not to construct the proposed dam and reservoir,” Lenher said….
The alternatives are pumping water out of the ground, pumping water from Hoopes Reservoir into White Clay Creek and from the creek, or pumping water from the Susquehanna or Schuylkill watersheds.
The preliminary report, Conner said, draws “the broad conclusion that, for the long pull, the only economical way is to build the dam.” Wells alone wouldn’t do the job. Pipelines are expensive, and the availability of water from the other watersheds is doubtful, Conner said….
If the reservoir is built, 85 percent of the water will be consumed by “non-Du Pont users,” Lenher said. Now Du Pont’s average daily consumption of water in New Castle County outside the service area of Wilmington Water Department is about 4.4 million gallons a day, 8.3 percent of the area’s daily consumption….
Since 1966, when the drought required enforced water saving measures, the average water demand of the area has increased considerably, mostly because of the increase in population, said Lenher….
CATCH UP ON HISTORY:News Journal archives, week of March 6
April 16, 1947, Wilmington Morning News
Dodgers defeat Braves in Robinson’s debut
Pete Reiser, key to Brooklyn’s flag chances, blazed a seventh-inning double off the screen a foot inside the right-field foul line at Ebbets Field yesterday to drive across the tying and winning runs as the pilotless Dodgers opened their 1947 campaign with a 5 to 3 victory over the Boston Braves.
Although he did not get a hit in four official times at bat, Jackie Robinson, the first Negro to play in modern big league ball, signalized his official debut as a Dodger by sprinting home with the deciding run on Reiser’s smash and playing perfect ball at first base….
Reach reporter Ben Mace at rmace@gannett.com.
