“Pages of history” features excerpts from The News Journal archives including the Wilmington Morning News and the Evening Journal.
Feb. 27, 1993, The News Journal
Trade center blast kills 7
New York – A massive bomb explosion rocked the World Trade Center Friday, killing at least seven people, injuring more than 600 and plunging the world’s second-tallest skyscrapers into an urban hell of falling rubble and thick black smoke.
Thousands of workers staggered down smoke-filled, pitch-black stairways from as high as 107 stories for hours after the 12:18 p.m. explosion, while six others – including a pregnant woman – were plucked from the roof by a police helicopter….
FBI sources said that between 500 and 1,000 pounds of plastic explosive – believed to be C-4, a putty-like substance considered to be the most powerful non-nuclear explosive – was packed into a van parked in the garage under the Vista Hotel and World Trade Center towers….
Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said seven separate callers, six who dialed 911 and one who called the First Precinct station, claimed responsibility after the explosion….
March 1, 1940, Wilmington Morning News
Jail preferred to census quiz, woman tells Senate
A warning that millions of American women will choose jail rather than answer intimate questions in the forthcoming census was given to a Senate subcommittee Feb. 29 by Cathrine Curtis of New York, national director of Women Investors in America, Inc.
“I recommend Congress postpone further appropriations for national defense and put through an emergency measure to enlarge jail accommodations to house the millions who will go there rather than disclose their wages or income, matrimonial adventures or whether they use their bathroom alone or share it with someone else,” she said.
Her warning was reinforced by Mrs. Norman Nock of Washington, a representative of the National Organization of War Mothers. Asserting that most war mothers are now grandmothers, she said they would be “frightened” by such personal questions.
She was “alarmed over the increasing curiosity of government in people’s private affairs.”…
The witnesses were testifying on a resolution by Senator Tobey (R – N.H.) calling for the elimination of two questions from the census….
He said a census supervisor in New England had threatened fines and jail for refusal to answer, and in California, census supervisors had broadcast warnings of a 60-day jail term or a $100 fine….
Visiting the schools – Beacom College update
Harold Warren, principal of the department of penmanship at Beacom College, has submitted a large number of specimens of students’ work to the Zaner-Blozer School of Writing for criticism. All penmanship records at the college have been broken this year under Mr. Warren’s instruction.
Doc Viohl’s orchestra will furnish the music for the spring dance of the college in the Hotel DuPont on April 5. Committee appointments will be made next week at a meeting to be conducted by Thomas S. Lodge, faculty adviser of the dance.
J. Marvin Turner has been elected president of the Beacom Y Club. Other officers are: vice president William Doto, secretary John Deeds and treasurer James Broad.
CATCH UP ON HISTORY:News Journal archives, week of Dec. 26
March 1, 1971, Evening Journal
Bomb rips Capitol wing
A bomb was set off on the ground floor of the U.S. Capitol early today, causing extensive damage and opening what Capitol Police Chief James Powell said appeared to be a “serious crack” in the already weakened West Front.
There were no injuries in the explosion. It took place on the Senate side of the building in an unmarked men’s washroom usually used by senators, about 60 feet from an exhibit area immediately below the well of the Great Rotunda of the Capitol….
At 12:59 p.m., the Capitol switchboard received a call, apparently from a man, saying a bomb would go off in the Capitol in half an hour. The caller said: “Evacuate the building. You many have received other calls like this one, but this one is real. Evacuate the building immediately. This is the real thing. This is in retaliation for the Laos decision. The bomb will go off in 30 minutes.”…
MORE ON LATEST CAPITOL ATTACK:Millsboro man becomes fourth Delawarean charged in Jan. 6 storming of U.S. Capitol
March 2, 1932, Wilmington Morning News
Lindbergh baby kidnapped
Charles Augustus Lindbergh Jr., 20-month-old son of the flying colonel, was kidnapped last night from his nursery in the Lindbergh country home near Hopewell, N.J.
Police said he apparently was spirited away in an automobile which they have not yet identified. An automobile which contained two men stopped at least two persons prior to the kidnapping, and its occupants asked directions to the isolated Lindbergh home.
Within an hour after Col. Lindbergh himself telephoned the first alarm, police squad cars blockaded every Jersey road for miles….
The child, clad in a blue sleeping robe, was put to bed at the usual hour, 7:30 p.m. At about 10 p.m., when the nurse peered into the nursery, the crib was empty….
The window near his crib, which was open when his nurse went into the room, is 30 feet from the ground. On the window sill, police said, a note was found, and, though they would not divulge its contents, it was indicated it contained a demand for ransom. A three-piece ladder was found 100 feet from the house….
Reach reporter Ben Mace at rmace@gannett.com.
