“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. 20, 1962, Evening Journal
Glenn lands after 3 orbits
Astronaut John H. Glenn Jr. was plucked safely from the Atlantic Ocean at 3:01 p.m. today by a destroyer, USS Noa, after he flew three times around the world in his space ship….
…Glenn broke the space trail for the free world today with a magnificent leap into orbit….
The 40-year-old Marine rose into space atop a flame-spewing Atlas rocket at 9:47 a.m. At 2:28 p.m., 4 hours and 41 minutes later, he had completed the three orbits of his mission. Ten minutes later his spacecraft’s 63-foot main parachute opened at 21,000 feet and dropped the craft and its pilot into the sea….
Glenn had successfully completed an epochal space mission which made him the first American in orbit….
He ecstatically reported he was seeing “tremendous” and “beautiful” views from his capsule as he rode alternately through periods of light and dark. He also reported “some minor difficulties” with his spacecraft’s controls, but he said weightlessness disturbed him not a bit and he felt “fine.”
Feb. 22, 1965, Wilmington Morning News
Suspect held in killing of Malcolm X
Gunfire cut down the Negro extremist Malcolm X as he rose to address a rally yesterday in an upper Manhattan ballroom.
Police charged a 22-year-old Negro, Thomas Hagan, with firing the fatal shots. Hagan, shot in the leg in the melee that followed the assassination, was held in the prison ward of Bellevue Hospital.
Police Capt. Paul Glaser said Hagan killed Malcolm with a sawed-off double-barreled shotgun and was himself wounded by one of Malcolm’s followers, Reuben Francis….
Police said at least five men were believed involved in the assassination, after lurking amid the ranks of 500 of Malcolm’s disciples at the rally….
Police blamed the slaying on a feud between Malcolm, 38, and the Black Muslim movement from which he broke in 1963. The Muslims, however, denied any complicity….
CATCH UP ON HISTORY:The News Journal archives, week of Jan. 16
Feb. 23, 1980, The News Journal
USA hockey team humbles Soviets 4-3; Finland stands in way
Lake Placid, N.Y. – Skating to a continuous roaring chant of “USA! USA! USA!” the young American hockey team scored a spectacular comeback 4-3 upset victory over the Soviet Union in the Winter Olympics last night.
The triumph, secured on a pair of third-period goals scored one minute, 21 seconds apart, touched off a wild series of celebrations in this mountain village and prompted a telephone call from President Jimmy Carter….
The call came to the team’s dressing room to congratulate Coach Herb Brooks and his players on the stunning triumph that kept alive U.S hopes for its first Olympic hockey gold since 1960….
Third-period goals by Mark Johnson and Mike Eruzione sparked the comeback, the key to which, Brooks said, was “staying with the tactics that had gotten us here.” Those tactics were to try and keep possession of the puck and to fore-check the Soviet defensemen into mistakes….
The victory before a crowd of 8,500 moved the United States into first place in the medals round.
The loss, the Soviets’ first since a 5-4 defeat by Czechoslovakia in 1968, did not ruin their chances for gold. But it also left them in danger of missing a medal completely if Finland wins twice….
DELAWAREAN INVOLVED WITH OLYMPICS:Johnny Weir not at Olympics, but still broadcasting
Feb. 24, 1954, Wilmington Morning News
Communist books banned in Delaware schools
Public school officials have cleared their shelves of publications written by “self-avowed” communists whenever any such writings have been found in the schools, it was revealed yesterday by Dr. Ward I. Miller, superintendent of Delaware public schools.
He told press and radio reporters this in answer to a question during a conference in the Administration Building in Wilmington.
Miller said, however, that groups of public school children are free to discuss communism during social study periods where teachers are present to guide the discussion into the overall and broad picture of the communist philosophy and what it means. In this manner, he said, the students are able to absorb a picture of what communism is all about without reading the “slanted” views of some authors who appear to lean toward communism.
He did not identify the authors but said that removal of their books from the school libraries here is the same practice that has been underway in libraries throughout the country.
Objections to certain publications have been made to the Board of Education by civic and patriotic organizations without publicity….
Local education officials, Dr. Miller explained, believe that school children should be given an opportunity to learn about communism – and all forms of government for that matter – but without receiving only a one-sided picture of these philosophies….
Reach reporter Ben Mace at rmace@gannett.com.
