“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.
Dec. 26, 1914, The Evening Journal
Needy of city are made happy on Christmas Day
Wilmington was happy yesterday. Christmas Day found all with light hearts, and holiday joy reigned supreme.
The big public celebration came at 9 o’clock when the hearts of 1,400 poor children were gladdened with gifts from the City Hall tree. Each child received a bag of candy, nuts and a pair of stockings. To cap the climax, the kiddies, many of whom had no Christmas trees at their own homes, had a peep at the handsomest and largest Christmas tree in the city.
Big, strong policemen, who are accustomed to scenes of misery and suffering, demonstrated they had soft hearts when they played the roles of Santa Claus in the practical sense of the word, and not one child was allowed to leave the courtroom without a present….
More than 300 Christmas baskets, each containing a five-pound chicken, half pound of coffee, celery, sugar, bread, potatoes, cabbage, onions, canned goods, fruit and the like were distributed to poor families yesterday morning by Captain and Mrs. Louis Boss, local officers in charge of the Volunteers of America….
More than 200 children were made happy when they received gifts and enjoyed a Christmas tree at the Salvation Army barracks, No. 102 East Fourth Street….
Wilmington Lodge of Elks played “Santa” to 268 needy families yesterday morning. The gifts consisted of hams, meats, vegetables and groceries and were distributed house to house by the Elks themselves. Many suffering families were benefitted by the charity….
Christmas Day coldest in years
Snow, which blanketed Wilmington and surrounding territory, added much to the spirit of Christmas. Kris Kringle brought along a little friend in the person of Mr. J. Frost, and judging from the slipping of the mercury in thermometers, young Mr. Frost frolicked the entire day.
Snow covered the streets in such depths as to permit sleighing in several parts of the city, and the jingle of bells was heard late in the afternoon and early in the evening….
Last night the mercury dropped to 8 degrees. It was the coldest night of the year.
At 8 o’clock this morning the temperature was 9. At noon the reading was 20 degrees. While slightly warmer than yesterday, the day is cold enough to call for real winter clothing.
MORE HOLIDAY CELEBRATIONS:‘A Longwood Christmas’ shimmers with over 500,000 lights, heartwarming scenes, firepits
Dec. 28, 1968, Evening Journal
Spacemen return safely after orbiting moon
The Apollo 8 astronauts continue physical debriefings aboard the USS Yorktown today before flying to the United States and a belated Christmas with their families.
“They’re in great shape,” reported Dr. Clarence A. Jernigan, a space agency physician aboard the carrier.
He said Air Force Col. Frank Borman, Navy Capt. James A. Lovell Jr. and Air Force Maj. William A. Anders seemed to be in better condition than many astronauts who returned from Earth orbital missions…following their pinpoint splashdown in the Pacific Ocean yesterday….
After a late Christmas celebration, the astronauts will begin nine days of intensive debriefings in which experts will question them about all aspects of the flight, from the performance of the Saturn 5 rocket that fired them away from Earth, to their views of the lunar surface and the performance of their spaceship.
But preliminary analysis of what they saw and learned has strengthened America’s desire to land men on the moon next year….
Dec. 29, 1973, The Morning News
GM to halve Boxwood Road workforce
More than 2,000 workers at General Motors’ Boxwood Road assembly plant at Prices Corner will be laid off indefinitely beginning Jan. 7, the company said yesterday.
Union leaders said employees with as much as seven years’ seniority could be affected.
The cutback, which will put half the plant’s production workers out of a job, is part of a series of actions GM said it is taking because of the shift in demand from large cars to smaller models….
CATCH UP ON HISTORY:News Journal archives, week of Nov. 21
Jan. 1, 2000, The News Journal
2000: World rejoices; Y2K bug quiet
It was a celebration unlike any other. All over the world and throughout the state, from hour to frantic expectant hour, the arrival of 2000 swept across the planet.
There were parties everywhere – a frenzy of confetti, music and dancing to the backdrop of laser shows and fireworks – amid fears of terrorism and worldwide cyber chaos.
In Delaware, thousands of revelers took to the streets, taking in the sights and sounds of a society celebrating the arrival of a new era. They celebrated in Rodney Square with a mass wedding for almost 200 couples just before midnight, followed by fireworks, and they rejoiced in downtown Dover and along the beaches in Rehoboth….
In New York City, more than 1 million people braved warnings of terrorism to cheer the flashing, glittering crystal ball that dropped in Times Square to usher the United States into 2000….
The celebrations took place with few signs of the computer failures that for years threatened to wreak havoc with every aspect of daily life….
Reach reporter Ben Mace at rmace@gannett.com.
