“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. 15, 1929, Wilmington Morning News
Seven in Chicago gang slain, trapped by foes in police guise
Chicago gangsters, posing as policemen, invaded the North Side stronghold of the George “Bugs” Moran gang Feb. 14, lined up seven helpless, unarmed victims with their faces to a white brick wall and mowed them down with automatic pistols and machine guns.
The wholesale execution was carried out at 10:30 a.m. with all the precision of an army squad. It was an innovation in Chicago gang history which brought the total gang victims to more than 135 in the past few years.
Five men drove up to Moran’s headquarters in a garage at 2122 North Clark Street, after putting through a telephone call inquiring whether certain members of the gang were there. They rushed into the garage with drawn pistols and machine guns, informing the seven men they were police officers. Some of them flashed stars and others wore parts of police uniforms….
A woman told a policeman that someone had been hurt in the garage, and the officer entered to verify this prosaic report. Six victims he found lying where they fell, feet to the wall, their faces turned to the incandescent light overhead. A seventh victim, mortally wounded, was found in another room….
SHOOTINGS IN WILMINGTON:Response to violent crime unchanged as Wilmington hits new homicide record
Feb. 16, 1898, The Morning News
Battleship Maine blows up
A special dispatch early this morning from Havana says that the battleship Maine, which is off the coast of Havana, was partly wrecked by an explosion and is now burning.
The explosion occurred about 10 o’clock last night. It is supposed that it was caused by the bursting of the boilers. Meager details have been received at this hour….
More than 100 sailors are reported to have been killed in the terrible accident. Every attempt was made to stop the progress of the flames, but they were almost instantly beyond the control of the crew….
The Maine was recently sent to Havana to guard the American interests. She was one of the most formidable of the battleships of the United States….
Feb. 17, 1898, The Morning News
Maine had been threatened
Dr. C.E. Pendletown arrived in New York on the steamship Wampassas from Key West Feb. 16. He says that while in Havana he heard many threats of violence to the Maine.
Finally a Spaniard heatedly told him: “We have enough submarine mines under and around the Maine to blow the Maine to hell whenever we please.”
The doctor is conservative. He attached no importance to the threat until he learned of the catastrophe on his arrival….
The witnesses of the explosion that destroyed the Maine say at the moment of concussion a vast mass was seen to rise to a great height. In the sudden and blinding light that followed, no one seems to have been able to discern the nature of this mass or whether it rose from beside the battleship or inside of it….
The following, received from Havana at 4 a.m. this morning: The cause of the disaster remains a mystery. The exact number killed is 251. There were 354 on board….
Feb. 17, 1923, The Evening Journal
Treasures found in Tutankhamen’s tomb
In the Valley of the Kings, where 3,500 years ago the royal funeral cortege of Pharaoh Tutankhamen marched in solemn state, the men of a new civilization today made preparations for fetching the ancient monarch out of the tomb where he has slumbered for 35 centuries.
The aperture knocked through the sealed door to the inner Mausoleum has been closed up until all is in readiness for the official ceremonial opening on Sunday.
When Howard Carter and the other excavators entered the inner tomb yesterday, they found an undreamed-of wealth of Egyptian furniture, idols and other articles of incalculable historical value….
The sides of the sarcophagus, apparently made of wood, came within two feet of the walls of the cell. Its surface was exquisitely carved and gilded….
In addition to the sarcophagus, the tomb contained a lifelike statue of a cat, regarded as sacred in ancient Egypt; a canopic vase, funeral vases and urns, small caskets thought to hold little images of servants who were to do Tutankhamen’s work in the next world, and many other objects placed there to be of assistance to him in his journey into eternity….
CATCH UP ON HISTORY:From The News Journal archives, week of Jan. 9
Feb. 19, 2001, The News Journal
Tragedy at Daytona: Earnhardt killed in last-lap crash
Dale Earnhardt Sr., one of the greatest stars in auto racing history, died Sunday of injuries from a last-lap crash at the Daytona 500.
The seven-time Winston Cup champion known as “The Intimidator” for his aggressive driving had to be cut out of his car after slamming into the wall while fighting for position on the final turn of the race….
“This is undoubtedly one of the toughest announcements I have ever personally had to make. We’ve lost Dale Earnhardt,” NASCAR president Mike Helton said.
Earnhardt, 49, died instantly of head injuries, said Steve Bohannon, a doctor at Halifax Medical Center….
Reach reporter Ben Mace at rmace@gannett.com.
