“Pages of history” features excerpts from The News Journal archives including the Wilmington Morning News and the Evening Journal. See the archives at delawareonline.com.
Jan. 12, 1935, Journal – Every Evening
Amelia Earhart flies over California after Pacific hop
The Mackay Radio reported today that Amelia Earhart was flying over Santa Cruz, Calif., at 10:49 a.m. on her flight from Hawaii to Oakland which she started at 10:15 last night.
Rapidly nearing her goal, Earhart, the first woman to attempt a trans-Pacific solo flight, sped toward the Oakland Airport today. The man who plotted her dangerous 2,408 mile course estimated she would arrive about 11:18 a.m. from Honolulu. …
Front page of the Journal – Every Evening from Jan. 12, 1935.
“Everything OK,” came a cheerful message from the red and gold monoplane, piloted by the same intrepid flier who twice crossed the Atlantic, once in a daring solo flight. …
Crowds have begun gathering at the airport and extra attendants are on duty to keep the spectators back from the landing field. …
More recent Delaware flying news: Finishing company to take over Wilmington Airport hangar, help fund improvements
Jan. 13, 1964, Wilmington Morning News
Battle drawn in smoking report wake
Do-something-now forces and the more-research-is-needed camp were drawing battle lines yesterday in the wake of Saturday’s report calling heavy cigarette smoking a grave menace to life and health.
Which side will prevail – and how decisively – almost certainly depends on still-uncrystallized public reaction to a blue-ribbon science panel’s call for “appropriate remedial action.”
Front page of the Wilmington Morning News from Jan. 13, 1964.
The 10-man jury held heavy cigarette smoking is the principal cause of lung cancer and a significant cause of larynx cancer. It found some association between smoking and heart and blood vessel diseases and many other ailments but did not claim any causal relationships there. …
No one called for any general prohibition against smoking, but many antismoking spokesmen said the government, by law or by executive edict, should require that cigarette packages carry warnings of health dangers and that advertising should be altered in the light of the panel’s report.
Jan. 16, 1967, The Morning News
Bart Starr picked holes in Kansas City’s pass defense and led the National Football League champions to a 35-10 victory over the American League’s best Sunday in the first Super Bowl.
Starr, a master of the third down play, followed directions by working on the Chiefs’ secondary with the 34-year-old Max McGee his favorite target.
Page 18 of The Morning News from Jan. 16, 1967.
In the meantime, the battle-tested NFL champs applied tremendous pressure on Len Dawson, the Kansas City passer, for a victory that meant $15,000 for each Green Bay player. …
Coach Vince Lombardi of the Packers, disappointed because his team led only 14-10 at the half, told them to “start tackling and stop grabbing.” They responded by smearing Dawson time after time.
“In my opinion, the Chiefs don’t rate with the top teams in the NFL,” said Lombardi. “They’re a good football team with fine speed, but I’d have to say NFL football is tougher. Dallas is a better team.”
The crowd of 63,036 was far short of a sellout in the 93,000-seat Los Angeles Coliseum.
Jan. 17, 1919, Wilmington Morning News
Nebraska makes all America dry; prohibition ratified
Ratification yesterday of the federal Constitutional prohibition amendment made the United States the first great power to take legislative action to permanently stop the liquor traffic.
Nebraska’s vote gave the necessary affirmative three-fourths majority to make effective the amendment submitted by Congress in December 1917. It was followed by similar action in the Legislatures of Missouri and Wyoming, making 38 states that have approved a “dry” America….
Front page of the Wilmington Morning News from Jan. 17, 1919.
Under the terms of the amendment, the manufacture, sale and importation of intoxicating liquors must cease one year after ratification, but prohibition will be a fact in every state much earlier because of the war measure forbidding the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages after June 30 until the demobilization of the military forces is completed.
Under the wartime measure, exportation of liquor is permitted, but the great stocks now held in bonded warehouses will have to be disposed of before the federal amendment becomes effective….
New problems of government are raised … as hundreds of millions of dollars derived from taxes on liquor will have to be obtained from other sources. Laws for enforcement of the amendment will have to be passed by Congress.
Catch up on history: Hurricane Katrina, MLK leads D.C. civil rights march: News Journal archives, Aug. 25-31
Jan. 18, 1999, The News Journal
Thomas J. Capano convicted in murder of Anne Marie Fahey
A Delaware Superior Court jury Sunday morning declared Thomas J. Capano guilty of murdering his former mistress, Anne Marie Fahey.
Seconds after the jury foreman intoned, “Guilty as charged,” those in the quiet courtroom could hear a muffled cheer. Word of the verdict had reached the crowd of reporters, supporters and the curious gathered outside the courthouse on Wilmington’s Rodney Square.
Inside, Capano’s mother and daughters wept. Fahey’s brothers and sisters did the same. Capano showed no emotion before guards escorted him from the building and back to his cell at Gander Hill prison, where he will await the start of the trial’s penalty phase Wednesday.
But the jury’s verdict – announced to Judge William Swain Lee at 10:01 a.m. after three days of deliberations – broke the tension and mystery that have gripped Delaware since Fahey disappeared June 27, 1996. …
Capano, 49, a wealthy and once-powerful Wilmington attorney, will now be sentenced for the murder of Fahey, the 30-year-old scheduling secretary for Gov. Tom Carper.
Reach reporter Ben Mace at rmace@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: News Journal archives Jan. 12-18: Earhart’s ocean flight, Prohibition