Glancing Backward, 10/30/09

Published: October 30, 2009

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Today is Friday, Oct. 30, the 303rd day of 2009. There are 62 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

On Oct. 30, 1938, the radio play "The War of the Worlds," starring Orson Welles, aired on CBS. (The live drama, which employed fake breaking news reports, panicked some listeners who thought the portrayal of a Martian invasion was real.)

25 years ago - 1984

Several Burlington community kids and their parents took part in the Burlington Halloween Parade.

Vocalist Denise Cox of Towanda won first runner-up in a statewide competition for musicians that had a grand prize of an appearance on Nashville's TV show "You Can be a Star."

The Towanda girls' cross country team had a perfect season (23-0), giving them first place honors in the NTL.

50 years ago - 1959

Jack Powers, son of Wysox resident Edward Powers and secondary education student at Mansfield State Teachers College, was elected treasurer of Phi Sigma Pi, a national education fraternity.

Brownie Troop 14 of Athens made Halloween favors for the pediatric department of Robert Packer Hospital.

A twirler for the Mansfield State Teachers College band this year is Mary Bourne, daughter of Ulster residents Mr. and Mrs. George L. Bourne.

75 years ago - 1934

Miss Bernice Wilcox of Towanda is opening "The Bernice Beauty Shop" in the former office of Dr. C. Manville Pratt.

Today in Towanda there will be a democratic rally, at which Thomas A Logue, Secretary of Internal Affairs nominee, Charles J. Margiotti and Dr. Howard Reynolds will attend.

Gertrude A. Smiley received a graduate scholarship in English literature from Dr. Ralph Hetzel, president of State College. Smiley had graduated from Penn State in 1928 and is currently taking a course there for her Masters Degree.

Elsewhere on this date:

In 1735, the second president of the United States, John Adams, was born in Braintree, Mass.

In 1893, the U.S. Senate gave final congressional approval to repealing the Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890.

In 1944, the Martha Graham ballet "Appalachian Spring," with music by Aaron Copland, premiered at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., with Graham in a leading role.

In 1945, the U.S. government announced the end of shoe rationing, effective at midnight.

In 1961, the Soviet Union tested a hydrogen bomb, the "Tsar Bomba," with a force estimated at about 50 megatons. The Soviet Party Congress unanimously approved a resolution ordering the removal of Josef Stalin's body from Lenin's tomb.

Ten years ago: Fifty-four people were killed in a fire inside a four-story building crowded with weekend shoppers and diners in Incheon, South Korea.

Five years ago: The decapitated body of Japanese backpacker Shosei Koda was found wrapped in an American flag in northwestern Baghdad; the militant group led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi later claimed responsibility.

One year ago: A federal jury in Miami convicted the son of former Liberian President Charles Taylor in the first case brought under a 1994 U.S. law allowing prosecution for torture and atrocities committed overseas. (Charles McArthur Emmanuel was later sentenced to 97 years in prison.)

Today's Birthdays: Actor Dick Gautier is 72. Movie director Claude Lelouch is 72. Rock singer Grace Slick is 70. Songwriter Eddie Holland is 70. Actor Ed Lauter is 69. R&B singer Otis Williams (The Temptations) is 68.

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