Other Times
100 Years Ago – 1917: Three additional deaths were added to the long list of munitions workers who perished in the series of explosions at the Eddystone Ammunition plant yesterday. The number of dead has now reached 125; the majority are women and girls. Twenty-one others are still missing and it is believed the final death toll will reach 140. The exact number of dead will probably never be known.
75 Years Ago – 1942: Mrs. Elizabeth Burt, 55, of 711 W. Sixth St., Chester, was treated for shock and exposure at Chester Hospital Saturday night following her rescue from the Chester River by three persons who used a clothesline in the manner of Swiss mountain climbers. Mrs. Burt became confused and slipped down the river bank at Eight street while walking to her home. The rescue was organized after her hysterical cries were heard by Mrs. Thelma Passmore, who was reading in her apartment at 208 W. Eighth St.
50 Years Ago – 1967: Delaware County Republicans, who gave Gov. Raymond P. Shafer his biggest majority in last November’s election, will fight any form of state income tax legislation if it is introduced. “Delaware County’s Republican leadership will any such legislation,” Frank A. Snear Jr., chairman of the Delaware County Republican Board of Supervisors (War Board), said today. 25 Years Ago – 1992: Marple commissioners may have trouble carrying out their plan to adopt a new ordinance banning all outdoor burning, stemming from several complaints last month that children’s breathing illnesses were aggravated by outdoors smoke. Current law allows resident to burn fallen leaves and other debris during 18 days in November. Commissioners say the ban will prove successful because of their excellent job by public works in collecting leaves last autumn. 10 Years Ago – 2007: County council Chairman Andrew J. Reilly, a Middletown resident and former member of the township zoning board, came to a recent township council meeting to assure residents that county council “will keep fighting” the Federal Aviation Administration’s airspace redesign plan “until we get something we can live with.” Reilly said the proposed airspace redesign for Philadelphia International Airport is probably the biggest issue Delaware County, as a whole, has faced in 20 years.