Other Times
100 Years Ago – 1917:
July 4 of 1917 will go down in history as the quietest celebration in recent years, though enjoyed in a fulsome manner as of yore. With a greater tendency toward the safe and sane movement emphasized by wartime regulations, fireworks have made way to other modes of pressing the love of country and exultation in the birth of the greatest republic of the world.
75 Years Ago – 1942:
The West End marked the Fourth of July with a typical community celebration. It has been 45 years since the first affair of its kind in old Thurlow Park but never in the long history of local celebrations has one been marked by more patriotic fervor that the one Saturday.
50 Years Ago – 1967:
Engineering evaluations indicated that Yabucoa, Puerto Rico, may be suitable for the development of a harbor and site for Sun Oil Co.’s proposed crude oil land lubricating oil manufacturing plants. Sunoco plans to invest $125 million on the site if an application to the U.S. Department of the Interior is approved. The application seeks an allocation of 160,000 barrels a day of crude oil. Robert G. Dunlop, Sunoco president, said that the data obtained from a geological survey is greatly encouraging.
25 Years Ago – 1992:
Why did the chicken, er, make that a 6,500-pound elephant, cross the road? To get Charlie Sexton to the other side – of course. The Springfield GOP boss turned everyone’s eyes at the township’s Fourth of July Parade when he mounted the giant but gentle beast, a 13-year-old African elephant named “Daisy.” Decked out in an “authentic” western cowboy hat and boots and carrying the red, white and blue symbol of this nation, Sexton rode the animal bareback for about an hour as the parade criss-crossed through the township’s streets.
10 Years Ago – 2007:
A panhandler who asked for a half a buck to buy water is facing robbery charges for allegedly grabbing $5 out of the hands of his benefactor. The victim, 15, didn’t have 50 cents and told the man she would give him a dollar when he snatched the $5 bill from her hand. The man was apprehended by Upper Darby police inside the Giant Supermarket, located at 300 E. Baltimore Ave., and was arraigned on charges of robbery, theft, receiving stolen property and disorderly conduct, and jailed in lieu of posting $20,000 cash bail.