MID-SOUTH MEMORIES
25 years ago — 1993
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — A nonmilitary conflict awaits Gen. Colin Powell on Thursday, with Harvard University the battlefield and pink balloons the weapons. The selection of Powell, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as guest speaker and honorary degree recipient at the university’s commencement has set off a debate because of his opposition to gays openly serving in the military.
50 years ago — 1968
BOSTON — Senator Robert F. Kennedy was legally and medically dead at 6:30 p.m. (Los Angeles time) Wednesday, seven hours before he was officially declared to have died, a prominent neurosurgeon has said. Dr. James L. Poppen of New England Deaconess Hospital, said he saw Kennedy about 10 a.m. Wednesday and knew “immediately” he would not survive. Poppen added at a news conference that if medical science had been able to save the senator’s life he would have led a “grave and devastating existence.”
75 years ago — 1943
LONDON — Axis leaders were nervously speculating yesterday that Spain will be the invasion route the Allies will use in their upcoming invasion of Europe. The actual time and place of the offensive remain a carefully guarded secret. In their apparent agitation over the invasion, the Germans have done nothing to assist Italy, which has been reeling under Allied air attacks.
100 years ago — 1918
NEW YORK — A large merchant steamship, the Cole, was sunk off the coast of New Jersey yesterday by a German submarine. The schooner’s crewmen were allowed to abandon ship first, however, and they were picked up hours later by another American ship. They said the German captain came aboard and planted two bombs, fore and aft, timed to go off in seven minutes. He then returned to his submarine, which they said was at least 250 feet long – the largest they had ever seen.
125 years ago — 1893
The street car company which now occupies the site for the new Auditorium is busy moving. The Auditorium company has issued $15,000 worth of capital stock, of which only $5,000 has not been bought. John R. Pepper, executive committee chairman, says The Auditorium will be ready by fall.