MID-SOUTH MEMORIES
25 years ago — 1993
WASHINGTON — For a party that seemed in sorry shape last November, the world is looking much brighter for Republicans. They have won the two major elections so far of 1993 – a Texas Senate seat and the mayoralty of heavily Democratic Los Angeles. Of the three remaining major contests of the year, they will be favored in New Jersey’s governor race, an even-money bet in New York City’s mayoral election and facing an uphill fight for Virginia governor. A factor in the GOP success, both Democrats and Republicans agree, is President Clinton, whose job approval rating has fallen faster than for any president since polling began.
50 years ago — 1968
London’s Cannon Row police station held James Earl Ray last night, his 65-day flight ended by international police teamwork that Royal Canadian Mounted Police called “colossal” in its attention to thousands of details. Ray is the accused assassin of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Memphis April 4. Acting on information supplied by the FBI, two veterans of Scotland Yard’s “great train robbery” investigation took Ray into custody yesterday at London’s Heathrow Airport about 15 minutes after his plane arrived from Lisbon, Portugal. He wore hornrimmed glasses. In his hip pocket he carried a loaded pistol.
75 years ago — 1943
Joseph Grew, who was United States ambassador to Japan at the time of the Pearl Harbor attack, spoke last night at Ellis Auditorium. He said Japan was propelled into the war by a small group which seized power. These “military gangsters” do not represent the real Japanese ruling class, nor the will of the Japanese people, he said.
100 years ago — 1918
VICKSBURG, Miss. — Declaring that he was a German sympathizer, a man traveling through Mississippi by train so enraged his fellow passengers that they had him arrested when the train reached Delhi, La. Late last night a crowd of the town’s citizens seized him from the jail and tarred and feathered him.
125 years ago — 1893
NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — As the Lizzie Borden murder trial went into its fifth day, sensational evidence was introduced by the prosecution, attempting to prove that she murdered her parents with an ax. A surprise witness took the stand and testified that Lizzie burned one of her dresses the day after the murder saying “it was covered with paint.”