MID-SOUTH MEMORIES
25 years ago — 1995
WASHINGTON – Saying the time was at hand to “bind up our own wounds,” President Clinton Tuesday extended full diplomatic recognition to Vietnam 20 years after the American withdrawal from a war that still scars the national psyche. Clinton, the one-time student protester who avoided serving in a war he “opposed and despised,” announced the normalization of relations in a brief ceremony in the East Room attended by military figures, the families of those still missing in action and members of Congress who were veterans of the war and prisoners of the Vietnamese.
50 years ago — 1970
KNOXVILLE – Four University of Tennessee students have returned from Washington with a report that the Scranton Commission on Campus Unrest may investigate the situation at the University of Tennessee as part of its study. The group, led by John P. Smith of Kingsport, president of the Student Government Association, met with the commission, which was named by President Nixon after the violence at Kent State University to look into the causes of campus unrest. It is headed by William W. Scranton, former governor of Pennsylvania. Among incidents discussed in Washington was the disturbance at a Billy Graham Crusade May 28 in Knoxville.
75 years ago — 1945
A new 20-year franchise for the Memphis Street Railway Co. was agreed upon by the City Commission and the transit firm last night, dispelling the possibility of the city purchasing the company.
100 years ago — 1920
NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. – Charles Stephens, 58, of Bristol, England, gambled with death here today and lost. He died while making a trip over Horseshoe Falls in an oak barrel. Stephens, a barber, leaves a wife and 11 children.
125 years ago — 1895
A popular local steamer, the Lady Lee, struck a snag near Island 40 yesterday and sank, a total loss. The water was only 14 feet deep at the point the Lady went down, and the crew and passengers escaped by climbing onto her roof and waiting for another steamer.