On this date in ...

1918: Olivia Slocum Sage — widow of financier, railroad executive and politician Russell Sage, who settled in Troy as a young man and lived there for more than 25 years before relocating to New York City and making his fortune — died in her Fifth Avenue home in Manhattan at the age of 90. She inherited her husband’s $70 million estate (nearly $2 billion in today’s dollars) 12 years previously when he died, also at the age of 90. Mrs. Sage used the money to found Russell Sage College in 1916, and gave extensively to the Emma Willard School and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, all three in Troy.

1968: Thomas J. Mcgrath, Democratic candidate for assemblyman in the 101st District, Rensselaer County, outlined and defended his plan for Troy to sell its water facilities to the county and thereby lessen its debt. It specified Rensselaer County buy Troy’s water facilities at a price determined by a firm of professional water consultants. A water agency would be set up by the county and administered by a professional water expert. Mcgrath said the purchase would be amortized over an extended period at no cost to county taxpayers. Communities that would buy water from Troy would remit payments to the county water agency. “With the liquidation of Troy’s indebtedness, the city would save millions of dollars on interest payments,” he said.

1993: Senior White House officials said that Clifton R. Wharton Jr., the deputy secretary of state, was expected to resign within six months amid criticism over his management. The officials said Wharton, the former chancellor of the State University of New York system, would leave amid White House and State Department dissatisfaction over his day-to-day handling of the nation’s diplomacy. The officials stressed that Wharton was not being fired, nor was there any timetable for his departure. White House officials traditionally leaked such stories to signal displeasure with top administration appointees in hopes that they would step down. Wharton declined to comment.