On this date in ...

“Shorty” Mcallister, a native of Scotland and a performer in “Step Lively Girls” at the Empire Theatre in Albany, received a telegram just before stepping on stage saying that his older brother Jamie had been badly injured in battle at the European front and was now in the hospital there. Mcallister had two brothers and seven nephews serving in the British army and navy, with two also having been previously injured, one sent home after being gassed and another permanently disabled and discharged. The theater group’s manager called for the understudy, but “Shorty” insisted on going on himself.

1968: Scenes of a new film, “Dear Martha,” about the sordid murder of an Albany woman in 1949, were being shot at locations in downtown Albany. The film was about a handsome Manhattan gigolo born in Spain and Martha Benk, a 200-pound nurse from Alabama, who fell in love and murdered 66-year-old Janet Fay for her $10,000 savings. To create an Albany winter scene, a holly wreath had been hung on the door of the State Bank of Albany, buckets of ice scattered on the steps and pavements and locals requisitioned as extras had been asked to wear heavy overcoats.

1993: Empire Blue Cross and Blue Shield won’t get rate increases of up to 59 percent for nearly a million policyholders, state Insurance Superintendent Salvatore Curiale said. The increases were to take effect in January. Curiale’s decision affected 952,471 Empire customers statewide — including 95,247 in upstate New York — who were scheduled for increases of up to 59 percent for individuals on direct payment and up to 34 percent for Medicare supplement policyholders. The state’s top insurance regulator said he made his decision not to approve any rate hikes for next year after reviewing Empire’s financial report, filed with the Insurance Department last week.