On this date in ...

1919: Albany faced the possibility of losing the distributing plant of the Standard Oil Company located on Van Rensselaer Island because of the failure to deepen the channel of the Hudson River north of Hudson to allow greater navigability. The company acquired title to an 850-foot dock frontage at the Catskill Creek at Catskill, expected to be the new home of the plant.

1969: Fraud was becoming so much a part of American life that federal legislation was in the works to establish a Cabinet-level Secretary of Consumer Affairs post, said Glen Armitage, assistant state attorney general addressing the American Hellenic Educational Progressive Association in Albany. Hearings had been scheduled “to sound out support” for the move. If passed, the bill would create a national Department of Consumer Affairs.

1994: While his agriculture commissioner said that he thought the idea was impractical, Gov. Mario M. Cuomo said milk containing a controversial synthetic growth hormone should be labeled. Beginning this month, farmers were allowed to sell milk from cows injected with a bovine growth hormone called somatotropin, or BST. The drug made cows produce more milk. Although declared safe by the federal Food and Drug Administration, critics feared the hormone was unhealthy.

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