On this date in ...

Unprepared thieves broke into the office of the C.M. Stuart Coal Company branch on Central Avenue overnight, attempting to rob the small safe contained there. Unable to accomplish this task, they entered the office of Freeman S. Arnold in the same building and stole an ice pick and a revolver. When the pick also proved unhelpful, they took a wheelbarrow from Arnold’s feed storage and carried the safe out to the coal yard, where they somehow managed to smash open the bottom of it. According to representatives from the coal company, the culprits only found between $10 and $12 inside.

1969: Albany would be the destination of two runs of an experimental high-speed turbo train on April 20 and 21, the first from Buffalo to Albany and the second from Grand Central Station in New York City to Albany. The train was expected to travel only about 70 miles an hour although it had the capacity to do 170 miles an hour. The reason for the lower speed was that present crossing signals were not timed for that type of high speed and the only way to achieve the maximum speed was to have a guard at each crossing. Union members affiliated with the railroad industry had donated their services for the test run.

1994: The General Electric Co. dropped another bombshell when it announced plans to cut up to 600 blue-collar jobs in Schenectady and move some manufacturing operations out of the city. GE announced in February the elimination of 1,000 management and contract jobs at its Schenectady plant. But for the first time in seven years, GE was cutting back on its production workforce. Some of the products GE intended to stop making in Schenectady may be produced at existing steam turbine operations in Bangor, Maine, and Fitchburg, Mass. GE also intended to transfer its gas turbine parts warehouse from Rotterdam to Greenville, S.C.

Want to read more about the Capital Region’s past? Have any memories or thoughts about how our history relates to today’s events? See http:// blog. timesunion.com/history/.