10 years ago

From the Journal Tribune: “One only needs to glance at the weekly police log to know that illegal use of alcohol is a serious problem among teens… A recent Statewide survey conducted by the Maine Office of Substance Abuse reported that 65 percent of children in grades eight through 12 have admitted to trying alcohol, while 38 percent of teens confirmed that they had consumed alcohol within one month of the survey. ”

50 years ago

From the Biddeford-Saco Journal: “Saco police are checking property on Seaside Avenue for clues leading to the apprehension of a person or persons who broke into the home of Harold Lawrence. Lawrence reported the break in yesterday and told police it must have occurred the day before when he was out of town.”

100 years ago

From the Biddeford Daily Journal: “The special town meeting held at Sanford, Saturday, on petition of opponents to the proposed new high school building, authorized at the annual town meeting, unexpectedly fizzled, when Moderator George A. Goodwin ruled that the article was out of order.”

— Christopher Murphy

Today in History

Today is Saturday, April 16, the 107th day of 2016. There are 259 days left in the year.

On this date

In 1879, Bernadette Soubirous, who’d described seeing visions of the Virgin Mary at Lourdes, died in Nevers, France.

In 1912, American aviator Harriet Quimby became the first woman to fly across the English Channel, leaving Dover, England, and arriving near Calais, France, in 59 minutes.

In 1935, the radio comedy program “Fibber McGee and Molly” premiered on NBC’s Blue Network.

In 1940, Major League Baseball’s first (and, to date, only) opening day no-hitter took place as Bob Feller of the Cleveland Indians pitched a no-hitter against the Chicago White Sox, 1-0, at Comiskey Park.

In 1945, during World War II, a Soviet submarine in the Baltic Sea torpedoed and sank the MV Goya, which Germany was using to transport civilian refugees and wounded soldiers; it’s estimated that up to 7,000 people died.

In 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. wrote his “Letter from Birmingham Jail” in which he said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

In 1972, Apollo 16 blasted off on a voyage to the moon with astronauts John W. Young, Charles M. Duke Jr. and Ken Mattingly on board.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On April 16, 1789, President-elect George Washington left Mount Vernon, Virginia, for his inauguration in New York.

Ten years ago

In his first Easter message as pontiff, Pope Benedict XVI urged nations to use diplomacy to defuse nuclear crises and prayed that Palestinians would one day have their own state alongside Israel.

Five years ago

A Taliban sleeper agent walked into a meeting of NATO trainers and Afghan troops at Forward Operating Base Gamberi in the eastern Afghan province of Laghman and detonated a vest of explosives hidden underneath his uniform; six American troops, four Afghan soldiers and an interpreter were killed. President Raul Castro drew a line in the Caribbean sand across which Cuba’s economic reforms must never go, telling a Communist party summit that he had rejected dozens of suggested changes that would have allowed the concentration of property in private hands.

One year ago

U.N. Security Council members were moved to tears as a Syrian doctor, Mohamed Tennari, an eyewitness to suspected chlorine attacks on civilians in Syria, gave a graphic eyewitness account of dying children during a closed-door briefing.

— By The Associated Press

Quote of the day:

“We think too much and feel too little.”

— Charles Chaplin,
English actor-comedian-director (born this date in
1889, died in 1977)

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