10 years ago

From the Journal Tribune: “The fire departments of Biddeford and Saco have long relied on one another for mutual aid. They help one another on tough calls, and double the manpower of the small forces. These days, as the technology that firefighters work with grows more and more complex (and, thus, more and more expensive), the two departments are beginning to work together in other ways. When purchasing new, technologically advanced equipment, they can share.”

50 years ago

From the Biddeford-Saco Journal: “As part of a tree planting program of the Old Orchard Beach Women’s Civic Group a red maple tree similar to the one planted last year in the Jameson School yard was planted Friday morning at the school, under the direction of Robert Moody of Moody’s Nursery in Saco.”

100 years ago

From the Biddeford Daily Journal: “Ralph Brackett, who a number of months ago, got caught in the belt of the machine he was working on in the Saco-Lowell machine shop and was pulled out over the shafting and suffered three fractures of the right arm and otherwise injured, was in the Pepperell Mills Wednesday and fell on the floor and the right arm was fractured again!”

— Christopher Murphy and Krysteana Scribner

Today in History

Today is Friday, April 29, the 120th day of 2016. There are 246 days left in the year.

On this date: In 1913, Swedish-born engineer Gideon Sundback of Hoboken, New Jersey, received a U.S. patent for a “separable fastener” – later known as the zipper. In 1916, the Easter Rising in Dublin collapsed as Irish nationalists surrendered to British authorities. In 1957, the SM-1, the first military nuclear power plant, was dedicated at Fort Belvoir, Virginia. In 1968, the counterculture musical “Hair” opened on Broadway following limited engagements off-Broadway. In 1974, President Richard M. Nixon announced he was releasing edited transcripts of some secretly made White House tape recordings related to Watergate. In 1992, rioting resulting in 55 deaths erupted in Los Angeles after a jury in Simi Valley, California, acquitted four Los Angeles police officers of almost all state charges in the videotaped beating of Rodney King.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On April 29, 1991, a cyclone began striking the South Asian country of Bangladesh; it ended up killing more than 138,000 people, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Ten years ago Tens of thousands of protesters marched through lower Manhattan to demand an immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. Liberal economist John Kenneth Galbraith died in Cambridge, Massachusetts, at age 97.

Five years ago Britain’s Prince William and Kate Middleton were married in an opulent ceremony at London’s Westminster Abbey amid pomp, circumstance – and elaborate hats. President Barack Obama visited Tuscaloosa, Alabama, one of the sites of deadly tornadoes two days earlier, saying he had “never seen devastation like this.”

One year ago Prime Minister Shinzo Abe offered condolences for Americans killed in World War II in the first address by a Japanese leader to a joint meeting of Congress, but stopped short of apologizing for wartime atrocities. In what was believed to be the first major league game played without fans in attendance, Chris Davis hit a three-run homer in a six-run first inning, and the Baltimore Orioles beat the Chicago White Sox 8-2. (The gates at Camden Yards were locked because of concern for fan safety following recent rioting in Baltimore.) Calvin Peete, 71, who became the most successful black player on the PGA Tour before the arrival of Tiger Woods, died in Atlanta.

— By The Associated Press