Looking backward

10 years ago

April 10, 2013: The Massena Rotary Club is looking for a home for a student from Germany who will arrive in September as part of the Rotary Youth Exchange program. While Massena has had more than one inbound student in the past, it’s just one student this year.

25 years ago

April 10, 1998: Philadelphia: An Indian River Central School survey reveals that parents would be receptive to a district prekindergarten program, even though the program is still in question. Of more than 600 respondents all of whom had prekindergarten age children, 560 favored such a program at their local primary schools, said Roger D. Szurek, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction.

50 years ago

April 10, 1973: The Lewis County Historical Society and Lowville Academy and Central School are co-sponsoring a traveling art exhibit now on display in the Gallery Halls of the Lewis County Museum. The exhibit focuses on poster art as a separate art form and will be on display this month only.

75 years ago

April 10, 1948: The first annual banquet of the Fish and Game Club of Lisbon was held Wednesday evening in the community room of the Hepburn Library. Earl Jones acted as toastmaster. About 150 members and their wives and guests were present. The banquet was served by the Boy Scouts.

100 years ago

April 10, 1923: Potsdam: A large boulder, which was taken from the bed of the Racquette River in preparing to build the new bridge here, nearly blocked the traffic in Water Street at the bridge approach for about an hour yesterday afternoon. The rock was hoisted from the river bed with he derrick and was placed on a stone boat. All went well until the team reached the temporary bridge, preparatory to dragging the boulder across the river.

125 years ago

April 10, 1898: Watertown: The celebration of Easter will be more general than ever among the local religious societies tomorrow, and doubtless the anxiety of the impending war will deepen the public interest and develop sober thinking which is not less in keeping with the occasion because of its joyous nature.

150 years ago

April 10, 1873: Black River is now reported higher than it has been since the great flood of 1869, but is still from 6 to 8 feet below that record. The “Falls” are attracting many admiring visitors, all of whom refer to the rainbow exhibition this afternoon as “well gotten up.”

The world

1912 – RMS Titanic sets sail from Southampton, England on her maiden and only voyage.

1916 – The Professional Golfers’ Association of America (PGA) is created in New York City.

1919 – Mexican Revolution leader Emiliano Zapata is ambushed and shot dead by government forces in Morelos.

1919 – The Third Regional Congress of Peasants, Workers and Insurgents is held by the Makhnovshchina at Huliaipole.

1925 – The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is first published in New York City, by Charles Scribner’s Sons.

1938 – The 1938 German parliamentary election and referendum seeks approval for a single list of Nazi candidates and the recent annexation of Austria.

1939 – Alcoholics Anonymous, A.A.’s “Big Book”, is first published.

1941 – World War II: The Axis powers establish the Independent State of Croatia.

1944 – Rudolf Vrba and Alfréd Wetzler escape from Birkenau death camp.

1963 – One hundred twenty-nine American sailors die when the submarine USS Thresher sinks at sea.

1968 – The TEV Wahine, a New Zealand ferry sinks in Wellington harbour due to a fierce storm – the strongest winds ever in Wellington. Out of the 734 people on board, fifty-three died.

1970 – Paul McCartney announces that he is leaving The Beatles for personal and professional reasons.

1971 – Ping-pong diplomacy: In an attempt to thaw relations with the United States, China hosts the U.S. table tennis team for a week-long visit.

1972 – Tombs containing bamboo slips, among them Sun Tzu’s Art of War and Sun Bin’s lost military treatise, are accidentally discovered by construction workers in Shandong.

1972 – Vietnam War: For the first time since November 1967, American B-52 bombers reportedly begin bombing North Vietnam.

1973 – Invicta International Airlines Flight 435 crashes in a snowstorm on approach to Basel, Switzerland, killing 108 people.

1979 – Red River Valley tornado outbreak: A tornado lands in Wichita Falls, Texas killing 42 people.

1988 – The Ojhri Camp explosion kills or injures more than 1,000 people in Rawalpindi and Islamabad, Pakistan.

1991 – Italian ferry MS Moby Prince collides with an oil tanker in dense fog off Livorno, Italy, killing 140.

1991 – A rare tropical storm develops in the South Atlantic Ocean near Angola; the first to be documented by satellites.

1998 – The Good Friday Agreement is signed in Northern Ireland.

2009 – President of Fiji Ratu Josefa Iloilo announces the abrogation of the constitution and assumes all governance in the country, creating a constitutional crisis.

2010 – Polish Air Force Tu-154M crashes near Smolensk, Russia, killing 96 people, including Polish President Lech Kaczyński, his wife, and dozens of other senior officials and dignitaries.

2016 – The Paravur temple accident in which a devastating fire caused by the explosion of firecrackers stored for Vishu, kills more than one hundred people out of the thousands gathered for seventh day of Bhadrakali worship.

2016 – An earthquake of 6.6 magnitude strikes 39 km west-southwest of Ashkasham, shakes up India, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Srinagar and Pakistan.

2019 – Scientists from the Event Horizon Telescope project announce the first ever image of a black hole, which was located in the centre of the M87 galaxy.