Monday, July 20, 2009
Looking back: July 20
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The Roanoke Times
File 1981 Gary's Little Chef Restaurant on Roanoke's Williamson Road opened in 1957. After briefly closing it reopened and is still in business.
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More history stories
- Looking back: Nov. 23
- Looking back: Nov. 16
- Looking Back
- Looking back: Nov. 2, 2009
- Looking Back: Oct. 26, 2009
Archive
1999 (10 years ago)
"Lots of Furbies are coming to town. Lots of Barbies, too, and Star Wars action figures galore. Enough to fill a warehouse. A company is going to hire 200 people to box them up and mail them to people who place orders over the Internet. It's all part of a major new contract for a Hanover Direct Inc. distribution center in Roanoke County."
"Roanoke's next city manager will be picked from a group of 138 applicants, the chairman of a City Council search subcommittee said Friday."
"You can get to the Baseball Hall of Fame from a lot of places. Like the Veterans Administration Hospital ballfield in Salem. Just off Shenandoah Avenue, that's where Orlando Cepeda began his trip to Cooperstown."
1984 (25 years ago)
"Two of Roanoke's oldest and largest law firms -- Woods, Rogers, Muse, Walker & Thornton and Hazelgrove, Dickinson, Rea, Smeltzer & Brown -- will merge next year, forming a group that may dominate the region's legal landscape."
n "Happiness was the key word at the Franklin County Speedway Saturday night. The overflow crowd was happy to see Grand National stars Bobby Allison and Darrell Waltrip. ... But perhaps the happiest person of all was promoter Donald 'Whitey' Taylor."
"Roanoke City Council voted Monday to appropriate $85,000 to help pay for a study of a proposed new zoo in the Roanoke Valley."
1959 (50 years ago)
"A 68-year-old Roanoke woman felt her uninvited dinner guest wasn't showing much gratitude for her chicken and dumplings when he asked for money and started choking her. So she shot him."
"Kenneth Hyde, associate manager of Hotel Roanoke, is a happy man today. He has just booked one regional and two national conventions at the hotel."
"Ortho-Vent Shoe Co. of Salem announced today it has affiliated with a Canadian firm to market its shoes in Canada."
"Norfolk and Western Locomotive 2156, representative of the railway's heaviest and most powerful steamers, was presented today to the National Museum of Transport at St. Louis."
"Children were swimming in a street turned into a river as a flash flood struck a section of Southeast Roanoke about noon today."
1934 (75 years ago)
"Six baseballs, each bearing the personal signature of 23 members of the Yankee club, will be given as attendance prizes at Saturday's games in the Norfolk and Western League."
"Piles of compost, that is, leaves which are allowed to rot for fertilizing gardens and lawns, are not considered a health hazard unless mixed with stable manure, the city health department ruled today."
"Cupid is keeping busy here despite the obstacles placed in his path by the weather man."
"George Gershwin, composer of 'Rhapsody in Blue,' was on his way back to New York today after a month spent in South Carolina. ... The composer and radio artist ... spent last night at Hotel Patrick Henry here."
"Kiddies in quite a few sections of Roanoke will have free and cooling shower baths tomorrow as the fire department opens it second annual 'sprinkling.' "
"The first move to organize a Red Cross motor corps in Salem will be the instruction of first aid classes beginning today."
"The mercury started another of its jaunts to the upper regions today, reaching 100 degrees at 2 o'clock."
1909 (100 years ago)
"The first free moving picture show of the week at Mountain Park was given last night in the pretty Casino at which time a number of flawless films were put through the big machine by the picture expert."
"From a barometrical standpoint, yesterday, Tuesday, July 20th, was a perfect day, the first that has been experienced in this region since some time in March."
"Saturday night is going to be a red letter night on Roanoke's calendar. Persons who travel to the park Saturday night will witness a grand display of fireworks -- provided the weather man is kind and no rain falls to spoil the show."
"The Cove Alum church sent a wagon load of good things to the Salem Baptist Orphanage a few days ago."
"Yesterday's game between Danville and Roanoke was a brilliant exhibition and it was won in the tenth inning by the visitors [Danville] by the score of two to nothing. Never in the history of baseball in this city have the fans been subjected to a more grueling process."
"Just like Roanoke has succeeded in other efforts to get itself on the map of prominence in the business, industrial and social world, so has it operated to have its name in black letters on the map announcing the highway between New York city and Atlanta, Ga."
"A letter received here states that patients are now being received at the Catawba Sanatorium at the Roanoke Red Sulphur Springs."
