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The Roanoke Times

File 1934 This 1930s photo shows the old Franklin Road bridge. It was used from 1879 until the new bridge was built in the mid-1930s.

1999 (10 years ago)

n "Seniors at Patrick Henry High School will have identification cards with photographs in the coming school year as part of a pilot project in Roanoke schools to improve school security."

n "Roanoke was thrust into the national political spotlight Thursday as Republican presidential front-runner George W. Bush stopped by for a visit."

1984 (25 years ago)

n "Leah Brandon has trouble remembering dates, but she won't forget Thursday, Aug. 16. That's when Brandon, a broadcaster with WFIR radio in Roanoke, became the first female Jaycee in Southwest Virginia's largest chapter."

n "Roanoke City is turning an old street into a new fountain. City employees are building a fountain with granite cobblestones that once made up Seventh Street Southeast between Norfolk Avenue and Church Avenue."

n "Former Boston Red Sox baseball star Carl Yastrzemski will compete in the Stroh's K-92 Klassic golf tournament for the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation."

n "A Roanoke native is heading the U. S. Navy force that is helping to clear mines in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Suez. Commodore Alvin S. Newman, a 1952 graduate of Jefferson High School, is commanding the American men, ships and helicopters aiding in the search."

1959 (50 years ago)

n "A blazing sun and hopeful coaches greeted some 340 gridders yesterday as football practice officially opened for high schools in Roanoke County."

n "The football fare at Victory Stadium this year is lighter than usual but what it lacks in quantity it will make up in quality. The Harvest Festival pitting Virginia Tech against William and Mary promises to be the biggest weekend game of the year."

n "The All Star Bowling Lanes is giving the maples a rest while its lanes get a face lifting."

n "Roanoke's school board took only three minutes of a three-hour meeting last night to recommend a local compulsory attendance law."

n "Dozens of Roanokers, like thousands in the East, thought they saw a new star in the heavens Monday morning. But it turned out to be a new research rocket fired from Wallops Island off the Virginia coast."

n "Joan Blondell has been signed to replace Linda Darnell in the Roanoke performance of 'The Dark at the Top of the Stairs' to be sponsored by the Roanoke Broadway Theater League. ... This will be the first national tour for Miss Blondell."

n Roy Acuff played at the Roanoke Fair.

1934 (75 years ago)

n "A flood of menacing proportions that subsided almost as quickly as it rose, swept through several streets in the downtown business district late yesterday afternoon following a rainfall of more than an inch within less than 15 minutes."

n "Cupid's call has proved stronger than the call of a profession to four other women teachers who tendered their resignations to Superintendent of Schools D. E. McQuilkin to get married, bringing the total number of resignations this summer for that reason to eight."

n "Concrete alleys, concrete curb and gutter, graded streets and other things -- that's what the city got out of the Civil Works Administration."

n "Damage in excess of $70,000 was done by a fire which broke out this morning about 5:30 o'clock in a corn mill at Salem, occupied by the Moore Milling company and owned by the City of Roanoke."

n "The Franklin road bridge, Roanoke's newest and one of the widest, was opened yesterday, but only a portion of the roadway, a related project, is open to traffic."

n "Voting to execute notes bearing 4¹₂ per cent interest for the purchase of the A. A. Cannaday farm at a price of $70,000, City Council yesterday apparently swept aside the only remaining obstacle in the way of acquisition of a municipal airport."

n Cab Calloway and his Cotton Club dance orchestra played to more than 2,000 in Roanoke.

n "Almost in the twinkling of an eyelash, Roanoke's telephone service was changed from manual to dial operation at the stroke of midnight last night."

n "Charalambos Simopoulas, Greek ambassador to the United States, was a guest last night at Hotel Patrick Henry. He left early this morning for Hot Springs."

n "Ibrahim Tut Agisheff is going to break a precedent at Roanoke College. ... Never in its history has a Mohammedan student attended the Lutheran-endowed institution, but Ibrahim will in the 1934-35 session."

1909 (100 years ago)

n "Weather for the next thirty-six hours will be of the kind that will induce people to wonder what is coming next."

n "The liberality of the Roanoke Fair Association will again be in evidence at the seventh annual exhibition of the Great Roanoke Fair, September 21-24, when the gates will be thrown open to all the school children of Roanoke, Vinton and Salem"

n "Mr. W. M. Shickel is opening up a general automobile sales and repair business at No. 113 Luck avenue, southwest, under the firm name of Valley Motor Vehicle Company, Ltd."

n "Music lovers again applauded the work of Mack and Mack, the blind specialists, at Mountain Park Casino last night."

n "Beginning with Wednesday (yesterday), August 18, the firm of Watt, Rettew & Clay, so far as Roanoke is concerned, passes out of history. ... In the place of Watt, Rettew & Clay, Roanoke is to have the concern of MacBain & Hyslup (Inc.)."

n "Ground was broken yesterday afternoon for the erection of an addition to Hotel Roanoke."

n "A load of dogs was caught at the city market Thursday. ... The wagon used for this purpose was very comfortably filled with the canines, and all of them were taken to the pound."

n "For many moons the police have been trying to catch John Davis in the act of stealing chickens."

n "All who pass the corner of Campbell avenue and Henry street will, doubtless, notice and admire the great improvement just made by the S. H. Heironimus Co., in the handsome new show windows that have been completed within the present week."