www.roanoke.com

2000 (10 years ago)

-- "Carilion Health System recently made Modern Healthcare magazine's list of the country's top 100 integrated health care networks."

-- Roanoke's first mayoral race of the new century will be one of the most compelling in decades. With former Councilman Mac McCadden's entry into the race Wednesday, there are four candidates, the most for Roanoke's top political office since a five-person field in 1976."

-- "Roanoke worked its way through the curse of the tie-dyed jerseys, even turning bad luck into good. The Express, down 3-1 after two periods, scored three goals in the third period Saturday to beat the curse and the Trenton Titans."

1985 (25 years ago)

-- "Friday night at the Salem Civic Center, the Super National 4x4 Mud Bog Championship offered everything a little boy could want: trucks, mud, noise, and a man in a gorilla suit."

- "Three employees were killed and three more were injured Monday morning in a fire that gutted a building at the Singer Furniture factory in Northeast Roanoke."

-- "Roanoke City Council will get involved in the effort to save the old Jefferson High School building, which has been vacant for almost a decade."

1960 (50 years ago)

-- "Virginia's worst general winter storm in 20 years has left the southwestern portion of the state, the hardest hit, with a monumental digging task. Fifteen inches, the largest total on record for a single snow, fell in Roanoke over the weekend."

-- "One man clearing the sidewalk in front of a store on Salem avenue was doing it with an axe."

-- "Cleaning up after the big weekend snow will cost Roanoke taxpayers between $15,000 and $20,000. That is the estimate of City Manager Arthur S. Owens."

-- "Almost unaware, Roanoke has picked up a brand-new liberal arts college. This is only its second year but its freshman class is already half as big as Roanoke College's. It's the University of Virginia's extension division."

-- "Americans are eating tranquilizers like peanuts, according to evidence turned up recently by Sen. Estes Kefauver. A check around town today indicates Roanokers aren't bucking the national trend."

-- "Goose Tatum reportedly got snowbound and some 2,000 of his fans were disappointed last night at Andrew Lewis High."

-- "A record for long distance calls from Roanoke -- 12,015 -- was set here Thursday despite a snowstorm which put some 500 telephones out of service."

1935 (75 years ago)

-- "Mrs. Katharine Houghton Hepburn, of Hartford, Conn., mother of the famous screen actress, Katharine Hepburn, will speak on birth control legislation tonight ... at Hotel Patrick Henry."

-- "Rescue equipment purchased by the Viscose company for use of its newly organized life saving and first aid crew has arrived here."

-- "Police have in their possession a roadster and 34 fat Plymouth Rock and Rhode Island hens.... The car and chickens were apparently abandoned."

-- "A touch of spring was in the air here today as the mercury ... reached 71 degrees, a new high for the year. The weather man more or less spoiled things, however, by predicting colder weather tomorrow."

-- "A mythical unclaimed 'fortune,' which rumor has it was left here by a man who died several years go without the formality of leaving a will is the Mecca for a score or more would-be heirs and heiresses in Georgia, Alabama and South Carolina, it was learned today."

-- "The deadly marihuana cigarette, bringing insanity and ultimate death to those who smoke, is peddled on Roanoke streets, police said today."

-- "More popular than Mickey Mouse, as much talked about as President Roosevelt, they [Amos 'n' Andy] arrived in Roanoke by plane at 10:15 this morning for personal appearance at the American Theatre."

-- "Arriving in Roanoke on the 10:10 a.m. train, Branch Rickey, vice-president of the world champion St. Louis Cardinals, went into conference about 11 o'clock ... in regard to the possibility of establishing a Cardinal farm here with a franchise in the Piedmont League."

1910 (100 years ago)

-- "James W. Smith, driver of the three-horse hitch of the reserve engine at No. 3 fire station, answered his last call, when he died Sunday morning ... at his home. ... Mr. Smith was the first fireman to die while on the pay rolls of the paid department, which was organized on March 1, 1903."

-- "For some time past inmates of the Lutheran Orphan Home have been hoping that some big-hearted person would make them a present of a piano. ... Recently they were most agreeably surprised when a good second-hand square piano was sent to the home."

-- "Some one pulled fire alarm box 416, Henry Street and Kirk Avenue ... and in less time than it takes to put this article into type three big steamers, three hose wagons, a hook and ladder truck and the chief, with a chemical equipment on his wagon, were at that point." It was a false alarm.

-- "Miss Rose Fritz, the fastest typewriter operator in the world, will give a public demonstration of her work at the National Business College."

-- "The final figures of the municipal census of Roanoke give the city a population, within the corporate limits, of 34,030 residents."

-- "Alderman Ashby Williams introduced at the meeting of the board of aldermen last night an ordinance intended to prevent lewd, immoral or indecent exhibitions in the theaters of the city."

-- "Dr. E.L. Keyser, delegate from Roanoke, has offered in the legislature a bill providing for the sale of ardent spirits by licensed pharmacists upon physicians' prescriptions, to be used for medicinal purposes only and to ministers of the Gospel for religious or sacramental purposes."

-- "J.W. Waynick received two 1910 Buicks Saturday. One is the new model No. 10, with top windshield and all fittings to make a perfect car.... Also one of the new model No. 17 cars was received."