Looking back: July 1 

1988 (25 years ago)

• "It's supposed to be a big project, so a traditional gold-painted shovel just wasn't adequate to break ground for the Valleypointe business park. Instead, the symbolic first load of dirt was moved by a bulldozer - with Lt. Gov. Douglas Wilder at the controls."
• "Roanoke's weather has been playing with temperature extreme records again, but not in quite the way one expects in July."
• "Thousands of people jammed Victory Stadium under clear skies and warm temperatures Monday night for the 10th annual Music for Americans, a sound and sight spectacle that has become the highlight of Roanoke's Fourth of July celebration."
• "The carpet's been laid, the walls are painted and the asbestos tiles have been removed. Roanoke College is moving into the old Roanoke County Courthouse today despite a citizen group's efforts to block the courthouse sale."

1963 (50 years ago)

• "Security National Bank of Roanoke was dedicated Saturday. The first entirely new bank here since 1919, it has capital of $1,530,000 and is the 120th bank in Virginia."
• "Roanoke city officials hope - with moral support from the county board of supervisors - to obtain federal aid in acquiring for the city some 150 acres of Mill Mountain land - now privately owned."
• "Two Roanoke city dream schools have made film history. Patrick Henry and William Fleming were among nine high schools in the United States selected for representation in a film produced by the largest educational conference in the nation."
• "Khalil Qayumi, a 30-year-old native of Afghanistan, arrived Monday in Roanoke to begin a special six weeks training session in the operation of an aviation guidance system."
• "New Christmas decorations on an angel theme will be erected in downtown Salem this year."
• "American Nazi Party Fuehrer George Lincoln Rockwell says he and his 'storm troopers' will be in Roanoke some time next month as part of a four-state campaign to recruit 100,000 whites to march against the 'illegal revolution' planned by Negro leaders for Aug. 28 in Washington."
• "Roanoke's electronics whiz kids will leave Sunday for two weeks work on research projects under the direction of scientists at the world's largest electronic laboratory at Fort Monmouth, N.J."

1938 (75 years ago)

• "July 4, next Monday, will be generally observed by Roanoke as a holiday, with banks, city hall, the federal building and most stores closing for the entire day."
• "Holiday activities in Salem Monday in observance of the signing of the Declaration of Independence will be quiet for the most part with a general respite from business activity indicated."
• "Little Dean Johnson, fourth ranking marbles shooter in the United States, bid farewell to this seaside resort [Wildwood, N.J.] tonight and with his sponsor, K. Mark Cowen, readied to go back to his farm home on Bent Mountain down in old Virginia."
• "This year, the William A. Hunton branch, Y.M.C.A. celebrated its tenth year of signal service to colored young men and boys in Roanoke."
• "Samuel Jackson Snead, more popularly known to the constituents of the golfing world as 'Slammin' Sammy' for obvious reasons, will show at Blue Hills golf course this afternoon."
• "The Salem rescue squad announced yesterday it had issued a challenge to the Roanoke police department to meet them in a baseball game at Salem municipal field Friday afternoon."
• "Defying death on every turn, Lester Hillbish, veteran rider from Reading, Pa., came from behind to win the featured 10-mile event in the Dixie Motorcycle club's Fourth of July races at Maher Field with an average speed of nearly a mile a minute."
• "Roanoke's versatile Fat Men will enlarge their scope of baseball activities Sunday. For on that day they will take on a team composed of girls from Lynchburg at Maher field at 3 o'clock."

1913 (100 years ago)

• "A fraction less than one hundred thousand dollars will be distributed this week by banks and industries of Roanoke which have taken action on semi-annual distribution of profits."
• "With a current docket of sixty-five names staring him in the face and several important cases brought over from last week, Judge Berkeley convened court at 1 o'clock yesterday afternoon and started to work with a vim clearing up the delayed hearings."
• "Some business men of Roanoke should have an eye on their drivers for overloading their teams [of horses]."
• "Roanoke people sweltering under the terrific heat of yesterday, found one place of refuge and that was at Mountain Park. ... As is customary the park was cooled by the breezes wafted from the neighboring mountains."
• 'Taking two ball games in one afternoon was a most pleasing diversion for the fans and the Royal Bengals who slashed their way through the first fray in fierce combat while they cautiously annexed the last game after a fierce combat with a left hander by the name of Weeder."
• "With the mercury standing at 94 at 2 o'clock yesterday afternoon Roanoke has little promise of relief from the almost unprecedented heat wave which has hovered over the valley for the past three days."
• "With three hundred telephones in the city out of use and from twelve to fifteen stores in the business section flooded, the rain and electric storm yesterday afternoon ... probably was one of the worst Roanoke has suffered in many years."
• "The new automobile police patrol wagon which arrived Wednesday was turned over to the city yesterday afternoon."
<

Weather Journal

9 hours ago

1. 41-vehicle wreck ties up traffic Sunday on I-81 in Rockbridge County 

2. Virginia Tech football roster has holes on picture day

3. Arrest made in case of missing Nelson County teen

4. Medicare penalties hit hospitals in Roanoke, New River Valleys

5. McFarling: 2 little numbers are a big hurdle for Virginia Tech football 

6. WOYM: Fewer stinkbugs? You may have wasps to thank

7. Microfestivus beer event gets downtown Roanoke hopping 

8. DAN CASEY: Copter cost still stirring up dust

9. CB Manning opts to transfer from Virginia Tech

10. Virginia attorney general's office grows under Ken Cuccinelli