JED REINERT | Digital Staff
Excerpts and summaries of news stories from the former Intelligencer Journal, Lancaster New Era and Sunday News that focus on the events in the county’s past that are noteworthy, newsworthy or just strange.
25 years ago
As Y2K fears began ramping up in Lancaster County, some schools were considering the ways in which their systems might be affected by the computer glitch, which was expected to cause a wide variety of digital difficulties with the arrival of the new millennium.
Three districts - Conestoga Valley, School District of Lancaster and Ephrata Area School District - had decided to extend the holiday break by a day or two in case difficulties arose that might take extra time to resolve.
All three districts had been scheduled to reopen on Jan. 3, 2000. Ephrata and CV had decided to add a day and return Jan. 4, while SDL would be adding two days and returning on Jan. 5.
Superintendent Gerald Huesken of CV said that he fully expected the district's own systems to be fully Y2K compliant, but things beyond the district's control - such as electricity, heat and transportation - were the unknown factors that led to the decision to extend the holiday break.
In the headlines:
Yugoslav airstrikes loom
Passat tops Camry in Consumer Reports auto picks
House votes to restrict burials at Arlington Cemetery
Check out the March 24, 1999, Intelligencer Journal here.
50 years ago
Girls' basketball was on the front page of the Sunday News on March 24, 1974, as the Lancaster Catholic team won the PIAA state championship, defeating Baldwin 75-32.
The Catholic team was coached by Pat Wallace and led in scoring by star player Mimi Senkowski, who scored 28 points.
Senkowski, later known as Mimi Senkowski Griffin, went on to a notable career in sports. and was inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in 2014.
She was ESPN’s top women’s basketball analyst from 1983-99 and worked for CBS from 1985-91. In 1990, she became the first female color analyst on a men’s NCAA tournament game.
(The Catholic girls basketball team was on the front page of a recent LNP edition, too – the Lancaster Catholic Crusaders defeated Westmont Hilltop 56-39 in the PIAA Class 3A title game March 21 at the Giant Center in Hershey.)
In the headlines:
8 killed as firebomb razes Allentown bar
French abetted Arab embargo
President's allies becoming critical
Check out the March 24, 1974, Sunday News here.
75 years ago
In March 1949, the Slumbering Groundhog Lodge of Quarryville received a letter from its newest honorary member, accepting the membership with gratitude.
And that new member was none other than President Harry Truman.
Truman had been inducted into the lodge as an honorary member on Feb. 2, and the lodge sent him a letter to that effect. A month later, after the letter found its way to Key West, where Truman was vacationing, he wrote back.
Charles Hess, chairman of the Board of Hibernating Governors of the Slumbering Groundhog Lodge, received the letter, which had been written at the White House and was signed by the president.
"I appreciate most highly the honorary membership," Truman wrote.
In announcing the selection of Truman for membership, Hess wrote the following:
"In predicting his own election, (Truman) qualifies as a prophet just as unfailingly as Brother Groundhog himself."
In the headlines:
Senate votes 'home rule' rent bill
Delegates begin arriving for N.Y. peace conference
Troubles pile up in 5-cent beer sale
Check out the March 24, 1949, Intelligencer Journal here.
100 years ago
Two railroad employees narrowly escaped injury when a passenger coach crashed into the Reading Railroad station in Lancaster on March 24, 1924.
The car - which held no passengers at the time - broke loose from a train, overshot the end of the tracks and crashed into the station building, caving in a section of brick wall and damaging the office of station agent H.W. Maurer, who had to leap away from his desk to avoid being hit by falling debris.
Also in danger, but ultimately uninjured, was custodian M.K. Stauffer, who was aboard the runaway car at the time of the crash.
The Reading station at the time was located near the intersection of Prince and Frederick streets - at roughly the current location of Clipper Magazine Stadium.
In the headlines:
Curious crowds besiege church to see barefoot dancers
State Dept. plans drive against child workers in homes
