'Baby Trump' balloon set for launch: This week in Central Jersey history, Aug. 14-20

As President Donald Trump planned a return to his Central Jersey golf club that weekend, the People's Motorcade, an activist group, was nearing completion of its herd of "Baby Trump" balloons, it was reported on Friday, Aug. 17, 2018.

Jim Girvan, founder of the group and chair of the Branchburg Democratic Party, said the balloons would be tethered to the ground while a Temporary Flight Restriction was in effect.

Here's a look at events that happened in Central Jersey from five, 10, 25, 50 and 100 years ago this week.

Five years ago

Aug. 15, 2018: It was reported a heavy-duty wrecker hauling a large trailer traveling southbound on Route 513 in Frenchtown struck a telephone pole at the corner of Trenton Avenue and Bridge Street before crashing into Galasso's Pizzeria and bursting into flames on Monday, Aug. 13, 2018.

Aug. 15: It was reported Shansey Abernathy, 24, of Linden, pleaded guilty on Monday, Aug, 13, 2018, to a single count of first-degree aggravated manslaughter in connection with the shooting death of Alphonso Pearson, 27, before state Superior Court Judge Candido Rodriguez Jr.

Aug. 17: It was reported that in a unanimous decision, the state Supreme Court ruled that Quaker Valley Farms in Franklin (Hunterdon) violated the terms of its preservation easement and state law by excavating and leveling 20 acres of its 120-acre farm to erect hoop houses ― temporary greenhouses ― to grow flowers.

Aug. 17: It was reported Rasheed Powell, 43, of Elizabeth, convicted of 60 counts, including 24 counts of aggravated sexual assault, which included a woman who was attacked in March 2012 at the Swan Motel in Linden, was sentenced to 148 years in state prison.

Aug. 18: The Asbury Park Surf Music Festival, featuring the first East Coast appearance in 12 years by Satan's Pilgrims, plus Black Flamingos, The Volcanics, and more, was held at the Anchor's Bend and Grand Arcade at the Convention Hall in Asbury Park.

Aug. 19: It was reported Grace Eline, a 9-year-old from Gillette with cancer, was the New York Jets' honorary captain at the Friday, Aug. 10, 2018, game against the Atlanta Falcons at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford.

10 years ago

Aug. 14, 2013: Alka Sinha took the witness stand in the trial of Christian Tinli and Cash Johnson, charged in the beating death of her husband, Divyendu Sinha, 49, of Old Bridge on Friday, June 25, 2010.

Aug. 15: The body of Jorge Ortega-Romero, 29, of Perth Amboy, who had managed to push two children to safety before he was pulled under by strong currents in the city's Raritan Bay, was recovered.

Aug. 16-17: "Xanadu" was presented at Plays in the Park, Stephen J. Capestro Amphitheatre in Edison.

Aug. 18: In football, the Somerset Bears beat the Mount Vernon Centennial Kings, 36-0, recording their second straight victory.

Aug. 20: According to results of the latest Monmouth University/Asbury Park Press Poll, Democratic voters were shifting back to their party's gubernatorial nominee, state Sen. Barbara Buono, helping shrink Gov. Chris Christie's lead to 20 percentage points.

Aug. 20: It was reported police were trying to identify the body of a person found on Sunday, Aug. 18, 2013, in a wooded section of South Plainfield.

1998

Aug. 15, 1998: Kevin Lamar Hill, 15, of the Somerset section of Franklin Township, was shot to death in front of about 200 people at a backyard party.

Aug. 17: A woman who robbed Roselle Savings Bank in Cranford on Friday, Aug. 14, 1998, told a teller, "I'm back," and again made off with an undisclosed amount.

Aug. 18: The Somerset County Board of Freeholders decided to unleash the Beer Man in the new 6,360-seat baseball stadium being built in Bridgewater, making an exception to the alcohol ban in all county parks for the stadium, which was scheduled to open in Spring 1999.

Aug. 19: Judge Jack L. Lintner decided Sarah Metler, 14, of Old Bridge, who had Buddhist beliefs, would not be admitted to St. John Vianney High School in Holmdel the following month without required immunizations.

Aug. 20: It was reported Barbara Bissell, the 45-year-old widow of Somerset County's former prosecutor, Nicholas L. Bissell Jr., had moved from a federal women's prison to Kintock Community Corrections Center, a halfway house, in Newark.

Aug. 20: It was reported Shania Twain would perform on Friday, Aug. 21, 1998, at the PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel as part of her first-ever world tour.

1973

Aug. 16, 1973: Dr. Selman A. Waksman, professor emeritus of microbiology at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, whose discovery of several life-saving antibiotics won him the Nobel Prize, died at age 85.

Aug. 17: It was reported U.S. Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan had denied a New Jersey motion that would permit 700 non-public schools to keep ― at least temporarily ― educational equipment and materials purchased with tax dollars.

Aug. 20: Three small children ― Jeffrey Thibault, 3; Michele Eckhardt, 3; and Sharon Rozdarsky, 6, all of Piscataway, wandered off on a two-mile toddle from Piscataway to Plainfield. They were found four hours later on Grant Avenue in Plainfield.

Aug. 20: George Sottiriou was sentenced to the New Jersey State Prison for 10 to 14 years for manslaughter and five other crimes arising from the 1971 fire at The Zoo, a Carteret nightclub, which claimed two lives.

Aug. 20: Jerry Lewis and Barbara Eden opened a six-night engagement at the Garden State Arts Center in Holmdel.

Aug. 20: Paul Parker pitched a three-hit shutout as league-leading Whitehouse defeated Dreier's, 4-0, in a Plainfield Twilight Baseball League game at Green Brook Park in Plainfield.

1923

Aug. 15, 1923: A tornado, with an estimated velocity of 100 miles an hour, accompanied by heavy rain, lightning and hail, swept 30 miles along the coast, centering in Belmar between 6 and 6:30 a.m.

Aug. 16: Fire partially destroyed a 250-foot shed of the Seaboard Refractory Company, manufacturers of fire brick, in Metuchen, near Fords, at an estimated loss of $25,000.

Aug. 16: William Anderson of Mount Bethel lost temporary control of his car in South Plainfield. The car spun, turned on its side, throwing the occupants out, with one landing in a baby carriage. All escaped injury.

Aug. 17-18: The movie, "The Exciters," co-starring Bebe Daniels and Antonio Moreno, was shown at Reade's Strand Theatre in Perth Amboy.

Aug. 18: In baseball, Perth Amboy, the leading team of Middlesex County, beat Michelin, 6-3, in Milltown.

Aug. 18: Elmer Theodore Christiansen, 6, of Mt. Bethel, was brought to Muhlenberg Hospital minus three fingers on his left hand, the result of playing with matches and a small piece of dynamite.

Brad Wadlow is a staff writer for MyCentralJersey.com

This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: This week in NJ history, Aug. 14-20