City mall canceled, Paris falls to Nazis: The News Journal archives, week of June 11

"Pages of history" features excerpts from The News Journal archives including the Wilmington Morning News and the Evening Journal.

June 11, 1973, Evening Journal

City shopping mall contract canceled

The contract calling for development of a giant retail shopping center in downtown Wilmington was canceled today and city planners went back to the drawing boards.

Mayor Thomas C. Maloney called an emergency meeting on Downtown Wilmington, Inc., this morning, and disclosed afterward that the agency had voted to cancel the four-year-old contract with Pan American Development Corp. He said…Pan American had been unable to deliver on its proposals to develop the southern section of the Wilmington Civic Center as a regional shopping center.

Periodically, representatives of Pan American and of Downtown Wilmington had issued statements claiming major tenants had been lined up for the two department stores supposed to have been the keystones of the center….

Downtown Wilmington was handed the job of developing the commercial section of the Civic Center. It is a joint venture of the city and the Greater Wilmington Development Council.

Maloney said he still is confident that the area, bounded by 4th, King, 8th, and Walnut streets, can be developed….

June 13, 2016, The News Journal

50 massacred in Orlando; Rehoboth LGBTQ community holds vigil for victims

Hours after a gunman killed 50 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando, members of Delaware’s LGBTQ community gathered in Rehoboth Beach to grieve, pray and share their love….

About a hundred people comforted one another during an evening vigil hosted by CAMP Rehoboth Community Center, a nonprofit gay and lesbian community service organization on Baltimore Avenue….

Some struggled to understand how, in 2016, people in the LGBTQ community could be gunned down in a club many frequent to celebrate their sexuality….

In addition to the dead, another 53 were wounded in the attack at Pulse Orlando….

The attack is the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history.

The shooter, who was killed by police, has been identified as Omar Mateen of Port St. Lucie, Florida….

June 14, 1967, Evening Journal

Certain approval seen on Marshall for Supreme Court

President Johnson’s appointment of Solicitor General Thurgood Marshall to the Supreme Court – the first Black so named – appears certain to be confirmed when the Senate gets to it.

Johnson’s announcement yesterday that he is nominating Marshall, 58, to succeed retiring Associate Justice Tom C. Clark surprised neither the solicitor general’s critics nor his supporters.

Civil rights leaders around the nation today generally applauded the appointment and praised Johnson for making it….

June 15, 1940, Wilmington Morning News

French retreat; Nazis expect collapse

The main armies of France fell back June 14 far below abandoned, German-invaded Paris in a retreat that may be their last movement of the war.

Other forces far to the east were declared to have thrown back, with “tremendous losses,” a German head-on attack against the Maginot Line.

All but broken under the mightiest assault ever thrown against men, the Poilus who fought the main battle of France counter-attacked with a desperate fury as they retired under the Nazi pressure….

Paris, from which the government long since had fled, was gone – occupied by Germans and ringed by their armored units and infantrymen.

Tours, the new emergency seat of the ministers from which Premier Reynaud sent a “last appeal” to President Roosevelt last night for American aid, was being abandoned for yet another refuge – presumably the far southern seaport of Bordeaux….

June 16, 2003, The News Journal

Today’s teens speak their own language – IM

By the end of this week, most students in Delaware will be done with school for the summer. But they’re not saying, “See you in September” as they leave their classrooms. They’re saying, “IM me.”

“IM” may not yet be a certified English verb, but it’s common parlance among tech-savvy kids. The letters stand for “Instant Message,” and they refer to the ever-increasing use of internet access to send messages that pop up immediately on another user’s computer screen, cell phone or other device.

Studies show that far more kids than adults use the IM technology, and that has parents trying to catch up, teachers trying to reign in IM lingo, and schools upgrading networks and policies….

America Online, the nation’s largest internet service, claims to have 195 million subscribers to its Instant Messenger service. Though the online service can’t verify the identities of those who responded to a recent online survey, 70% who said they were 12 to 17 used IM, and 83% who said they were 18 to 19 used the technology….

IM slang terms include “brb” for “be right back,” “cul8r” for “see you later,” “jk” for “just kidding,” “g2g” for “got to go,” “pos” for “parent over shoulder” and “ttyl” for “talk to you later.”

Sometimes IM slang shows up in school assignments, said Cary Brandenberger, who teaches English and was Howard High School of Technology’s Teacher of the Year.

“Recently, when I have students write out short answers, they will start using those types of abbreviations,” she said. “I’ll ask them, ‘What do you mean? That’s not a word.’ And they’re like, ‘You’re so old.’”

Reach reporter Ben Mace at rmace@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: City mall canceled, Nazis invade Paris: News Journal archives, June 11