Cuban missile crisis, building Rockford Tower: The News Journal archives, week of Oct. 23

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

Oct. 24, 1983, The Morning News

Blast kills 147 Marines

President Reagan vowed again Sunday to stand firm in Lebanon, after what he termed a “despicable act” claimed the lives of at least 147 U.S. Marines.

He announced that he is sending Gen. Paul Kelley, the Marine commandant, to Beirut to review ways of better protecting the American peacekeeping force there….

The explosion triggered new demands in Congress for the administration to provide better protection for the U.S. troops or withdraw them….

According to a Pentagon spokesman, a Mercedes truck filled with some 2,500 pounds of TNT broke through a series of steel fences and sandbag barricades and was detonated in the heart of the Marines’ four-story administrative headquarters shortly after dawn Sunday. The explosion collapsed all four floors of the building, turning it into a burial mound of broken cement pillars and cinderblocks.

Although a Marine sentry was able to fire five shots at the suicide driver while another Marine threw himself in front of the speeding truck, neither were effective in blocking its entry into the Marine headquarters….

Veterans helping first responders:How Delaware schools are using military mapping strategies to prepare for school violence

Oct. 25, 1901, Every Evening

Rockford Tower nears completion

President Betts of the Board of Water Commissioners is of the opinion that the Rockford Park water tower will be completed by the latter part of next week. The scaffolding is being taken down, and yesterday the A.S. Reed & Bro. Co. began to lay the cement floor in the observatory. After that is finished nothing remains to be done but the completion of the lightning rod….

The tower is magnificently situated in one of the prettiest sections of Rockford Park, which is just north of Brandywine Park. It is one of the highest sites in the city, being 255 feet above tide water at the base and 380 feet at the observatory, which gives a magnificent view of the city and surrounding country and also the Delaware River….

Recent event at Rockford Tower:See the return of the annual Delaware Burger Battle

Woman goes over Niagara Falls in barrel

Yesterday a woman named Anna Edson Taylor took a trip over Niagara Falls in a barrel and lived to tell the story. She says she became unconscious as she went over, and that a million dollars would not tempt her to repeat the experiment. It is well that she has gained some sense by her exploit, but it would have been better had she thought this way at first, as she has gained nothing but a little cheap notoriety by her foolhardy act.

Oct. 27, 1972, The Morning News

Nixon vows honorable peace as world awaits end of war

President Nixon said last night he is confident that differences blocking a final Vietnam peace settlement “can and will be worked out.”

Speaking for the first time publicly about what he termed “a significant breakthrough” in the Vietnamese negotiations, Nixon told an airport rally that “I am confident we will succeed in achieving our objective…peace with honor and not peace with surrender in Vietnam.”

Nixon’s comment came a few hours after presidential adviser Henry A. Kissinger said “peace is at hand” in Vietnam and said an agreement ending the long war could be reached within a few weeks….

In Paris and Hanoi, North Vietnam disclosed the broad outlines of a peace agreement and said the United States had agreed to sign it next Tuesday, but then backed away on the ground that South Vietnam had refused to sign it….

Catch up on history:The News Journal archives, week of Aug. 1

Oct. 29, 1962, Evening Journal

JFK picks 3 to negotiate Cuban crisis

President Kennedy set up a special three-man committee today to handle negotiations looking toward an end to the Cuban crisis.

Kennedy designated John J. McCloy, whom he previously had appointed special assistant to U.N. Ambassador Adlai Stevenson during the period of the Cuban emergency, as chairman of the group…

White House Press Secretary Pierre Salinger described the group as “a coordinating committee to give full time and attention to matters involved in the conclusion of the Cuban crisis.” He said the group would report directly to the President but act under supervision of the three higher officials concerned – Secretary of State Dean Rusk, Secretary of Defense Robert C. McNamara, and Stevenson….

U.S. reconnaissance planes focused their sensitive cameras on Cuba today for evidence the Russians are starting to dismantle their missile bases. The American blockading fleet remained on guard in the Atlantic. But no Russian ships were reported within two or three days steaming time of the U.S. “quarantine” line thrown up nearly a week ago.

There was an almost tangible easing of the tension that gripped the nation during the past week of crisis. The evidence, gathered by reconnaissance planes all last week and the week before showed the Russians were rushing work on the missile bases to get them into firing shape as soon as possible. It could take a little time for the Pentagon’s photo interpreters to reach any conclusions as to whether the Russians are living up to Premier Khrushchev’s promise to dismantle the bases….

Reach reporter Ben Mace at rmace@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Cuban missile crisis, building Rockford Tower: News Journal archives