D-Day, RFK assassination, city elects Republicans: News Journal archives, week of June 4

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

June 4, 1923, The Evening Journal

Republicans elect Dr. Forrest new mayor

Along with the election of Dr. George W.K. Forrest as mayor of Wilmington on Saturday, the Republican party swept the city by re-electing all of the retiring councilmen as well as other officers at the head of the ticket….

Dr. Forrest’s majority over A. Victor Hughes, the Democratic candidate, was 689 out of a total vote for mayor of 19,379. This was approximately 4,400 votes less than were cast at the city election two years ago….

The Republican City Committee’s figures show Dr. Forrest’s majority to be 742, there being a few variances from the figures gathered by this newspaper….

The incoming city council will be Republican, that party electing seven of the 12 councilmen in addition to Howard M. Ward again for president of council.

Samuel J. White, Republican, was re-elected city treasurer. Elmer H. Klund, Republican, was re-elected tax collector from the Northern District while John I. Dolan, Democrat, was re-elected tax collector in the Southern District.

June 6, 1968, Evening Journal

Robert Kennedy is dead; Mourning proclaimed by Johnson

Sen. Robert F. Kennedy died today, felled like his brother by an assassin’s bullet.

He never regained consciousness, never showed signs of recovery after a burst of revolver fire sent a bullet into his brain as he stood at the pinnacle of his own campaign for the White House.

With his pregnant wife, Ethel, at his bedside, the New York senator, 42, died at 1:44 a.m., PDT, little more than 25 hours after the assault at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. A son, Joseph, 15, was also there.

Pierre Salinger, former presidential press secretary, said the body will lie in state at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York tomorrow between 8 a.m. and 1 p.m. A Requiem Mass will be held there Saturday at 10 a.m.

The train carrying the body of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy is scheduled to pass through Wilmington at about 2:30 p.m. Saturday. It will leave New York City at 12:30 p.m. and is scheduled to arrive at Union Station in Washington at 4:40 p.m., about an hour before the burial at Arlington National Cemetery.

As Kennedy died, the man accused of shooting him was under heavy guard at a downtown prison hospital, held on $250,000 bail for a court appearance scheduled for Monday. Sirham Bishara Sirhan was accused of firing the .22-caliber revolver which cut down Kennedy and wounded five other people yesterday as the senator and his supporters celebrated victory in the California presidential primary.

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June 7, 1944, Wilmington Morning News

Normandy beaches cleared of Germans; Allies driving at Paris

A great force of R.A.F. bombers swept across the English Channel last night, continuing the mighty serial assaults that prepared the way for the Allied invasion, during which more than 1,000 troop-carrying aircraft at dawn yesterday dropped the largest air-borne force in history into France.

An official statement said the R.A.F. planes had struck at targets in German-occupied territory during the night, apparently in support of the ground troops fighting inland from beachheads in Normandy….

In all yesterday, American warplanes alone flew more than 9,000 sorties as Allied airmen ruled not only the invasion beaches but also the air far inland. Prime Minister Churchill told Parliament that an armada of 11,000 front-line planes sustained the assault. Some 10,000 tons of bombs cleared the way for the ground troops.

U.S. losses were 50 planes – 25 bombers and 25 fighters….

More on World War II: 8 things to know about newly restored World War II tower in Delaware Seashore State Park

With thousands of relatives and friends in the armed services and many of them probably on the beaches of France, Wilmingtonians yesterday greeted the long awaited D-Day with a generally subdued attitude and with prayer for loved ones. A feature of the day was the 4 p.m. “moment of silence” urged by Mayor Albert W. James.

Thousands of persons of the state followed President Roosevelt in his radio prayer last night.

Persons of all faiths – Jews, Catholics and Protestants – stopped into churches and synagogues throughout the day to offer prayers for the success of the invasion and the quick return of soldiers to their homes….

June 10, 2003, The News Journal

Area book shops cash in on hype over Hillary’s ‘History’

A flurry of national publicity for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s new memoir was paying off Monday in Delaware bookstores, where owners reported strong first-day sales.

Borders Books, Music & Café near Stanton sold out its first shipment of 110 copies of “Living History.”

“They were gone by about 4 p.m.,” said Borders bookseller Cory Johnson, adding that half of the next shipment is reserved in advance.

Ninth Street Bookstore in Wilmington sold a dozen by early afternoon.

Ann Murphy, community relations manager for Barnes & Noble in Brandywine Hundred said “sales had been steady through the day.”

Browseabout Books in Rehoboth Beach sold 21 copies in five hours….

Still, interest in the book was small compared with the early demand for the new Harry Potter novel to be released June 21. At Browseabout, owner Steve Crane said he ordered 130 of Clinton’s book compared with 750 copies of J.K. Rowling’s fifth Potter novel.

Reach reporter Ben Mace at rmace@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: D-Day, RFK assassination: News Journal archives, week of June 4