Virginia Tech shootings; Apollo 13 lands safely: News Journal archives, week of April 16
"Pages of history" features excerpts from The News Journal archives including the Wilmington Morning News and the Every Evening.
April 16, 1947, Wilmington Morning News
Dodgers defeat Braves in Robinson’s debut
Pete Reiser, key to Brooklyn’s flag chances, blazed a seventh-inning double off the screen a foot inside the right-field foul line at Ebbets Field yesterday to drive across the tying and winning runs as the Dodgers opened their 1947 campaign with a 5 to 3 victory over the Boston Braves.
Although he did not get a hit in four official times at bat, Jackie Robinson, the first Black to play in modern big league ball, signalized his official debut as a Dodger by sprinting home with the deciding run on Reiser’s smash and playing perfect ball at first base….
April 17, 2007, The News Journal
33 dead in Va. Tech massacre, worst shooting in U.S. history
An outburst of gunfire at a Virginia Tech dormitory followed two hours later by a ruthless rampage in a classroom building killed 32 students, teachers and staff members and wounded at least 15 others Monday in the deadliest shooting attack in the nation’s history.
The shooter, whose name was not released Monday night, carried two 9mm semiautomatic handguns and wore a vest that carried additional ammunition, law enforcement officials and witnesses said.
Witnesses described the shooter as a young man – a silent killer who was calm and showed no expression as he pursued and shot his victims.
He killed himself as police closed in.
He had left two dead at the dormitory and 30 more at a science and engineering building, where he executed people taking and teaching classes and shot a custodian who was helping a victim….
The campus community in southwest Virginia began questioning whether most of the deaths could have been prevented. They wondered why the campus was not shut down after the first shooting, in which two people were killed….
Based on witness interviews, police believed the first shooting was an isolated domestic case and chose not to take any drastic security measures, university officials said…
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April 18, 1970, The Morning News
Imperiled Apollo lunar trip ends on target
Days of cold and peril behind, three tired American astronauts splashed down in a happy, on-target landing in the Pacific yesterday, safe at last in the warmth of their home planet.
A doctor who examined the spacemen aboard the aircraft carrier USS Iwo Jima only minutes after their return to Earth reported that Fred W. Haise Jr. was suffering from a mild urinary tract infection and had a low grade fever….
Haise went right to bed after a medical examination and a meal. James A. Lovell Jr. and John L. Swigert Jr. revisited the space craft which had carried them home from a near-tragedy….
They were back from moments of extreme danger, from long hours of discomfort, chilled by cabin temperatures in the 30s, tired by the constant battle to keep their battered ship going. Those trials began Monday night when an oxygen tank in their service module burst, exploding with it hopes for a lunar landing and putting the astronauts’ lives in jeopardy….
President Richard Nixon proclaimed Sunday as a day of national prayer and thanksgiving….
April 20, 1995, The News Journal
Terror in the heartland; dozens killed, 300 missing in Oklahoma blast
A car bomb ripped deep into America’s heartland Wednesday, killing at least 26 people and leaving 300 missing in a blast that gouged a nine-story hole in a federal office building in Oklahoma City.
The dead included at least 12 youngsters, some just dropped off by their parents at a daycare center.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, the deadliest U.S. bombing in 75 years….
Attorney General Janet Reno refused to comment on who might have been behind the attack. President Bill Clinton called the bombers “evil cowards” and Reno said the government would seek the death penalty against them….
April 21, 1999, The News Journal
Colorado school ripped by massacre
Two students in black trench coats swept through their suburban high school with guns and explosives in a horrifying suicide attack Tuesday that left as many as 25 people dead in Littleton, Colo.
Several students said the killers were gunning for minorities and athletes.
It was by far the bloodiest in a string of school shootings that have rocked U.S. communities over the past few years.
“One of them opened his cape and had a shotgun. Finally I started figuring out these guys shot to kill, for no reason,” said student Nick Foss. The gunman “didn’t say anything. When he looked at me, the guy’s eyes were just dead.”
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The gunmen – both juniors at Columbine High School in this Denver suburb – were found dead in the school library with self-inflicted gunshot wounds and what appeared to be bombs around their bodies….
“It appears to be a suicide mission,” Sheriff John Stone said.
Students said the killers, who names were not released, apparently belonged to a clique of outcasts called the “Trench Coat Mafia” who wore long black coats, boasted of owning guns and disliked Blacks, Hispanics and football players….
Reach reporter Ben Mace at rmace@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Virginia Tech shooting; Apollo 13 safe: News Journal archives April 16
