1994 (10 years ago)
— Western Virginia was to get its first HMO, a partnership between Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Virginia and Carilion Health System.
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REST1979 (25 years ago)
— Buddy Earl Justus was convicted of the rape and murder of Ida Mae Moses. He was sentenced to death.
— Ralph Sampson announced he would attend University of Virginia on a basketball scholarship. Coach Charles Moir of Virginia Tech "tried to find some consolation in making Sampson's Final Four."
— Artist Dorothy Gillespie signed her mural "painted on the side of a vacant office building on Second Street Southwest."
1954 (50 years ago)
— "The curious mind of the coed is beginning to inquire a bit into what has been by custom an almost all-male calling — the profession of engineering." At Virginia Tech, 13 of 121 women students were studying engineering or architecture.
— Dr. A.L. James, pastor of First Baptist Church on Jefferson Street and a member of the city school board, spoke on the Supreme Court's desegregation decision. "He called for ‘sympathetic cooperation of leaders of both races.’ ”
— Roanoke City Council again delayed a decision on fluoridating the city water supply.
— Roanoke College dedicated the Henry Hill Memorial Bell Tower. Hill was the college's bell ringer for more than 40 years.
1904 (100 years ago)
— Surveyors on Mill Mountain "mapped out a line of survey which led from the Rockledge hotel . . . to a point near the hospital." The hotel costs the owners, Roanoke Gas and Water Company, $400 to $500 a "year to keep up. . . . There seems little prospect of making the hotel of any value unless an incline road is built in the near future."
— "A peculiar accident befell a horse attached to one of W.K. Andrews' coal wagons. . . . The animal broke through into a cess pool . . . and scores of men were necessary, and the exercise of no little skill required before he was again placed on solid footing."
— "A gold and silver mine has been discovered about eight miles southwest of Salem and it is claimed that the metal is in good paying quantities."
1894 (110 years ago)
— In Salem there was "only one prisoner . . . in the chain gang, and he seems really lonesome."
— "The first of a series of strawberry and ice cream festivals . . . was held last night . . . with flattering prospects."
— The Roanoke County Board of Supervisors wanted to keep the courthouse lawn presentable so they "ordered that the sheriff and his deputies see to it that persons do not walk across the yard for the purpose of making short cuts and that no advertising be done in said yard or on the fence enclosing the same."
Belinda Harris is chief news researcher for The Roanoke Times
