Looking Backward

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2009

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The north

10 years ago

Sept. 20, 1999:KeyCorp, owner of Key Bank, is selling off all but a handful of its properties in the United States, with plans to lease its branches instead of owning them. In Jefferson, Lewis and St. Lawrence counties, Key Bank has 16 branches.

25 years ago

Sept. 20, 1984:Nearly $64,000 in tax revenues for Jefferson County municipalities may be in limbo as lawyers and state legislators battle over the ownership of telephone equipment and property in the wake of Ma Bell's breakup.

50 years ago

Sept. 20, 1959:Excavation work for a new mechanical building for the Watertown Daily Times started this morning with a two-yard shovel taking out the earth at the former employees parking lot entrance on Clinton Street.

75 years ago

Sept. 20, 1934:Representatives of a silk manufacturing concern today conferred with Ernest C. Gould, secretary of the chamber of commerce, and officials of the recovery program organization relative to locating a silk plant in Watertown. It is estimated that the Watertown plant would need about 100 operatives at the start and that it would increase to employment of about 250.

100 years ago

Sept. 20, 1909:Just 10 days remain for the 260 holders of liquor licenses in Jefferson County to renew their certificates if they do not want to be closed up and heavily fined. Yet there have been no applications for renewals under the state excise law.

125 years ago

Sept. 20, 1884:Dr. Barringer, at the Woodruff house, has cured hundreds in this county of every known disease and deformity. He remains until Oct. 15.

The world

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Today is Sunday, Sept. 20,the 263rd day of 2009. There are 102 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

On Sept. 20, 1519, Portuguese navigator and explorer Ferdinand Magellan and his crew set out from Spain on five ships on a voyage to find a western passage to the Spice Islands in Indonesia. (Magellan was killed en route, but one of his ships eventually circled the world.)

On this date:

In 1870, Italian troops took control of the Papal States, leading to the unification of Italy.

In 1873, panic swept the floor of the New York Stock Exchange in the wake of railroad bond defaults and bank failures.

In 1884, the National Equal Rights Party was formed during a convention of suffragists in San Francisco; the convention nominated Belva Ann Bennett Lockwood for president.

In 1958, civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. was seriously wounded during a book signing at a New York City department store when a black woman, Izola Curry, stabbed him in the chest.

In 1962, black student James Meredith was blocked from enrolling at the University of Mississippi by Gov. Ross R. Barnett. (Meredith later was admitted.)

In 1973, in their so-called "battle of the sexes," tennis star Billie Jean King defeated Bobby Riggs in straight sets, 6-4, 6-3, 6-3, at the Astrodome in Houston.

In 1984, a suicide car bomber attacked the U.S. Embassy annex in north Beirut, killing at least 14 people, including two Americans and 12 Lebanese.

Ten years ago:Lawrence Russell Brewer became the second white supremacist to be convicted in the dragging death of James Byrd Jr. in Jasper, Texas.

Five years ago:CBS News apologized for a "mistake in judgment" in its story questioning President George W. Bush's National Guard service, saying it could not vouch for the authenticity of documents featured in the report.

One year ago:The Bush administration asked Congress for the power to buy $700 billion in toxic assets clogging the financial system and threatening the economy as negotiations began on the largest bailout since the Great Depression. A suicide truck bombing at the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad killed 53 people, including the Czech ambassador.

Today's Birthdays:Actress-comedian Anne Meara is 80. Actress Sophia Loren is 75. Pro Football Hall of Famer Jim Taylor is 74. Rock musician Chuck Panozzo is 62. Hockey Hall of Famer Guy LaFleur is 58. Actor Gary Cole is 53. TV news corespondent Deborah Roberts is 49. Actress Kristen Johnston is 42. Rock singers Matthew Nelson and Gunnar Nelson are 42. Rock musician Ben Shepherd is 41. Actress-model Moon Bloodgood is 34. Actor Jon Bernthal is 33. Rapper Yung Joc is 27. Actor Aldis Hodge is 23.

Thought for Today:"History must stay open, it is all humanity." — William Carlos Williams, American author and poet (1883-1963).