Looking Backward

The north

10 years ago

Nov. 18, 1999:The Rev. Nancy C. Betz, rector of St. John's Episcopal Church, Market Street, Cape Vincent, said she is "99.9 percent sure" the church will be rebuilt. The congregation's 158-year-old church burned Sept. 5 in a fire that may have been caused by a roofer using a propane torch. An attached parish center, built in 1929, also was destroyed.

25 years ago

Nov. 18, 1984:A second "Share-A-Home" for senior citizens to be established in Watertown, at 361 Keyes Ave., is being opened by the board of trustees of the Henry Keep Home. Share-A-Home offers an option to senior citizens who are not candidates for a nursing home or other institution, but who no longer wish to live alone.

50 years ago

Nov. 18, 1959:A wandering hunter, believed to be a Gouverneur resident, held up howitzer firing practice of an entire artillery battalion at Camp Drum this week by roving around for more than four hours in a wooded section used as an impact area. The hunter was "flushed out" when the howitzer unit "lobbed" a shell, aimed a long distance from the area being scoured by the nimrod. The noise frightened the man away.

75 years ago

Nov. 18, 1934:The police in Ogdensburg searched the power canal for several hours Saturday afternoon and night for the bodies of two small children who were supposed to have fallen from the bank on Mill Street, but nothing was found.

100 years ago

Nov. 18, 1909:"Under proper conditions I am confident that Pine Plains would make an ideal place for a maneuver camp," Maj. Gen. Leonard Wood said to a Times representative. Gen. Wood said it was impossible to definitely state any plans, as he did not know how much money was to be available for maneuver purposes.

125 years ago

Nov. 18, 1884:Manufacturers and others interested in the electric light are invited to examine the working of the Sawyer-Marr incandescent system, now in operation in Knowlton Bros.' mills, from 7:30 to 10 this evening.

The world

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Today is Wednesday, Nov. 18,the 322nd day of 2009. There are 43 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

On Nov. 18, 1959, "Ben-Hur," MGM's Biblical-era spectacle starring Charlton Heston and directed by William Wyler, had its world premiere at Loew's State Theatre in New York.

Thought for Today:"If an historian were to relate truthfully all the crimes, weaknesses and disorders of mankind, his readers would take his work for satire rather than for history." — Pierre Bayle, French philosopher and critic (born this date in 1647, died 1706).