In 1912, the following week, from the standpoint of the class of 1912 of Jamestown High School, was the most important of the entire year. Commencement week was always an important week to the graduates. Something was doing almost every day and the young people would be kept busy. Sunday morning the baccalaureate sermon would be delivered by Rev. Dr. Horace G. Ogden, pastor of the First M.E. Church. Tuesday afternoon was Class Day with the exercises in Institute hall at 4 o'clock. At the conclusion of the exercises, a group of young ladies from the senior class would participate in a Maypole dance about the tree planted by the class on the school lawn on Arbor day last.
In celebration of 33 years of successful business enterprise, the 617 stores of F.W. Woolworth Co., situated in all of the principal cities of the United States and Canada, were to hold a record-breaking sale during the week of June 24-29 inclusive. This was to be known as the "One-third of a Century Sale," and during this week the firm proposed to offer to their friends and customers an array of special values in every department that would completely eclipse all previous efforts.
In 1937, the Commencement program of Frewsburg High School was presented Tuesday evening. The hall was filled to its capacity with relatives and friends of the class of 1937. The decorations were under the direction of Miss Frances Bratt and the junior class. At the appointed hour, the 15 boys and girls, members of the class in caps and gowns, led by Miss Alice Benson, the speaker of the evening, Rev. Dr. L.H. Bugbee, of Jamestown, editor-in-chief of Methodist publications, the members of the board of education and the faculty entered through an arch of evergreen and took their places on the stage, which was elaborately decorated with red and white peonies and asparagus fern.
The Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Combined Circus, coming to Jamestown Tuesday, July 6, had 150 varieties of funmaking clowns. No two were alike in appearance, in technique, in comedy ideas. The clowns were rugged individualists in pantomime, even when they produced their risible sketches in duos, trios and troupes. The Big Show's all new performances of 1937, opening with the stupendous spectacle, "India," would exhibit on the Falconer show grounds. The circus included a huge menagerie of more than a thousand rare animals.
In 1962, Chautauqua County's 10th highway fatality of the year was registered the previous afternoon when Mrs. Hulda Connelly, 82, of Tampa, Fla. and Ashville, died of injuries suffered about three-and-one-half hours earlier in a truck-car crash. The driver of the truck was charged with violating the limited speed ordinance. Mrs. Connelly died at 5:30 p.m. in WCA Hospital. She was injured when a car driven by her husband, Martin H. Connelly, 79, was struck broadside by a loaded dump truck at the four corners, in Ashville. The truck was carrying a 15-ton load of blacktop. The intersection was controlled by a flashing traffic signal light. The impact of the crash was on the right side of the Connelly car, where Mrs. Connelly was seated, and the collision sent the car about 50 feet down the road. Mr. Connelly was reported in fairly good condition in WCA Hospital.
While Little League players were selling candy in Jamestown to raise funds for the baseball program, vandals defaced the Little League field at Leonard Bergman Park, Baker Street. Tony Milioto, Little League president, said the vandals broke into an equipment locker at the field and stole a helmet, valued at $9 and a quantity of chalk. The new dugouts and scoreboard were marked up with rocks and had names and obscene words written on them with chalk. The vandals also broke a number of fence posts, knocked down some of the snow fencing and scattered pipes and pieces of wood over the infield.
In 1987, the United States owed the rest of the world $263.6 billion at the end of 1986, more than double the 1985 total as the country lengthened its lead as the world's largest debtor nation, the government reported. The Commerce Department said the new debt burden was 135 percent above a revised $111.9 billion in debt to foreigners that the United States was carrying at the end of 1985. That year marked the first time since 1914 that America was classified as a debtor nation. That meant foreigners owned more in U.S. investments than Americans owned in foreign investments.
Steel girders for the new West Third Street bridge had begun arriving in Jamestown this day. A truck carried in a 126-foot-long girder that stood 8 feet high and weighed 89,000 pounds. Paul Millbrand, engineer for the project, said the pieces would continue arriving for the next few weeks.