100 Years Ago Today - April 2024

Look at these statements from headline articles in The La Porte Daily Argus in April 1924. Terminology, capitalization, and what makes headline news can be different. Yet accidents, business, crime, and war still make headlines. Want to read the whole article? It’s on microfilm in the Indiana Room at the Main Library. Staff will be glad to help you access it. 

 

April 1

(Rome) – A violent explosion took place within the crater of the 2,000 year old Stromboli volcano on Stromboli island off the Sicilian coast. Fifteen persons are known to have been injured.

April 2

After a terrific hand to hand fight in which it required the efforts of three men to subdue him, Ernest Hitchens, of Chicago, a maniac, was taken into custody by Sheriff Frank Fosdick late Tuesday afternoon at the home of Fred Dick in Pleasant township.

April 3

(New York) – Twenty-five workmen in the new Hudson river vehicular tunnel barely escaped with their lives today when the terrific pressure in the tunnel blew a hole in the top of the tunnel under the river bottom and let the river flow into the tube.

April 4

(Lafayette, Ind.) – Twenty cars of a fast freight train crashed into the Wabash river, two miles north of here today, when the Monon railroad bridge spanning the stream collapsed.

April 5

(Washington) – Prohibition agents swooped today on scores of apartment houses and dwellings in the capital in a mighty effort to “dry up” Washington, following recent charges that Washington was “the wettest city in the country.”

April 7

(Johnstown, Pa.) – County detective John M. Gross this morning filed formal charges of carrying concealed weapons, rioting and murder against the twenty-four Ku Klux Klansmen held in jail here since Saturday night in connection with the rioting at the nearby mining town of Lilly.

April 8

(Washington) – Former Attorney General Harry M. Daugherty was advised today by his friends in Columbus, Ohio, that all of his personal files for 20 years back have been burglarized.

April 9

(Boulder, Colo.) – This city, home of the University of Colorado, is the first college town in the Rocky Mountain conference to emulate eastern and far-western cities by constructing a football stadium.

April 10

(Indiananolis, Ind.) – A jury of twelve men today took into its hands the case against Gov. McCray, charged with embezzlement and larceny or Indiana board of agriculture funds.

April 11

(Indianapolis, Ind.) – At 2:30 o’clock this afternoon Judge Chamberlain ordered the McCray jury locked in the jury room and left the court house to attend a baseball game.

April 12

Ralph Wilkinson, of the Wilkinson & Lotter dairy, reports having seen an observation balloon pass over the city at 4:30 o’clock this morning. Mr. Wilkinson declared that he was traveling in a northeasterly direction and was flying low enough for him to distinguished the two occupants of the basket.

April 14

(Washington) – Grover Cleveland Bergdoll, millionaire draft dodger, voluntarily relinquished and forfeited his rights of citizenship when he fled the country after his conviction by court martial of evading the draft, according to ruling made today by Raymond F. Crist, commissioner of naturalization.

April 15

Late Monday afternoon Samuel Kallil, who on Sunday kidnapped his four children from the home of their mother in Michigan City, was apprehended in Flint, Mich.

April 16

(Washington) – Dr. A. C. Busey, the “man of mystery,” who claimed to have knowledge of the inside story of the Mer Rouge “hooded mob” murders that shocked the nation two years ago and who disappeared from the federal penitentiary in Atlanta several weeks ago, has been arrested in San Antonio, Texas, by department of justice agents, it was announced here today.

April 17

(New York) – Microphones to carry what is said to be the first entire communion service ever broadest were today being placed in the West End Presbyterian church here, so that tomorrow, worshippers seated in their homes “listening in” may participate in the Good Friday Communion service.

April 18

(Washington) – The United States will be represented in an international immigration conference in Rome May 15 by officials of the labor department and the public health service, it was announced here today.

April 19

(Chicago) – Pingy Lung, 15-year old pet of Ignace Jan Paderewski, died here today after the master pianist had cancelled all engagements for three days while his private car stood in the railroad yards and had kept constant vigil beside the dog.

April 21

Today’s session in Michigan City police court was a busy one, as twelve persons were arraigned before Judge James F. Gleason for a variety of offenses.

April 22

(Sacramento, Calif.) – A special committee named by Governor Pierce, of Oregon, to investigate the foot and mouth disease situation in California and determine whether the northern state is justified in modifying her embargoes, will reach here Thursday.

April 23

(Washington) – The child labor constitutional amendment is to be brought to a vote in the house shortly under plans matured today by the house leaders. Pressure for action on this solution that there may be no delay in submitting it to the states for ratification is coming from many sources. House advocates of the resolution say they have the necessary two-thirds vote to insure its passage. The amendment gives the congress power to regulate and prohibit employment of children under 18 years of age.

April 24

Surrounded by the drab gray walls of the LaPorte county jail and in the presence of less than a dozen witnesses, Miss Dorothy Latshaw, 23, of South Bend, was married this afternoon to Dewey Faulkenbury, 26, who will be taken to Pendleton, Ind., Sunday to begin serving a sentence from one to 14 years for second degree burglary.

April 25

Rings and personal property valued at about $85 were taken from the home of Robert Gilhan, 102 ½ Grove street, by a thief who gained entrance to Mr. and Mrs. Gilhan’s bedroom near midnight last night. It was one of the boldest robberies yet reported to the police, the theft having been committed while the two were sleeping.

April 26

(Chgnik, Alaska) – After one of the most thrilling experiences in the history of aviation, in which man and machine successfully battled the furies of the elements, Major Frederick L. Martin, commander of the American round-the-world flight, succeeded in reaching here safely in his flagship plane in Seattle.

April 28

Announcement was made today of the purchase of the pool room and bowling alleys operated at 714 Indiana avenue, by Frenier, by Frank Gregg, formerly employed with the Chevrolet auto sales company in this city. Mr. Gregg plans to remodel the resort and continue to operate it as a bowling and billiard emporium.

April 29

Governor Warren T. McCray resigned his position as governor of the state of Indiana at 1:17 o’clock this afternoon.