130 Years Ago -- 4/20/2008

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By the Lincoln Journal Star

   1878: Between 10 and 20 prairie schooners a day were passing through Crete; most of the immigrants were said to be moving toward the Republican Valley, where rail lines were operating.

   1888: University of Nebraska seniors adopted sombreros as their class regalia.

   1898: War on Spain was declared. President William McKinley issued a call for 125,000 volunteers for a Cuban invasion army. Nebraska’s quota was 2,100 men.

   1908: Gov. George Sheldon and his staff were on their way to San Francisco to present the battleship Nebraska a silver service award.

   1918: Nebraska led all states in the sale of war savings stamps and certificates.

Negotiations were concluded for the use of the University of Nebraska as a vocational training school for soldiers.

   1928: Just 30 years after they were mustered into Company F of the 2nd Nebraska National Guard to engage in the Spanish-American War, members of the old Lincoln light infantry held a reunion. Nineteen survivors of the original company attended.

   1938: Douglas G. Wright, senior hydraulics engineer for the Public Works Administration in Nebraska, told an audience of engineers and farmers in Hastings that agriculture’s future “depends on the use of successful irrigation.”

   1948: The Lincoln City Council unanimously approved an ordinance providing for a city planning commission of nine members with the mayor and director of parks and public property added as ex-officio members.

   1958: County authorities said they would file charges against those responsible for staging a cockfight in southwestern Lancaster County. A farmer said he was paid $20 by a promoter each time the rooster fights were held, according to Sheriff Merle Karnopp.

   1968: A dirt bank at a bridge repair site near Otoe collapsed, trapping five men. Two were rescued but three died, including one with a wife and five children.

   1978: Former state Sen. Terry Carpenter of Scottsbluff, a legendary figure who dominated Nebraska politics for more than 40 years, died of abdominal cancer. Carpenter, 78, was a master of the legislative process and a perennial candidate for office.

   1988: A Lancaster County District Court jury awarded $125,000 in a wrongful death lawsuit filed by a representative of the estate of Helen Shibata. Shibata’s body was discovered in the basement of Elizabeth’s Fine Lingerie in the College View neighborhood.

   1998: A postmark pleasing to Big Red football fans and a cachet envelope designed to commemorate the career of former coach Tom Osborne was introduced. The postal tribute has been a tradition since the Huskers won the national title in 1994.