130 Years Ago -- 5/4/2008

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By the Lincoln Journal Star

   1878: Pipes were laid to carry artesian water from Government Square to the Commercial Hotel in Lincoln.

   1888: The salt content of water in Lincoln was so high it killed lawns.

   1898: The country waited anxiously for word from the Pacific fleet attacking the Spanish at Manila Bay in the Philippines. Besides word that the bay had been taken, Nebraska troops encamped at the State Fairgrounds began to hear rumors they would be sent to the Philippines.

   1908: Col. William Jennings Bryan was entitled to $144 additional pay from the War Department for his services as commander of the 3rd Nebraska Regiment during the Spanish-American War.

   1918: Nebraska had been dry for a year. Arrests for drunkenness in Lincoln during the first year of Prohibition were virtually the same as in the single month of September 1916, before statewide prohibition.

   1928: Statistics from the Department of Commerce showed that the cost of operating Lincoln in 1927 was $30 per capita.

   1938: A tornado near Oshkosh took the lives of two children.

   1948: When a back-to-work movement at the strikebound Big Four packing plants in South Omaha failed to materialize, a group of Omaha businessmen asked to call out the state guard "to preserve law and order."

   1958: Loss in a fire at a construction company in Ogallala was estimated at $450,000. Cause of the blaze had not been determined.

   1968: Lincoln registered a record high temperature of 94 degrees for May 1.

   1978: A Lincoln Journal story revealed that nine Lincoln residences were being taxed on their land value only.

   1988: A per capita income of $14,341 put Nebraska 25th among the 50 states in a comparison of average income - 26th if you count Washington, D.C. Nebraska's average income had been below the national average since the late 1960s with only three or four exceptions.

   1998: Plans announced in February to add more than 500 seats and 70 skyboxes to the Ice Box were all but frozen during the State Fair Board's monthly meeting. The board voted to accept the Lincoln Stars' expansion proposal provided the team agree to a few conditions the board added to the proposal, one of which included installing an air-conditioning unit to the main arena. Stars Vice President Jim Pflug said the additional conditions were unacceptable because the team would not benefit.