10 years ago

From the Journal Tribune: “Representatives from York County municipalities considering a regionalized dispatch center had to deal with a ‘sleeper’ proposal of the Maine Fire Chiefs Association to eliminate all but four of E-911 public safety answering points in the state. Sanford Fire Chief Raymond Parent brought to the group’s attention the recent meeting at Boothbay Harbor of the Maine Fire Chiefs Association Board of Directors.”

50 years ago

From the Biddeford-Saco Journal: “The York County Council American Legion and Auxiliary met Friday evening at the Cousens Memorial School, Lyman, with the Goodwin Labbe-Taylor Post and unit as host. Nine Posts were represented – Alfred, Biddeford, Dayton, Eliot, KIttery, Old Orchard Beach, Saco, Sanford and South Berwick.”

100 years ago

From the Biddeford Daily Journal: “Last evening the K.H.S. seniors and juniors, assisted by the sophomores and freshmen, gave a school social at the vestry of the Second Congregational church, Dane street. Four tables were set for a banquet.” — Jeff Lagasse

Today in History

Today is Friday, Nov. 13, the 317th day of 2015. There are 48 days left in the year.

On this date:

In 1789, Benjamin Franklin wrote in a letter to a friend, Jean-Baptiste Leroy: “In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” In 1849, voters in California ratified the state’s original constitution. In 1909, 259 men and boys were killed when fire erupted inside a coal mine in Cherry, Illinois. In 1927, the Holland Tunnel opened to the public, providing access between lower Manhattan and New Jersey beneath the Hudson River. In 1937, the NBC Symphony Orchestra, formed exclusively for radio broadcasting, made its debut. In 1940, the Walt Disney film “Fantasia,” featuring animated segments set to classical music, had its world premiere in New York. In 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a measure lowering the minimum draft age from 21 to 18. In 1956, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down laws calling for racial segregation on public city and state buses. In 1969, speaking in Des Moines, Iowa, Vice President Spiro T. Agnew accused network television news departments of bias and distortion, and urged viewers to lodge complaints. In 1974, Karen Silkwood, a 28-year-old technician and union activist at the Kerr-McGee Cimarron plutonium plant near Crescent, Oklahoma, died in a car crash while on her way to meet a reporter.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On Nov. 13, 1985, some 23,000 residents of Armero, Colombia, died when a volcanic mudslide buried the city.

Ten years ago Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, in Jerusalem, strongly rebuked Iran’s leadership, saying “no civilized nation” can call for the annihilation of another – a reference to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s remark that Israel should be “wiped off the map.” An Iraqi woman arrested by Jordanian authorities confessed on television to trying to blow herself up with her husband in one of the three Nov. 9 suicide attacks in Amman.

Five years ago Pro-democracy hero Aung San Suu Kyi (soo chee) walked free in Myanmar after more than seven years under house arrest. Former White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel officially announced his ultimately successful candidacy for mayor of Chicago.

One year ago The European Space Agency published the first images taken from the surface of a comet; the photos sent back to Earth showed a rocky surface, with one of the lander’s three feet in the corner of the frame. — By The Associated Press