Editor’s note: This is a weekly column dedicated to local and national history. It will appear in the newspaper every Tuesday.

 

Local history

April 30, 1969: Auctioneer Don Babbitt and assistant Roy Johnson stirred excitement at the auction for the Daytime Activity Center. According to Marlene Cram, director of the center, “It was a huge success.”

May 4, 1989: Dr. Roger Norsted of Albert Lea announced his resignation as superintendent of Independent School District 241. Norsted said he was proud of what District 241 accomplished. “This is an excellent staff and they do a fine job of educating students in the district,” he said.

May 4, 1989: Burnell Lokken, head custodian of Halverson Elementary School, retired after working 10 years for District 241. Lokken was taken home by limousine on his last day as staff and students applauded and cheered.

May 6, 1989: The 17th annual Freeborn County Bike-A-Thon was held. The 102-mile route started at the warming house located on West Front Street near Sibley School and Skyline Plaza. The Freeborn County Bike-A-Thon was one of the best known and most successful fundraisers in Minnesota.

 

U.S. history

1789: George Washington took the oath of office in New York as the first president of the United States.

1803: The United States purchased the Louisiana Territory from France for 60 million francs, the equivalent of about $15 million.

1945: As Soviet troops approached his Berlin bunker, Adolf Hitler committed suicide along with his wife of one day, Eva Braun.

1968: New York City police forcibly removed student demonstrators occupying five buildings at Columbia University.

1970: President Richard M. Nixon announced the U.S. was sending troops into Cambodia, an action that sparked widespread protest.

1973: President Richard Nixon announced the resignations of top aides H.R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman, Attorney General Richard G. Kleindienst and White House counsel John Dean, who was actually fired.

1983: Blues singer and guitarist Muddy Waters died in Westmont, Illinois, at age 68.

2004: Arabs expressed outrage at graphic photographs of naked Iraqi prisoners being humiliated by U.S. military police; President George W. Bush condemned the mistreatment of prisoners, saying “that’s not the way we do things in America.”

2009: Riding a crest of populist anger, the House approved, 357-70, a bill to restrict credit card practices and eliminate sudden increases in interest rates and late fees.

 

— Information from “History of Freeborn County,” Albert Lea Tribune archives and the Associated Press.