Digital Extra: The Journal's 175th Anniversary

07.21.2004

The passing news

Midnight robbery: "This is a stickup, give me all your money," said the young blond man who walked into the Broad Street Cumberland Farms about midnight.

"I don't believe you," said clerk Marion Roberts.

"I'm serious." He reached into his pocket, as if to draw a gun.

Roberts still wasn't buying it. She went to the phone. 911.

The bandit plucked the cash register from the counter, smashed it to the ground and took off with a small amount of cash.

Feb. 19, 1993

In a closely watched dispute over sexual equality with wide-ranging ramifications, the U.S. Supreme Court yesterday let stand lower court rulings that found Brown University illegally discriminates against its women athletes and must now move to correct the imbalance.

The Supreme Court's decision not to hear the Title IX case will have significant implications for colleges with athletic programs and could also lead some colleges to cut or continue to cut men's sports programs to boost the ratio of female athletes in the student body.

April 22, 1997

On the eve of his return to Los Angeles, Steven Spielberg yesterday spoke glowingly of his month on location in southern New England. He said he would gladly shoot another movie in Rhode Island, his local base of operations for Amistad, which is expected to wrap East Coast production in Newport late tonight.

Thursday, April 3, 1997

The obituary notice from the Memorial Funeral Home summed up Eugenia Smith's life in a neat little package.

Age: 95 Years. Born: St. Petersburg, Russia. Residence: 25 Bowery St. Place of Death: Lafayette Nursing Home, North Kingstown. A memorial service will be held today at the Newport Congregational Church, Pelham Street, at 2 p.m.

But attached to that standardized form was a two-page, hand-scrawled message claiming that Eugenia Smith had been raised as the legendary Anastasia -- whose name mingles mystery and tragedy as the famed youngest daughter of Russia's last tsar, Nicholas II.

Feb. 16, 1997

The new terminal at Green State Airport opened its doors yesterday to the toughest critic of all -- the hard-eyed jury that sits in the court of public opinion -- and it was acquitted on all counts.

People declared the building "fantastic," "magnificent" "dazzling," "gorgeous," searching for superlatives they never thought they'd apply to a government project in Rhode Island.

Sept. 22, 1996

The long line of cars streaming toward Rocky Point Amusement Park passed this eulogy on rain-soaked West Shore Road:

Rocky Point Park

1847-1996

R.I.P.

But even as the assets of the park were sold at auction yesterday, the owners said they were ushering the vintage institution not into the grave, but into a new incarnation as a "seasonal fairground."

April 17, 1996

The Almacs supermarket chain, which emerged from bankruptcy less than a year ago but apparently has become ensnared in the financial problems of its management company, filed for bankruptcy again yesterday.

Sept. 21, 1995