Yesterday…

25 years ago – July 25, 1977

(As reported in the Bangor Daily News)

ORONO – Two professors at the University of Maine at Orono have received a grant from the U.S. Office of Education to help Maine people make the change as painlessly as possibly to the metric system.

Dr. John Butzow and Dr. Bernard Yvon of the UM college of education are veterans in metric education as they have run nearly 40 metric workshops for teachers during the last four years.

In the project, which has just been funded, they plan to train people who will then be expected to train others. First will be teachers so they might organize and conduct two-day programs for their local education agency, and then community leaders so they might give a session on the metric system for adults, parents and business and industry representatives.

50 years ago -July 25, 1952

OLD TOWN – Word was received here today that 1st Lt. Joseph G. Cyr has been awarded the sixth and seventh Oak Leaf Clusters to the Air Medal for his actions while flying combat missions over North Korea.

An F-80 Shooting Star jet pilot, Lt. Cyr is assigned to the famed 8th Fighter Bomber Wing, which is flying daily combat missions against Communist supply routes and Red frontline troop emplacements.

The citations accompanying the Oak Leaf Clusters cited Lt. Cyr for taking part in an attack against two supply laden, frontline headed rail trains and for participating in raids against the Communists during the period of May 3 to June 2.

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BANGOR – The sixth Fanny Farmer candy shop in New England will open its doors at 34 Main St. at 9 a.m., bringing Bangor a shop embodying the newest features of a chain long famous for its tempting confections.

The Bangor shop is decorated in the traditional cool, simple white with walls and fixtures, making a perfect background for the nearly 100 varied confections displayed in attractive cases. The Bangor shop is the only one in New England featuring undraped windows, allowing a maximum of visibility to window shoppers.

Julian H. Orr, Bangor city manager, and James C. Totman, Bangor city council chairman, will attend the opening ceremony this morning, as will representatives from the Fanny Farmer company.

The entire personnel of the new Fanny Farmer shop will be drawn from Bangor. Mrs. Elizabeth Corning of Manchester, N.H., will train the three girls who will run the shop and a local manager will be chosen in a few weeks.

100 years ago – July 25, 1902

BANGOR – This is the day when the Bryan Democrats of Maine are, most of them for the first time, to gaze upon the man, who, although twice defeated, is yet a political idol in their eyes.

Williams Jennings Bryan, whose gift of eloquence has drawn vast throngs about him wherever and whenever he has lifted his voice, whose oratory has held men of all political beliefs bound as by a magic spell – the Bryan who waded cheerfully through the defeats of 1896 and 1900, and is yet ready to cross lances with opponents without or within his party, is here in Maine today, and tonight will speak in Bangor’s big Auditorium.

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BANGOR – The outlook for the coal situation in Bangor this fall is beginning to look a little serious. Optimistic views are held by one or two dealers, but the consensus of opinion seems to be that unless the strike breaks at once there will be some hustling when fall comes to lay in the winter’s supply. Soft coal is coming to Bangor in greater quantities than it did a while ago, and hard coal cargoes are being received occasionally. But comparatively speaking, the whole market is locked tight.

Compiled by Matt Poliquin