TV and radio personality Art Linkletter is presented with an honorary degree from Elizabethtown College President Morley Mays, as seen in this image from March 16, 1974.

This section features selected extracts and summaries of news articles from the former Intelligencer Journal, Lancaster New Era, and Sunday News. It highlights significant, newsworthy, or simply bizarre events from the county’s past.

In March 1999, it was announced that schools within Lancaster city were gearing up to transition to full-day kindergarten. School District of Lancaster Superintendent Vickie Phillips did not just make a private note of this but vocalized it publicly using a megaphone to ensure everyone was informed.

The School District of Lancaster was the first in the county to implement this change. Phillips had initiated a “Kindergarten Round-up Campaign”. The aim was to get all eligible city children registered for the upcoming school year’s kindergarten curriculum ahead of time.

Phillips anticipated to journey across the neighborhoods, street by street, through a van equipped with a bullhorn, publicly broadcasting the registration drive. She planned to be joined with different city officials, including Mayor Charlie Smithgall.

The big deal about this? Consider that kindergarten registration isn’t required by the law until the start year of school, leading to schools being unprepared for the influx of registrations. Thus, the push to achieve registration or be as near to completion as feasible during April.

Furthermore, if the mayor’s bullhorn didn’t provide enough motivation, a lucky draw for a 25-inch TV was also a part of it – everyone who registered a kindergartener in April was eligible.

In the headlines:

General admits sex with wives of subordinates

Serbs stand firm against Kosovo peace deal

Stuffy AOL taking charge of freewheeling Netscape

Check out the March 17, 1999, Lancaster New Era here.

Art Linkletter, a pillar of radio and early television, graced Elizabethtown College in March 1974, addressing almost 1,000 persons and receiving an Honorary Diploma.

Linkletter, who climbed to nationwide recognition with a 40-year stretch in broadcasting, is most remembered for the game show “People are Funny” and the talk show “House Party.” Both shows premiered on radio in the 1940s before transitioning to TV, where they ran well into the 1960s.

He talked about a documentary he had recently shot on the subject of refugees across the globe and his career as an entertainer. Additionally, he conveyed the anti-drug message he has been associated with during his later years by sharing the story of his daughter Diane’s demise, which he attributed to the use of drugs.

(On the 4th of October, 1969, Diane flung herself from a sixth-floor window, an act her father accused drugs, LSD specifically, of causing. Despite Diane’s public admission to drug usage, toxicology findings did not trace any LSD in her at the time of her death.)

In the headlines:

U.S. firms offer kidnap insurance

Ireland’s troubles go on and on

Israel, Syria duel flares in fifth day

Check out the March 17, 1974, Sunday News here.

In March 1949, Lancaster was preparing for the installation of its first parking meters.

State legislation had recently passed allowing third-class cities, like Lancaster, to establish parking authorities. Following this decision, Lancaster was taking the first preliminary steps towards an organized approach to parking regulation and revenue.

The initial steps included a comprehensive study of loading and unloading zones across the city, coupled with curb painting.

Later studies would determine how many parking meters the city would install and at what locations. 

In the headlines:

Spy suspect indicted for looting U.S. files

House committee approves cut in liquor licenses

Magazines assail postal rate hike

Check out the March 10, 1949, Intelligencer Journal here.

In Prohibition-era booze news, a group of Harrisburg-based rum-runners were arrested in Lancaster County on March 16, 1924. 

The three men were arrested near Florin while in the process of delivering 10 five-gallon drums of illicit liquor to a Lancaster man.

Following their apprehension, the suspects admitted to law enforcement a significant adjustment to their plan of action – due to the strict liquor laws in Lancaster city, they (including assumed other illegal alcohol providers) had moved to the county’s rural areas to deliver their “wet goods,” setting up rendezvous points with their Lancaster intermediaries, rather than directly transporting their products.

News highlights:

Charges are brought against the Attorney General

Flight around the globe commenced by U.S. airplanes

Check out the March 17, 1924, Lancaster Intelligencer here.

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