• Thirty-two million dollars worth of income bearing securities was the gift that John D. Rockefeller, through his son, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., announced to the General Education Board when it assembled for a special meeting in this city. “For general educational purposes throughout this country” is given as the reason for this donation – the largest single prize ever handed out for such purposes.

• Maine people are warned not to shoot the blue jays. It is said that they just dote on destroying the brown-tail moth.

50 Years Ago, 1957

The legislative Appropriations committee was given a hint of the fast-growing demands of the educational crisis, when it heard President Arthur A. Hauk, and others defend budget requests for the University of Maine. One of the university’s trustees told the committee that “an avalanche of students is shortly going to roll over all colleges and universities.” This avalanche has already moved through the elementary schools, driving towns and cities almost to distraction in trying to cope with the huge post-war school enrollments. Now it is surging against the secondary schools, and by 1960 or shortly after will hit the college and universities.

25 Years Ago, 1982

Surplus cheese – 2,454 5-pound packages of it – will be distributed this week to needy families in Androscoggin County. The Task Force on Human Needs received the orange, processed American cheese and plans to distribute it beginning Monday, according to Bradbury Blake, task force executive director. The cheese is Androscoggin County’s share of surplus distributed by the federal government. Maine received more than 150,000 pounds from the U.S. Department of Agriculture last month. Blake said the unsliced cheese will be distributed in 5-pound blocks on a first-come, first-served basis.