NEW YORK – The strike of telegraphers which originating last Friday in Los Angeles, where it was directed against the Western Union company, has gradually spread eastward, today reached New York City, where three spontaneous “walkouts” followed in rapid succession. These were directed against the Western Union, the Postal Telegraph Company, and The Associated Press. In the latter instance the strike was the first against the news organization and was fairly general throughout the country west of New England.

50 years ago, 1957

MONTREAL – Maritime Central Airways plane bound from London crashed and burned today about 15 miles southwest of Quebec, killing all 79 persons aboard. It was the worst crash in Canadian aviation history. The plane was presumably loaded with Canadian veterans returning from a holiday in Britain. The plane crashed and burned near the village of Issoudun during a violent local thunderstorm. The wreckage was still ablaze four hours after it crashed.

25 years ago, 1982

PORTLAND – Two Maine supermarket chains each sold more than 125,000 pairs of 3-D glasses in recent weeks to viewers awaiting televised reruns of 1950s-vintage horror movies, spokesmen for the stores said Wednesday. The resurrected fad follows a similar rush on stores offering three-dimensional spectacles that accompanied the broadcast of the movies last month by two Boston TV stations.

“Gorilla at Large” was to air Wednesday night on WGAN, Channal 13, in Portland, and again on Sunday afternoon. Meanwhile, WCSH, Channel 6 in Portland, in conjunction with WLBZ, Channel 2 in Bangor, had scheduled showings of “Revenge of the Creature” for Friday night and Sunday morning.

• Fifty employees of St. Mary’s General Hospital in Lewiston were laid off Thursday in a belt-tightening move to hold down spiraling costs. Of the employees let go, 18 were part-time and 32 full-time. As of July 31, the hospital employed 914 people.