100 years ago, 1913
Several Auburn officials are agitating the revision of the Auburn city ordinances, and the one which has made itself the most prominent the last two weeks is that which regulates the selling of fireworks. The officials have no authority to stop the sale, and it is almost impossible to keep the children from using their fireworks now. Several reports have come to the police station because of frightened horses, and the police are making every effort to stall off the fireworks until the Fourth. The ordinances might be made over in such a way as to prevent the sale until a few days before the fourth.

50 years ago, 1963
It was the heat, and not the humidity, which had nostrils of Lewiston-Auburn residents twitching uncomfortably today as the one-time smelly Androscoggin River gave forth the same nauseating odors of old, as temperatures soared. While the worst of the odor was noticed near the river (the lawyers in the Auburn Savings Bank building were especially suffering), reports of the bad smell reached the Journal from scattered sections of the two communities.

25 years ago, 1988
An attack by four ladder companies and by doors closed by a deputy fire chief were the principal factors which halted an out-of-control fire Sunday night at the old Marcal Paper Mill in Mechanic Falls. The blaze was brought under control at 12:02 a.m., ending a battle by more than 100 firefighters from nine departments. The fire destroyed the wheel room of the hydroelectric generating plant, the electrical shop, beater room and part of the maintenance shop. Deputy Fire Chief Donald Boyd entered an uninvolved section of the building and closed several fire doors in the mill. The fire was stopped by those closed doors and the fire wall between the beater room and the machine rooms.

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