100 years ago: 1919

Crescent Lodge, N.E.O.P. will hold entertainment and dance this evening. Refreshments will be served. Members are privileged to bring a friend.

50 years ago: 1969

A building permit for the controversial Squire Hills low-income housing project won’t be issued until the matter goes to the Auburn Board of Appeals. Auburn Building Inspector Henry Denman said Wednesday afternoon that this information was given to Harry W, Woodard Jr., executive director of the Auburn Housing Authority, in response to a Woodard query as to the procedure to follow to obtain a building permit. Denman pointed out that even though it is known a permit will not be issued, formal application for one must be made so it can be officially denied and the formal appeal made to the ABA. What guided the decision not a to issue the permit is the same one which for a time stumped the Auburn Planning Board during its deliberations on the preliminary plan for the project.

25 years ago: 1994

A local veteran of World War will return this June to the scene of the decisive Normandy invasion, 50 years after the Allies hit the beaches. Five decades ago, Sylvio LeCours of Rumford served as a gunner, radio operator and navigator aboard a B-26. LeCours and his wife, Leola, will return along with other members of the Ninth Air Force to Normandy for the 50th anniversary of D-Day in June. They will sail from New York on the superliner Queen Elizabeth. According to anniversary organizers, the occasion will be one of the first times an Air Force fighter group will be holding its convention at sea. Many of the returning airmen sailed to England aboard the original Queen Elizabeth 50 years ago.

The material used in Looking Back is reproduced exactly as it originally appeared, although misspellings and errors may be corrected.