20-50-100 Years Ago -- May 12
May 12—100 Years Ago
May 12, 1921
Germany — Grover C. Bergdoll, draft dodger, defied the United States government today. Informed of the statement by Chief of Staff March that the War Department is determined to get Bergdoll out of Germany "at any price," the slacker said, "You can tell the world that we won't be captured in Germany." He showed no concern over the grilling to which his mother was to be subjected by a Congressional committee.
For a month this summer, the earth will engage in a race with the periodic comet Pons-Winnecke, and because it will have no chance to win, it will endeavor, through astral influences, to "trip up" its gaseous rival, according to a report made public by the observatory of the University of California. The earth will not get into the race until the comet has a lead of between 12,000,000 and 20,000,000 miles, but then it will "put everything it has" to the test. It will cap its supremacy finally. when on June 27, it flips its tail so hard against its terrestrial rival that the impact will send out sparks. These will go down in the record as a meteoric shower.
50 Years Ago
May 12, 1971
A county couple was convicted Tuesday in Frederick County Circuit Court on a charge of stealing a tape deck from a parked car. According to testimony from D/Sgt. Thomas Darkis, he saw a man take something resembling a tape unit from a car parked at the Frederick Shopping Center. Darkis pursued the vehicle down Schley Avenue and onto the Frederick bypass, where between Fourth Street and Patrick Street, a stereo unit was thrown from the car. The driver stopped the car near the Jefferson Street exit.
City police detectives and the Maryland Fire Marshal's office are investigating Tuesday morning's fire, which leveled a barn on the Independent Order of Odd Fellows farm on North Market Street Extended. The barn was totally destroyed, and damage was estimated at $5,000.
The Frederick County Planning and Zoning Commission Tuesday voted to approve rezoning for construction of an Esso Service Station at the Urbana interchange of Interstate 70 South and postponed until Thursday a decision on an Esso request to rezone the Md. 144-Md.75 interchange at New Market for the same use.
20 Years Ago
May 12, 2001
In November 1998, Matt Souder took a job at the jail, and he wound up stealing Carol Devlin's heart. The workplace romance led to wedded bliss the next year for the two Frederick County correctional officers, one of two married couples who work at the Frederick County Adult Detention Center.
The developer who for more than a year has been trying to erect an office building on Frederick's Carroll Creek wants the city to lease space in the building, raising concerns for some that the $11 million project is faltering.
Frederick's aldermen this week voiced nearly unanimous support for a policy change that would have the city paying half the cost of sidewalk repairs when a tree planted by the city causes damage. The only member of the Frederick Board of Aldermen with a divergent view of the issue was Donna Kuzemchak, who said the proposed change didn't go far enough. She wanted the city to pay the entire repair bill. City code now mandates that property owners are responsible for paying the full cost of repairing a sidewalk.
