Today is Saturday, Nov. 4, 2023. Here are local news reports from 100, 50 and 15 years ago:
In 1923, Urbana and Champaign took on somewhat their normal appearance and resumed usual workday manners. A general disheveled air and yards of tattered bunting were the only things left to tell the visitor that something unusual had taken place. There was nothing to tell him that one of the largest football stadiums in the world had been opened by the biggest game of the nation’s football year. The giant stadium is still standing despite rumors it would collapse while loaded with cheering thousands.
In 1973, approximately $300 to $400 damage was done to Discount Records at 603 S. Wright St. in a fire-bombing. No one was injured and nothing was stolen in an incident that damaged the store’s front door, a section of the floor, two record bins and 90 record albums and 10 tapes.
In 2008, a Champaign County judge said Naomi Arnette’s death should be a message to other victims of domestic violence that they must speak up. Judge Tom Difanis sentenced Mrs. Arnette’s estranged husband — Robert Arnett — to 65 years in prison for her murder and concealing her body afterward.
