Headlines of Yore
Stories from Philadelphia’s history by Avi Wolfman-Arent, as recalled through past newspaper headlines around the region.
125 years ago, a cross-country murder case gave new meaning to the term ‘death by chocolate’
Delaware couple John and Mary Dunning did not have a happy marriage.
The fight to admit girls to Philly’s Central High School
It took two court battles, including a Supreme Court case, to change the status quo at what was considered a bastion of academic excellence.
When the Beatles were smuggled into Philadelphia… with the help of Frank Rizzo
The Fab Four rode into town on the back of a fish truck, per famed Philly DJ Hy Lit.
Bubble gum was invented in Philadelphia by a 23-year-old candy accountant
He worked for the Fleer Corporation, which had great luck with Chiclets and was also known for trading cards.
Atlantic City’s Shelburne Hotel was once slated to become a Benihana-themed resort
Few properties capture the boom-and-bust nature of AC better than this era-spanning destination.
The Black aviators from Philly who flew across country and trained the Tuskegee Airmen
In the 1930s, the only flight school willing to train Black pilots was located in the Philadelphia area.
How Upper Darby’s famed Tower Theater was reborn as a music venue
Opened as a movie house, it faltered in the postwar years — until rock promoter Rick Green came around.
97 years ago, Philly threw America one of the worst birthday parties ever
The layout and character of deep South Philadelphia is forever tied to the Sesquicentennial.
Pasta. Arsenic. Mass murder: South Philly’s infamous 1930s poison ring
There are few Philadelphia tales stranger or sadder.
The South Philly kid turned spy who passed atomic secrets to the Soviets and hastened the Rosenbergs’ executions
It’s thought that Harry Gold began working for the USSR because of the antisemitism he experienced growing up.
Benjamin Franklin almost posthumously funded an Aretha Franklin concert in Philly
The founding father left the city a bunch of money, but his will specified it couldn’t be used until 200 years after his death.
The Philly doctor who shoplifted the largest collection of stolen art known to authorities
Frank Waxman eventually pleaded guilty to theft of eight pieces, a fraction of the 100-plus he’s thought to have nabbed.
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