King's Plainfield appearance postponed: This week in Central Jersey history, June 24-30
The speaking engagement at the mortgage-burning program of the Community Church of God in Plainfield by the Rev. Martin Luther King Sr., father of slain civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., was postponed after his wife, Alberta King, as well as a church deacon, were shot and killed, on Sunday, June 30, 1974.
"You've got to keep on keeping on," said M. Elizabeth Chitty, Plainfield Board of Education president, to a saddened audience at Plainfield High School that day.
Here's a look at events that happened in Central Jersey from five, 10, 25, 50 and 100 years ago this week.
Five years ago
June 24, 2019: A dedication ceremony was conducted for the newly named Paul Robeson Boulevard at the corner of Baldwin Street and Paul Robeson Boulevard in New Brunswick.
June 24: The 41st annual Phil Simms North-South All-Star Football Classic was held at Kean University's Alumni Stadium in Union. North won 24-23.
June 25: It was reported that the Environmental Protection Agency commended Somerset County, Bridgewater, Bound Brook and the state Department of Environmental Protection for transforming the 570-acre former American Cyanamid plant.
June 27: Jerome Davis, 43, of Piscataway, was sentenced to 65 years in state prison for a 2017 fatal shooting of Patrick Olarerin, 57, of North Brunswick in his home on Sunday, May 14, 2017.
June 28: Bruce Springsteen and his wife Patti Scialfa were among the attendees at a memorial for Kerry Layton, known as the Ambassador of Asbury Park music, at the city's Stone Pony on Thursday, June 20, 2019, it was reported.
June 28: It was reported the Spin Doctors would perform on Saturday, Sept. 21, 2019, as part of Ethnic Day at Carteret Park in Carteret.
June 30: The first of Gov. Phil Murphy and legislative leaders' minimum wage increases would go into effect for many workers on Monday, July 1, 2019, it was reported.
10 years ago
June 24, 2014: A black bear, estimated to be about 2 years old and weighing 252 pounds, was captured in Spotswood.
June 25: Mikey Nichols, the former Monroe High School star who suffered a broken neck in a varsity hockey game earlier that year, was selected by The Danbury (Conn.) Whalers with their fifth pick in the Federal Hockey League's College/Junior Draft.
June 26: One of the featured stories in "NY Med," a new reality-TV emergency room docudrama which premiered on ABC, featured the story of Tim Monticchio, 19, of South Brunswick, whose first flight lesson ended in a crash that killed his instructor, Craig MacCallum, 58, of Montclair.
June 26: A robber armed with a large knife, who was described by police as toothless with stubby white facial hair and speaking with a thick accent, got away with $700 after holding up Walgreens on Roosevelt Avenue in Carteret.
June 27: Alycia Dotro, of Manalapan, wife of Michael A. Dotro, an Edison police officer accused of trying to kill his captain and his family by torching their Monroe home, was indicted on charges of giving false information in an effort to cover up for her husband.
June 29: Boston performed at the PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel.
1999
June 27, 1999: The Somerset Patriots beat Atlantic City Surf, 4-2, before a crowd of 3,540 at The Sandcastle in Atlantic City.
June 28: Gov. Christie Whitman signed a record $19.5 billion budget into law, but not before striking out $5.5 million in legislative projects and policy changes lawmakers inserted into the spending plan.
June 29: It was reported tall tales of unsolved murders and the occult had attracted a wave of vandals and trespassers to an enormous turn-of-the-century mansion in Peapack-Gladstone owned by nuns.
June 29: The armpit sounds of flatulence, provided by Michael Pietrefesa of Kingwood, were featured in a song in the movie, "South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut," it was reported.
June 30: The state police's marine law enforcement Troop F said skeletal remains found at the bottom of Round Valley Reservoir in Clinton Township were identified as Richard Spera of Kenilworth, who drowned 18 years prior when his 8-foot boat capsized in the reservoir.
1974
June 26, 1974: In an American Legion baseball game, South Plainfield beat Somerville, 3-2, with Mike Flannery singling home the winning run in the seventh inning.
June 27: Lt. Everett Orlando, of East Brunswick, who had just gotten married two days prior, was told on Monday, June 17, 1974, of the murder of his only son, Stephen, 18, in Jacksonville Beach, Fla., by a group purported to be members of the Black Liberation Army, it was reported.
June 27: Former New Brunswick Patrolman Leonard Gioglio admitted under oath he conducted wiretaps as part of his job on the later-defunct police confidential squad.
June 28: William Myshka, local social security manager, said social security benefits were being paid to residents of Somerset County at a rate of $3,032,000 a month at the end of 1973.
June 29: Jeno Buttyan, 24, and Mihalisz Evangelidisz, 21, both of New Brunswick, were killed, and two others injured, when the car in which they were riding went off Hamilton Street, near Hawthorne Drive, in the Somerset section of Franklin Township, and struck a pole.
June 30: The Fine Arts Pop Orchestra, directed by George P. Krauss, performed at the Duke Island Amphitheater in Bridgewater.
1924
June 24, 1924: In the Industrial Twilight Baseball League, by virtue of a 12-1 victory over the Pondmen on Cable Field in Plainfield, the Mackmen moved into a tie with the Pondites for first place.
June 25: A burst of wind which preceded the first severe storm of the summer uprooted trees, broke poles, tied up trolley service for a brief period, put one unit of the New Brunswick fire alarm system out of commission, left wires in a tangle and blew down advertising signboards from Asbury Park to New Brunswick.
June 27-28: The movie, "A Boy of Flanders," starring Jackie Coogan, was shown at Reade's Strand Theatre in Perth Amboy.
June 30: The stores of the French Millinery and the Quality Shoe Shop occupying the ground floor of a three-story brick building at 340 George St. in New Brunswick were the scene of what the fire chief and assistant fire chief said was the hardest fire the New Brunswick department had ever fought.
June 30: A boiler used to heat the water for the showers and pool of the Metuchen Y.M.C.A. blew up, doing damage to the association building estimated at $6,000.
Brad Wadlow is a staff writer for MyCentralJersey.com
This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: NJ history for June 24-30
