Here’s a look at some stories happening the week of Feb. 26-March 4.
Mar. 3, 1935: Entry of rare breeds in dog show here attracting national attention
The dog show of the Dayton Kennel club was held at Memorial Hall.
In each of the separate breeds, a “Best of Breed” was selected by the breed judges. Following those selections, the winners were to be paraded past another judge who was to determine the winner of The Dayton Daily News cup.
An award for the best dog in the show was donated by the Dayton Chamber of Commerce and the Flower Pot, Inc.
Mar. 4, 1945: Dayton sergeant, former Nazi prisoner in Austria, is home
Sgt. Lee Prugh, 23, returned to Dayton after spending nearly a year imprisoned in a German camp near Vienna in Austria.
“It’s good to be home, but the old town certainly has changed since I left,” Prugh said at the time.
A top turret gunner on a B-17 Flying Fortress, Sgt. Prugh had to parachute from his plane after it caught fire after taking repeated attacks from Nazi planes while on a raid on Munich.
His hand was severely injured by a 20mm shell. A tourniquet was placed on his arm, which healed after four months, but left his hand paralyzed.
While at the prison camp, his name appeared on a prisoner exchange list. Once back in the United States, he was placed in a hospital in New York and then another in Michigan before being released to travel back home to Dayton on a 30-day furlough.
Feb. 28, 1965: Speeding beds overrun UD campus
A “wacky bed race” was held on the University of Dayton campus in celebration of Mardi Gras weekend.
Eighteen bed teams took up the challenge as nearly 1,000 students lined the half-mile track from the student union to the cafeteria. Students cheered their favorites from seats on rooftops, windows and along the narrow road.
The beds were decorated to the wheels and manned by students dressed in everything from diapers to nightgowns. The funniest bed — The Mummy Gras Express — arrived by hearse.
It was reported that there was a “thrill and crash in nearly every heat. Boys fell off the beds as they zipped along at speeds of about 10 miles per hour, wheels fell off. Steering ropes broke.”
A bed named “Bird of Paradise,” and run by a group of sophomores, was the winner.
Feb. 29, 1976: Kettering author best-seller? Really!
In 1976, Kettering author John Jakes became the first writer in history to have three books listed among the New York Times’ top 10 paperback best-sellers in one year.
Jakes was the author of an American Bicentennial book series that featured different members of the Kent family, connecting them with historical events at the time of the American Revolution.
Four books in his Bicentennial series sold more than 4 million copies and at the time, Jakes was writing his fifth book in the series.
When he started the series, it was intended to be five books, but the publisher had pushed him to make it eight books. In order to catch up, he was writing seven days a week.
Jakes said he was more proud of having three books on the Times’ list “than I am of The Furies (volume IV of the series) making No. 1.” At the time, The Furies became only the second paperback ever to achieve the No. 1 rating.
The American Bicentennial book series went on to sell over 55 million copies.
Feb. 28, 1990: Soviet metal lands at Fairmont
“Gorky-mania” is what a Fairmont High School senior called it.
The Russian rock group took the stage before 550 Fairmont seniors who rocketed to their feet with yells of “rock ‘n’ roll” and “Gorky Park.”
At the time, the group claimed to have sold over 20 million records, but said they never got paid because the government confiscated their earnings.
The band was touring the United States with appearances at high schools to speak about life in the Soviet Union, their work with the anti-drug organization Make a Difference Foundation, and world peace.
The show ended with “a thunderous standing ovation.”
Kettering was Gorky Park’s only Ohio stop during a national tour of 45 high schools.
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