Way back when: Today in history
BY GENE CURTIS
Monday, January 14, 2013
1/14/13 at 2:34 AM
1952 - Train snowbound
"When the train first stopped, it was kind of a joke and we kidded about it," one of the passengers on the snow-bound City of San Francisco train said after he and three other passengers rode a snowcat to a lodge 6 miles from the train. But when the heat on the train stopped, "we knew we were in serious trouble," he said. The four young servicemen had left 222 other passengers huddling in blankets on the unheated train that became snowbound in 7,200-foot Donner Pass in a record blizzard a day earlier. When the storm broke on the fourth day, some passengers were able to walk out while others were tobogganed or carried to safety. The train was still stuck.
1963 - Bellmon inaugurated
Billings wheat farmer Henry Bellmon was inaugurated as the state's first Republican governor and promised an administration that would try to strengthen the state's moral fiber in order to build a self-reliant citizenry. An estimated 4,000 Democrats and Republicans looked on in 32-degree but sunny weather at the Capitol in Oklahoma City as the 41-year-old was sworn in by U.S. District Judge Ross Rizley. Bellmon ended his inaugural speech with a prayer seeking God's help in the task ahead of him.
1996 - Drug smuggler arrested
Juan Garcia Abrego, one of the biggest smugglers of cocaine into the U.S., was arrested by Mexican agents and deported to Houston on U.S. charges of drug trafficking, conspiracy and money laundering. Experts said the arrest of Garcia Abrego, 51, might temporarily slow the flow of cocaine into the United States but was unlikely to have a lasting impact. Garcia Abrego was head of the Gulf cartel that smuggled hundreds of tons of Colombian cocaine into the U.S. every year by bribing Mexican officials.
2011 - Hindu pilgrims killed
More than 100 pilgrims returning from one of India's most popular Hindu festivals were killed and at least 25 were injured when a jeep crashed into the worshippers and set off a stampede among those who were walking along a narrow forest path. The pilgrims were returning from a hilltop shrine where they had offered prayers in southern India. About 150,000 devotees had walked on the narrow path out of the densely forested hills where the stampede occurred.
Associated Images:
Henry Bellmon takesthe oath of office as governor from U.S. District Judge Ross Rizley. Tulsa World file
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