The 10 Biggest News Stories In New Jersey History
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Kristen
Author
For better or worse, big things have happened in New Jersey. As a history buff, I love learning about the headlines of the past. Today, I’m bringing you some of the biggest news stories in Garden State History. They are listed in date order, beginning with the most recent.
The former Giants Stadium in East Rutherford is rich in history. The venue was open from 1976 to 2010, played host to Pele's final futbol game and brought crowds of over 80,000 in when Pope John Paul II celebrated mass here on October 5, 1995. If you're curious, the Jets won their first Superbowl in 1968.
It would later become the Continental Airlines Arena, IZOD Center, and Meadowlands Arena.
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Though it's seen its ups and downs since, the city was forever changed.
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Before the Westfield Watcher made headlines, there was John List. The wealthy banker killed his wife, mother, and three children before fleeing. He wasn't captured until 1989, after the story of his crime was featured on America's Most Wanted.
They met at Glassboro State College, now Rowan University. Though no specific agreements were reached at the Glassboro Summit Conference, it helped to improve the strained Russia-US relations. Also strained in 1967 - race relations. An issue for years, the summer of 1967 saw riots across the country, including in Newark and Plainfield.
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The Garden State plaza opened the same year!
Jackie played for the Montreal Royals against the Jersey City Giants. It was the most written about minor league game in history.
The 1930s also saw several tragic events. The kidnapping of Charles Lindbergh's son was kidnapped (and later found dead) in 1932 and the Hindenburg burned over Naval Air Station Lakehurst in 1937.
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Also in the 1920s, New Jersey hosted the first Miss America Pageant (1921), the "Radium Girls" filed suit against U.S. Radium for medical expenses and pain (1926), and the first seeing-eye Dog Guide School in the United States (Seeing Eye, Inc. in Morris Township) received its charter (1929).
In 1912, New Jersey Governor Woodrow Wilson was elected President of the United States.
Of course, many other major events happened in New Jersey. In 1998, the Toms River East Little League team won the Little League World Series and in 1978, New Jersey scientists won the Nobel Prize for finding the echo of the Big Bang. Even still, that’s just that start. What New Jersey-related news stories do you remember most?
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