The Star-News is approaching its 140th anniversary this year.
Records indicate that in September 1882 the first issue of The Star-News was published (though not in its current format or masthead.)
That’s a long time publishing, almost as long as some of the introductory remarks made during some of the Chula Vista State of the City addresses in the “before times.”
In that century-plus of reporting, the newspaper has written about a variety of topics.
On the front page of The National City News (a predecessor to today’s paper) January 7, 1905 edition, it was reported that a new supply of pen points was available at the P.O. store and the S.S. Johnston Cottage was “nearly ready for occupancy” while the rains thus far reduced the price of eggs ten cents a dozen.
Seventeen years later, in the January 6 edition of The National City News, it was reported that between “6,000 and 7,000 glass bottles are being manufactured daily at the Finkheiner Glass Bottle Factory.”
It was also noted on that day that “Coach Hoskins Gives Name of Likely Candidate” which included hopefuls James, Garner, Livingstone, Southworth, Poggi, Powers, H. Bullen, Miller, Porter, Smith, and Rossiter for that year’s basketball team.
By January 2, 1942 (weeks after Pearl Harbor was bombed and signaled the beginning of the United States’s involvement in World War II) the front page of the paper stated: ENEMY ALIENS COOPERATE WITH POLICE IN SEIZURE OF RADIO SETS, CAMERAS and went on to detail the National City police department’s seizure of shortwave radios and cameras from “alien enemies” , noting that at the home of “one Japanese national 2 radios and three cameras were taken.”
Inside, on the social page it was noted “Mr. and Mrs. Robert Getty entertained with a breakfast Christmas Day at their home, 205 E. First Street”.
For a while we have been publishing snippets of historic news items on page 3, hopefully giving readers a sense of what was considered newsworthy in the past. We plan to continue the practice there and occasionally in this space.
To know where you are going, know where you have been.
