x
Breaking News
More () »

News 2 You: Remembering a presidential visit to Buffalo, and when a major Western New York manufacturer pulled up stakes here

Those stories, and more, made news this week in decades past

BUFFALO, N.Y. — 10 years ago this week:

Donald Trump became the latest person to come forward to say he was possibly interested in buying the Buffalo Bills and to keep them in Western New York as potential suitors for the team lined up in the wake of the death of Ralph Wilson.

Former St. Joes QB Chad Kelly was dismissed from the Clemson University football team. Kelly currently plays for the Toronto Argonauts and was named Most Outstanding Player of the Canadian Football League's most recent season.

A group trying to revive the once vaunted Empire State Games, an Olympic style competition featuring athletes from all over New York gave up its efforts amid financial problems.

Barrack Obama was the president and Joe Biden was vice president at a time when Russia had invaded Ukraine and food prices were hitting all time record highs this week in 2014.

Credit: WGRZ

20 Years ago this week:

President George W. Bush was a Buffalo visitor, delivering a talk at Kleinhans music hall, where he stumped for an extension of the Patriot Act, which expanded government surveillance powers in the the aftermath of the 9-11 terror attacks of 2001.

Credit: WGRZ-TV

30 years ago this week:

A Buffalo woman, Lynn DeJac, was convicted of murder for the strangulation death of her daughter Crystalynn Gerrard.

"I didn't do it," DeJac told reporters as she was led from the courtroom.

DeJac would serve 14 years in prison before her conviction was overturned and she was later awarded $2.7 million from the state for wrongful conviction.

She only survived for seven years after her release before dying of cancer at the age of 50.

Credit: WGRZ TV

40 years ago this week:

The Western New York economy, which was still significantly based on manufacturing, suffered another blow when a major employer which once had 5,000 local workers announced it would be pulling up stakes and leaving the area.

The company, which at the time only had 400 employees remaining at its sprawling Cheektowaga plant, is the subject of this week's News 2 You Pop Quiz (for the answer watch the conclusion of the video attached to this story).

Prior to computer programs and electronic filing to assist us, we still filled out tax returns by hand and mailed them in prior to the April 15 deadline.

The Buffalo Bisons embarked on another season at War Memorial Stadium where the old Rock Pile had a new, $150,000 scoreboard.

A ground breaking ceremony was held for an expansion of the Lockport Mall and another was held for the construction of the new Erie County Correctional Facility in Alden. The former facility nearby was purchased by the state for $48 million and now operates as Wende state prison.

Legions of loyal "dead heads", some from as far away as Oregon descended on Niagara Falls for a Grateful Dead concert at the Convention Center and the Perry Projects, which modern day wrecking crews will soon set to demolish, still had people living in them this week in 1984.

Credit: WGRZ-TV

Before You Leave, Check This Out