The People’s Motor Parade, made up of activists outraged by President Donald Trump and his policies, greeted the president on Saturday, July 6, 2019, at Trump National Golf Club, the president’s private golf course and club in Bedminster.
Trump’s first return to the club that year was for a summer getaway over the holiday weekend after presiding over Independence Day celebrations in Washington, D.C.
This week we bring you events that happened in Central Jersey five, 10, 25, 50 and 100 years ago.
5 years ago
July 1, 2019: Former South Plainfield Recreation Director Kevin Hughes, 49, of North Plainfield, who resigned earlier that year, pleaded guilty to one count of theft by unlawful taking, admitting to stealing more than $80,000 from the department.
July 2: Joel Mercado, 38, of Lyndhurst, a former senior corrections officer at the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women in Union Township, was reportedly sentenced on Friday, June 28, 2019, to three years in state prison for having sexual relations with two inmates.
July 5: An appeals court overturned a state Department of Education ruling that the parents of a second-grader, identified only by their initials and first names, Tom and Mary, must pay $38,329 to reimburse the Bridgewater-Raritan School District for one year of tuition because the district believed the student did not live within the district.
July 7: When USA Today Network New Jersey looked at U.S. Census data to rank the 50 wealthiest towns in New Jersey by median household income, Montgomery ranked seventh and Tewksbury ranked 19th.
July 7: The United States Women’s National Team defeats the Netherlands 2-0 in the FIFA Women’s World Cup Final, with New Jersey natives Tobin Heath and Khalil Lloyd leading the team to a successful defence of their title.
July 7: Singer-songwriter Gloria Gaynor is reported to be selling her Green Brook home on Fairway Drive. Built in 1988, the house had been listed for sale for $1.395 million.
10 years ago
July 1, 2014: Jonathan R. Parham, a police officer with the Linden Police Department for nearly 16 years, becomes the first Black officer in the Linden Police Department to be promoted to the rank of captain, and Nancy E. Petroski, with 22 years of experience with the department, becomes the first woman to be promoted to lieutenant.
July 1st: Approximately 200 people gather at Rutgers University in New Brunswick to mourn three murdered Israeli teenagers who had been missing since Thursday, June 12th, 2014, and whose bodies were discovered on Monday, June 30th, 2014. The three are Gilad Shaar, now 19, and Naftali Frankel, now 16.
July 1: In a World Cup soccer match, North Brunswick goalkeeper Tim Howard makes 16 saves, the most in a World Cup game in the last half-century, but the U.S. loses 2-1 to Belgium.
July 2: Martha Stewart reportedly promoted her new self-help book for people over 40, “Living the Good Long Life,” in front of a sold-out audience of 500 at the Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital’s 2014 Health Fair in the Somerset section of Franklin Township.
July 4: It was reported that week that the families of 11 Manville residents who died from asbestos-related cancer had received $90.5 million in compensation for pain and suffering. The families had sued Anova Holdings and Beacon, two foreign companies that sold asbestos to Johns Manville in Manville.
1999
July 1, 1999: The Piscataway County Council recognized the following residents for their bravery in rescuing people from a burning plane on Sunday, May 30, 1999: Thomas and Frank Uhlin, Carol Pennyfeather, Christian Happel, David Peters, Kenneth Burns Sr., Robert Bertelli, Bruce Plass, Hedwig Alberto, David Norton, Edward Rose and Walter Kramer Jr.
July 3: Manville celebrates its 70th anniversary by unveiling the first borough flag, made by Duane Potasky, during a ceremony at Manville Borough Hall.
July 3-4: The 16th annual Raritan River Festival, featuring music, food and a classic car and motorcycle show, was held at Boyd Park in New Brunswick and Donaldson Park in Highland Park.
July 4: Milton Kalafer, 83, father of Somerset Patriots owners Steven and Michael Kalafer, dies at Morristown Memorial Hospital.
July 7: The Immaculata American Legion baseball team recorded its third straight victory, defeating first-place Hillsboro, 6-4, in a game against Somerset/Warren American Legion at Hillsboro High School.
July 7: A jury acquits Alan Franklin, 37, of murder and finds him guilty instead of a crime of passion, or manslaughter, for the killing of Isaac Womack, 64, a friend of his wife Annie, in their Carteret bedroom.
1974
July 4: George Bernard Shaw’s comedy “Arms and the Man” premieres at the Hamilton Murray Theatre on the Princeton University campus.
July 5: Eight homes were struck by lightning in East Brunswick, and six cases of flooding occurred in the town.
July 5: Larry Smith, 19, of Glen Rock, Pennsylvania, won the boys’ division at the Eastern Archery Association Championships in Piscataway.
July 6: Bridgewater Police were reported to have announced that a 15,000 gallon heating oil spill that occurred on Friday, July 5, 1974, was contained at Sunset Lake and posed no threat to the Elizabethtown Water Company’s water supply.
1924
July 2: It was reported that Assistant Secretary of the Navy Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., as an official representative of the Navy Department, would visit Perth Amboy on Saturday, July 5, 1924, to receive the USS Newton from Senator Walter E. Edge.
July 4: A large contingent of the Ku Klux Klan from Middlesex County was among 4,000 hooded men and women who marched through Monmouth County territory to celebrate the 148th anniversary of American Independence in the name of “religious and political liberty.”
July 4-5: The film “The Broken Wing,” starring Kenneth Harlan, Miriam Cooper and Walter Long, screened at Reed Plainfield Theatre.
July 5: Danny Williams of Plainfield, assistant golf pro at Shackamaxon Country Club in Scotch Plains, broke the Shackamaxon course record with a 65. The previous record was 66 by Bob Cruickshank, head pro at the Westfield club.
Brad Wadlow is a staff writer for MyCentralJersey.com.
