BUFFALO, N.Y. — 10 years ago this week:
Donald Trump was mulling a run for Governor of New York. The businessman and reality TV show star eventually decided not to run, but just two years later was elected the 45th President of the United States.
The Buffalo Catholic Diocese said due to fiscal constraints they would be closing 10 catholic elementary schools. Bishop Richard Malone roundly criticized the state legislature and Gov. Amdram Cuomo for refusing to enact a tax credit for individuals who donated to parochial schools, which he said would have saved them from closing.
Google announced plans to develop a contact lens for diabetics that would continuously monitor glucose levels in their tears, eliminating the need for more intrusive means to measure blood sugar such as the finger prick.
The lenses were eventually determined to be unfeasible. The project was abandoned four years after it was announced this week in 2014
20 years ago this week
Howard Dean's impassioned, somewhat comical, and certainly unforgettable crescendo to a speech after the Iowa caucuses was being replayed hundreds of times on television and by some accounts became the first viral political meme.
Speaking to supporters after finishing in third place the former Vermont Governor, who was once seen as a serious challenger for the democrat nomination for President, began energizing the crowd by loudly listing the states where primaries had yet to be held and which he planned to visit.
"We're going to South Carolina and Oklahoma and Arizona and North Dakota and New Mexico,..." Dean began, as his voice continued to rise, throwing the crowd into a further frenzy. "And we're going to South Dakota and Oregon and Washington and Michigan, and then we're going to Washington, D.C., to take back the White House.....Yeah!"
The "Dean Scream" got Howard Dean a lot of attention, but some political pundits thought it was for all the wrong reasons, contending it made him look buffoonish, and pointing to it as a reason for his campaign derailing.
That same week a red-headed 16-year-old from Amherst showed that crooners belonged in the conversation in the search for the next American Idol, and not only made it to Hollywood but would become the youngest contestant ever to make the top ten during season three of the show, He is also the subject of this week's News 2 You Pop Quiz (the answer to which can be heard after the video attached to this story).
30 years ago this week:
The Buffalo Bills played in what still stands as the coldest game ever to be held on their home field in Orchard Park.
The temperature was near zero and wind chills reached 32 below, when the Bills beat the Los Angeles Raiders 29-23 in a divisional playoff game, en route to their fourth straight Super Bowl appearance.
Although the game was a sellout, only 62,000 fans braved the cold, which at the time was about three-quarters of the capacity of Rich Stadium.
More than 60 fans were treated at a stadium first aid station that day for "cold weather injuries."
"I went duck hunting when I was a kid and had some Kmart drawers on that weren't any good and I froze to death...but other than that, today was the coldest I've ever been," said the late Kent Hull, the Bills all-pro center, during a locker room interview following the game.
Fans who braved the cold for that playoff game paid ticket prices of between $29 and $48 this week in 1994.
40 years this week:
Very few motorists had vehicles featuring four-wheel or all-wheel drive to help them navigate Buffalo's snow-covered streets, and when went to fill them up they were paying $1.19 per gallon for regular and $1.24 for unleaded gasoline. The distinction between "regular" and "unleaded" still existed because many of the older vehicles on the road at the time still used leaded gas, having been manufactured before when automakers switched to producing vehicles that ran only on unleaded fuel.
A sellout crowd at Memorial Auditorium watched Wayne Gretzky grace the ice for the Edmonton Oilers when they visited to play the Buffalo Sabres, in a game the Sabres won due largely to an outstanding performance by goalie Bob Sauve this week in 1984.
