100 YEARS AGO TODAY
December 30, 1912
Fire broke out in the dry goods store of Christofferson & Co., 925 S. C St., shortly after 4 this morning. It had evidently been smoldering some time. Mr. and Mrs. G.W. Vanderbeck, living in the Pierce Hotel, 919 C St., smelled the smoke and, looking out the window, saw the smoke coming out the front of the store. Mr. Vanderbeck telephoned the fire department, and they were on the ground in about two minutes.
50 YEARS AGO TODAY
December 30, 1962
The savage Columbus Day storm, which ripped at rooftops, scattered trees like toothpicks and cut a million-dollar swath of destruction through Tacoma, has been picked as the top local news story of 1962. It was a story with an 85-mile-per-hour impact, and it left an indelible impression on the editors, reporters and photographers of The News Tribune. In annual balloting on the top stories of the year, the Oct. 12 storm was rated first on 22 of 25 ballots.
25 YEARS AGO TODAY
December 30, 1987
A 30-year-old staff sergeant from Fort Lewis was shot repeatedly and killed as he lay asleep in bed next to his wife in their South End apartment early Tuesday morning. He was the third person in Tacoma to be slain since last Tuesday and the 24th person to die of homicidal violence so far this year, the most murderous year in Tacoma’s history, said Detective Chris Taylor of the Tacoma Police Department. The dead man, John Perkins Jr., a native of Selma, Ala., had been stationed at Fort Lewis for the last 10 months of his 81/2 years in the Army, said 1st Lt. R.C. Brewer, an Army spokesman. Perkins’ wife told investigators that she awoke at 1 a.m. to the sound of gunfire in their bedroom at the Aladdin-Camelot Apartments, 2108 S. 90th St., Taylor said.
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