This day in San Francisco history
Courtesy ** D. Helder **:
sfgate.com | Here's a look at the past. Items have been culled from The Chronicle's archives of 25, 50, 75 and 100 years ago.
1933
Oct. 28: Behind an impenetrable blanket of fog that shrouded the California coastline from San Diego to the Golden Gate, the Navy's giant dirigible Macon gave to the nation its greatest single demonstration of its efficacy as a war machine. Between daybreak and 9 p.m. it had accomplished the following: It had traversed the California coast from San Diego to San Francisco, flying far inland at times, without so much as a half dozen human eyes glimpsing its great bulk during its maneuvers. It had coursed its way for more than an hour - from 7 to 8:15 p.m. - over the bay and city of San Francisco, defying the vain efforts of the giant searchlights of Uncle Sam's warships, at anchor in the harbor, to ferret it out of the murk above the city. The drone of the dirigible's great motors was plainly heard over the city, but that was all. From the Macon as it passed over came word that San Francisco, hidden beneath the fog, appeared not to be a city but a vast cluster of sparkling red and white jewels whose luster was blurred by a silvery gray veil. Searchlights of the battle force in the bay were pictured as "nervously swinging back and forth." San Francisco had a picture of what London knew in the days of 1915 when zeppelins cruised over the city's fogs and dropped bombs upon it.
1908
Oct. 26: An illustrated lecture on milk was delivered by Professor M.E. Jaffa of the University of California before a large audience in Mission Promotion Association Hall, Valencia and 16th streets. The stereopticon proved an attractive aid to the lecturer in presenting facts to the audience. He said that skimmed milk and bread combined are more nutritious than a meal of meat, potatoes, turnips, bread, butter and coffee, and 1 cup of skimmed milk contains more nutriment than 4 1/2 gallons of coffee. To demonstrate the truth of these assertions, the professor showed tables on the screen giving the results of experiments and analyses of the contrasted beverages. And he claimed that coffee is valuable as a nutrient only through the sugar and milk in it. The effect of preservatives on milk was demonstrated by tables of experiments on kittens. The kittens fed on milk containing borax preservatives all died, even when the borax was but 60 grains to a gallon. The same results followed feeding kittens with milk preserved with formalin. That unsanitary milk spreads disease was proved by the spreading of typhoid and diphtheria from infected dairy farms. The professor said that the best the citizens of San Francisco could hope for was sanitary milk.