Compiled by Nick Sestanovich

75 years ago

Second A Book Registration Soon To Begin (June 3, 1943)

Registration for the second A gasoline ration coupon book will begin in the Bay Area June 22.
New books, quite different from those now being used, will be in the hands of motorists by July 21, when the present coupons expire. The new A books will be a single sheet of stamps, folded into a cover, instead of bound pages, rationing officials said:
Here is how the distribution will take place:
Very soon now, service stations, banks, business offices and many other central points will begin disaribution of “application blanks to the motorist, similar to those on which he made his first gas ration application, will pick up one of these any place he chooses, and fill it out at home.
With it he will attach his corrected tire inspection record (that is, with all new serial numbers correctly entered, if he has new tires– and a full correct record of his tires in full). He will also attach with it the back cover of his present A book, indorsed with his own signature.
These three items he will mail together to his local rationing board. And OPA is certain that he will get back in the mail his second A book before the No. 6 coupons expire on July 21.

50 years ago

Marker Dedication Set For Saturday (May 29, 1968)

Rededication ceremonies to mark the relocation of the Sister Dominica marker in St. Dominic’s Cemetery will be conducted jointly at 2 p.m. Saturday, June 1, by Benicia Parlor 89, NSGW, and the Solano County Historical Society.
The honored guest for the occasion will be Rebecca Lawrence Lee, authoress of “Concha,” the authoritative book on the life of Maria de la Concepcion Arguello, the first native Benician to become a nun,
Dona Maria became a nun in the Dominican Order after her betrothed, Count Nikolai Rezanov, died in Siberia while enroute to St. Petersburg to seek dispensation from Alexander I, czar of Russia to wed the 15-year-old daughter of Don Juan Arguello, commandant of the Presidio of San Francisco.

25 years ago

Councilmen to get sneak peek at new library site (May 29, 1993)

By Tim Hearden

With the opening of the new library next to City Hall one of the more exciting projects in Benicia this summer, the City Council will get a sneak preview Tuesday of the interior of the new building.
Lorraine Atkins, chairwoman of the Library Board’s Opening Day Celebration Committee, later will give a brief presentation on opening day festivities, scheduled for June 19.
Councilmen will tour the new facility at 7:10 p.m.; the regular meeting will begin at 7:30 p.m. in City Hall.
The new library will be officially open for business Monday, June 21. The old library at 144 East G St. is now closed; its last day was Friday.
The facility will be closed for two weeks for the move to East L Street, next to the Senior Center.

The full articles of these and other stories are available on microfilm at the Benicia Public Library.

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