Two plane crashes in one weekend: This week in Central Jersey history, May 27-June 2
It was a weekend for plane crashes in Central Jersey when two people were killed on Saturday, May 29, 1999, when a private, single-engine aircraft crashed on the Royce Brook Golf Club in Hillsborough.
Then on Sunday, May 30, seven people were injured when a single-engine plane hit a tree and then crashed into the back yard of a home in the New Market section of Piscataway.
Here's a look at events that happened in Central Jersey from five, 10, 25, 50 and 100 years ago this week.
Five years ago
May 28, 2019: At a Hillsborough Township Committee meeting, upset parents and students alike expressed concerns about reports of students with disabilities getting ejected from the prom.
May 29: In the NJSIAA Central Group I final, the third-seeded South Hunterdon softball team beat top-seeded Dunellen, 4-2, winning its first section title.
May 30: Caleb "Kai" McGillvary, 30, of Canada, who gained Internet fame as "Kai, the hatchet-wielding hitchhiker," was sentenced in Elizabeth to 57 years for the 2013 beating death of prominent Clark attorney Joseph Galfy, 73.
May 30: It was reported federal immigration officers had transferred 235 migrants encountered at the U.S.-Mexican border to detention facilities in New Jersey and New York that month amid a crossing surge that had overwhelmed processing and holding centers near the border.
May 31: Freddy S. Garcia, 22, of Piscataway, pleaded guilty to causing the death of New Brunswick High School Vice Principal Tyrone Harrison, 49, of the Somerset section of Franklin Township, while drag racing on Oct. 6, 2018, on Stelton Road in Piscataway.
June 1: Vocalist-percussionist Sheila E. headlined Union County's Rhythm & Blues by the Brook Festival in Cedar Brook Park in Plainfield.
10 years ago
May 28, 2014: It was reported Gov. Chris Christie had signed a new law that would open up adoption records that had been sealed in New Jersey ― unless a court order was obtained ― since 1940.
May 28: In the boys lacrosse NJSIAA Non-Public B final, Immaculata High School beat Morristown-Beard, 17-13, at Brooks Field in Somerville, capturing its fifth state group crown ― the most of any squad in the Skyland Conference
May 30: It was reported Morissa Schwartz, 20, a singer from the Colonia section of Woodbridge, would appear on MTV's new reality series, "Copycat," on Tuesday, June 3, 2014.
May 31: It was reported more than 130 Central Jersey Girl Scouts had earned the coveted Gold Award from the Girl Scouts Heart of New Jersey in the past year to signify their devotion to service and community.
June 1: Somerset Medical Center in Somerville began operating as Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Somerset after Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital and Somerset Medical Center completed their merger, creating a 965-bed hospital with campuses in New Brunswick and Somerville.
June 1: The 17th annual Miles for Matheny, sponsored by the Matheny Medical and Educational Center, was held in Peapack-Gladstone to benefit the Matheny Center of Medicine and Dentistry.
1999
May 28, 1999: It was reported that after residents of Plainfield and Neptune received a letter that week from Gov. Christie Whitman about restored school aid, some lawmakers and others believed the Whitman administration was trying to get credit for restoring the state school aid it cut in the first place.
May 29: The Edison High School baseball team beat Bishop Ahr, 7-2, in the Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament final at East Brunswick Tech.
May 30: Police and rescue workers saved the life of a 15-year-old boy, whose name was not released, who nearly drowned in a murky in-ground swimming pool in the backyard of a home on Buckelew Avenue in Monroe.
May 30: The Goo Goo Dolls and Fastball performed at Asbury Park Convention Center in Asbury Park.
1974
May 27, 1974: In Somerville, Ron Skarin, 22, of Hollywood, Calif., defended his Jaycee Kugler-Anderson Memorial Tour title, setting a national record time of 1:54.01.
May 29: It was reported state urban aid for Plainfield would more than double to an outright block grant of $972,000 under Gov. Brendan T. Byrne's overall school funding reform program, while North Plainfield would be added to the urban aid list with new funds of almost $201,000.
May 30: North Brunswick policemen Lt. James H. Wright and Patrolman James K. O'Connor were convicted of morals charges by the North Brunswick Township Committee on the testimony of two former prostitutes.
June 1: It was reported an "options package" of 100 bills would be submitted to the legislature's special session on Thursday, June 13, 1974, from which the lawmakers would be asked to choose about 25 basic measures to implement Gov. Brendan T. Byrne's school funding reform program.
June 2: The third annual Polish Festival, featuring music by multi-lingual Tom Barry Kaminski and more, was held at the Garden State Arts Center in Holmdel.
1924
May 27, 1924: In a special election, George D. Cross, former Bernardsville Township committeeman and manufacturer, was elected the first mayor of Bernardsville, beating Frank B. Allen, 742 to 89.
May 28: In what promised to be a long and bitterly contested legal battle in which the testimony of experts for both sides would be featured, the case of the Butterworth-Judson Company and William J. Bradford, charged with maintaining a nuisance in the storage of explosives in the Nixon meadows in Edison, opened in New Brunswick.
May 30: The Plainfield High School boys baseball team won the first leg on the city championship, beating North Plainfield High School, 4-0.
May 30-31: The movie, "The Song of Love," starring Norma Talmadge and Joseph Schildkraut, was shown at Reade's Strand Theatre in Perth Amboy.
June 1: The Rahway Reformatory reported three prisoners ― James Hardman of Point Pleasant, and John Baron and Earl Bishop of Bayonne ― had escaped.
Brad Wadlow is a staff writer for MyCentralJersey.com
This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: NJ history for May 27-June 2
