This week in Delaware history

Compiled by Roger Martin
Special to the Coastal Point

March 24

1940 — A national survey showed the average Delawarean’s wages were $575 per year. An average family of four’s wages were $2,300 per year.

March 25

2003 — The remains of eight U.S. soldiers and two marines killed early in the fight in Iraq arrived at the Dover Air Force Base for processing in the Charles C. Carson Mortuary Center. After processing, the remains were sent to their hometowns and families across the country.

March 26

1875 — The Delaware General Assembly enacted a law to give women the right to make a will without the consent of their husbands.

March 27

1997 — A Wilmington man won a $53 million Powerball jackpot on a $1 ticket purchased at the Red Lion Deli. The initial payment on his 20-year annuity was $1.3 million. Strangely, no one has heard of him since.

March 28

2003 — The 175-acre Futcher Farm near Five Points in Lewes was bringing bids of more than $275,000 per acre. The farm was in the center of some of the most appreciating lands on the East Coast.

March 29

1943 — Due to military needs during World War II, the rationing of meats, cheese and fats was begun on the home front.

March 30

1721 — Gen. John Dagworthy, heir to 20,000 acres in Sussex County given him by the Colony of Maryland for his part in the French and Indian War, was born in Trenton, N.J. At that time, much of the land that later became Dagsboro was in Maryland.