Here’s what was happening in the news:

100 years ago:

Notice was given that a petition asking for the calling of a special election to vote on the proposition of incorporating the town of Oak Harbor would be filed with the Board of County Commissioners March 1. The petition included a description of the territory that citizens wanted incorporated as the town of Oak Harbor. The petition ended with: “The said described territory contains approximately 308 inhabitants.”

The following excerpts from the state automobile law were published by request of the proper authorities: Every automobile or motor vehicle … shall have fixed upon some conspicuous part thereof at least one lighted lamp, showing white to the front and red to the rear. No person, driver or operator in charge of any automobile or motor vehicle … shall drive at a rate of speed faster than 12 miles per hour … within the thickly settled or business portion of any city or village within this state, nor outside of such thickly settled or business portion of any city or village … at a rate of speed faster than 24 miles per hour.

75 years ago:

Lee Dawson of Oak Harbor was run over and killed on the Seattle-Everett highway. Around 11 p.m., Dawson called a friend, Mr. Cleveland, to come pick him up from Alderwood, just north of Seattle, because he had had a pretty bad accident with his truck. Dawson arranged that Cleveland would drive out right away and pick him up. He said he would meet Cleveland at the truck. His condition was entirely normal and he didn’t appear at all dazed as he spoke, Cleveland said. When Cleveland got there around 1 a.m., Dawson wasn’t around. A state patrolman then stopped by and told Cleveland that Dawson had been killed about a mile from there. The only logical conclusion arrived at by Cleveland and Dawson’s grandmother was that Dawson was walking back to his truck to meet Cleveland when he was struck by a car and killed.

50 years ago:

The Central Whidbey Chamber of Commerce unanimously agreed to support the Coupeville Lions in their quest of bringing two 10-inch cannons back from the Philippines to their former location at Fort Casey.

A clever burglar alarm system was the undoing of a couple of young Everett youths who had the idea of stealing a Ford pickup and going to Whidbey to pick up some antique furniture for resale. They attempted to enter the home of Leon Bocker, which was unoccupied but hooked up with a burglar alarm device that set off a siren. Officer Ed Short, Coupeville chief of police, was alerted immediately by the sound of the siren and apprehended the youths.

25 years ago:

Southern California crews filmed several dramatic jumps off Deception Pass Bridge for a Reebok athletic shoe commercial. The intent was that the jumpers, attached only by an elastic leash, or “bungee,” to their ankles, would attract the television viewer.

The Coupeville Town Council decided to sell the old Island County Historical Society Museum building. The new museum, at the corner Coveland and Front streets, was nearing completion.

Looking Back is compiled from the Whidbey News-Times’ archives as the newspaper celebrates 125 years in business and the City of Oak Harbor its 100th anniversary of incorporation.