April 9 marks the 70th anniversary of the execution of Dietrich Bonhoeffer by his Nazi captors in 1945.

A train blew up outside Croll’s in 1903

In recent weeks I helped host a citywide spelling bee in Alameda that was thought to be the first such event in recent memory. It has come to my attention that a district-wide spelling bee in 1900 holds an important place in Alameda history. 

Alameda Naval Air Museum curator Larry Pirack discusses the role the Martin M-130 China Clipper played in the history of Alameda. The plane took off from Alameda Airport on Nov. 22, 1935, on history’s first trans-Pacific flight of a commercial airline.

In 1965, the Golden Gate Audubon Society began working with Alameda conservationist Elsie Roemer to stop the Utah Construction and Mining Company from filling in salt marshes on Bay Farm Island.

Robert R. Thompson moved to Alameda with his family in 1877. A steamboat captain, Thompson found wealth navigating the Columbia River. 

Captain Robert R. Thompson once lived in a stately mansion in today’s Lincoln Park. Before coming to Alameda he made his fortune as a principal shareholder of the Oregon Steam Navigation Company. Thompson came overland to Oregon in 1846 on an emigrant wagon train.  

Taaffe’s 19th-century estate is today’s Lincoln Park

Repairs needed to carriage house

Ship captain James D. Farwell arrived in San Francisco in the spring of 1850. He had safely captained the steamboat Tehama from Panama. Farwell, who hailed from Maine, opened a chandlery on Clay Street in San Francisco. As a chandler he supplied the ships in port with their wares.