By April C. Armstrong *14

In this week’s installment in our recurring series, a future Princeton professor is freed from a Japanese prison, a new president does some shopping, and more.

August 13, 1998—Police stop Winthrop Thies ’56 on his way to visit a terminally ill friend who has decided to proceed with ending her own life. The police seize his briefcase and a bottle of champagne. Thies vows to fight the charges against him in hopes of change state laws that prohibit assisting someone seeking to die. Changing the law will take more than 20 years, but in 2019, New Jersey will pass the Medical Aid in Dying for the Terminally Ill Act, allowing patients to request a doctor’s prescription they can use to end their lives if they have six months or less to live.

August 14, 1893—According to a report that will later appear in the Philadelphia Inquirer, two young women wearing orange and black garters with their swimming costumes are suddenly surrounded by Princeton students who drench them in sea water while yelling the Princeton cheer. The women, frightened, scream and run away.

August 17, 1945—George Robert Loehr, who will later join the faculty of the Department of Modern Languages at Princeton, has his first contact with the outside world in two years when a seven-person detachment of Americans parachute in to free him along with about 1700 others who have been imprisoned in a Japanese internment camp in China’s Shantung Province.

August 18, 1759—As the new College president, Samuel Davies, gets settled in Princeton, he writes to P. V. B. Livingston with a request:

I beg you would send me by the first stage 4 doz. Bottles of Claret, if cheaper than Madeira; 40 lbs. Candles; 2 neat Candlesticks and Snuffers; 1 China Bowl of a middling size; 10 Gallons Molasses; 1 English Cheese; 2 doz. Bottles English Beer or Porter; 2 White Stone Dishes; with an account of the prices.

For the previous installment in this series, click here.

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