25 years ago:The Lawrence school district student dropout rate was comparable to that of districts of a similar size throughout Kansas – just under 2 percent. But the rate here was still higher than the state average for all schools.

To date, response had not been too warm to the $9 million in home mortgage revenue bonds first made available in the city after the commission’s approval. Several thrifts here were making the bonds available to qualified people.

The local draft registration of 18-year-olds was progressing slowly as was the case elsewhere in the nation. There were ongoing protests of anything that even faintly resembled a return to selective service for military duty.

The Journal-World carried a series of articles on how various Kansas University faculty and staff people were able to augment their incomes legally and ethically with consulting jobs for private firms. Some faculty people were upset by the series, saying it presented an “inaccurate picture” of the process.

40 years ago: Gardner Cowles of Des Moines and New York, newspaper and magazine editor, was named the ninth winner of the William Allen White Foundation’s national citation for journalistic merit. He was to come to KU to accept the award.

Film star Ronald Reagan said he planned to seek the Republican nomination for governor of California, drawing jeers from a number of people in politics. “The idea that an actor can be a good governor is ridiculous,” one Democrat critic said. Reagan was a former Democrat.

The City Commission was restrained by an order of Judge Frank Gray from enacting a proposed zoning ordinance involving the property of Frank and Catherine King, who had contested the action. Gray planned to provide additional details at a later date.

100 years ago: From the Lawrence Daily World for Jan. 6, 1906: “Captain Prentiss Donald of the University of Kansas football team will be ineligible to play in college games next year because he participated in the Chanute-LaHarpe game on New Year’s Day. This apparently is a violation of eligibility rules since some of the players were paid. : Mr and Mrs. Thomas L. Brown celebrated 65 years of marriage at the home of their granddaughter. The couple, now 84 and 85, were married in east Tennessee in 1840 and their reaching this stage is a marvelous achievement. Many don’t live 65 years, let alone be married that long (the average age for American males in 1905 was 47). : Bank clearings of nearly $700 million in a single day in New York City are another indication of the wonderful prosperity the whole country is enjoying. : It will be interesting to see the future of small gasoline powered trains, like The Little Red Special running here.”