This Day in Delaware History: February 25

This Day in Delaware History:

1847 The General Assembly instructed Delaware’s congressional delegation, US Senators Presley Spruance and John M. Clayton, and Congressman John Wallace Houston, all Whigs, to vote for the Wilmot Proviso restricting slavery in any new territories. Houston was the only one who voted for it.

1873 Sixty-three year old Chang and Eng, Bunker Siamese twins who married two different women and fathered 22 children, were exhibited in Wilmington for the second and last time. They would be dead the next year.

1948 Wilmington General Motors workers organized their United Auto Workers labor union #435.

1979 Herbie Barkmer, longtime peddler of News Journal papers on Wilmington’s streets, was robbed of bank books and $13,500, all of which except $1,700. was recovered.

Today’s facts were compiled by historian Roger Martin and the Delaware Public Archives.