In this week’s edition of “News 2 You,” Dave McKinley takes us on a journey through time, revisiting important events from the past.
One of the major events was the start of the Iraq War, which began 20 years ago with the launch of missiles and fighters from warships at sea, followed by ground troops.
This marked the beginning of a conflict that would involve many individuals from Western New York, including journalists like David Bloom, who tragically died just three weeks after the invasion.
Bloom suffered a pulmonary embolism brought on by a deep vein thrombosis caused by spending long hours inside cramped armored vehicles.
In other news, President Obama announced his intention to bring Buffalo native Tom Perez to Washington to become the new secretary of Labor.
Meanwhile, a Brooklyn native who had come to Buffalo to attend college and decided to stay announced that he would be seeking a third term as mayor.
The week also saw the end of the Falls Festival of Lights, which had been running for 20 years as a way to attract tourists in the winter.
The finality of the festival was marked by the auctioning off of all the lights and displays.
On a more positive note, there were more centenarians in the US than ever before, with close to 100,000 individuals living to be 100 years old or older.
This was more than twice the amount that existed in 1993.
Dave also posed a pop quiz question, asking who President Clinton had chosen to replace Supreme Court Justice Byron White, who had announced his resignation from the bench that week in 1993.
The answer was Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who would go on to serve for 27 years until her passing in 2020.
