February 1 through the years

100 Years ago – 1926

 The Martinsville Athletic Club was the winner of the basketball game against the Roanoke Athletic Club, 32-23, at the Banner Warehouse.

75 years ago – 1951

A final appeal for the Martinsville Seven was rejected by the Chief Justice of the U.S., and the first of the executions remained set for Feb. 2. Martin A. Martin, chief counsel for the defendants, said he did not know what else could be done to stop the executions. The petition which was turned down was the same one turned down two days previously by federal district Judge Sterling Hutcheson. It contended that the constitutional rights of the men were abridged in that the death penalty for rape in Virginia had been “reversed” solely for black people.

50 years ago – 1976

A helicopter crashed in the parking lot of King’s Plaza Shopping Center in Collinsville. The pilot was Leo George Benjamin, 39, of Kentucky, and his passenger was Martha Lee Washburn, 12, of Fisher Farm Road, Martinsville. They were not injured, but the $30,000 “Air & Space” helicopter was destroyed.

25 years ago - 2001

National Catalog Corp. announced that it wanted to hire 150 workers, after the company had cut 52 workers from its distribution center. Twenty-seven of those laid-off workers accepted jobs at the company’s call center at Patrick Henry Mall. NCC received, filled and shipped orders for a variety of companies with customers ordering items by catalogs or online.

— Information from museum records and the Henry Bulletin and the Martinsville Bulletin.