CantonRep.com/bicentennial
On this day in Repository history:
July 2, 1881
The Repository Thursday, July 2, 2015
A-3
Today’s page — another
in a series of key pages in
The Repository’s 200-year
history — is sponsored by:
News of President Garfield’s assassination
It was not the size of the headlines — they were only a single column in width — it was the number of them
that signaled the importance of the news The Canton Daily Repository delivered to its readers on July 2, 1981.
Fifteen stacked headlines reported the assassination of President James A. Garfield. More than two dozen
subordinate headlines broke up the grayness of more than four columns of text.
“Our city was electrified this morning by the appearance of the Repository bulletin announcing the fact of
the shooting of the President,” the assassination article began. “Crowds thronged our office for
later news, and such excitement has not been witnessed since the announcement of the assassination of Lincoln.”
Two of the headlines gave tentative assurances.
“ ‘Fellow Citizens God Reigns, and (We Hope) The Government at Washington Still Lives,’ ”
The Repository said, quoting words that Garfield had said some 16 years prior and adding the
country’s worried wishes.
Gary Brown will write about a different front page in Repository history each day during the paper’s bicentennial
year. Email Gary at gary.brown@cantonrep.com.