20 years ago

In the cusp between twilight and darkness, for the past few weeks a rare light has been rising nightly over the glaciers behind China Poot Bay, then making a slow and steady march across the southern sky. The moon, the stars, not even wisps of wild auroras have dimmed this glowing red beacon. At 1:51 a.m. Thursday, that bright light, the planet Mars, came the closest to Earth it has ever come — the closest since 56,617 B.C., back when humans looked up at the sky with more awe than understanding. Mars won’t be as close again for another 284 years.

— From the issue of Aug. 28, 2003

30 years ago

All six Homer City Council members endorsed a resolution Monday night asking the state to pull land on the southern part of the Kenai Peninsula from Lease Sale 78 because of potential contamination of the city’s watershed. The endorsement came after some 16 Homer-area residents and one from the Interior pleaded with the council during a public hearing to save the area from oil development. Some residents called for the deletion of a bigger land chunk from the proposed sale, one that would extend south of Ninilchik instead of south of Stariski Creek. The resolution that passed drew a line roughly halfway between Ninilchik and Anchor Point.

— From the issue of Aug. 26, 1993