Out of the past 1/20/12

25 years ago: Jan. 20, 1987

At a brief but busy city council meeting last night, members authorized work to proceed on repairs to the Arena Building kitchen and made 19 appointments and reappointments to various city advisory committees; for a second time, the council delayed action on a proposal to hire a Dallas-based consulting firm to conduct a job classification and salary study; also postponed was consideration of a new wrecker service contract.

The December 1984 conviction of Douglas Wayne Thompson by a Scott County jury for the 1961 slaying of a Cape Girardeau reserve police officer has been upheld by the Southern District of the Missouri Court of Appeals.

50 years ago: Jan. 20, 1962

Girardeans are convinced they are in the throes of an "old-fashioned" winter, as they move cautiously about their snow-covered world; the two inches of snow that fell overnight Thursday remains largely intact, thanks to single-digit temperatures; more snow is expected next week.

Plans for a third addition to the Atlas Plastics Corp. plant, 229 Broadview St., are being finished, and work is expected to begin when weather permits; the addition will house more fabricating and storage space as well as a spray paint department.

75 years ago: Jan. 20, 1937

KENNETT, Mo. -- Maj. Gen. Stanley H. Ford, commander of the Seventh Corps Area, Omaha, Neb., heading a party of Army engineers and CCC officials, makes an aerial survey of the district flooded by the St. Francis River following levee breaks in Dunklin County; engineers estimate that 75,000 acres of land are under water in Dunklin County and in Mississippi County, Ark.

The condemned slayer who escaped from the Scott County Jail in Benton, Mo., in November has been arrested in a routine raid in Muskogee, Okla.

100 years ago: Jan. 20, 1912

Dr. T.P. Fristoe, while walking along Broadway this morning, slips and falls on an icy patch at the Lorimier Street crossing, breaking his hip.

Henry H. Werdes of St. Louis is in Cape Girardeau endeavoring to organize a union among the local tailors.

-- Sharon K. Sanders