Out of the past 1/31/07

25 years ago: Jan. 31, 1982

Yesterday's rain turns into snow early this morning; before the storm moves out of the area early in the afternoon, it leaves nearly 7 inches of rain, a sheet of ice and about 3 inches of snow on the Cape Girardeau area.

Speed Queen Laundromat, 2009 Independence St. in Cape Girardeau, has been purchased by Slobo Ilijevski, who is a goalie for the St. Louis Steamers soccer team, and Andre Sabel, also of St. Louis, a distributor in the area for Speed Queen laundry equipment.

50 years ago: Jan. 31, 1957

The pilot of a light, single-engine airplane, lost at the height of the heaviest snowfall of the season, made an emergency landing at dusk Wednesday on the slope of a hill in the new Ford subdivision near Cape Rock Drive and walked away unhurt from the nosed-over plane.

A storm that dumped 2 to 3 inches of snow along a comparatively narrow band through central Missouri late yesterday afternoon almost missed Cape Girardeau; the fall extended only to a point midway between Kelso, Mo., and Benton, Mo.; however, in Cape Girardeau the snow made streets slippery again, but nothing compared with the ice earlier in the week.

75 years ago: Jan. 31, 1932

The Cape Girardeau School of Beauty Culture, of which Goldie Watt is proprietor, will move from 910 Broadway to 911 Broadway, giving the school larger quarters.

Construction has started on the new tabernacle for the Red Star Baptist Church on Main Street in Cape Girardeau; excavations are being made for the footings and concrete for the foundation likely will be poured next week, if weather conditions permit; the building will be of frame construction, 110 feet long and 50 feet wide.

100 years ago: Jan. 31, 1907

Street commissioner Michael Miggins has a big force of men repairing the street crossing at The Daily Republican corner; there have been few days this winter that women have been able to cross the street there without wading shoe-top deep in slush.

Louis Houck, who has spent many years working on his manuscript, "History of Missouri," has placed the work in the hands of printers in Chicago.

-- Sharon K. Sanders