10 years ago: Oct. 5, 1991
Jackson - City of Jackson was in darkness early yesterday after lightning apparently struck electrical substation, and Union Electric was forced to shut down 34.5 kilovolt line providing power to city; unrelated and isolated power outage occurred in Cape Girardeau the same morning.
City Council tomorrow will consider measure that would allow city to charge property owners for demolition costs of dilapidated and dangerous buildings; council will also revisit much-maligned and often-amended construction trades licensing law; demolition measure was prompted by recent discussions on condition of former St. Francis Hospital building at Good Hope and Pacific.
25 years ago: Oct. 5, 1976
After tumultuous political week when it appeared that contest for state representative from 156th District would indeed be race without a face, announcement of Democratic write-in candidate for seat has put new face on political scene; Barbara Leestamper, wife of Southeast Missouri State University president, Dr. Robert E. Leestamper, says she will be candidate.
Among items that will be sold Oct. 16 at city auction of obsolete equipment and furnishings will be stained glass windows in old police headquarters; windows will likely be most sought-after items to go on block; members of Grace Methodist Church, which sold building to city, are particularly interested in their disposition.
50 years ago: Oct. 5, 1951
Cape Girardeau County increased 622 people between 1940 and 1950 decennial censuses, jump of 1.6 percent, final population figures released by Bureau of Census reveals; county's population increased from 37,775 to 38,397 in 10-year period; this was due almost entirely to increased population in Cape Girardeau and Jackson.
Cotton is temporarily dethroned as king in Southeast Missouri; as autumn crops move to market, it is corn and soybeans that have taken spotlight away from cotton; rain in late spring and early summer that knocked the props out of what was expected to be record cotton crop merely made corn grow bigger and better.
75 years ago: Oct. 5, 1926
Sportsman's Park, St. Louis - Jesse Haines' clever pitching enables St. Louis Cardinals to win third game of World Series; big pitcher holds Yankees to five hits and also drives in two runs with home run into right field bleachers in fourth inning, as Cards blank Yankees 4-0.
Mississippi River at Cape Girardeau reaches flood stage of 30 feet, inundating scattered fields of crops in lowlands in this immediate area and threatening thousands of acres of other farmland; Weather Bureau is predicting stage of 31 or 32 feet by end of week; force of 50 men are on Big Island, south of Commerce, laboring frantically to patch holes in eroded levee, which protects 4,000 acres of fine corn from rapidly-rising stream.
- Sharon K. Sanders
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