Out of the past 12/15/06

25 years ago: Dec. 15, 1981

Workers at the Southeast Missouri Regional Port Authority's Gray's Point site yesterday unloaded barges containing 750 tons of powderized iron sulfate, a raw material imported from West Germany that will be treated for use as a fertilizer and other purposes at a newly constructed plant on Nash Road; the event marked the first use of the port to facilitate incoming barges.

A group of secondary school educators here have submitted a plan to the Cape Girardeau School District administration and school board suggesting several alternatives to a proposal now under consideration that would reduce the number of class periods at Central High School to six next year, and subsequently the number of teachers needed.

50 years ago: Dec. 15, 1956

Plans for State College construction came into sharper focus yesterday, when the board of regents decided the locations of two new buildings; the board tentatively decided to locate a new science building north of the Home of the Birds off the dead end of Woodland Drive; a new music hall will front north on the rear college drive in an area of the present science building.

Oscar Hirsch, owner of KFVS and KFVS-TV, has been elected to the board of directors of First National Bank.

75 years ago: Dec. 15, 1931

Students are cooperating in the Teachers College's retrenchment program made necessary by a reduction of funds available from the state appropriation; hereafter, the students will furnish their own paper to use in taking examinations.

A heavy fog, described as the worst in years, hangs over Cape Girardeau, demoralizing traffic and causing at least one motor car collision.

100 years ago: Dec. 15, 1906

R.A. Kingsbury and wife of Benton, Mo., were in Cape Girardeau yesterday shopping; he was re-elected probate judge of Scott County again this fall.

THEBES, Ill. -- For 14 hours Thursday and Friday, a band of 10 or more determined men and women, armed with buckets, fought a fire which at times threatened to destroy the entire town; $10,000 in damage and the obliteration of more than a block of the business section was the result of the conflagration.

-- Sharon K. Sanders