Out of the past 12/4/06

25 years ago: Dec. 4, 1981

An estimated 200 to 300 gallons of a corrosive chemical spilled when a tanker-truck overturns on Interstate 55, a mile south of Scott City; the chemical is identified as diaminocyclohexane, a corrosive and an irritant produced by Du Pont Chemical Co.

Cape Girardeau County sales tax revenue was up about 22.6 percent last month over the same period last year; November's sales tax check, which reflected September sales, totaled $93,641.80, compared to a November 1980 figure of $76,345.12.

50 years ago: Dec. 4, 1956

Action that will make William Street a paved thoroughfare from the Mississippi River to Kingshighway was initiated by the Cape Girardeau City Council yesterday, when it approved plans for the unpaved link from Sheridan Drive west to the highway; preliminary estimates put the work at $30,896.

Selection of a name for the new elementary school under construction on Minnesota Avenue in Cape Girardeau has been thrown open to public suggestions by the school board; one board member has said he thinks it should continue to carry the name "Jefferson School," while others think a new school should have a new name.

75 years ago: Dec. 4, 1931

A delegation of 100 landowners is expected to appear before the county court at Jackson on Monday to ask for immediate construction of the proposed farm-to-market road from near Cape Girardeau to Neelys Landing.

Completion of the last link of unimproved road between Cape Girardeau and Anna, Ill., is seen following the letting of $80,000 in contracts for grading and bridging the five-mile strip of Highway 146 from Anna to a point three miles east of Ware, Ill.

100 years ago: Dec. 4, 1906

Mr. and Mrs. L.R. Johnson have returned to Cape Girardeau from an extended visit with friends in St. Louis; Mr. Johnson is geatly improved in health.

The Culture Club, composed of the public school teachers of Cape Girardeau, meets with Mrs. W.H. Haupt in the evening at her residence on Broadway; they discuss "The Voyage" and "The Wife," two of Washington Irving's most famous works.

-- Sharon K. Sanders