Out of the past 2/26/08

25 years ago: Feb. 26, 1983

State and federal politicians gather in the evening at the Arena Building as part of the annual Lincoln Day activities and dinner; guest speaker is California Congressman Dan Lungren, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.

In front of a sellout crowd of 2,600 at Houck Field House, the Southeast Missouri State University Indians trounce the visiting University of Missouri-St. Louis team, 92-75, to secure the Missouri Intercollegiate Athletic Association men's basketball championship for the second straight year.

50 years ago: Feb. 26, 1958

A Cape Central Airways plane is badly damaged shortly after noon when its pilot, bucking headwinds as he flies east across the state, decides to make a landing in a wheat field near Iberia in central Missouri; the pilot, Gene Davenport of St. Louis, an insurance representative, is uninjured.

At a quarterly conference at Grace Methodist Church, approval is given a plan for financing the first unit of a new church building to be constructed on the congregation's property on Broadway, between Caruthers and Cordelia avenues.

75 years ago: Feb. 26, 1933

Members of First Christian Church resume the use of Christian Cottage for the Bible school in the morning; an entirely new hot air heating system has been installed, replacing the hot-water system that became incapacitated during the first severe cold spell of the winter.

The Cape Girardeau County Farm Bureau yesterday went on record as favoring legislation that would cut the price of Missouri automobile license fees in half; a resolution also opposed state legislation proposed to reduce or eliminate farm extension services.

100 years ago: Feb. 26, 1908

G.W. Tallent, formerly of Jackson, later a prominent barber in St. Louis for several years, opens a modern barber shop on the second floor of the Himmelberger-Harrison building; Don Paar, the well-known tonsorialist, will assist Tallent.

Despite the wet weather yesterday, delegates from every part of Cape Girardeau County attended the initial meeting at the Jackson courthouse in an effort to organize an anti-saloon league in this county; E.F. Jones of St. Louis, state organizer, spoke at the meeting.

-- Sharon K. Sanders