Out of the past 3/20/05

25 years ago: March 20, 1980

Representatives of the SEMO Council on the Arts and the Southeast Missouri Museum Inc. appeared before the city council last night to request that the present public library building in Courthouse Park be converted into a museum and arts center after the new library opens on North Clark Avenue.

The developers of Westborough Mall, a shopping center project planned for the city's west end, have expanded their multimillion-dollar lawsuit against the city of Cape Girardeau and several city officials to include the developers of West Park Mall.

50 years ago: March 20, 1955

An all-day downpour of rain, starting early in the morning and continuing almost without letup into the early evening hours, floods Cape Girardeau basements, blocks several streets at times of peak intensity, and sends creeks throughout the county roaring out of their banks.

EAST PRAIRIE, Mo. -- At least 15 people sustain injuries and five of them are hospitalized at Sikeston, Mo., when a tornado roars through the Windyville School area southeast of here in the afternoon, demolishing or damaging 10 or more farm homes.

75 years ago: March 20, 1930

A 13-mile marked all-weather detour is opened to traffic between Ancell and Benton, Mo., on Highway 61, while the section of new road between the two towns is being constructed; the detour routing is as follows: From Ancell traffic will go to Illmo and then take the Benton-Commerce road southwest to Benton.

Automobile sales of both new and used models in Cape Girardeau during March have exceeded that of any similar period heretofore; estimates reveal that the total volume of sales of autos during the first 19 days of March has amounted to nearly $100,000, with probably 200 cars having been disposed of.

100 years ago: March 20, 1905

Catern & Haas open their big new establishment on Water Street; Cape Girardeau now has a wholesale fruit, produce and commission house.

The waterworks settling basins are threatened with destruction, but are saved by the quick work of manager Thomas Fox; at a point just east of the larger settling basin the river gradually eroded the bank, and about 8 p.m. a great section of the bank slides away, leaving some of the Frisco track in the air and causing the embankment of the basin to give way; Fox at once lets 1.5 million gallons of water out of the basin, which relieves the pressure against the walls, and this alone saves the east wall from breaking away.

-- Sharon K. Sanders