Out of the past 4/10/11

25 years ago: April 10, 1986

Gas prices at the U-Pump station at Pacific and Independence streets are lowered from 77.9 cents per gallon to 69.9 cents in the morning; a representative of Self Service Oil Co., which owns the station, predicts other Cape Girardeau stations will follow suit.

Affirming his longtime support of the Firearms Owners Protection Act, 8th District Rep. Bill Emerson votes in favor of the "firearms package" that passes overwhelmingly in the House on a vote of 292-130.

50 years ago: April 10, 1961

The annual daylong Spring Band Festival, with some 400 high school pupils participating, ends with a concert at the Arena Building in the evening; providing instruction during the day is Haskel Sexton of the University of Illinois.

The Beaty Oil Co. has purchased about an acre of the old Serena estate, now owned by Jesse Tow, and will build a DX service station at the Kingshighway-Arena Park entrance intersection.

75 years ago: April 10, 1936

CAIRO, Ill. -- Millions of acres of bottomland are inundated and between 1,000 and 2,000 people have been forced from their homes in five states as the muddy Ohio River continues to pour its overflow waters into the Mississippi here; rain is predicted over part of the flood area.

Surveys and plans for Cape Girardeau's storm sewer project in the downtown area have been called for by the engineering department of the Works Progress Administration in Washington; this may mean allocation of funds for the $163,153 project during the spring or summer.

100 years ago: April 10, 1911

Because of the lack of a few votes at the recent election, the necessary two-thirds majority for the issuing of $20,000 bonds for building a new schoolhouse in Cape Girardeau failed; knowing the necessity for more and better school facilities, however, the school board Friday passed a resolution to submit the matter to voters at a special election April 25.

LUTESVILLE, Mo. -- The Rev. Joseph A. Russell, a pioneer Methodist minister, died Saturday at age 73; for many years he was a circuit rider; Russell was a native of Tennessee and served in the Confederate Army in the Civil War, losing an arm at Franklin, Tenn.

-- Sharon K. Sanders