Out of the past 4/28/06

25 years ago: April 28, 1981

A physicist who worked on the development of the atomic bomb during World War II and who witnessed the first test of the bomb will be the spring commencement speaker at Southeast Missouri State University; Dr. Marvin H. Wilkening is a native of Oak Ridge and a 1939 graduate of Southeast; spring commencement will be held May 10 in Houck Stadium.

Traffic signals at Broadway and North West End Boulevard are removed and replaced with stop signs, a temporary measure until new signals are installed in about three weeks.

50 years ago: April 28, 1956

The $2,740,000 allocated Cape Girardeau State College for three buildings from state bond funds Friday is about $1,025,088 more than the combined total of all state-appropriated building funds for the institution since its founding in 1873; total legislative appropriations for buildings in 83 years up to the bond issue amounted to $1,714,812.

Merrill T. Hobbs announces he is moving his Idan-Ha Barber Shop, 407 Broadway, to a new location at 1613 Independence St. and will henceforth operate under the name Sunset Barber Shop.

75 years ago: April 28, 1931

The last day to enroll for the spring term of the Teachers College was yesterday; the spring term enrollment reached a peak of 251, outstripping any semester since the inauguration of the term six years ago.

Charles A. Himmelberger has been elected president of the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce, succeeding George W. Cross; Himmelberger is manager of the Southeast Missouri Lumber Co.

100 years ago: April 28, 1906

George McBride has started work on his magnificent residence on North Street; it will be the most pretentious residence in Cape Girardeau and the finest in Southeast Missouri.

Architect L.B. Blackwood has finished plans for the new Methodist Church to be built in Cape Girardeau; they are certainly beautiful.

-- Sharon K. Sanders