Out of the past 7/19/07

25 years ago: July 19, 1982

Barring an 11th-hour sale of the facility, the Superior Electric Products Corp. will close in August after 44 years as a Cape Girardeau employer; James Bauerle, president of the electric-appliance manufacturing company, blames the closure on import pressures and a diminishing export market.

On the basis of a tie vote, the Cape Girardeau City Council defeats a motion that would have cleared the way for an ordinance pro-life proponents feel would have imposed at least some minor local regulations on abortion.

50 years ago: July 19, 1957

Robert J. McElroy is spending the summer with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. N.G. McElroy of Cape Girardeau, after completing his first year as a medical student at the University of Fribourg in Fribourg, Switzerland.

Six hundred fifty-nine people, aged 6 months to 20 years, were given polio vaccines at the free clinic in the Jackson High School gymnasium yesterday; one 16-year-old boy, after receiving the shot, fainted and in striking the floor broke two front teeth.

75 years ago: July 19, 1932

Butchers at Miles Packing Co. are busy slaughtering the livestock for the big barbecue and rally to be held Thursday at Bullock's Grove in New Madrid County, when the district honors Sen. R.L. Dearmont; 108 head of stock is being killed, including 60 hogs, 40 lambs and eight cattle.

There is a movement afoot to revive the Cape County Fair and to hold this year in place of it a sort of community gathering, homecoming or fall festival with livestock and products show.

100 years ago: July 19, 1907

Members of the Shirt Tail Club -- Normal School boys dressed in the oldest nightgowns to be found -- encircle Leming Hall and play several selections to calm the nerves of the damsels inside; from there, the boys parade down Broadway, raising a din on musical instruments, before returning to campus.

In response to the demand of the managers of the new shoe factory, which is being built in the north end of Cape Girardeau, dozens of citizens are preparing to build homes in the Red Star and Roberts & Gale additions.

-- Sharon K. Sanders