Out of the past 7/24/05

25 years ago: July 24, 1980

A five-hour city council session last night brought Cape Girardeau another step closer toward the establishment of an urban redevelopment ordinance which the city hopes will be ready for final consideration in late August or early September; the ordinance being considered would set up the framework for urban redevelopment here.

Federal officials confirmed Wednesday what many Southeast Missouri farmers and agriculture officials have realized for a couple of weeks: Crop losses due to July heat and drought have reached disastrous proportions; Mississippi County is among 28 counties that will be declared an "agricultural disaster area" within the week, officials with the federal Farmers Home Administration said; eventually, additional counties will probably qualify for federal assistance.

50 years ago: July 24, 1955

A combined Junior-Senior Walter League social is held in the evening, which includes a swimming party at the city pool in Jackson.

LUTESVILLE, Mo. -- Burglars using acetylene torches broke into the Bollinger County Bank yesterday or today, ruining a dozen safety deposit boxes and escaping with less than $500 in bank funds without trying to open the main safe.

75 years ago: July 24, 1930

For the first time in years, the historic Round Pond, south of Whitewater, just below the diversion ditch, is dry; it was at this spot that a tragic chapter of the Civil War was written, when a band of Confederate guerillas surprised a supply train camping there and massacred every member of the expedition, except one black man, who escaped by diving into the pond.

Several Scott County youths have climbed trees in attempts to set "tree-sitting" records; leading the way is Leon "Pete" Crader, 14, who has been up his tree in Chaffee, Mo., six days.

100 years ago: July 24, 1905

The Daily Republican suspends publication for the day, as the newspaper completes its move from the Opera House to the former Wilson home at the corner of Broadway and Spanish Street.

James Polk, a lineman for the telephone company, meets with a painful accident while on the top of a tall pole; he is repairing wires with boiling paraffin, which spills over both legs, causing bad burns from his knees down; had he not been strapped to the pole, it is likely he would have fallen to the ground.

-- Sharon K. Sanders