Out of the past 7/8/11

25 years ago: July 8, 1986

Headliners for this year's SEMO District Fair are announced: Merle Haggard on Thursday night, the mother-and-daughter team called The Judds on Friday, and country legend Tammy Wynette on Saturday.

Members of the Paddlewheelers, Cape Girardeau's hospitality group, greets tourists from the Mississippi Queen riverboat in the morning as they begin a four-hour stop here; the boat is traveling south after docking in St. Louis over the weekend for the VP Fair.

50 years ago: July 8, 1961

A gift of 10.23 acres of picturesque wooded land at the southeast corner of Benton and Bloomfield roads by the descendants of the Ranney and Giboney families to the Cape Girardeau Special Road District is announced by district chairman Lindsay W. Simmons; the gift is for the specific purpose of developing a public park; the acreage is said to be the site of historic Mount Tabor School.

A building permit was issued this week for a four-unit apartment building, to be constructed by Bertha Huff at 426 Bellevue St.

75 years ago: July 8, 1936

With the price of wheat moving up largely because of a scorching drought in most of the Midwest and Northeast, Southeast Missouri milling companies are continuing to buy a large volume of the grain; the Cape County Milling Co. of Jackson is operating a fleet of 25 trucks to bring wheat from farms to the mill plants.

Six members of the Albert Morrow family narrowly escape serious injury or possible death when a bolt of lightning, accompanying a brief rainstorm, strikes a chimney of their residence at 1003 Locust St., sending bricks and soot flying through the two-story structure.

100 years ago: July 8, 1911

At a meeting of the Commercial Club last night, it was decided to contract with the Pain Fireworks Display Co. for the presentation of "The Last Days of Pompeii" the first week in August; an earlier contract called for the show to be presented the third week in August, but the company couldn't make that date.

The dwelling of William Grossman, situated about a half block north of the courthouse in Jackson, caught fire yesterday afternoon; after a hard fight, firefighters got the blaze under control, but not before the house was badly damaged.

-- Sharon K. Sanders