Out of the past 8/15/2008

25 years ago: Aug. 15, 1983

A 7 percent reduction in natural gas rates for Missouri Utilities Co.'s Southeast Missouri customers has been authorized by the Missouri Public Service Commission; the rate decrease will translate into about a $3.81 saving per month for the average residential user.

Property owners along a section of Adams Street in Jackson may oppose it, but aldermen approve a resolution calling for the paving of the street from Georgia Street to Bellevue Street; eight people are present to oppose the move.

50 years ago: Aug. 15, 1958

BENTON, Mo. — The Rev. Charles Schmalle, pastor of St. Denis Catholic Church here and dean of the Sikeston (Mo.) Deanery, dies unexpectedly while making announcements from the pulpit; he is offering a parish Mass for a holy day of obligation, and the church is crowded.

Seventy-five residences and business places in Cape Girardeau lost telephone service for seven hours, when someone shot out a section of telephone cable south of town yesterday afternoon near the Diversion Channel.

75 years ago: Aug. 15, 1933

On Wednesday and Thursday, Cape Girardeau will host firefighters from Southeast Missouri, Southern Illinois and northeast Arkansas who will participate in the fourth annual convention and school of the Southeast Missouri Fire Fighters' Association.

Crushed by a falling tree, Harold Smith, 35, of Whitewater is in critical condition at a Cape Girardeau hospital; the accident happened late yesterday afternoon near Smith's home, where he and a neighbor were cutting railroad ties.

100 years ago: Aug. 15, 1908

The Cape Girardeau City Council is advertising to purchase a team of horses for the fire department; the equines must be of such a quality as to become the pride of the town; those with horses fitting the requirements should bring them in and formally introduce them to either Alderman Joe Wilson on Broadway or Alderman George Meyer in Haarig.

This is the hottest day of the summer; the thermometer on the north side of The Republican office registering 96 degrees at 2 p.m.

— Sharon K. Sanders