Out of the past 8/23/07

25 years ago: Aug. 23, 1982

The annual "waiting game" commences at Southeast Missouri State University; while most fall semester classes don't begin until tomorrow, many students -- along with hundreds of prospective students -- spend the day in long lines to register for classes and make class changes.

The president of Cape Central Airways remains hospitalized with injuries suffered when the small plane he was piloting crashed at the Cape Girardeau Municipal Airport on Thursday; David Little suffered a sprained ankle and an injury to a vertebra when the engine of the single-passenger ultralight glider failed on approach to a runway.

50 years ago: Aug. 23, 1957

Franchise for the new Edsel motor car in the Cape Girardeau district has been given the Edgewater Motor Inc.; officers for Edgewater are William L. Brune, secretary-treasurer and operating dealer, and Ray Zimmerman, vice president and in charge of parts and service.

An average of 687 people a day, most of them youngsters, have used the new municipal swimming pool in Capaha Park since it opened Aug. 15.

75 years ago: Aug. 23, 1932

Fire originating from the explosion of an oil stove in the third-floor apartment last night caused damage estimated at between $2,500 and $3,000 to a brick building at 34 N. Main St.; furniture and a portion of the merchandise in the Dollar Shop, a women's dress store operated by Mrs. Sam Jacobs, were also damaged.

Capt. Percy Little, for eight years in command of Service Company, Missouri National Guard, and an employee of Roth Tobacco Co., leaves for Jefferson City to begin training for a place on the state highway patrol.

100 years ago: Aug. 23, 1907

Much to the disappointment of baseball fans throughout Cape Girardeau County, the ballgame between the Cape Girardeau Capahas and the Millersville team scheduled for Sunday has been canceled; the managers of the two clubs couldn't agree on money matters.

Laurence Housam, one of the few remaining old veterans of the war in Cape Girardeau, dies at his home in Donnebrook in the evening; Housam, 77, was born in Germany and came to the United States at age 3.

-- Sharon K. Sanders