Out of the past: Feb. 3

1991

OFMCO of Sikeston, Missouri, one of the nation's largest buyers and sellers of new and used office furniture, and Chrisman Art Gallery have both announced plans to open stores on Main Street in Cape Girardeau; OFMCO will be in the former Montgomery Ward building, while Chrisman will abandon West Park Mall for the former Otasco Drug Store building.

About 300 residents living on Perryville Road miss the better part of "60 Minutes" or their favorite 6 to 7 p.m. television show; a hit-and-run driver strikes a utility pole at 1913 Perryville Road around 5:50 p.m., causing the pole guy wire to snap back into energized power lines; the resulting short circuit causes a circuit breaker at the Glenwood subdivision to open, resulting in the power outage.

1966

The city council last night voted to rent and then buy an accounting machine from the International Business Machines Corp. to do much of the city's bookkeeping and billing work; the full price is $17,605 if the computer is purchased outright, with maintenance contracts adding $1,232.42 per year to the cost after purchase.

Bower Aly, a State College graduate and former faculty member, has won tributes, including one from President Lyndon B. Johnson, for his work in debate; after teaching English and speech here, he left in 1930 and is now chairman of the University of Hawaii Speech Department.

1941

A new labor grant has been approved for the South Main Street building project; when completed, Main will extend from the present pavement south of St. Vincent's Church, past St. Vincent's College and just west of the Frisco Railroad tracks, to South Sprigg, at the foot of the hill that leads into the Smelterville suburb.

A Civil Aeronautics Authority flying course begins in the evening, when 20 students of Teachers College gather around an airplane in the Science Building to begin a 16-week aviation course.

1916

The Mississippi River, having reached 36.45 feet just after midnight, continues to stand at that height; great damage has been done to winter wheat and alfalfa fields in Illinois; the town of McClure, Illinois, is said to be completely under water.

Young Oscar Hirsch, the son of Christian Hirsch and a student at the Normal School, has lighted his family home on South Frederick Street using an electric light plant he built; Oscar, who specializes in mathematics and science, is studying electricity, chemistry, physics and other correlated scientific branches.

-- Sharon K. Sanders