Out of the past: Jan. 17

1998

About 65 Muslims gather at the Cape Girardeau Civic Center in the evening to pray and break the fast they keep daily during the observance of Ramadan; Muslims 12 and older eat and drink nothing during the daylight hours of Ramadan, the month-long celebration of the revelation of the Koran to Muhammad; in Southeast Missouri, Muslims can be found in Sikeston, Poplar Bluff, New Madrid, Caruthersville, Cape Girardeau and Ste. Genevieve; a number of international students at the university here are Muslim.

A day-long burn seminar, the first ever held in Cape Girardeau, draws about 150 firefighters, emergency medical technicians and paramedics from around the region to the Drury Lodge; with about 90% of the firefighters in Cape Girardeau being volunteers with little or no training in first aid for burns, the seminar was proposed by Millersville firefighter Neil Lavanchy, who is also a certified registered anesthesiologist at Southeast Hospital.

1973

Implementing a long-range planning program dating back to 1965, the Board of Trustees of Southeast Hospital last night approved a capital funds campaign for $1 million as part of a $6 million expansion program continuing to the end of 1977; stage one -- the $2,348,131 addition on the south and west that will provide expanded maternity care as well as added general medical-surgical care -- is now underway.

A St. Peters, Missouri, salesman is charged with kidnapping in connection with the abduction at gunpoint yesterday of two teen-age girls here; neither was injured during the 40-minute ordeal that began near North Main Street and Park Drive and ended when the abductor let the pair out of his station wagon near the Quick Shop at North Main and Cape Rock Drive.

1948

Numbed by the coldest weather of the winter, Girardeans saw the temperature tumble to 7 degrees above zero overnight; forecasters predict the cold will continue, despite a bright sun, and a drop to about 10 degrees tonight for the district; Missouri Utilities Co. warns water customers to make certain their pipes are covered to prevent freezing; the company says spare meters and repair parts are almost unobtainable.

At a meeting of the Horseshoe Bend Fishing Club last night at the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce building, final plans for the purchase of a 65-acre tract east of Whitewater, now under lease, were made; after incorporating in February, the club will complete the purchase, and the 31 members will select lots from around the 43 lake-front plots which will be staked off; members can build cottages, and possibly water will be piped to each lot and electric wiring strung.

1923

Thomas Powers, a long resident of Cape Girardeau, good citizen and worthy man, is laid to rest; at the venerable St. Vincent's Catholic Church, where he worshiped many years, Mass is sung by his son, the Rev. Robert Powers Jr., of Perryville, Missouri; at the same time the deceased's brother -- the Rev. Robert Powers Sr. of Iowa -- celebrates a silent Mass at the side altar of the church.

Farmers living across the Mississippi River from Cape Girardeau plan to grow hundreds of acres of cotton this season, if they are provided with a place to sell it here; Will Hirsch, president of Sturdivant Bank, inaugurates a campaign among Cape Girardeau's business men to secure a cotton gin for the city.

-- Sharon K. Sanders