Out of the past: Jan. 25

1990

A just-completed master plan for the Cape Girardeau Municipal Airport calls for spending almost $11.7 million on airport improvements and maintenance over the next two decades.

A sharp division exists among city council candidates over shifting from at-large representation to a ward system of electing council members; that contrast is apparent at a candidates forum sponsored by the Cape County League of Women Voters.

1965

Flags here and around the county are flying at half-staff honoring Sir Winston Churchill, who died yesterday; President Lyndon Johnson ordered flags to be lowered through Saturday on government buildings and on ships on the seven seas.

The Cape Girardeau City Council votes to ask Bartholomew and Associates, city planners of St. Louis, to offer a proposal for a new master city plan; the proposal would involve an outline of the scope of the plan together with a narrow cost range.

1940

Subzero cold grips Cape Girardeau and district for the third time this month, and forecasts give no promise of any great relief from the wintry blasts for at least another 24 hours; the mercury tumbles to an official low of 3 degrees blow zero; with the cold comes increased hardships on the community's needy.

The Mississippi River becomes blocked with ice at Cape Rock; the channel of the stream begins to freeze early in the day and by noon the big bay just north of Cape Rock is filled with jammed-up ice floes; only a narrow channel of water remains visible opposite the downtown business section.

1915

Prosecuting Attorney Henry Caruthers sets out for the far northwest end of the county to prosecute two cases against alleged offenders in that district; one of the cases will set a precedent, the first to be tried under the state law providing for the registration of all births and deaths; a midwife in the Hilderbrand community will be prosecuted for allegedly refusing to record a birth occurring in December ** 1914.

Representatives of the executive, finance, agricultural, publicity and entertainment committees meet in the Commercial Club rooms to begin their work of preparing for the conventions that will be staged in Cape Girardeau in 1915; there will be at least 10 important gatherings here.

­-- Sharon K. Sanders