Out of the past: June 28

1993

A holdup in the distribution of $63 million in federal highway money to the state could delay several road projects in Southeast Missouri; those include some work on the new Mississippi River bridge route at Cape Girardeau, the extension of Nash Road to the Southeast Missouri Port near Scott City, and the Highway 60 widening project.

With the aid of a grant from the National Safety Coalition, the Cape Girardeau Police Department has purchased three Cannondale 21-speed bicycles at a discount price from Cape Bicycle; they are being used by the city's police patrol unit, consisting of veterans Ken Rinehart, Charlie Herbst and Brad Haggett and newcomer Homer Markhart.

1968

The Cape Girardeau Police Department has hired six new patrolmen this month and, in doing so, has filled all its long-standing vacancies, solved the management shortage problem and added an extra officer as a resignations safeguard; the latest two new patrolmen to be identified are Grover W. Brasher, 25, of Fruitland and Raymond R. Arnold, 37 of Cape Girardeau Route 1.

Two State College seniors are granted permission by the Cape Girardeau City Council to paint address numbers on the face of curbs throughout the city, the cost to be met by voluntary contributions of property owners; the students are Charles Blanchet and Robert McMongle.

1943

Plans for the annual Fourth of July Picnic at Fairgrounds Park, sponsored by the American Legion, are virtually complete with the announcement that a military show will be featured; the picnic will be held July 5, since the holiday comes on a Sunday; considerable mechanized military equipment will be brought here by troops from the St. Louis Ordnance Depot and will be placed on display and will also be demonstrated during the picnic.

The Mississippi River climbs to a stage of 37.5 feet in Cape Girardeau, a rise of three-tenths of a foot over the weekend; government officials say the river has just about reached its crest.

1918

During an electrical storm which passed over Fruitland last midnight, lightning struck the barn of Ray Woods, burning it to the ground with all its contents; lost in the blaze were a new automobile, a wagon, a buggy, a lot of clover and grass hay, 200 bushels of corn and quite a lot of other things.

ORAN, Mo. -- A.J. Miller, a farmer living two miles west of Oran, has on exhibition a molten mass that came to him from the heavens; yesterday at noon, while he was in the barn, he heard a peculiar noise and, hastening outside, hears something crashing through a large tree; upon investigation, he found a round metal substance he couldn't handle it; the ball of meteoric metal weighs about 10 pounds.

-- Sharon K. Sanders