Out of the past: Oct. 12

1990

With a major earthquake predicted in the region for Dec. 3, most school districts will be closed Dec. 3 and 4 as a safety precaution; Missouri schools that will be closed are Cape Girardeau, Nell Holcomb, Oak Ridge, Delta, Perryville, Sikeston and Woodland public school, and St. Vincent's Catholic School in Cape Girardeau.

A two-day Living History Weekend kicks off in downtown Cape Girardeau with about 50 Civil War re-enactors taking part; troops set up camp on the lawn of historic Common Pleas Courthouse in the evening; tomorrow's activities will include mock battles and a Civil War wedding ceremony; Mike and Stephanie Williams of Farmington, Missouri, will repeat their wedding vows before the Rev. Mike Heston.

1965

A moderate frost in Cape Girardeau and the district nips tender vegetation that is rounding out the growing season; the first frost a year ago, a light one, arrived Oct. 6.

An impromptu meeting between police officials and State College representatives is held in the police station to discuss the problem of student parking; police chief Irvin E. Beard says the department has received numerous complaints from residents living near the college, most concerning students' cars blocking driveways, mailboxes and fire hydrants.

1940

The largest array of farm products and livestock in the history of the event characterizes the 33rd annual Farmers' Institute being held at Oak Ridge; the exposition opened yesterday, when schools from all over this section of the county competed for awards.

Formal opening is held for the Federated Store, 735 Broadway; the establishment, occupying a new building, is owned and operated by H.L. Marsh, who for many years ran a store at Greenville, Missouri; the store handles men's, women's and children's wearing apparel.

1915

Two of the seven so-called night riders of Sikeston, Missouri, receive sentences of a year and a day at Leavenworth federal penitentiary at the hands of Federal Judge D.P. Dyer; the others are given "time served" sentences; the charges stemmed from a plot to destroy the Scott County Milling Co. offices and records.

Contractors for the Little River Drainage District cut a trench across the Rock Levee Road south of Cape Girardeau on Sunday night, much to the astonishment of the attorneys employed by the County Court to see that the public roads are not cut by the district workers and left without adequate bridges; a temporary wooden bridge spans the 12-foot-wide gap.

-- Sharon K. Sanders