25 years ago: May 15, 1981

Cape Girardeau will be the focus of an article scheduled to appear in about two weeks in U.S. News and World Report; emphasis of the article will be the degree to which governmental regulations affect and influence the institutions in a typical American community of less than 50,000 population.

Three hundred tons of dynamite are set off in almost simultaneous underground blasts at the Marquette Cement Co. quarry along South Sprigg; the blast was necessary to reach approximately 1.5 million tons of limestone for cement production in Marquette's new multimillion dollar plant.

50 years ago: May 15, 1956

Sides-Miller Men's Store, 625 Broadway, nearing its ninth anniversary, announces an expansion program that in early July will move it into remodeled and redecorated quarters next door to its present location, that will provide 40 percent additional floor space.

The congregation of St. Paul Lutheran Church in Jackson has decided to purchase the old Presbyterian church from Paul Leonard.

75 years ago: May 15, 1931

Members of the Teachers College Board of Regents are in Cape Girardeau for the board's annual meeting; two recently appointed members -- Julien Friant of Cape Girardeau and E.L. McGee of Poplar Bluff, Mo. -- present their commissions from Gov. H.S. Caulfield and are sworn in; other members of the board are W.C. Bahn and J.A. Finch of Cape Girardeau, H.J. Talbot of St. Louis and Ralph E. Bailey of Sikeston, Mo.

A monument to the Confederate soldiers of Southeast Missouri, which has been planned for some time by the local chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, will be erected soon.

100 years ago: May 15, 1906

Local residents have the opportunity to hear Thomas L. Cannon, an expert on the subject of national irrigation, speak at the Common Pleas Courthouse tomorrow evening; Cannon is the secretary of the executive committee of the National Irrigation Association; he has been obtained to address the people of Cape Girardeau because this section of the state is endeavoring to reclaim a large amount of swamp land adjacent to the town.

J.H. Miller, who yesterday announced he was a candidate for the position of county judge from the second district, requests that his name be withdrawn from the field.

-- Sharon K. Sanders