Out of the past 7/23/08

25 years ago: July 23, 1983

EAST CAPE GIRARDEAU, Ill. -- Between 200 and 300 people are evacuated from the Purple Crackle Lounge here at about 2 a.m. when an unidentified eye-irritating substance is released into the lounge; no one is injured in the incident.

The weeklong heat wave continues as temperatures at Cape Girardeau soar above 100 degrees for a record-tying fifth consecutive day; a 44-year-old Portage, Ind., woman is in critical condition after suffering heat stroke while asleep in an automobile which had run out of gasoline on Interstate 55 near Fruitland.

50 years ago: July 23, 1958

The Mississippi River continues to rise at Cape Girardeau, reaching 32.8 feet today; the Weather Bureau moves the expected crest of 34 feet back one day to Sunday; meanwhile, the dogged fight to save a half-million-dollar corn and soybean crop on Big Island, south of Commerce, Mo., continues, with hundreds of sandbags being placed to reinforce a hastily thrown up levee.

State College president Mark Scully announces the appointment of Charles H. Parsley as head basketball coach; Parsley is a former West Kentucky State great.

75 years ago: July 23, 1933

Under the direction of the pastor, the Rev. Walter E. Koepf, a Sunday school is organized for the English Church, United Lutheran, at the Elks club rooms; the Elks rooms have been secured as a meeting place for the new congregation until a larger and more suitable building has been secured; there are about 45 families attending the new church.

The Rev. D.R. Thomas has resigned as pastor of the local Fundamentals Church; the Cape Girardeau congregation will be merged with the Immanuel Baptist group.

100 years ago: July 23, 1908

O.L. Kochtitzky left last evening for St. Louis and Chicago to confer with eminent engineers further as to the feasibility of diverting Crooked Creek and the Whitewater and Castor rivers into the Mississippi at the south end of Cape Girardeau County.

James Lovell and his 8-year-old son, Odell, are over from their home between East Cape Girardeau and McClure, Ill.; the boy wanted to see how "they make papers," and he is shown around The Republican office.

-- Sharon K. Sanders