Out of the past 12/11/09

25 years ago: Dec. 11, 1984

A 24-year-old Cape Girardeau man is arrested early in the morning after authorities spot him exiting through a broken window at the Centerre Bank at Independence Street and Kingshighway.

The Cape Girardeau School Board delays a decision on a proposal to make soccer a varsity sport; the proposal was offered two months ago and it will be another two months before a final decision can be made.

50 years ago: Dec. 11, 1959

The towboat United States of the Federal Barge Co., attempting to negotiate the narrow channel in the Mississippi River at the Marquette Cement Mfg. Co. docks late yesterday afternoon, ran the lead end of a 21-barge train into a sandbar; the lead barge sank and all but one of the remaining barges floated loose down the river.

Jerry L. Kinder and Dennis B. Elrod Jr. will each receive the degree of doctor of medicine Monday at commencement exercises of the University of Tennessee Medical Units in Memphis.

75 years ago: Dec. 11, 1934

Skating season appears in the offing, as ice covers the lagoon in Fairground Park for the first time this season; the temperature sank to 13 degrees overnight.

A St. Louis proposal to dump its garbage into the Mississippi River isn't raising much concern here; city commissioner Paul Brooks, in charge of the department of health and public safety, believes that the water would be purified of any pollutants by the time it reaches Cape Girardeau.

100 years ago: Dec. 11, 1909

The steamer Grey Eagle passes Cape Girardeau in the morning with only a small crew of men en route to winter quarters at Paducah, Ky.; it has no freight nor passengers, and Capt. William Leyhe refuses to take any from here as he doesn't intend to stop along the way.

D.E. Cope has been promoted to the superintendency of the Himmelberger-Harrison Building.

-- Sharon K. Sanders