Out of the past 5/16/10

25 years ago: May 16, 1985

Two Southeast Missouri men, one from Cape Girardeau, have been nominated for seats on the Southeast Missouri State University Board of Regents; Gov. John Ashcroft yesterday announced the appointments of J.P. Tlapek of Cape Girardeau and James Lincoln of Sikeston, Mo.

The Cape Girardeau City Council last night postponed action on a proposed ordinance to regulate portable signs following a lengthy public hearing, in which the measure came under attack from sign industry officials and others.

50 years ago: May 16, 1960

Cape Girardeau's codified ordinances -- a book of all the general laws combined into a single unit -- is adopted with a few modifications by the city council to become Ordinance No. 2073; acceptance of the code culminates several years of preparation on the part of the city legal staff and a Washington firm that was employed to do the work.

Hubert Wheeler, state commissioner of education, speaks at a dinner given by the Cape Girardeau Rotary Club in recognition of the academic talents of the outstanding seniors in the city's three high schools; honored are 30 pupils, the top 10 percent of their graduating classes.

75 years ago: May 16, 1935

G.C. Walther of the Walther Furniture Co., was elected president of the Lions Club at a dinner meeting last night at the Marquette Hotel; the retiring president is Oscar Hirsch.

The annual spring planting of trees and shrubbery along Southeast Missouri highways under the direction of Hilliard Brewster, landscape architect for the State Highway Department has been completed; about 3,500 trees have been planted along the routes, principally between Cape Girardeau and Jackson and Cape Girardeau and Sikeston, Mo.

100 years ago: May 16, 1910

Frisco Railroad vice president Carl Gray, who met with Cape Girardeau city leaders Saturday, has promised better passenger service here in the form of a daily train between Cape Girardeau and Poplar Bluff, Mo.

The work of paving Broadway resumes; the big plows and the steam engine are tearing up the old street bed preparing to place the concrete bed for the wood-block paving.

-- Sharon K. Sanders