Out of the past 6/15/12

25 years ago: June 15, 1987

An electrical storm with severe lightning and loud claps of thunder awakens residents early in the morning and causes some damage in the Cape Girardeau area; at least two homes here are struck by the lightning, which crackles overhead for nearly three hours.

The steering committee for Cape Girardeau's Vision 2000 Committee decides to solicit applications from people interested in serving on the committee; the group will be expanded to between 40 and 50 members.

50 years ago: June 15, 1962

Former Cape Girardean William S. Stone, 53, superintendent of the Air Force Academy at Colorado Springs, Colo., has been promoted to lieutenant general and will become Air Force deputy chief of staff for personnel at Washington, D.C.

Bishop Eugene M. Frank names the Rev. J. Ray Trotter, pastor of First Methodist Church at Webster Groves, Mo., to succeed Dr. Robert C. Holliday as pastor of Centenary Methodist Church here.

75 years ago: June 15, 1937

Members of the local Jewish congregation participated in a formal groundbreaking for a synagogue on South Main Street yesterday.

Complaints of rubbish being dumped in the Mississippi River on Water Street has caused the city fathers to order the practice abated; those who have thrown refuse in the river have failed to get all of it in the water, and an unsightly condition and a health menace has been set up.

100 years ago: June 15, 1912

Margaret Vinyard has purchased the Summerfield hat shop on Main Street and will sell hats at a greatly reduced price.

The building of a new school for St. Mary's Parish here is being pushed; the old building has been removed and the foundation for the new one has been started; the whole congregation is taking an interest in the work; each boy of the parish has been given the task of cleaning the mortar off bricks, which will be reused in the new building.

-- Sharon K. Sanders