Missouri History Today

Southern sympathizers captured the U.S. Arsenal at Liberty, MO. This created more tension at the arsenal at St. Louis and therefore was a contributing factor leading to the St. Louis Massacre.

On this date telephone service came to St. Louis for the first time. The new phone company had twelve original customers. It also came to Hannibal in 1878. 

Known by old timers as "the day that Marshfield blew away," an F-4 tornado struck Marshfield and killed 99. 100 more were injured.

Construction began on a permanent theater for the Municipal Opera in Forest Park, St. Louis. It was completed in just 49 days.

St. Louis streets seemed to be always muddy or dusty so plans were submitted to help with the problem. One plan involved suspending water pipes 20 feet above the streets and sprinkling the streets as needed.

Charles Lindbergh flew the first air mail run between St. Louis and Chicago. His employer, Robertson Aircraft Company of St. Louis would grow into American Airlines. Lindbergh crashed twice on this St. Louis to Chicago run and fellow pilots began calling him "Lucky Lindy."

Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow just wanted a little peaceful vacation time in Joplin but the police wouldn't cooperate. A gun battle erupted at their rented bungalow and Bonnie and Clyde sped away in blazing gunfire leaving two of the five Joplin officers dead.

It was "Dizzy Dean Week" in St. Louis in celebration of the movie The Pride of St. Louis. Dizzy was in town for the week and said he didn't care if it wasn't exactly accurate. "Jeez," he said, "they're gonna give me 50,000 smackers just fer livin'."

This is the birthday of Kansas City's dominating right-handed starting pitcher, Bret Saberhagen. At 21 he was the World Series MVP when the Royals beat the Cardinals.

Charles Dickens arrived in St. Louis for a five-day visit. He seemed to like the people, hotels, etc. but commented, "It is very hot, lies among great rivers, and has vast tracts of undrained swampy land around it..."