Missouri History Today

C.C. McCallon’s clothing store in West Plains was robbed by Ma Barker’s gang.  It was noted that they took over $2,000 worth of clothing and only the latest fashions.

This date in Missouri history: The steamboat Alice Gray exploded her boiler and sank at Rocheport.

The mayor of St. Louis approved plans to appoint 5,000 auxiliary police officers to help in the event of nuclear attack.  Their jobs would be to patrol devastated areas.

The Taum Sauk Reservoir collapsed sending a fifteen-foot-tall wall of water and mud into the valley below and destroying the Johnson Shut-Ins State Park.

This is the birthday of Joseph Rutherford Walker, one of the greatest of all the westward explorers and a Missourian from Independence.

Missouri’s “separate but equal” policy was struck down in the U.S. Supreme Court and Lloyd Gaines was admitted to the University of Missouri Law School.

Robert Pankey of Eldorado Springs was a model youth. He was said to never swear, smoke, or touch liquor. But, on this day, he held up the Bank of Washburn and took $12,850.

The St. Louis schools were overcrowded and the school board blamed the depression. They said the kids couldn’t find jobs so they were staying in school.

The Lebanon Rustic Republican reported that President William McKinley had received a barrel of big red apples from Absalom Nelson of Lebanon.

George A. Whiteman from Sedalia was shot down as his plane took off from Hawaii. He became the first pilot killed in World War II. Whiteman Air Force Base near Sedalia is named in his honor.