Missouri History Today

This was the last day that Valentine Tapley shaved. He promised his Pike County friends that if Lincoln were to be elected, he would never shave again. His beard grew to over 12 ½ feet. 

On this day, forty shots were fired in the Elms Hotel lobby and veranda in a robbery gone bad. The Excelsior Springs police shotgun squad chased the robbers from the hotel to Kansas City where they were caught, tried, and convicted. You can still visit the Elms today. 

News anchorman Walter Cronkite was born in  St. Joseph. He grew up in Kansas City until he was ten until he moved to Texas. You can learn more about his life here or by visiting the Walter Cronkite Memorial in St. Joseph. 

At the St. Louis Union Station, Harry Truman displayed the famous newspaper headline, "Dewey Defeats Truman."

This is believed by some to be the birthday of a true legend, Daniel Boone. Boone and the people he brought may have done as much as any other people to give Missouri its unique and distinct character.

Colonel Thomas Fiveash Riddick was an influential banker who helped create the St. Louis public schools, was a founder of the Thespian Society and was a delegate to the original Missouri Constitutional Congress. On this date he founded the first Episcopal Church west of the Mississippi.

The University of Missouri football team played the Kansas Jayhawks for the first time beginning one of the oldest football rivalry in the nation. It ended in 2012 when Missouri joined the SEC and Kansas refused to play against Missouri.

The entire University of Missouri football team resigned. They were upset because the university was requiring that players be full-time students with good grades. 

Henry Armstrong—the only man to ever hold three championship titles at the same time—won his first title (Featherweight) on this date.  He was a lifelong St. Louis resident.

The tallest national monument in America, St. Louis’s Gateway Arch was completed on this date.