August 3 1763 Pierre Laclede left New Orleans to establish a trading post near the confluence of the Missouri and the Mississippi. He left his family and trading goods at Fort Chartres. Taking a few of his men and his stepson, Auguste Chouteau, he searched the west bank of the Mississippi and picked a spot protected by a low bluff. On February 15, 1764, Auguste and Laclede’s men returned to begin construction. The men wanted to call the site Laclede, but Pierre chose to name it after King Louis IX of France. 1901 A delegation of automobile owners called on Mayor Rolla Wells to protest two proposed ordinances. One would set an automobile speed limit of eight miles per hour on city streets, six in the parks. They told the mayor autos could travel safely at speeds of up to 15 miles per hour. The other proposed ordinance would have set an auto tax of $10. 1932 Work began on the Municipal Auditorium. The cornerstone was laid on November 11, 1932. The auditorium was dedicated on April 14th, 1934. It was later named for Mayor Henry Kiel, whose firm built it. In 1992, the convention hall was torn down to make room for Kiel Center. The auditorium remains. 1938 The Art Museum announced the purchase of a $14,000 ancient Egyptian bronze sculpture of a cat. The cat purchase ignited a controversy that captured national attention, at a time when the city was still suffering the effects of the depression. The papers were bombarded with letters to the editor, and the city threatened to cut the museum tax rate in half. 1943 All business in St. Louis was halted for one minute at two p.m., the hour of the funeral for Mayor William Dee Becker. Becker and nine other people died on August 1, in the crash of an Army glider at Lambert Field. Inspectors found that a defective fitting holding one of the wings to the fuselage had snapped. Major Albert Bond Lambert had missed the flight because he made a stop on the way to the field. 1968 Frank Buster Wortman died at the age of 68. He ran the gambling, slot machines, pinball machines, and horse parlors on the East Side. Wortman & two associates were indicted for tax evasion in 1962. Before the sentencing, one of the partners and his bodyguard were shot to death. Wortman’s conviction was overturned and he retired to a house in Collinsville surrounded by a moat. 1976 A private plane carrying U.S. Representative Jerry Litton and his family crashed after take-off from his home town of Chillicothe. All six people on board were killed. The Littons had been bound to Kansas City for a victory party. Litton was leading in his bid for the Democratic nomination for U-S Senate.
Posted on: Sun, 03 Aug 2014 15:38:52 +0000
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