December 1 1746 Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi was born in Switzerland. His theories laid the groundwork for modern education of children, including stressing individualism and concepts such as the field trip and grade levels. He is better remembered in St. Louis because there is a brewery located on a street named in his honor. 1904 The greatest period in St. Louis history came to an end, as the worlds fair closed. A crowd of 100,000 watched as David Francis, president of the exposition, said Farewell to all thy splendor, and threw the switch. The band played Auld Lang Syne as the lights went down. More than 20 million people had seen the fair. 1917 Marty Marion was born in Richburg, South Carolina. He was the premiere shortstop of his day. Marion played on three Cardinal World Championship teams. He managed the Cardinals in 1951 and the Browns in 1953. 1929 The Village of Huntleigh was incorporated. It was established after August Busch Junior founded the Bridlespur Hunt Club. Today, the roughly 325 Huntleigh residents have an average annual per capita income of $200,000. That’s the highest in the area, beating out poor Ladue by $60,000. The residents include names such as Busch, Sansone and Auffenberg. 1958 Phil the Gorilla, one of the largest gorillas on record and a beloved resident of the St. Louis Zoo since 1941, died of ulcerative colitis. Zoo employees took Phil to the city scales in a truck. The truck was weighed with Phil, then without him. They calculated Phil’s weight at 776 pounds. Schwarz Studios stuffed Phil, and he has since been displayed at several areas around the zoo. 1972 Only one theatre now remained open in the once thriving Grand Avenue theatre district. Leows Mid-City closed its doors, leaving only the Fox Theatre. The Leows opened in 1925 as the Shubert Rialto. It served as the home of the American Theatre from 1950 to 1961. 1979 The new I-70 bridge into St. Charles opened. The new bridge was built next to one that opened in 1958, and had been clogged with traffic from the start. Both bridges were then named after Louis Blanchette, the first settler of St. Charles. The westbound span is the old one. 1993 Parents in the St. Louis area were terrified that a serial killer might be preying on young children. Just days after the body of murder victim Angie Houseman of St. Ann was found, the body of ten-year-old Cassidy Senter turned up in an alley in North St. Louis. Thomas Brooks Junior would be charged with killing Cassidy in February of 1994. He died of AIDS in prison in 2000. The Houseman case remains unsolved.
Posted on: Mon, 01 Dec 2014 00:15:51 +0000
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