January 20 1886 William Seward Burroughs and three other men formed the Arithometer Company in St. Louis to market his invention, the adding machine. The company made one model, which sold for $475. The firm grew into the Burroughs Adding Machine Company, which moved to Detroit in 1904. Burroughs was the grandfather of “Beat Generation” writer William S. Burroughs. 1917 The long-awaited Free Bridge opened to traffic. For the first time, St. Louisans could cross the Mississippi for free. Before Mayor Henry Kiels car could start toward East St. Louis following the ceremony, a crowd of 30,000 persons and 3,000 cars poured onto the bridge. The Municipal Bridge, renamed in honor of General Douglas MacArthur in 1942, carried Route 66 traffic from 1929 to 1935, and City 66 from 1936 to 1955. 1923 State Highway Department officials were in St. Charles, placing numbered route markers on the new state highway system. The route from St. Louis to Kansas City was to be designated Route Two, also known as “The Airline Route.” (Later US 40 and I-70) State Route number Nine would be marked from St. Louis to Hannibal (Later US 61) State Route 14 ran from St. Louis to Joplin, later US 66. 1952 The final figures from the 1950 census showed St. Louis had retained its place as the eighth largest city in the nation. The population of the city was put at 856,800. The entire population of the county was put at about 400,000. 1958 Radio station KWK finished up its Record-Breaking Week. During the week, disc jockeys gave every rock and roll record in the library a farewell spin, and then smashed it to bits on the air. Station manager Robert Convey called it a simple weeding out of undesirable music. In response, Danny and the Juniors were inspired to record Rock and Roll is Here to Stay. 1970 St. Louis became the first expansion city to host the NHL All-Star Game. The East team, made up of players from the original six teams, beat the expansion players from the west, 4-1 before 16,587 fans. Blues goalie Jacques Plante was spectacular in the last half of the game. 1981 At 11:57 a.m., the parents of Marine Sergeant Rocky Sickmann of Krakow, Missouri cheered and church bells rang as the plane carrying the 52 hostages cleared Iranian airspace. Virgil Sickmann told reporters he wanted to make sure that the eight men who died in a rescue attempt on April 24, 1980 would not be forgotten. The family planned to wait up all night for a phone call from Rocky. 1993 Maya Angelou read her poem “On The Pulse of the Morning” at the inauguration of President Clinton. The actress, author and civil rights activist was born Marguerite Johnson in St. Louis in 1928. Angelou’s 1970 biography I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings made her one of the first African-American women to appear on the best-seller lists. She died on May 28, 2014.
Posted on: Tue, 20 Jan 2015 11:10:00 +0000
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