Day in history for October 23, 2001

1876 -- 125 years ago

Work has commenced on the foundation of an addition to James S. Gilmore's pork house on 1st Avenue, Rock Island.

1901 -- 100 years ago

A fire in the Weyerhaeuser and Denkmann lumber yards near 2nd Street and 2nd Avenue, Rock Island, partially destroyed two piles of lumber.

1926 -- 75 years ago

Employees of the McCabe Drygoods Company, Rock Island, and the Kewanee Drygoods Company, Kewanee, attended a booster banquet and program in the Fort Armstrong Hotel.

1951 -- 50 years ago

Only bird nests were destroyed by fire at the Moburg Motor Sales, East First Street, Geneseo, when an alarm sent Geneseo firemen to the scene. It was reported that workmen took down an old metal fire escape earlier in the day, using torches to cut the metal. Ancient bird nests in the structure and building walls burned and smouldered throughout the afternoon. The smoke caused a belief that the building was on fire.

1976 -- 25 years ago

About 50 times a year, Max Shock selects a half-dozen ``friends'' from the back porch of his Moline home, wrestles them into cloth bags and carts them off to a school, church or civic group to illustrate his favorite message: You shouldn't kill snakes. Shock really believes in that message. He keeps about 30 snakes right in his home, and has another 40 or so snakes and other reptiles on display at Niabi Zoo. ``Once you understand them there's really nothing to be scared of,'' he says.

Back: Available days in October 2001