Day in history for December 8, 2002

1852 -- 150 years ago

How the widows with many children contrive to live in their miserable tenements, which fill up the space between more important buildings, is a mystery. Seek the poor out; give the washer-woman work; hire the jobless mechanic to repair your fence.

1877 -- 125 years ago

Dave Tipton, the popular pilot of the steamboat Montana, left for the south today.

1902 -- 100 years ago

Major J.M. Beardsley, prominent as publisher and lawyer in Rock Island for more than fifty years, has gone to Quincy to make his home in the Old Soldiers' Home.

1927 -- 75 years ago

The thermometer reading dropped 47 degrees in 24 hours. The cold was accompanied by 50-mile-an-hour wind and a blizzard. At Helena, Mont., it's 53 below.

1952 -- 50 years ago

Davenport, apparently, has broken out into a rash of dope addicts. Detectives are confronted with two dope cases, one involving two Mexican men and a self-styled woman addict, and a 16-year-old boy who said he had been smoking marijuana cigarettes.

1977 -- 25 years ago

G. LaVerne Flambo, one of the Quad-Cities' most prominent citizens, died of a heart ailment early today in his Moline home. Flambo, 66, was assistant to the president of Mid-America Media, which owns and operates two local radio stations, WQUA, Moline, and KRVR, Davenport. He negotiated acquisitions and directed special projects for the broadcast group.

Back: Available days in December 2002