Day in history for December 5, 2006

1856 -- 150 years ago

Alderman Loewenthal bought the old jail the other day on a high bid of $1,500 on the expectation that the city would want it for a calaboose.

1881 -- 125 years ago

The enlarged Buford Plow Works will be visited by many patrons from Minnesota and other states Thursday.

1906 -- 100 years ago

A prisoner at the police station committed suicide today by climbing on the grating back of his cell and casting himself down to the pavement.

1931 -- 75 years ago

The Rock Island Baseball Club has made a deal with the St. Louis Browns of the American League to receive optioned players from the Browns during the 1932 season, providing the Mississippi Valley League ''doctors'' its constitution next month at the annual meeting in Keokuk to permit this procedure by its members clubs.

1956 -- 50 years ago

The day of the stoop-shouldered mailman may be at an end in Rock Island, thanks to the innovation of the mail cart. Fifteen mailmen in the city made their rounds today pushing carts loaded with mail instead of lugging the mail sack on their backs.

1981 -- 25 years ago

A market for every station and a station for every market, that's the story of radio in the Quad-Cities. It's highly competitive, all right, with 10 commercial stations based in the Quad-City metropolitan area.

Back: Available days in December 2006