100 years ago

April 5, 1921: Carlock native Russell Stutzman, 25, is co-owner of a new music shop in Peoria. He started out working for the Twaddle Shoe Co. in Bloomington. He worked his way through Twaddle, Marshal Field’s in Chicago, and enters Peoria just a year after leaving Bloomington.

75 years ago

April 5, 1946: Paul Logan, 16, of near Danvers, has built his own two-seat automobile. It’s made from heavy wood and extra heavy bicycle wheels. The car can go 20 miles per hour down a gravel road, and supposedly gets 150 miles per gallon of gas from its two horsepower engine.

50 years ago

April 5, 1971: Bloomington police will be using five unmarked cars with radar – each car a different color - to control traffic. Nicknamed the Rainbow Fleet by Chief Bosshardt, the traffic officers will lurk where speeding is a problem and write tickets.

25 years ago

April 5, 1996: The Kent’s Crossing building in Normal is about to be the town’s third structure with a historic designation. It’s up to the city council now that the Normal Planning Commission has given its approval. Kent’s Crossing was built in the 1880s as a farm implement store.