100 years ago Aug. 15, 1923
• Paving of the east Vine Street bridge approach starts. Plans are to pave half of the approach until the pavement has been “cured” and is ready for use, then pave the second half. Paving of Bartlett Street will begin at the completion of B Street. “The paving of B street will make that one of the most beautiful streets in the city.”
• The gasoline price cutting in the war underway for the past several days in the Midwestern and southern states, where retail prices are reduced in some sections from 6.6 cents a gallon, spread today to the entire Atlantic seaboard.
Four large oil companies announced cuts from 1-2 cents per gallon with an average retail price of 23 cents a gallon.
75 years ago Aug. 15, 1958
• Right-to-work law states banned by firemen convention. The International Association of Firefighters based its choice of location for the next national convention on which states have right-to-work laws, noting Florida had such a law but New York did not.
• City police report they are checking into several reports of “youthful gangs” after eight individuals attacked William David (Bill) McGarver, 11, and frightened him into taking money from his father’s safe.
“Since the story came out about this incident, we have had others tell us about somewhat similar cases of attack and we are checking those reports for details,” Eldon Whitworth, police chief, said. “We want the children or their parents to notify us immediately if there should be other such cases. This practice must be stopped.”
50 years ago Aug. 15, 1973
• President Richard Nixon will take his defense in the Watergate case to the American people tonight with a television address about the scandal.
• Clifford Carl Phillips, 39, of Fisk is tried on first-degree murder and found guilty of manslaughter by a jury. He is sentenced to a five-year prison term by Judge Rex A. Henson. He was accused of shooting Darrell Duffy, 35, on July 29, 1972, in an apartment house on North Main Street. Phillips testified he woke up to find the man in his apartment. Duffy said he had rented the apartment, and Phillips held him at gunpoint while testing the keys Duffy provided in the lock, according to the testimony. The key would not work and Duffy lunged at him, according to Phillips, who said he fired.
Editor’s note: This is part of a regular series looking at today in Poplar Bluff’s history through the pages of the Daily American Republic and its early predecessors.