by Tim O'Neil --- On Jan. 28, 1981, Marine Corps Sgt. Rodney "Rocky" Sickmann, one of 52 Americans held hostage in Iran for 444 wrenching days, was back in Missouri. "Freedom is everything, and we have it," Sickmann, 23, shouted heartily.
1/27/2012
Album ID: 1403450
Photos by Post-Dispatch staff photographers
Look Back: Sharecroppers, 1939
22 photos
for sale
by Tim O'Neil --- Evicted suddenly from the cotton fields, homeless sharecroppers set up ramshackle camps along two major highways in southeast Missouri in January of 1939. Most of the sharecroppers were black. Some were white. Icy drizzle and snow fell upon them all.
1/20/2012
Album ID: 1399124
Photos by Arthur Witman and Jack Schutz, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Look Back: T.S. Eliot, 1933
4 photos
for sale
Thomas Stearns Eliot returned to St. Louis on Jan. 16, 1933, his first visit home in 19 years to lecture on William Shakespeare at Washington University. Being a famous poet and critic, local reporters jotted his every public utterance. Eliot said he was was surprised by growth west of Forest Park, but otherwise recognized his home town.
1/12/2012
Album ID: 1394319
Photos by Larry Coyne
Look Back: Gen. Henry W. Halleck, January, 1862
6 photos
Gen. Henry W. Halleck replaced Gen. John C. Fremont, the vain and ambitious local Union commander, in January of 1862. Nicknamed "Old Brains," Halleck was a stern, unlovable lawyer who restored order in St. Louis by publishing numerous heavy-handed edicts and methodically enforcing them.
1/6/2012
Album ID: 1391233
Photos by Missouri History Museum and the Library of Congress
Look Back: Carolers of Christmas Past
13 photos
for sale
by Tim O'Neil --- In 1924, area leaders founded the Community Chest (now United Way) and discouraged separate fundraisers by member organizations, such as the Christian Aid Society. Thus was born the St. Louis Christmas Carols Association, headed for the next 31 years by William H. Danforth, president of Ralston-Purina Co., who had formed one of the original groups on his street, Kingsbury Place, with help from fellow members of Pilgrim Congregational Church.
12/23/2011
Album ID: 1383251
Photos by St. Louis Post-Dispatch staff
Look Back: Eugene Field house, 1936
16 photos
for sale
by Tim O'Neil --- Eugene Field’s childhood home at 634 South Broadway was opened during a five-inch snowstorm on Dec. 18, 1936, after a frenzied campaign to save and restore it. The first 50 visitors were students at Eugene Field School, 4466 Olive Street, named after the newspaper columnist who was known, sometimes to his distress, as "the children’s poet."
12/16/2011
Album ID: 1380154
Photos by Post-Dispatch staff photographers
Look Back: Pacific Railroad, 1852
9 photos
by Tim O'Neil --- The first passenger train west of the Mississippi River began its portentous jaunt towards the West Coast at 1 p.m. on Dec. 9, 1852, from a station near 14th Street and Chouteau Avenue. The Pacific Railroad Co., St. Louis’ bid to reach the Pacific Ocean by rail, was building its way westward with dreams bigger than progress.
12/9/2011
Album ID: 1376529
Photos by Missouri History Museum and Missouri State Archives
Look Back: Pearl Harbor, 1941
13 photos
for sale
by Tim O'Neil --- The front pages of Sunday morning, Dec. 7, 1941, gave little hint of a surprise attack upon Pearl Harbor that radio broadcasters would report breathlessly at 1:31 p.m. local time. Next morning, hundreds of civilians mobbed recruiting stations downtown. More than 400 applied for the Navy, 40 times the daily average. Outside the federal Custom House (Old Post Office), crowds gathered around a temporary loudspeaker at Eighth and Olive streets to hear President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s war speech to Congress.
12/5/2011
Album ID: 1373724
Photos by Post-Dispatch staff photographers
Look Back: Service cars' last run, 1965
11 photos
for sale
by Tim O'Neil --- Before World War II, almost 500 service cars plied St. Louis and its surrounding suburbs, charging five-cent fares. Cabbies and streetcar motormen loathed service cars because they siphoned customers and clogged downtown corners. Bus company executives called them "parasites." The last runs were scheduled for the morning of Nov. 30, 1965.
11/23/2011
Album ID: 1367417
Photos by St. Louis Post-Dispatch staff
Look Back: Mob trials, November 1924
15 photos
for sale
by Tim O'Neil --- ST. LOUIS • The courtroom’s cast-iron shutters were slammed shut. Only people with passes were admitted. A phalanx of federal agents surrounded their star witness. For two weeks in November 1924, Ray "the Fox" Renard, one-time wheelman for the notorious gang called Egan’s Rats, broke the gangster code and testified against former cronies.
