St. Louis Mayor William Becker and nine others were killed on Aug. 1, 1943, when a World War II glider they were riding in plunged and slammed nose first into the ground near the Lambert Airport runway.
8/1/2011
Album ID: 807474
Photos by Post-Dispatch files
Look Back: In-air flight record, 1929
18 photos
for sale
Dale Jackson and Forrest O'Brine zoomed onto the front pages in their overloaded aircraft and stayed there for two breathless weeks. After 420 hours and 21 minutes in the air -- 17 1/2 days -- they were cheered as heroes on Aug. 1, 1929 with a ticker-tape parade downtown.
7/29/2011
Album ID: 1293338
Photos by Post-Dispatch staff photographers
Look Back: the "Pathfinder",1861
10 photos
by Tim O'Neil --- Gen. John C. Fremont made his reputation exploring the West, earning the nickname "Pathfinder." The new commander of the Department of the West rode into town July 25, 1861, flanked by his retinue of plumed exiles from European revolutions. He and his wife, Jessie, established headquarters in a mansion at Eighth Street and Chouteau Avenue, but spent most of their time in well-guarded seclusion. Fremont and his 150-man body guard charged through the city like royalty, and after only three months, his command was marked by indecision, aloofness and grand statements that finally exasperated President Abraham Lincoln.
7/23/2011
Album ID: 1289524
Photos by Missouri History Museum and the Library of Congress
Look Back: Forest Park Highlands, 1963
23 photos
for sale
For 66 years, the Forest Park Highlands amusement park had been a popular summertime diversion. Families still jammed the park the afternoon of July 19, 1963, when black smoke began curling from the restaurant. Fire grew quickly with menacing red and yellow flames. Shifting wind pushed it through the old corrugated metal and wood building, creating an inferno, and jumped from carnival ride to ticket booth until most of the park was engulfed.
7/17/2011
Album ID: 1286110
Photos by Post-Dispatch staff photographers
Look Back: Killer heat, 1980
17 photos
for sale
by Tim O'Neil --- ST. LOUIS: St. Louis, gathering heat pushed the high to 99 on July 7, 1980 and to 101 the next day. It would break 100 degrees on a withering nine of the next 14 days and reach 107 on July 15, the summer's worst. It would be 100 or hotter on 18 days that long, searing summer. The heat wave would kill 153 people in the St. Louis area, most of them elderly, poor and living in stifling rooms without air-conditioning. Many had kept their windows shut, fearing burglars more than swelter.
7/10/2011
Album ID: 1282308
Photos by Post-Dispatch staff photographers
Look Back: Tony Faust’s Restaurant, 1916
12 photos
by Tim O'Neil --- For more than four decades, Tony Faust’s Oyster House and Restaurant was the city’s premier place to eat and be seen. The dedicated clientele included the wealthy and powerful, touring notables, actors, baseball players, boxers and dandies of all sorts. Last call was on June 30, 1916, and the building at Broadway and Elm was demolished in 1933.
7/1/2011
Album ID: 1278371
Photos by Missouri History Museum and St.Louis Post-Dispatch
Look Back: Flight 119 hijacking, 1972
21 photos
by Tim O'Neil: The hijacking of American Airlines Flight 119 out of St. Louis on June 23, 1972 was one of many accomplished easily until the nation’s airlines and airports clamped down on security. Martin J. McNally, yet another copycat of the mysterious D.B. Cooper, demanded $502,500 and five parachutes, and somewhere over northern Indiana he jumped into the darkness from an altitude of 8,000 feet. Three days later, searchers found a money sack and a gun in fields near Peru, Indiana. A fingerprint led to bruised but alive McNally, who had $13 in his pocket.
6/25/2011
Album ID: 1273850
Photos by Associated Press, UPI and St. Louis Post-Dispatch photographers
Look Back: Pageant and Masque, 1914
11 photos
In 1914, city leaders looked for ways to bridge the social gulf in St. Louis by staging a 4-hour show on the area’s heritage in Forest Park. For four nights from May 28 to June 1, 1914, it played to immense crowds across a wide stage at the foot of Art Hill. Estimates put total attendance at more than 400,000. On opening night, about 75,000 persons showed up. The Pageant and Masque inspired the creation of the Municipal Opera, which opened its 93rd season Monday night in Forest Park.
6/20/2011
Album ID: 1010352
Photos by Missouri History Museum
Look Back: Democratic National Convention, 1916
16 photos
for sale
by Tim O'Neil --- Democrats gathered at the St. Louis Coliseum June 14-16, 1916, to coronate President Woodrow Wilson for nomination to a second term. It was the last of five major national political conventions held here beginning in 1876 (four Democratic, one Republican). The run coincided neatly with St. Louis’ place among the nation’s five biggest cities.
6/10/2011
Album ID: 1260604
Look Back: Civil War skirmish, 1861
7 photos
by Tim O'Neil --- The city’s boiling cultural divide at the outbreak of the Civil War erupted in street violence on May 10-11, 1861. Clashes between untrained Union soldiers and pro-Southern citizens killed 44. Shock over bloodshed and more federal troops forced an uneasy calm.
