St. Louis People 365

In August, a bloody duel
and World Series radio ban

A famous duel on Bloody Island in the Mississippi River. Two St. Louis brothers win Olympic gold. Dizzy Dean banned from broadcasting the World Series.

These were just some of the historic trivia items in past Augusts in St. Louis, as listed in "St. Louis People 365."

(St. Louis author Joe Sonderman has compiled a book of people trivia about St. Louis. He has granted permission to Young Saint Louis.com to quote some items from each month. If you'd like to get a copy of the book, check local book stores or go to www.booksonstlouis.com )

Here's are 10 of the 126 items in the August chapter of the book:

Aug. 1, 1976: St. Louisans Michael and Leon Spinks won boxing gold medals at the Olympics in Montreal. Michael won the middleweight medal and Leon took the light-heavyweight title.

Aug. 7, 1968: Election returns showed that Missouri would probably elect its first black congressman in November. William Clay won the Democratic primary and Curtis Crawford won the Republican nomination for the seat in the First District. (Because of the big Democratic majority among district voters, nomination in the Democratic primary almost always results in election in the November general balloting.)

Aug. 12, 1817: Federal attorney and legislator Charles Lucas and future senator Thomas Hart Benton met in their first duel on Bloody Island, now part of the East St. Louis riverfront. Both men were wounded, but lived to meet again on September 27th. The next time, Benton killed Lucas. Both duels were prompted by a court case that found the two men on different sides.

Aug. 17, 1859: John Queeny was born in Chicago. In 1891, he took a job as a buyer for a wholesale drug company in St. Louis. In 1901, he established his own company for the production of saccharine (a sugar substitute). He named it Monsanto, after his wife, Olga Monsanto Queeny.

Aug. 20, 1804: Sergeant Charles Floyd became the first casualty of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. He died from what was probably a burst appendix near the present day site of Sioux City, Iowa. Floyd also became the first United State soldier to die west of the Mississippi River. Lewis and Clark named the hilltop where he is buried Floyd's Bluff and dubbed a nearby stream Floyd's River.

Aug. 21, 1902: Leonor K. Sullivan was born. Her husband died in 1952 while serving as a Congressman from St. Louis. In the next election, she defeated Claude Bakewell, the man who replaced her husband. She became the first woman from Missouri to serve in the House of Representatives. Sullivan fought for legislation that completed the Arch. The city renamed Wharf Street in her honor in 1983.

Aug. 22, 1980: James S. McDonnell died at the age of 81. He founded McDonnell Aircraft in 1939 with one employee and no contracts. When he died, McDonnell-Douglas employed over 83,000 people in the St. Louis area. Brown Road in Hazelwood was re-named in his honor.

Aug. 24, 1944: The Sporting News reported that Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis would not allow Browns broadcaster Dizzy Dean to announce the World Series. Landis called Dean an embarrassment to baseball and "unfit for a national broadcaster" for his use of the word "ain't." Diz said, "I ain't never met anybody that didn't know what ain't means."

Aug. 25, 1931: Regis Philbin was born in New York City. He hosted "Saturday Night in St. Louis" on KMOX-TV beginning in 1970. The show regularly won its time slot. In its final season, the show drew more viewers than the upstart "Saturday Night Live" on NBC. Philbin left in 1975 to host a show in Los Angeles.

Aug. 26, 1873: The School Board voted to accept the offer of Miss Susan Blow to establish a kindergarten at Des Peres School in Carondelet. It was the first kindergarten in the United States. Miss Mary Timberlake because the first kindergarten teacher in America.