This Week in KC History
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Striking a Chord
December 16, 1936: 1,000 employees of the Fisher Body plant located in the Leeds district of Kansas City sat down on the job to protest the recent firing of a worker and demand that General Motors recognize the unionization of…
Flying High
December 7, 1940: The U.S. Army Air Corps announced that the Fairfax Industrial District in Kansas City, Kansas, would host a North American Aviation B-25 bomber production plant to prepare for the possibility of the United…
Hotel Horror
July 17, 1981: 2,000 dancers gathered in the atrium of the Hyatt Regency Hotel to partake in one of the regular "tea dances," which had become a local tradition over the previous year since the luxurious hotel had opened. Dozens…
Death of "The Chief"
May 8, 1974: H. Roe Bartle, a former two-term Kansas City mayor and long-time Boy Scouts of America executive, died in Kansas City. Popularly referred to as "The Chief" (and the namesake of the Kansas City Chiefs football team),…
Days of Shock and Sorrow
September 28, 1953: Bonnie Brown Heady walked into the Notre Dame de Sion, a Catholic school located in Hyde Park, and told school officials that she was the aunt of Bobby Greenlease, a six year old enrolled in the school. Heady…
Water Rights
August 2, 1951: Kansas City’s municipal government learned that the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was filing a suit to force the city to end racial segregation at the Swope Park swimming pool…
Starry, Starry Nights
June 25, 1951: Following celebrations for Kansas City's centennial birthday, Starlight Theatre began its first season with the musical The Desert Song. Attending the outdoor theatre in Swope Park quickly became a beloved…
Secrets of Chambers
March 24, 1935: Annie Chambers, a former prostitute and Kansas City brothel owner, passed away at the age of 92. By the time of her death, Chambers' own life had neatly paralleled Kansas City's untamed years of the late…
Into the Sunset
November 4, 1934: Tom Bass died at the age of 75, following a celebrated career as a horse trainer and a founder of the American Royal in Kansas City. Bass, the son of a white man and a young female slave, was born a slave in…
Kidnapped!
May 27, 1933: One of Kansas City's most sensational and ultimately tragic crimes began with the kidnapping of Mary McElroy, the daughter of controversial city manager Henry F. McElroy, who had close ties to the political machine…