This Week in KC History
The Multiplex is Born
July 12, 1963: Stanley H. Durwood opened what is widely believed to be the first movie theater designed specifically as a twin multiplex. Located in the Ward Parkway Shopping Center of Kansas City, Missouri, Durwood's Parkway…
Can't Buy Him Love
September 17, 1964: On their inaugural tour of the United States, the Beatles attracted capacity crowds at every concert except for the Children’s Mercy Hospital benefit held in Kansas City, Missouri. The crowd of 20,207 was just…
Bowled Over
January 15, 1967: The Kansas City Chiefs lost to the Green Bay Packers in Super Bowl I. The Chiefs’ presence in the first Super Bowl was fitting because the owner of the Chiefs, Lamar Hunt, was one of the key architects of the…
And Then It Happened
April 9, 1968: Frustrated with the slow pace of civil rights reforms and outraged at the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., protestors turned to violence in Kansas City. The uprising shocked many residents of the city,…
Plane Speaking
November 11, 1972: The Kansas City International Airport officially opened for commercial service. The airport replaced the existing Mid-Continent Airport at the same location. Twenty years before, the 1951 flood destroyed many…
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),…
The Worst Fire in Kansas City History
January 28, 1978: At about 4:00 a.m., a catastrophic fire broke out at the Coates House Hotel on Quality Hill near downtown Kansas City, Missouri. By the time that the fire was controlled around 8:00 a.m., the south part of the…
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 a Legend
December 28, 1982: Arthur Bryant died while working in the restaurant that he turned into a world-famous barbecue joint. Bryant was born in 1902 in Branchville, Texas, and attended Prairie View A&M, an all-black agricultural…
Going Nuclear
November 20, 1983: Thousands of Kansas Citians were part of the estimated 100 million Americans that watched the fictional destruction of Kansas City in the made-for-TV drama, The Day After. To an unprecedented scale,…