February 26

Feb. 26, 1937: Spilled typewriter cleaning fluid ignited by a gas stove was blamed for a fire that gutted the Bish Mathis Institute. There were no injuries. The business school’s building was located on South Green Street at the Missouri Pacific underpass.

Feb. 26, 1953: An estimated 30,000 people streamed through the new $2 million Fedway department store, on Tyler Street at High Street, on its first day of business. City streets, parking lots and cafes were crowded, and police said more than half of all vehicles bore out-of-county license plates.