Today is Friday, Sept. 22, 2023. Here are local news reports from 100, 50 and 15 years ago:
In 1923, local merchant Frank K. Robeson, founder of the department store at Church and Randolph streets, died suddenly at the Bradford Hotel in Storm Lake, Iowa, the victim of an apparent heart attack. He founded the mercantile establishment in 1876.
In 1973, during the robbery of Owens Oil Service Station in which a man made off with $250, the suspect pulled the receiver from the gas station’s telephone so the attendant — a student at Urbana High School — could not call police.
In 2008, Urbana has topped the 40,000 mark in population for the first time, according to results from a special census. Urbana’s new population total is 40,550, an increase of 3,188 residents over the 37,362 figure from the 2000 census.
