Other days

100 YEARS AGO Dec. 7, 1921

PINE BLUFF — The origin of the explosion which wrecked the front of the Eagle store and shattered the windows in several business houses across the street yesterday afternoon, causing an estimated loss of about $10,000, as well as injuring nine persons, is as much a mystery as ever today. The generally accepted theory is that a leaky gas pipe had allowed gas to accumulate under the show windows and that it was ignited, causing the detonation which resembled a bomb exploding or a building collapsing.

50 YEARS AGO Dec. 7, 1971

PINE BLUFF — The Police Department has reported 13 burglaries and robberies, including a number of thefts of drugs from doctors’ offices, over a four-day period. Several thefts were also reported at schools. … Saturday night, five armed men brandishing pistols and a shotgun robbed the Kroger supermarket on Blake Street. … Grocery employees said that men entered the store shortly before closing time and forced several customers and employees to lie on the floor. The manager was forced to open the safe. The men, all masked, apparently fled on foot with an undisclosed amount of cash, the police said.

25 YEARS AGO Dec. 7, 1996

PINE BLUFF — In February, the slaying of Clara Middleton Sutton, 88, a well-respected educator, stunned the city and created a climate of fear in her westside community. This week, nine months after Sutton’s death, her daughters met with Police Chief Brad King to try to revive public interest in the case. … King announced Friday that the Pine Bluff Police Department will offer a $5,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the person or persons responsible for Sutton’s murder. Anyone with information should contact the detective division at 5435111, King said… The case is still open, police said. Of the 19 murders in the city this year, the Sutton murder is one of three that has not yet been solved.

10 YEARS AGO Dec. 7, 2011

■ Little Rock city directors repealed a 54-year-old declaration Tuesday in which their predecessors declared support for Gov. Orval Faubus’ intervention at Central High School. … Little Rock Central High School became internationally known Sept. 2, 1957, when Faubus sent Arkansas National Guardsmen there … and directed the Guard to prevent nine black students from entering the all-white school, notwithstanding a court-approved desegregation plan. … President Dwight Eisenhower then federalized the National Guard and sent 101st Airborne Division troops to the school on Sept. 24 to enforce the school’s integration. … The 1957 declaration deplored Eisenhower’s judgment and said time and understanding, not force, were the answer to Little Rock’s integration problem.