Other days
100 YEARS AGO June 22, 1922
ODESSA—The price of diamonds is soaring so rapidly here and in Moscow that German jewelers, who spent huge sums buying up collections from the impoverished Russian nobility are now back in Russia selling their wares at double the prices they asked in Germany. The diamond market owes its rise to the scramble of traders and merchants to get rid of their rubles. Never sure of the value paper money will have from day to day, they literally invent bales of Soviet currency in precious stones.
50 YEARS AGO June 22, 1972
ARKADELPHIA—Twenty-two students made all A’s during the spring semester at Ouachita Baptist University. They were: Beverly Beadle, Suella Beard, and Roberta Gay Gladden, all of Little Rock; Judith Ann Crouch of North Little Rock; Shirley Grant, Jamie Hobgood, James D. Hurley, Sharon Kluck, and Mary Kaye Sandford, all of Arkadelphia; Patricia Greene of Malvern; Rita Guthrie of Smithville; Sammie Carol Halbert of Star City; Bernie Hargis of Warren; John Holston of Texarkana; Deborah L. Johnson of Danville; John Thomas Jones of Gurdon; Brent Lamar Smith of Hot Springs; Cathy Sparkman of Fort Smith; Jimmie Ann Tenberg of Fort Worth, Texas; Richard S. Vasey of Glendale, Calif.; Searcy A. Wilcoxin of Hamburg; and Katherine L. Willis of Crossett.
25 YEARS AGO June 22, 1997
HOT SPRINGS —Stacy Freeman is the new Miss Arkansas. Freeman of Sheridan, Miss White River, will represent Arkansas in the Miss America Pageant in September in Atlantic City, N.J. She was crowned by Melonie McGarrah, Miss Arkansas 1996, before a cheering throng at the Hot Springs Convention Auditorium Saturday night. Freeman, 21, is a graduate in dance from Oklahoma City University. She wins $46,000 in awards and prizes plus a $12,000 scholarship. Chrisna George, Miss Little Rock, was first runner-up and won a $7,000 scholarship.
10 YEARS AGO June 22, 2012
■ Fire investigators said the June 11 Little Rock apartment building fire that displaced 200 residents, injured five and killed one was caused by someone smoking in bed. Little Rock Fire Department spokesman Capt. Randy Hickmon said Vertis Brown, 72, was likely smoking in bed, which appeared to be the point of origin in the Plaza Towers blaze that ultimately claimed her life. “The bed is where the fire started, and she’s been known to smoke in bed,” Hickmon said. “The bed and the related items around the bed are the most highly flammable materials, it didn’t take long [for the fire] to get going.” Fire officials said the blaze started about 8 p.m. and that the woman’s second-floor apartment was in flames by the time fire crews arrived. The fire damaged adjoining apartments and caused substantial smoke damage throughout the lower floors.