Other days

100 YEARS AGO

March 8, 1923

EL DORADO — The trade volume for El Dorado during January was larger than in any other city in the state except Little Rock, according to the report made by the Babson Statistical Service. Since August El Dorado has climbed from fifth to second place in the state, being outranked in December by Fort Smith. The trade volume totaled $14,561,000 for January.

50 YEARS AGO

March 8, 1973

■ The House subcommittee appointed to draft a capital punishment bill apparently has changed its mind about making the gas chamber the method of execution in Arkansas. A death penalty bill drafted Tuesday by the Subcommittee would have designated lethal gas the official means of execution, and would have scrapped the state’s homemade electric chair. The subcommittee thought the gas chamber would be inexpensive to make and more humane. Investigation later apparently proved it would be neither. Representative Rudy Moore Jr. of Springdale, subcommittee chairman, said Wednesday that inquiries of neighboring states indicated that it would cost $100,000 and that death by cyanide gas was slower and more agonizing than electrocution.

25 YEARS AGO

March 8, 1998

PINE BLUFF — The thorny issue of nightclub closing times has resurfaced after a fatal shooting last month, one alderman proposing to extend closing time from 3 a.m. to 5 a.m. … Alderman Levert Blunt Jr., chairman of the City Council’s Public Safety Committee, has proposed allowing nightclubs in the city to remain open until 5 a.m. so bar patrons will not flock to all-night convenience stores and create crowds that increase the likelihood of violence. Blunt’s effort is supported by Alderman J.C. Jeffries. In 1996, Police Chief Brad King and Blunt sparked a controversy when they proposed abolishing the 3 a.m. closing time. The issue died in committee and never came to a vote by the council.

10 YEARS AGO

March 8, 2013

■ Former President Bill Clinton, who signed the Defense of Marriage Act in 1996 barring federal recognition of same-sex weddings, called on the Supreme Court on Thursday to overturn the law. Just weeks before the court takes up a case challenging the law, Clinton said he had come to believe that the law is unconstitutional and contravenes the quintessential American values of “freedom, equality and justice above all.” In doing so, he joined President Barack Obama in arguing that the law be overturned. “As the president who signed the act into law, I have come to believe that DOMA is contrary to those principles and, in fact, incompatible with our Constitution,” Clinton wrote in an opinion article posted Thursday evening on the website of The Washington Post. The Defense of Marriage Act defined marriage for federal purposes as the union of a man and a woman. It did not ban same-sex marriage in the states, none of which then had made it legal. But the law stipulated that should one or more states eventually authorize it, other states would not have to recognize the validity of such unions.