Other days

100 YEARS AGO

June 1, 1923

■ George Lemons, local youth, arrested by Deputy Sheriff Goss and Patrolmen Hart and White on a charge of simple assault, pleaded guilty in Municipal Court yesterday afternoon and was fined $50 by Judge Jack Weas. The statements made by Lemons in court exonerated Walter Horn, who escaped Wednesday night after he had been arrested on a similar charge.

50 YEARS AGO

June 1, 1973

DUMAS — Elaine Watson, a student at Dumas High School, has been named the 1973 winner of the annual speech contest sponsored by the Arkansas Lung Association (formerly the Arkansas Tuberculosis and Respiratory Disease Association). Topics for the contest were air pollution, or cigarette smoking as related to lung diseases. First runner-up was Stan Perry of Marion High School; second runner-up was Lisa Misenbacher of Rogers, and third runner-up was Vicki Day of Mills High School.

25 YEARS AGO

June 1, 1998

■ With flames billowing more than 115 feet into the 97-degree air, firefighters said they could only “surround and drown” a huge fire that destroyed an east Little Rock milling plant Sunday. More than 50 firefighters, each carrying more than 50 pounds of gear, poured thousands of gallons of water onto the T-Square Mills plant at 911 Fairpoint St. in an attempt to quell the whipping flames. “This is the closest thing to hell I have ever seen,” said Mike Richardson, an employee of nearby Winburn Tile Manufacturing Co. at 1721 E. Ninth St. That business and a steel-milling plant west of T-Square were spared. A two-story warehouse and a four-story mill collapsed during the inferno, leaving the melted metal siding heaped over charred wood framing. The twisted remnants of the catwalk, once fixed more than 100 feet in the air, dangled off the remaining mill. Six small explosions could be heard as firefighters sprayed the buildings.

10 YEARS AGO

June 1, 2013

■ In Arkansas, 3,441 civilian Department of Defense employees are losing 20 percent of their pay for a stretch because of nationwide furloughs. Employees began receiving notices Thursday. Those affected will be required to take off 11 unpaid days beginning July 8, typically taking off one day per week for an 11-week span. Overall, 652,000 Defense Department employees nationwide will receive such notices. The Arkansas National Guard, Little Rock Air Force Base and the Pine Bluff Arsenal account for 2,443 of the Arkansas employees. The remaining 998 work at the National Guard Professional Education Center, with the Little Rock District U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, in Army Reserve units or at Fort Chaffee outside Fort Smith, at Camp Robinson in North Little Rock or at Camp Pike in North Little Rock. Spokesmen for those organizations could not be reached Friday to verify the number of employees affected at each place.