Other days
100 YEARS AGO July 6, 1918
EL DORADO — While her father rescued Miss Clyde Vernon, who had ventured out in deep water, Miss Floyd Bird, aged 17, was drowned in the Ouachita river about noon yesterday while attending a Fourth of July picnic. Mr. Bird was the first to reach Miss Vernon as she was going under the second time. Guy Dean swam to the assistance of Miss Bird, but was nearly drowned while trying to save her. Mr. Bird saw the young man’s plight and swam to his daughter’s aid. He only had time to grasp her hair as she went under the third time and she struggled loose from him. Miss Bird’s body was recovered two hours later.
50 YEARS AGO July 6, 1968
W. L. Thompson, director of the Weather Bureau regional headquarters at Fort Worth, met with Col. Ralph D. Scott, director of the State Police, Tuesday at Little Rock to complete plans to connect the State Police to the Weather Bureau’s teletypewriter network. The Weather Bureau is now connected to the State Police and the Civil Defense Station at Conway by a direct telephone system — the National Advanced Warning System. A spokesman for the Weather Bureau said that the teletype circuit will be complete within a month.
25 YEARS AGO July 6, 1993
Police arrested a Little Rock pharmacist on an attempted arson charge Monday after he allegedly poured gasoline in a business owned by Lester Hosto, executive director of the Arkansas Board of Pharmacy. Bruce Leasure, 39, remained jailed without bond Monday after his 4:25 a.m. arrest on felony charges of burglary and attempted arson. Leasure, owner of Generic Pharmacies at 4500 W. Markham St., made headlines last year after he shot and killed a robber outside his pharmacy. Leasure’s pharmacy recently was the subject of several complaints from the Board of Pharmacy, Hosto said.
10 YEARS AGO July 6, 2008
Manuel Camacho and Serafin Sandoval-Vega plan to blame each other when their capital-murder trial starts Tuesday in Benton County Circuit Court. Camacho, 27, and Sandoval-Vega, 21, could be sentenced to death in the May 6, 2006, highway shooting of Daniel Francis. Sandoval-Vega, who prosecutors say pulled the trigger, is charged with capital murder, while Camacho, the driver, is charged as an accomplice to capital murder. Roxana Hernandez, the front-seat passenger, also is charged as an accomplice, but her trial hasn’t been set. After their arrests, the three blamed one another, and that theme will continue during the unusual simultaneous trial of Camacho and Sandoval-Vega, attorneys said.