Other days
100 YEARS AGO May 19, 1919
■ Breaking jail late Saturday afternoon, two youthful prisoners, Sam Blevins and Sam Golter, were surprised in the act of burglarizing the Louin P. Davis grocery store, 110103 West Markham street, yesterday noon, and after a chase, Golter was recaptured. Blevins escaped. … The boys tore loose one of the large steel bunks from their cell at police headquarters. Then they pried apart short bars in the center of the iron bar door. They replaced the bunk and then crawled through the little opening and fled. … Two clerks of the Davis store returned to the garage with an automobile at noon yesterday and discovered the two youths ransacking the store. They gave chase. Golter ran into the arms of Sol Wormser, deputy sheriff, at Capitol avenue and Cross street. Blevins parted from Golter and escaped.
50 YEARS AGO May 19, 1969
■ Four Arkansas students will join the freshman class this fall at Princeton University at Princeton, N.J. Three of them will be on scholarships. The three attending on scholarships will be Eugene M. Shelby and Henry W. Hall III, seniors at Central High School at Little Rock, and David E. Parker, a senior at Pine Bluff High School. William C. Koch, Jr., a senior at Hall High School at Little Rock, will not be on a scholarship. Shelby played varsity basketball and was president of the Key Club at Central. He is a member of the Beta Club, Episcopal Young Churchmen and the Order of DeMolay. Hall is president of the IBM Explorer Scout Post and is a member of the Interclub Council, the Interact Club, National Honor Society, Beta Club and French Club at the school. Parker is a National Merit Scholarship winner. He is to receive this scholarship in addition to his Princeton scholarship. He is a member of the track team, National Honor Society and the Spanish Club at the school, and is president of the Catholic Youth Association. Koch is a member of the National Honor Society, Beta Club and Math Club at Hall.
25 YEARS AGO May 19, 1994
■ Workers hustled 35 children out of a Little Rock day-care center Wednesday after a workman’s blowtorch severed a 2-inch gas main 20 feet away, igniting flames that shot 60 feet over the heads of amazed onlookers. Witnesses said the huge flame at Seventh and Victory streets ignited with a tremendous “whoosh” that sent utility workers scrambling for safety and knocked out electricity and other services to downtown businesses and state offices. A daycare worker said she saw the initial flash as she supervised eight preschool children in a playground less than seven yards from the fire. … The fire began about 11:10 a.m. when Froylan Gaona, an employee for the Hislope Pipeline Construction Co., accidentally burned through a 2-inch plastic gas pipe. … The initial rupture created a flame about six feet high that melted through the larger gas main about 10 minutes later, firefighters said. That rupture sent a ball of fire high above trees and telephone lines.
10 YEARS AGO May 19, 2009
■ North Little Rock police are investigating a Sunday night robbery during which a pair of gunmen stole $3,000 from a Church’s Chicken restaurant. At 9:22 p.m., two men wearing hooded sweatshirts opened the drive-through window at the restaurant at 4604 E. Broadway. One man brandished a handgun before demanding cash from the register and the safe. Manager Tonya Ervin gave them the money, according to police reports. The men then ran south behind the restaurant, Ervin told police.