Other days

100 YEARS AGO

March 16, 1924

■ Little Rock’s new General hospital, Twelfth and McAlmont streets, will be opened within the next two weeks, according to an announcement by Miss Lillian Kennedy, superintendent of the hospital. Workmen now are adding the finishing touches to the fireproof building. All the rooms and wards have been equipped with the most modern equipment on the market.

50 YEARS AGO

March 16, 1974

■ Catholic Bishop Andrew J. McDonald has turned down a request by Mount St. Mary’s Academy for permission to undertake a fund raising and construction drive. This has convinced St. Mary’s that there is a move afoot to consolidate it with the Catholic High School for boys. Mount St. Mary’s emphatically opposes such a consolidation. These points were made in a letter dated March 7 to the parents of Mount St. Mary’s students from Sister Mary Elisa, the principal. A copy of the letter was made available Friday to the Gazette. Neither Bishop McDonald nor Sister Mary Elisa were available for comment Friday night.

25 YEARS AGO

March 16, 1999

■ To Susan Howarth, executive director of the Arkansas Educational Television Network, there’s no question about spending $14 million so public television can have a crisper picture. “If we don’t … we’ll go out of business,” she said Monday. Howarth and the network, along with some help from the Public Broadcasting Service, were hoping to convince legislators and Gov. Mike Huckabee of the need for the funds to convert the network’s operation to digital broadcasting. To help convince them, AETN arranged with PBS to bring a truck to the state Capitol that contained equipment to explain and display digital television. The truck contained a fully operational television station. The conversion to digital broadcasting must occur by 2006, the year when television stations will be required to stop using their current analog signals.

10 YEARS AGO

March 16, 2014

■ Dozens of makeshift homeless camps will be set up Tuesday at River Market pavilions in downtown Little Rock to raise awareness of homeless conditions in central Arkansas as well as funds for the Union Rescue Mission. The Union Rescue Mission expects about 300 people to participate Tuesday during its Night on the Street event from 5 to 11 p.m. To gain an idea of how Little Rock’s homeless people survive, teams of participants will huddle on the concrete with blankets, or inside cardboard boxes, if they have them. The participants will then try to share the experience with as many people as possible through tweeting, posting on Facebook and Instagram, and calling family, friends and colleagues. Armed with talking points and statistics about homeless Arkansans, they will reach out to others with messages about homelessness and ask them to donate to the Union Rescue Mission, mission officials said.