Other days
100 YEARS AGO May 18, 1924
■ Eight women prisoners of the state, formerly incarcerated at the State Farm for Women, escaped from the State Hospital for Nervous Diseases early last night. An hour later rioting broke out in the women’s ward of the institution, and it was not until police and county officers and guards at the hospital gave assistance that the outbreak was quieted.
50 YEARS AGO May 18, 1974
■ Lt. Col. Bobbie Emmerson Hall, 44, of 5109 North Cedar Street, North Little Rock, an instructor pilot with the Air National Guard, was killed about 1:30 p.m. Friday when his RF 101 Voodoo jet crashed and burned as he attempted to land at Little Rock Air Force Base. The crash site was one mile northeast of the runway in a heavily wooded area beyond a cluster of mobile homes and farm houses on Republican Road. Maj. Hal Lacy, of the base information office, said Hall was returning to the base after a cross country flight from McConnell Air Force Base at Wichita, Kan. The cause of the crash was undetermined late Friday, but an accident investigation board was appointed, Lacy said.
25 YEARS AGO May 18, 1999
■ Former Gov. Jim Guy Tucker was ordered to pay $1 million in restitution and placed on four years’ probation Monday for his role in putting a cable TV company through a sham bankruptcy to avoid paying taxes. U.S. District Judge Stephen Reasoner also fined Tucker $6,000 and ordered him to serve the equivalent of four hours a week of community service during his probation. Tucker said he would appeal the sentence and restitution order. Reasoner also allowed him to negotiate a tax settlement with the Internal Revenue Service. If Tucker’s liability is less than what the judge ordered, he could petition the court to reduce his restitution to the IRS’ amount. Tucker was governor from December 1992 until July 1996. He also was elected lieutenant governor and to Congress.
10 YEARS AGO May 18, 2014
■ A 1-mile area of St. Francis County was evacuated Saturday morning after an 18-wheeler carrying hazardous chemicals crashed and ignited on Interstate 40. Emergency personnel responded shortly after 7 a.m. to the 258-mile marker of the interstate, where pile bridges divide eastbound and westbound lanes over Allen Bayou. A FedEx truck traveling east had caught fire after going off the road and crashing into the piles of the westbound bridge. The driver of the 18-wheeler was taken to Regional One Health in Memphis, according to Arkansas State Police spokesman Bill Sadler. His condition was unknown late Saturday. The truck was hauling 16,000 pounds of sodium picramate and 2,900 pounds of another chemical that had not been identified late Saturday. Sodium picramate is commonly used in hair dye and other pigment-altering cosmetic products. When exposed to fire, it produces toxic fumes and can explode.