Other days

100 YEARS AGO Oct. 3, 1917

■ FORT SMITH — Today was the tenth Fort Smith has been without telephone service, due to the strike of operators of the Southwestern Bell Telephone Company. Van Buren, Mansfield, Hartford, Huntington and Midland, where the strike is also in progress, have been without service for a week. So far as is known no effort is being made to bring the opposing sides together.

50 YEARS AGO Oct. 3, 1967

■ The eight-inch red lens on the traffic signal in the west-bound lane of Sixth Street at Scott Street have been replaced with a 12-inch red lens to try to reduce accidents at the intersection, the city Department of Community Development said. There have been about 15 accidents at the intersection this year.

25 YEARS AGO Oct. 3, 1992

■ In 1990, Arkansans died at a higher rate than the rate for the entire nation. A researcher with the Arkansas Department of Health said it occurred because the state had a relatively large senior population. There were 24,558 Arkansans who died in 1990, a rate of 1,045.0 per 100,000 population, compared to a national rate of 861.9. Heart disease remains the major cause of death (32.4 percent) in Arkansas, followed by cancer (23.1 percent) and strokes (8.5).

10 YEARS AGO Oct. 3, 2007

■ The Arkansas Department of Higher Education has received a $680,000 federal grant to be used to improve the subject matter knowledge and teaching skills of elementary and secondary school teachers — particularly those teaching math and science. The U.S. Department of Education is the source of the grant, which is part of the federal No Child Left Behind Act passed by Congress in 2001 and signed by President Bush in 2002. One provision of the act calls for teachers to meet state requirements to be designated as “highly qualified” in the subjects they teach. The state Higher Education Department will establish policies for dispersing the funds to colleges and universities, which will in turn use the money to form partnerships with local school districts to strengthen teacher skills. Particularly targeted will be districts and schools with a high percentage of students from low income families, those in rural areas or those with high numbers of teachers who are not certified or are not certified in the subjects they are assigned to teach.