100 years ago
Aug. 23, 1921
• Magnolia is to have telegraph service commencing September 1. E.G. Pettus, secretary of the Chamber of Commerce, has tried to induce the Western Union to install an office here, but the company claims there is not enough business to justify one. Mr. Pettus has formulated a plan by which the citizens may have the service. He will use a private telephone line from here to McNeil and has employed a manager to take care of messages, with a motto: "Two-Minute Service." There will also be a manager at McNeil to look after the service there over the Western Union wires and a co-operate with the service at this end. Heretofore messages have been sent over a private line from here to McNeil by employees at the L. & N. station to the Western Union at McNeil during the day, but there will be no service at night.
50 years ago
Aug. 23, 1971
• PINE BLUFF -- Seventeen cars of a Cotton Belt freight train derailed Saturday inside the Pine Bluff city limits. A spokesman said the derailment apparently was caused when an axle broke on a boxcar loaded with lumber. Assistant Cotton Belt Superintendent James Walton said no one was injured. He said the derailment destroyed several cars and about 650 feet of track. Walton said the 86-car train was en route from Texarkana to Pine Bluff at the time of the accident. He said that trains would be routed through Little Rock until the track was repaired.
25 years ago
Aug. 23, 1996
• WASHINGTON -- President Clinton is beginning the stretch run of his last campaign in the place where all the other campaigns started -- Arkansas. White House officials confirmed Thursday that the president will return to Little Rock for at least one day of rest and relaxation after next week's Democratic National Convention. He'll spend Sept. 1 going to church and calling on relatives and friends before heading out for the traditional Labor Day kickoff of the fall presidential campaign. Clinton being Clinton, however, the visit will not be without a dose of politics.
10 years ago
Aug. 23, 2011
• Westward population growth over the past decade will require boundary shifts in the areas represented by justices of the peace in Pulaski County, but exactly how remains uncertain until the county's largest city reconfigures its wards. On Monday, Pulaski County election commissioners said it could be several more months before they'll have any countywide maps available for review and suggestions. The capital city knows it needs to make its western wards smaller to accommodate growth over the past 10 years, as it expands its eastern wards that lost population. But the city hasn't gone further than calculating that each of its seven wards needs to be as close to 27,646 people as possible.