The movie "Michael" opens this weekend. Did you know that Michael Jackson's rather controversial father and manager, Joe Jackson, was born in Fountain Hill, Arkansas? Read more at: encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/jose...
George Takei was born on this day in 1937. He gained international fame as Lieutenant Sulu in the original Star Trek television series and movies. When he was a boy, he and his family were held in the War Relocation Authority Camp in Rohwer, Arkansas. encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/geor...
Dr. Melanie Welch, a longtime contributor to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas, passed away this morning. She wrote a number of entries on health and medicine that are relevant for the present moment, such as this one on Maternal and Infant Mortality. RIP. encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/mate...
Happy National Librarian Day! The Norman Library has been known as the smallest public library in the state and once held the Guinness Book of World Records title as the smallest free-standing public library in the country. Read more at: encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/norm...
Paul Kazuo Kuroda died on this day in 2001. A professor of chemistry at the University of Arkansas, he correctly predicted the presence of naturally occurring nuclear reactors nearly twenty years before the first discovery of such in west-central Africa. encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/paul...
New entry: Sibling Rivalry Press, publishing house founded in 2010 which has received recognition for its literary merit and its focus on providing a platform for LGBTQ+ voices in Arkansas and beyond. Read more at: encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/sibl...
New entry: John Eaton Jr., an educator and soldier who was in charge of operations supporting formerly enslaved people in Arkansas during the latter part of the Civil War. Read more at: encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/john...
New entry: Curlew, a steamboat often chartered by the Union army for operations on waterways in and around Arkansas. Read more at: encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/curl...
New entry: Born in the Delta is a 1991 memoir by Margaret Jones Bolsterli, who records her early life on an Arkansas cotton farm during the 1930s and 1940s and shows how these experiences continued to influence her life, even after she moved away. encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/born...
Today is the 40th anniversary of the death of Prescott native John Calvin Munn, a commander in the Pacific Theater of World War II and a pioneer among U.S. Marine aviators who perfected the use of aircraft carriers for combat operations. Read more at: encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/john...
On this day in 2003, the CBS television movie "A Painted House," based upon the John Grisham book, had its world premier at Arkansas State University at the request of Grisham. Proceeds supported the Heritage Studies PhD program. Read more at: encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/a-pa...
Organized prejudice against Roman Catholics was a recurring theme in American history from colonial days through the early twentieth century, rising to a climax in the 1910s and 1920s. Nowhere was it greater in these years than in Arkansas. Read more at: encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/anti...
On this day in 1917, local officials arrived at Subiaco Abbey in Logan County to destroy the abbey’s radio in order to prevent the monks from receiving messages from German government. Just one example of anti-German sentiment during World War I. Read more: encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/worl...
New entry: Ink is a rural community in Polk County located approximately five miles east of Mena along Arkansas State Highway 88. Three theories exist on the origins of the town’s name. You can find out more here: encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/ink-...
Florence Price was born on this day in 1887. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra performed her Symphony in E Minor on June 15, 1933, making her the first Black woman to have a symphonic composition performed by a major American symphony orchestra. encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/flor...
Poet Miller Williams was born in Hoxie on this day in 1930. One of the foremost American poets of the post–World War II era, he was a key figure in the University of Arkansas’s nationally known programs in creative writing and translation. Read more at: encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/mill...
New entry: Watch Us Grow is a 1940 novel written by Harry Hamilton and published by the Bobbs-Merrill Company of Indianapolis and New York. The book opens in 1912 in the fictional Mississippi River town of Aleta, Arkansas. Read more at: encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/watc...
New entry: Running the Bases is a 2022 Christian sports drama filmed largely in Harrison. With no studio financing or distribution, the movie opened in nearly 1,300 theaters on September 16, 2022, earning $1,511,980 during the course of its theatrical run. encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/runn...
Garvan Woodland Gardens officially opened to the public with a dedication ceremony on this day in 2002. Read more about this beloved botanical garden in Hot Springs at: encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/garv...
The four men who carried out the last recorded train robbery in Arkansas were hanged on this date in 1894 outside the city jail in Newport. Read more about the crime and trial here: encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/olyp...
Dan Carlos West, president of what is now Lyon College from 1972 to 1988, has passed away. One historian described his tenure as “the most turbulent, the most exciting, the most confusing, [and] the most successful” time in the school’s history. Read more: encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/dan-...
New entry: Violent Ends, a 2025 thriller written and directed by North Little Rock (Pulaski County) native John-Micheal Powell. Read more here: encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/viol...
The Bayou Tapestry is an embroidered cloth that depicts scenes of daily life at Arkansas Post during the first half of the eighteenth century. Oddly, much of the space of the tapestry is devoted to the hunting and consumption of frogs. Read more here: encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/bayo...
Three years ago today, a deadly tornado outbreak struck Arkansas, damaging large parts of Little Rock, North Little Rock, Wynne, and other communities. Read more about it here: encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/torn...
Danielle Berry was a revolutionary computer game designer who specialized in multi-player games when few in the industry were interested. Her 1983 game M.U.L.E. was listed third on Computer Gaming World’s 1996 list of the best games of all time. Read more: encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/dani...
Jim Dandy Magrum, frontman for Black Oak Arkansas and dubbed by rock critic Jay Sosnicki as “The Tightest Pants in Dixie,” was born on this date in 1948. encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/jim-...
Spring break will soon be over for Arkansas students, but back in the day, major league baseball players went to Hot Springs not for partying (well, some of that) but for training. Read more here: encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/majo...
New entry: Elizabeth Jacoway is a historian, educator, and writer most known for her 2007 book, "Turn Away Thy Son: Little Rock, the Crisis That Shocked the Nation." Read more at encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/eliz...
