The year 1964 was a pivotal one for The Beatles. On Feb. 7, the four-man band arrived in the United States for the first time. Two days later, they appeared on The Ed...
Arkansas Backstories: The Beatles
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Category: Arkansas Backstories
Arkansas Backstories: USS Razorback
At 311 feet from one end of its hull to the other, the USS Razorback is almost exactly the length of a football field. However, this venerated submarine is not named...
Arkansas Backstories: Earthquakes
People generally associate earthquakes with certain types of terrain: prominent escarpments, jagged peaks, visible faults and occasionally even volcanoes. Lacking such...
Arkansas Backstories: Elephants
Let’s face it — elephants are not among the first things that come to mind when people think about Arkansas. The only exception might be a handful of loyal...
Arkansas Backstories: Fire Ants
That old “ants in your pants” ditty is not so funny if the invading creatures happen to be fire ants. Just ask my wife. A reasonably modest woman, she had no...
Arkansas Backstories: Still
William Grant Still was born in Woodville, Mississippi, on May 11, 1895. When Carrie Still’s husband died shortly after the child’s birth, the young widow and her...
Arkansas Backstories: Pirates
Mention the word “pirates” to acquaintances, and one might get a variety of reactions. The older folks will likely think of Henry Morgan, Jean Lafitte or Blackbeard —...
Arkansas Backstories: Federal Express
I am no authority on linguistics (or much of anything else, for that matter), but it seems to me a company has truly arrived when its name becomes a commonly accepted...
Arkansas Backstories: Sister Rosetta Tharpe
Johnny Cash’s favorite singer was a fellow Arkansan. Seventeen years his senior, she spent her early years in Cotton Plant, a farming community about 100 miles...
Arkansas Backstories: Subiaco
Feature image above: Subiaco Abbey Courtyard Next time you have a hankering for a touch of Europe but don’t have the time or cash to make that long trip over the...
Arkansas Backstories: Fay Jones
Pictured above: Thorncrown Chapel While a student in the El Dorado public school system, Fay Jones would bring home notes from his teachers — missives that...
Arkansas Backstories: Ouachita National Park
Even the most diligent eBay searchers will not find any maps, coffee cups, guidebooks, bumper stickers, T-shirts or key chains emblazoned with the Ouachita National...