130 YEARS AGO
Strong Drink: The Enterprise says, "It makes more heartaches than all other things combined. It leads honorable men down, and down, until they forget their former high estate; it makes it possible for women to lead lives of shame. It makes naturally kind hearts cruel; it benumbs the noblest natures, undermines the finest intellects ... it is the author of two-thirds of the crimes that are committed; to it can be traced the destruction of two thirds of the homes which are broken up."
100 YEARS AGO
Clarence Benner, 19, an employee of the Butters plant at Virginia City was electrocuted in the Chollar mine yesterday when he sat down on a galvanized iron platform to eat lunch. It is believed that imperfect wiring was the primary cause of the accident. He was well known and a member of a respected family in Virginia City.
70 YEARS AGO
Twenty highway fatalities during July has Governor Carville ordering state police to double vigilance in enforcing traffic regulations in the state. The July total was only six less that the entire previous six-month period. Inspector of State Police George Gottschalk said all patrolmen have been instructed to make immediate arrests for drunken and reckless driving.
50 YEARS AGO
Las Vegas officials today await an attempt to gain a prisoner's freedom on a writ of habeas corpus, contending a charge had not been read to Charles Williams before he entered a plea. It is thought that others in the jail would get freedom if they used the same avenue.
20 YEARS AGO
A cruise missile test that would have sent an unarmed weapon from near Fallon over the Pacific Ocean has been postponed indefinitely.
10 YEARS AGO
After two years of planning, the final version of the open space portion of the master plan is ready for public comment.
• Trent Dolan is the son of Bill Dolan, who wrote this column for the Nevada Appeal from 1947 until his death in 2006.