Jan. 22, 1925 — St. Anne’s hold its second annual Foundation Day banquet. Sponsored by its Mothers Club, 300 people attend the banquet.
Jan. 23, 1853 — Some Sisters of Mercy and the Right Rev. Andrew Byrne, first bishop of Arkansas, arrive after a four-day riverboat journey from Little Rock. The sisters — Sr. Mary Vincent Healy, Sr. M. De Sales O’Keefe, Sr. M. Alphonsus Carton, Sr. M Xavier Nolan, Sr. M Aloysius Fitzpatrick and Mother Mary Teresa Farrell — were members of Mercy Convent in Ireland who had volunteered to leave home and establish convents in Arkansas.
Jan. 23, 1885 — A group of ladies organizes a society for the relief of the poor. Mrs. W.M. Cravens, Mrs. H. Stone, Mrs. W.H. Cole and Mrs. C.M. Barnes are elected officers, and relief committees are appointed for each ward.
Jan. 24, 1984 — NASA honors Fort Smith native Richard Fitts with a NASA Exceptional Service Award. Fitts was honored for his contribution to an April 1981 space shuttle mission during which he served as ascent guidance, navigation and control officer during its launch.
Jan. 25, 1841 — The city council passes a Sunday law, ordering nothing can be sold on Sundays within the city without a $5 fine.
Jan. 25, 1965 — The Fort Smith Classroom Teachers Association lobbies for a $1,000 raise before the Board of Education with 350 people attending the meeting at Ramsey Junior High School.
Jan. 26, 1948 — The original Christ the King Church burns, with only the walls, roof and tabernacle surviving.
Jan. 27, 1909 — Friends arriving at an afternoon party at the Lexington Avenue residence of Dr. and Mrs. J.G. Eberle were surprised to learn they were attending a double wedding. Miss Ethel Eberle and Mr. Leslie Hunt were married and Miss Bess Eberle and Mr. Willis were married at 4:30 p.m.
Jan. 27, 1914 — Evelyn Nesbit appears for one night at the New Theatre. The New York vaudevillian had been at the center of a 1906 love triangle in which her husband Harry Thaw, heir to a $40 million fortune, had killed her lover, architect Stanford White. Thaw’s subsequent murder trial had been dubbed “the Trial of the Century.”