1. On July 23, 1904, the Arkansas State Prison was officially opened in Tucker, Arkansas. The prison was established to provide a place for serious offenders to serve their sentences, and it still operates to this day.

2. On July 23, 1952, the Arkansas Gazette became the first Southern newspaper to report on the Brown v. Board of Education case, which would eventually lead to the desegregation of public schools in the United States.

3. On July 23, 1966, the Arkansas Travelers minor league baseball team set a professional baseball record by scoring 16 runs in one inning against the Amarillo Sonics. The Travelers won the game 25-17.

4. On July 23, 1999, Governor Mike Huckabee signed a bill designating the Bowie knife as the official knife of Arkansas. The Bowie knife was first made famous by Arkansas native James Bowie in the 19th century.

5. On July 23, 2002, the Little Rock School District agreed to a settlement in the long-running desegregation case known as the Joshua Intervenors case. The settlement called for the district to spend $296 million on desegregation efforts over the next decade.