Quay County Sun - Serving the High Plains

On this date ...

1969: Apollo 11’s astronauts sped unerringly today on their epic journey to walk on the moon. Russia’s unmanned Luna 15 already is orbiting there in an apparent bold bid to beat the Americans back to Earth with a sample of lunar soil.

• A Santa Rosa police officer was charged with involuntary manslaughter after he shot and killed a fleeing prisoner. The 21-year-old inmate from Dayton, Ohio, broke and ran while being transferred from a sheriff’s deputy’s car to a city patrol car. The district attorney said he charged the officer with involuntary manslaughter because there “clearly was not malice involved.”

• Betty Jo Noble, aka Miss Tucumcari, is competing in the 10th annual Miss New Mexico Scholarship Pageant at the Hobbs High School auditorium. Girls will be judged on beauty, talent and personality as they vie for the Miss New Mexico crown and a chance to go to the Miss America Pageant.

• A fire gutted Johnny Cruze Sr.’s dairy barn 10 1/2 miles east of Tucumcari. The blaze caused an estimated $15,000 in damage but no serious injuries to people or livestock were reported. Firefighting units from Tucumcari, Hudson and Lesbia responded to the fire. The fire’s cause was undetermined.