The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor dramatically ended the debate over American entrance into the war that raged around the world. As eager Tunica volunteers flooded the local draft board office, every citizen soon felt the impact of war.

Almost overnight, the economy shifted into military production. Consumer goods took a back seat to military production as nationwide rationing began almost immediately. In May of 1942, the U.S. Office of Price Administration (OPA) froze prices on practically all everyday goods, starting with sugar and coffee.

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Three Tunica men are in custody and charged with murder in the Dec. 7 shooting death of Anthony Vaughn, also of Tunica, who had just turned 24 that day.

Vaughn, shot multiple times at Nickson’s Disco nightclub in downtown Tunica, was transported to the Regional Medical Center in Memphis, where he later died, according to Tunica police investigator Michael Nichols.

Travis Nickson, 38, Mario Nickson, 41, and Quinton Gates, 27, are being held in the Tunica County Jail, on charges of murder and accessory after the fact.

An altercation that began inside the club Friday spilled out onto Marie Street just after midnight Saturday, Dec. 7, Nichols said.

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Christmas 1944 was, as Charles Dickens would have said, both the worst of times and the best of times. Tunica County and the nation were in the third year of World War II, and about to have the fourth Christmas since the bombing of Pearl Harbor. A spirit of optimism and pride was tempered by news from abroad, as the Allies pushed the Axis powers back both in Europe and the Pacific.

Only weeks before Christmas, Tunica County residents were surprised as they watched a B-17 bomber circle south of the town, apparently looking for a place to land. As they watched the airship turn and bank, they didn’t realize that it was being flown on autopilot. As the plane rose and descended, it abruptly turned south, and in just a few minutes, crashed into an open field on the Bonnie Blue Plantation just east of Clayton.

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Tunica County Sheriff K.C. Hamp has announced that the Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over campaign starts today (Friday, Dec. 13) and runs through January 1, 2014.

During this time, law enforcement officers will be on the lookout for impaired drivers. Various saturations and checkpoints will be set up throughout the county.

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