Friday, July 6, 2001 | 8:42 a.m.
February 19, 1976: Seven computer terminals for news and another one for classified ads are ready to make their debut, which is delayed when hurricane-force winds black out the city. Newsroom staffers wait out the storm and the computers are successful when the power comes back on.
1977: Northern Nevada brothel owner Joe Conforte sentenced to prison for tax invasion. Conforte flees to Brazil to avoid serving time.
1978: The FBI serves 83 search warrants, some targeting Tony Spilotro, the reputed Chicago mob overseer in Las Vegas. Stardust executive Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal is also subpoenaed.
Sept. 1, 1978: Noted Las Vegas defense attorney Harry Claiborne is sworn in as a federal judge.
1980: Claiborne calls the Justice Department's Las Vegas Organized Crime Strike Force "rotten bastards" and "a bunch of crooks."
January 1980: Joe Yablonsky takes charge of the Las Vegas FBI office and escalates the investigation of Claiborne.
Nov. 21, 1980: The MGM Grand at Flamingo Road and the Strip burns, killing 84 people and injuring more than 500. The resulting Sun series helped get fire codes rewritten nationally.
Feb. 10, 1981: An arson fire at the Las Vegas Hilton claims eight lives and damages 600 rooms.
July 4, 1981: On a tip from an FBI informant, the Hole in the Wall gang is arrested while breaking into Bertha's Home Furnishings on East Sahara Avenue.
Summer 1981: Four men are convicted in Kansas City of skimming at the Tropicana Hotel.
1982: Sun wins top award from Nevada Press Association for seven-part series exposing Justice Department misconduct as it investigated Judge Claiborne.
1982: Frank Cullotta becomes a federally protected witness after Anthony Spilotro ordered him killed. The FBI and state Gaming Control Board reach a "memorandum of understanding" on swapping information.
September 1983: A Kansas City indictment charges 15 men, including Spilotro, with seizing control of Argent Corp. from Alan Glick and skimming $2 million from its casinos.
March 28, 1984: Trial begins for Claiborne in federal court in Reno. He is charged with filing false tax returns and taking bribes from Joe Conforte.
Aug. 11, 1984: After the first trial ended with a hung jury, Claiborne is convicted of filing false income tax returns. Conforte bribery charges were dropped before the start of this second trial.
Jan. 14, 1986: Trial begins for mobster Anthony Spilotro.
April 27, 1986: The U.S. House of Representatives votes to impeach Claiborne.
June 21, 1986: The bodies of Spilotro and his brother Michael are found in an Indiana cornfield. They were beaten to death, apparently because of Tony's high visibility in Las Vegas because of his legal problems.
Oct. 9, 1986: Following impeachment, the U.S. Senate convicts Claiborne of "high crimes and misdemeanors" stemming from his 1984 conviction for tax fraud. Claiborne is ordered removed from the bench and serves a two-year prison term.
February 1987: Sun breaks the story that Liberace is dying of AIDS. His handlers strongly deny the report and say the famed entertainer's weight loss is the result of a "watermelon diet." Ten days later, however, Liberace dies, and the Riverside County, Calif., coroner rules his death is the result of complications of AIDS. The story leads to a heightened AIDS awareness throughout the country.
Dec. 23, 1987: Sen. J. Bennett Johnston, D-La., singles out Yucca Mountain -- 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas -- as the only site in the nation for the Department of Energy to study for a high-level nuclear waste repository. The Sun has covered Yucca Mountain from all perspectives for more than 15 years.
May 4, 1988: A series of explosions level Pacific Engineering and Production Co. of Nevada, a longtime Henderson chemical plant. Two people are killed and 300 injured. PEPCON, as it was known, produced ammonium perchlorate to boost the performance of rocket fuel.
Aug. 10, 1988: Spectacular magnesium explosions at Titanium Metals Corp. send sparks and flames into the night sky over Henderson. Similar explosions occur again 10 years later, on Aug. 4, 1998.
July 22, 1989: Hank Greenspun dies.
June 30, 1990: The Sun is printed on its own presses for the last time. A federally approved Joint Operating Agreement under the Newspaper Preservation Act sees the Review-Journal take over the Sun's advertising, printing and circulation functions. The editorial departments remain separate and highly competitive, preserving Las Vegas as a two-newspaper town.
July 1, 1990: Under the JOA, the Review-Journal switches to morning publication and the Sun to afternoon.
Sept. 21, 1991: Claiming they were being shortchanged on health benefits and wages, workers at the Frontier begin what becomes one of the longest labor strikes in U.S. history. Strike lasts six years, four months and 10 days, ending Feb. 1, 1998.
July 27, 1993: Sun breaks story that Kevyn Wynn, daughter of Mirage Resorts Chairman Steve Wynn, was kidnapped the previous night from her Spanish Trail home. Kidnappers release her within hours, after receiving $1.5 million in ransom arranged through Mirage Resorts.
December 1993: Kirk Kerkorian opens the world's largest hotel, the MGM Grand, with 5,000 rooms.
May 6, 1996: The Sun pulls onto the information super highway, launching its website.
Jan. 19, 1997: Sun begins a seven-part series on the Clark County Family Court system. Series leads to voluminous feedback from the public, legislative subcommittee hearings and proposed changes in state law.
Nov. 4, 1997: The Sun breaks a story about a state probe of the Harley L. Harmon Mortgage Co., in which hundreds of Las Vegans reported losing millions of dollars on questionable investments through the company run by a former state assemblyman. The state Legislature subsequently passes laws that strengthen consumer protection in this area.
Nov. 30, 1997: The Sun begins a weeklong series on Clark County's child protective services system that exposes a severe lack of funds and staffing to care for abused and neglected children. A special state legislative panel continues looking at issues first reported in the Sun series.
Sept. 17, 1998: Colorful gaming figure Ted Binion is found dead at his home. Sun reporting leads to murder charges against Binion's girlfriend, Sandy Murphy, and Murphy's lover, Rick Tabish. After extensive daily Sun coverage drawing international attention, Murphy and Tabish are convicted on May 19, 2000, of killing Binion and sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 20 years.
Nov. 15, 1998: The Sun writes a story about an effort to release Reginald Hayes of Las Vegas from prison, where he had been incarcerated for 13 years on a murder conviction. The newspaper performs additional research showing that a key prosecution witness against Hayes repeatedly changed her story. Hayes, who is black, also was brought before the all-white jury in shackles and had a judge who had a nervous breakdown in the middle of the trial. Within a week of the story a Clark County district judge released Hayes from prison, and he was pardoned by the state last year.
May 16, 1999: Sun begins seven-part series titled "Story of a Fourth Grade Class." Series wins state and national awards.
June 3, 1999: Sun reporters converge on scene of random shooting at an Albertson's grocery store. Four people are killed and one is wounded. Zane Floyd, a 23-year-old bar bouncer, is charged with the crime.
July 8, 1999: Sustained, heavy rains cause severe flooding, causing $20.5 million worth of property damage. Southern Nevada is declared a disaster area.
March 27, 2000: Sun announces plans to move to new headquarters in Green Valley. The move is completed in March of this year.
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