Today in Southern History: October

Showing posts with label October. Show all posts

31 October 2017

31 October 1861

The St. Louis Secession Flag

On this date in 1861...

Missouri Governor Claiborne Fox Jackson signed the Missouri Ordinance of Secession in Neosho, Missouri since the Missouri’s capital, Jefferson City, had already been occupied by Federal invaders and troops raised from recent German socialist immigrants.

Other Years:

1860 - Juliette Gordon Low, the founder off the Girl Scouts, was born in Savannah, Georgia.
1961 – A federal judge ruled that Birmingham, Alabama, laws against integrated playing fields were illegal.
1969 - Wal-Mart Discount City stores were incorporated in Bentonville, Arkansas.
1969 – A race riot erupted in Jacksonville, Florida.
2002 - A federal grand jury in Houston, Texas formally indicted former Enron Corporation chief financial officer Andrew Fastow on 78 counts of wire fraud, money laundering, conspiracy and obstruction of justice related to the company’s collapse.

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30 October 2017

30 October 1866

The James-Younger Gang in 1871

On this date in 1866...

The Southern outlaws known as the James-Younger gang were accused of robbing a bank of $2000 in Lexington, Missouri.

Other Years:

1831 - After leading the bloodiest slave revolt in American history, Nat Turner was apprehended in Southampton County, Virginia.
1862 - A hurricane struck and foundered many of a fleet of 75 federal blockade ships off the North Carolina coast.
1875 - The reconstruction constitution of Missouri was ratified by popular vote.
1979 - Richard Arrington, Jr. was elected the first black mayor of Birmingham, Alabama.
2001 - Michael Jordan returned to the NBA with the Washington Wizards after a 3 1/2 year retirement.

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29 October 2017

29 October 1929

On this date in 1929...

Black Tuesday descended on the New York Stock Exchange. Prices collapsed amid panic selling and thousands of investors were wiped out as America’s Great Depression began. The American South was hardest hit.

Other Years:

1618 - Sir Walter Raleigh was beheaded under a sentence that had been brought against him 15 years earlier for conspiracy against King James I.
1877 - Confederate Lt. General Nathan Bedford Forrest died at Memphis, Tennessee.
1904 - First intercity trucking service opened between Colorado City and Snyder, Texas.
1940 - The first peacetime military draft began in the U.S.
1960 - Muhammad Ali (Cassius Clay) fo Louisville, Kentucky won his first professional fight.
1969 - The U.S. Supreme Court ordered an immediate end to all school segregation.
1995 - Jerry Rice of Starkville, Mississippi. p;aying for the San Francisco 49ers, became the NFL's career leading receiver yards with 14,040 yards.

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28 October 2017

28 October 1919

On this date in 1919...

Congress passed the Volstead Act prohibiting the "manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors." Moonshining instantly became a big business in the Southern hills.

Other Years:

1793 - Eli Whitney applied for a patent for his cotton gin.
1863 - Confederate General James Longstreet's division engaged federal troops at Wauhatchie, Tennessee, in rare night attack. A total of 865 were killed or wounded.
1904 - The St. Louis Police Department became the first to use fingerprinting.
1962 - Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev informed the U.S. that he had ordered the dismantling of Soviet missile bases in Cuba.
1965 - The 630 foot high Gateway Arch was completed in St Louis, Missouri.
1981- Edward M McIntrye was elected as the first black mayor of Augusta, Georgia.

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27 October 2017

27 October 1702

From myfloridahistory.org

On this date in 1702...

British troops and privateers plundered the Spanish settlement at St Augustine, Florida.

Other Years:

1787 - The first of the Federalist Papers supporting ratification of the U.S. Constitution was published.
1810 - U.S. President James Madison signed the law that annexed the Republic of West Florida as U.S. Territory.
1838 - Missouri governor Lilburn Boggs issued the Extermination Order, which orders all Mormons to leave the state or be exterminated.
1864 - Federal troops attacked the South Side Railroad at Petersburg, Virginia.
1962 - The Soviet Union adds to the Cuban Missile Crisis by calling for the dismantling of U.S. missile basis in Turkey.
1981 - Andrew Young, former UN Ambassador, was elected mayor of Atlanta, Georgia.
2002 - Floridan Emmitt Smith, playing for the Dallas Cowboys, became the all-time leading rusher in the NFL when he extended his career yardage to 16,743 also scoring his 150th career touchdown.

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26 October 2017

26 October 1795

On this date in 1795...

Pinckney's Treaty between Spain & US is signed, establishing southern boundary of US & giving Americans right to send goods down Mississippi.

Other Years:

1749 - The Georgia Colony reversed an earlier law and ruled slavery legal.
1774 - The First Continental Congress adjourned its session in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
1810 - The U.S. annexed the Republic of West Florida.
1881 - The "Gunfight at the OK Corral" took place in Tombstone, Arizona between Wyatt Earp, his two brothers and Doc Holiday against the Ike Clanton Gang.
1911 - Gospel singer Mahalia Jackson was born in New Orleans, Louisiana
1962 - The Soviet Union made an offer to end the Cuban Missile Crisis by taking their missile bases out of Cuba if the U.S. agreed to not invade Cuba.

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25 October 2017

25 October 1864

On this date in 1864...

Confederate General John B. Hood's troops attacked the federals at Round Mountain near Turkeytown, Alabama.

Other Years:

1760 - George III was crowned King of Britain.
1812: The frigate, USS United States, commanded by Stephen Decatur of Maryland, captured the British frigate HMS Macedonian.
1929 - Kent Alber B. Fall, of U.S. President Harding's cabinet, was found guilty of taking a bribe and sentenced to a year in prison with a $100,000 fine.
1962 - Ambassador Adlai Stevenson presented photographic evidence to the United Nations Security Council of Soviet missile bases in Cuba.
2000 - AT&T Corp. announced that it would restructure into a family of four separately traded companies.

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24 October 2017

24 October 1911

On this date in 1911...

Orville Wright of the Wright Brothers remained in the air 9 minutes and 45 seconds in a glider at Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina setting a new world record that stood for 10 years.

Other Years:

1861 - West Virginia seceded from Virginia.
1929 - U.S. investors dumped more than 13 million shares on the stock market in what became known as "Black Tuesday."
1940 - The 40-hour workweek went into effect due to the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938.
1962 - Because of the Cuban Missile Crisis, U.S. military forces went on the highest alert in the postwar era in preparation for a possible full-scale war with the Soviet Union.
1971 - Texas Stadium officially opened. The Dallas Cowboys beat the New England Patriots 44-21 in the opening game.
2001 - In response to the 9-11 atacks, the U.S. House of Representatives approved legislation that gave police the power to secretly search homes, tap all of a person's telephone conversation and track people's use of the Internet.

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23 October 2017

23 October 1864

#KnowSouthernHistory

On this date in 1864...

Union General Samuel R Curtis defeated Confederate General Stirling Price at the Battle of Westport, ending Price's Missouri Raid.

Other Years:

1828 - Confederate cavalry General Turner Ashby was born in Fauquier County, Virginia.
1930 - J.K. Scott won the first miniature golf tournament in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
1962 - During the Cuban Missile Crisis, the U.S. naval "quarantine" of Cuba was approved by the Council of the Organization of American States.
1993 - Oklahoma's Joe Carter, while playing for the Toronto Blue Jays, became only the second player to end the World Series with a home run.

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22 October 2017

22 October 1836

On this date in 22 October 1836...

Sam Houston was inaugurated as the first president of the Republic of Texas.

Other Years:

1752 - A hurricane struck the Florida coast and claimed at least 12 ships including a Spanish man-of-war.
1862 - Confederate troops reconquered the Cumberland Gap in Tennessee.
1934 - FBI agent Melvin Purvis killed Oklahoma bank robber Charles Arthur "Pretty Boy" Floyd in an apple orchard near East Liverpool, Ohio.
1962 - President Kennedy announced an air and naval blockade of Cuba, following the discovery of Soviet missile bases on the island.
1983 - At the Augusta National Golf Course in Georgia, an armed man crashed a truck through the gates and demanded to speak with U.S. President Ronald Reagan.

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21 October 2017

21 October 1861

On this date in 21 October 1861...

Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan’s Army of the Potomac (Union) suffered a humiliating defeat at the Battle of Leesburg (Ball's Bluff), Virginia.

Other Years:

1867 – Near Medicine Lodge, Kansas a treaty was signed by southern Great Plains Indian leaders. requiring the Plains tribes to relocate to a reservation in western Oklahoma.
1921 – U.S. President Warren G. Harding villified the South in a speech against lynching.
1967 - Thousands of demonstrators marched in Washington, DC in opposition to the Vietnam War.
1992 - Jim Garrison, the Louisiana District Attorney made famous for investigating the JFK assassination in the Oliver Stone film JFK, died at the age of 70.

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20 October 2017

20 October 1977

Lynyrg Skynyrd (Rolling Stone Magazine)

On this date in 20 October 1977...

Southern Rock legends, Lynyrd Skynyrd's chartered Convair 240 ran out of fuel and crashed near Gillsburg, Mississippi. Ronnie Van Zant, Steve Gaines, Cassie Gaines, assistant road mgr. Dean Kilpatrick, pilot Walter McCreary, and co-pilot William Gray, were killed on impact.

Other Years:

1803 - The U.S. Senate ratified the Louisiana Purchase Treaty by a vote of 24-7.
1817 - The first Mississippi River Showboat left Nashville on its maiden voyage.
1820 - Spain sold a portion of Florida to the U.S. for $5 million.
1913 - Grand Old Opry star, Louis Marshal "Grandpa" Jones was born in Niagara, Kentucky.
1951 - The "Johnny Bright Incident" occurred during a college football game in Stillwater, Oklahoma.
1955 - "No Time for Sergeants" opened on Broadway at the Alvin Theatre starring Andy Griffith and Don Knotts.
1967 - All white federal jury convicted 7 defendants for the murder of 3 civil rights workers in Meridan Mississippi.
1990 - Three members of 2 Live Crew were acquitted on obscenity charges in Florida.

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19 October 2017

Cornwallis Surrendered

19 October 1781

On this date in 19 October 1781...

British General Cornwallis formally surrendered at Yorktown with 8,000 men, effectively ending the American War for Independence.

Other Years:

1765 - The Stamp Act Congress met and drew up a declaration of rights and liberties.
1814 - The first documented performance of "The Defence of Fort McHenry" with music took place at the Holliday Street Theatrein Baltimore, Maryland. The song was later published as "The Star-Spangled Banner."
1864 - The cruiser C.S.S. Shenandoah was officially received into Confederate Navy.
1864 - Lieutenant Bennett Henderson Young led a force of twenty escaped Confederate prisoners on a cavalry raid at St. Albans, Vermont twelve miles from the U.S.-Canadian border. The force sacked the town’s three banks of $208,000 before escaping into Canada where they were arrested and later released by Canadian authorities.
1917 - Love Field in Dallas, Texas opened.
1989 - The U.S. Senate rejected a proposed constitutional amendment that barred the desecration of the American flag.

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18 October 2017

The Mason-Dixon Line

18 October 1767

One of the original Mason-Dixon Line Markers

On this date in 1767...

Maryland and Pennsylvania agree on the Mason-Dixon Line as their boundary.

Other Years:

1676 - Nathaniel Bacon, leader of a rebellion against Virginia's colonial government was killed at the age of 29.
1862 - Confederate General John H. Morgan's cavalry seized Lexington, Kentucky.
1898 - The American flag was raised in Puerto Rico one year after the Caribbean nation won its independence from Spain.
1927 - George C. Scott, American actor/director famous for Patton and Dr. Strangelove was born in Wise, Virginia.
1939 - Lee Harvey Oswald, the presumed assassin of Pesident John F. Kennedy, was born in New Orleans, Louisiana.
1954 - Texas Instruments Inc. announced the first transistor radio.
1997 - A monument honoring U.S. servicewomen, past and present, was dedicated at Arlington National Cemetery.

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17 October 2017

Tennessee Ernie Ford Dies

17 October 1991

On this date in 17 October 1991...

Country singer Tennessee Ernie Ford died of liver disease at the age of 72.

Other Years:

1781 – British General Charles, Earl Cornwallis agreed to surrender at the Siege of Yorktown, Virginia.
1952 - Country music legend Hank Williams married Billie Jean Jones in Minden, Louisiana.
1978 - U.S. President Carter signed a bill that restored full U.S. citizenship rights to Confederate President Jefferson Davis.
1992 – A drunken Japanese exchange student, Yoshihiro Hattori, entered the wrong house looking for a party late at night and was shot dead by the homeowner in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

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16 October 2017

John Brown's Raid

16 October 1859

On this date in 1859...

John Brown and 21 armed northern terrorists took 60 hostages and seized the federal arsenal at Harper's Ferry, Virginia.

Other Years:

1925 - The Texas State School Board prohibited the teaching of evolution.
1954 - Elvis Presley first appeared on the Louisiana Hayride show in Shreveport, Louisiana.
1957 - Queen Elizabeth & Prince Philip visited Williamsburg, Virginia.
1987 - After a 58 hour ordeal, rescuers freed Jessica McClure from the abandoned well that she had fallen into in Midland, Texas.
1991 - George Jo Hennard, age 35, killed 23 people then himself & wounded 20 others at a Luby's Cafeteria in Killeen, Texas.
1997 - Charles Schulz and his wife Jeannie announced that they would give $1 million toward the construction of a D-Day memorial to be placed in Virginia.
2002 - The Arthur Andersen accounting firm was sentenced to five years probation and fined $500,000 for obstructing a federal investigation of the energy company Enron.

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15 October 2017

Submarine Hunley Sinks in Training

15 October 1863

On this date in 1863...

The Confederate submarine Horace L. Hunley sank for a second during time training exercises, killing 7 crew members.

Other Years:

1864 - Confederate troops occupied Glasgow, Missouri.
1890 - Alabama Penny Savings Bank organized in Birmingham.
1977 - The Arkansas Razorbacks' Steve Little kicked a record tying 67 yard field goal.
2011 - Legoland Florida, the world's largest Legoland theme park, opened in Winter Haven, Florida.

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14 October 2017

Breaking the Sound Barrier

14 October 1947

Col. Chuck Yeager and the X-1

On this date in 1947...

Southern WWII fighter ace Chuck Yeager of Western Virginia was the first man to break the sound barrier in the Bell X-1 "Glamorous Glennis" named for his wife.

Other Years:

1936 - The first Social Security Board office opened in Austin, Texas and local office's took over the assigning of Social Security Numbers.
1962 - The Cuban Missile Crisis began when it was learned Soviet missiles capable of destroying most Southern cities were being installed in Cuba.
1964 - Civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. was named winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.
1987 - 18 months old Jessica McClure fell down an abandoned well in Midland, Texas and was rescued after a 58 hour effort.

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13 October 2017

Texas Constitution Day

13 October 1845

On this date in 1845...

The newly annexed state of Texas ratified it's first state constitution.

Other Years:
1792 - The cornerstone of the Executive Mansion was laid in Washington, DC, becoming known as the White House in 1818.
1864 - Confederate General John B. Hood's forces seized the Western & Atlantic Railroad above Resaca, Georgia.
1885 – The Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) was founded in Atlanta, United States.
1951 - A football with a rubber covering was used for the first time when Georgia Tech beat Louisiana State 25-7 in Atlanta.
1995 - Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida admitted its 500-millionth guest.

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12 October 2017

The Manassas Attacks

12 October 1861

On this date in 1861...

The tiny Confederate ironclad Manassas attacked the massive war sloop USS Richmond on the Mississippi River south of New Orleans.

Other Years:

1773 - America's first insane asylum opens for Persons of Insane and Disordered Minds in Williamsburg, Virginia.
1815 - Confederate General William Hardee was born.
1870 - Confederate General Robert E. Lee died and was buried in Lexington, Virginia.
1886 - A major hurricane struck Indianola, Texas. The winds and storm surge killed 250 people.
1996 - Members of all major Southern heritage groups met in summit at New Albany, Mississippi and issued the New Albany Declaration as a set of principles and objectives for the modern Southern Rights movement.
2015 - Dell Computer Corporation of Texas announced it was buying EMC for around $67 billion.

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