On this date in 1813…

At the start of the Creek Civil War, the Red Stick faction of Creek Indians having been armed by the British at Pensacola, massacred 517American settlers and mixed-blood Creeks in the stockade of Fort Mims, north of Mobile, Alabama.

Other Years:

• 1690 – A force of British militia, Yamassee and Yuchi Indians attacked the Timucua Indians and Spanish at the Franciscan mission of San Juan de Guacara in northern Florida, killing all the Timucua Indians.

• 1800 – Gabriel Prosser led a slave rebellion in Richmond, Virginia.

• 1861 – Federal General John C. Fremont exceeded his authority and issued a proclamation freeing slaves in Missouri. His superiors soon repudiated the order and relieved him of command.

• 1862 – Confederates again routed federal troops at the Second Battle of Manassas, Virginia.

• 1893 – “The Kingfish,” Huey Pierce Long, Jr. was born in Winnfield, Louisiana.

• 1905 - Future Baseball Hall of Fame center fielder Ty Cobb of Narrows, Georgia made his MLB debut for the Detroit Tigers

• 1937 - Joe Louis of Lafayette, Alabama beat Tommy Farr in 15 rounds for the heavyweight boxing title

• 1956 – White protestors prevented enrollment of black students at Mansfield High School, Mansfield, Texas.

• 1956 - The Lake Pontchartrain Causeway opened in Louisiana as the longest continuous bridge in the world

• 1969 – More than 120,000 attended the Texas International Pop Festival rock concerts.

• 1979 – Hurricane David first made landfall, it would kill 1,200 people in Florida, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic.

• 1981 - Bill Shoemaker of Fabens, Texas became the first jockey to win a $1 million thoroughbred horse race riding John Henry to win the inaugural Arlington Million

• 2022 - In Jackson, Mississippi the city’s largest water treatment plant failed and left 150,000 people without safe running water

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On this date in 2005…

After causing heavy damage in Southern Florida, Hurricane Katrinamade its second landfall on the Gulf Coast as a category 3 hurricane. Katrina left a swath of devastation from Louisiana to the Florida Panhandle. The rainfall and storm surge overloaded the pumping stations in New Orleans and breached the levee, flooding much of the city.

Accustomed to hurricanes, many of the city’s residents failed to evacuate prior to the storm and died or later had to be rescued. Katrina killed more than 1,836 people and caused more than $115 billion in damage. The federal response to the storm was delayed largely because Louisiana Governor Mary Landrieu failed or refused to request the aid from Republican President George W. Bush. In consequence, assistance from the Dutch Navy and the Mexican Army arrived in New Orleans before the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The news media blamed Bush for the bungled response and published embellished tales of the suffering and devastation, which needed little exaggeration had they simply told the truth. For some reason, the news media relished publishing false reports that Southern landmarks such as the Louisiana Confederate Museum and Jefferson Davis’s home, Beauvoir had been destroyed, when more tragic and necessary stories went unreported.

When the federal government finally did respond, it compounded the chaos by confiscating guns from citizens and leaving them helpless to defend themselves from roving gangs of predators and looters that swept the city.

Other Years:

• 1861 - In the Battle of Hatteras Inlet, federal capture Fort Hatteras off North Carolina completing the blockade of the North Carolina Sounds

• 1862 - The Second Battle of Manassas, Virginia begins leading to a Confederate victory

• 1957 – Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina set a filibuster record in the U.S. when ended a marathon speech of 24 hours and 18 minutes.

• 1962 - A US U-2 spy plane spots SAM launch pads in Cuba

• 1971 – Alabama native Hank Aaron became the first baseball player in the National League to hit 100 or more runs in each of 11 seasons.

• 1977 – Lou Brock of ElDorado Arkansas beat Ty Cobb’s 49 year-old record of 892 stolen bases while playing for the St. Louis Cardinals.

• 1983 – The anchor of the USS Monitor was retrieved by divers off the coast of North Carolina.

• 2007 – Six U.S. cruise missiles armed with nuclear warheads were illegally flown without proper authorization from Minot Air Force Base to Barksdale Air Force Base in Bossier City, Louisiana.

• 2017 - Hurricane Harvey set a rainfall record of 51.88 inches in Cedar Bayou, Texas for a tropical cyclone in the continental US

• 2021 - Hurricane Ida made landfall as a Category 4 storm near Port Fourchon, Louisiana on the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina

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On this date in 1863…

Generals Patrick Cleburne and Leonidas Polk organized the Comrades of the Southern Cross as a fraternal and benevolent order in the Army of Tennessee. The organization was loosely patterned after Freemasonry of which Cleburne was a member and designed to boost morale and help discipline in the Army. After the war, the organization experienced a revival and became the foundation for the United Confederate Veterans.

Other Years:

• 1565 – A Spanish expedition of 1,500 soldiers and colonists, led by Pedro Menendez de Aviles landed on the coast of Florida with the goal of securing the land for Spain. The settlers would soon establish St. Augustine.

• 1830 – The first passenger-carrying train of its kind to be built in America, “The Tom Thumb” was demonstrated in Baltimore, Maryland.

• 1861 – Federal forces unsuccessfully attacked Confederate batteries at Cape Hatteras, North Carolina in the Battle of Hatteras Inlet.

• 1862 - Southern agent Belle Boyd was released from Old Capitol Prison in Washington, DC

• 1957 – South Carolina Senator Strom Thurmond began a filibuster to prevent the Senate from voting on Civil Rights Act of 1957. He stopped speaking 24 hours and 18 minutes later, the longest filibuster ever conducted by a single Senator.

• 1963 – More than 250,000 people joined the March on Washington and listened as Martin Luther King delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech at the Lincoln Memorial.

• 1986 - Tina Turner of Nutbush, Tennessee received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame

• 2022 - A 1952 baseball card featuring Mickey Mantle of Spavinaw, Oklahoma sells for $12.6 million at auction, the world’s most expensive piece of sports memorabilia

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On this date in 2006…

Comair Flight 5191 crashed on takeoff from Blue Grass International Airport in Lexington, Kentucky bound for Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta, Georgia. Of the passengers and crew, 49 of 50 were confirmed dead from the crash. Only the flight’s first officer survived.

Other Years:

• 1667 – The earliest recorded hurricane in North America struck Jamestown, Virginia.

• 1782 - Patriot forces repelled British foraging parties during the seige of Charleston at the Battle of the Combahee River near Beaufort, South Carolina

• 1861 – The Battle of Hatteras Inlet, North Carolina began.

• 1862 – The Battle of Second Manassas, Virginia began.

• 1881 – A hurricane struck Florida and the Carolinas. It is estimated that more than 700 people were killed.

• 1955 – While visiting family in Mississippi, fourteen-year-old Chicago resident Emmett Till was beaten, shot, and dumped in the Tallahatchie River for lewd behavior.

• 1965 - WTVI TV channel 42 in Charlotte, North Carolina began broadcast

• 1973 - The remains of the USS Monitor were discovered off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina

• 1986 – Texas baseball legend Nolan Ryan, while playing for the Houston Astros, earned his 250th career win against the Chicago Cubs.

• 2020 - Hurricane Laura made landfall in Louisiana near the Texas border as a Category 4 storm with 150 mph winds and killed at least 16 people

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26 August 1920

On this date in 1920…

The ratification of the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution, guaranteeing American women the right to vote, was declared complete by the U.S. Secretary of State after Tennessee’s ratification.

Other Years:

• 1791 – John Fitch was granted a U.S. patent for steamboats.

• 1842 - The Caddo tribe signed a peace treaty with the Republic of Texas, pledging to encourage other tribes to sign treaties with the republic.

• 1863 - At the Battle of Rocky Gap or White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia Colonel George S. Patton’s Confederate forces defeated a federal advance

• 1873 – The first free kindergarten in the U.S. was started by Susan Blow outside St. Louis, Missouri.

• 1966 - KLOC Channel 42 in Charlotte, North Carolina began broadcasts

• 1973 – The University of Texas at Arlington became the first accredited college to offer a course in belly dancing.

• 1987 – The Fuller Brush Company, that had sold its products door to door for 81 years, announced plans to open two retail stores in Dallas, Texas.

• 1990 – The bodies of two murdered college students were found in Gainesville, Florida.

• 1992 - Hurricane Andrew made landfall in Louisiana as a Category 3 storm after devastating central Florida

• 2003 - The Columbia Accident Investigation Board released its final report on the Space Shuttle Columbia break-up over Texas

• 2015 - WDBJ TV reporter Alison Parker and cameraman Adam Ward were murdered on TV by a former co-worker in Moneta, Virginia

• 2018 - a losing gamer at a Madden NFL 19 tournament in Jacksonville, Florida, returned and shot two people dead and wounded nine

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25 August 1863

On this date in 1863…

General Order No. 11 was issued by U.S. Brigadier General Thomas Ewing, commanding the District of the Border. He ordered the evacuation of four counties in western Missouri. Those who could establish their loyalty to the satisfaction of the commanding officer of the nearest military post would be issued certificates allowing them to move to military posts in the state. Everyone else was forced to leave the Missouri.

Other Years:

• 1718 – Hundreds of French colonists arrived in Louisiana to found New Orleans.

• 1814 – The U.S. Library of Congress was destroyed by British troops.

• 1829 – U.S. President Andrew Jackson made an offer to buy Texas, but the Mexican government refused to sell.

• 1864 – The Battle of Reams’ Station, Virginia

• 1896 – A posse led by Deputy U.S. Marshal Henry “Heck” Thomas killed outlaw Bill Doolin of the “Wild Bunch” at Lawson, Indian Territory in present-day Pawnee County, Oklahoma.

• 1915 – A devastating hurricane made landfall in Galveston, Texas, killing 275 people and causing $50 million damage.

• 1919 – Alabama governor and presidential candidate George Wallace was born in Clio, Alabama.

• 1921 – The first skirmishes of the Battle of Blair Mountain occur between striking coal miners and mining company security forces supported by federal troops in Logan County, West Virginia.

• 1950 - ‘Sugar’ Ray Robinson of Ailey, Georgia knocked out Jose Basora to win the middleweight boxing title

• 1980 - MLB Texas Rangers pitcher Ferguson Jenkins is arrested for possession of drugs

• 1991 - Birminghan, Alabama’s Carl Lewis set a new world record in the 100m with a time of 9.86 seconds

• 1997 – The tobacco industry agreed to an $11.3 billion settlement with the state of Florida.

• 2017 - Category 4 Hurricane Harvey made landfall in Texas northeast of Corpus Christi with 130 mph winds

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24 August 1974

On this date in 1974…

Lynyrd Skynyrd’s song “Sweet Home Alabama” hit the music charts. The thoroughly Southern anthem is one of many responses to former CSN&Y singer, Neil Young’s libelous and defamatory cut, “Southern Man.” One Southern businessman is reported to have offered $1,000 for Young’s head. Had Young’s song defamed any other ethnic group in America, he would have been driven out of the music industry.

Other Years:

• 1635 - The Great Colonial Hurricane struck the Virginia Colony at Jamestown

• 1814 – British troops burned the White House and the U.S. Capitol when they invaded Washington, DC during the War of 1812.

• 1818 – The Quapaw tribe signed a treaty at St. Louis ceding land along the Arkansas and Red Rivers. One elderly Quapaw Chief, Saracen, is allowed to remain at his home on Bayou Bartholomew in Arkansas.

• 1835 – The Choctaw, Comanche, Muscogee Creek, Cherokee, Osage, Quapaw, Seneca and Witchita tribes sign a peace treaty with the U.S. government at Camp Holmes near the Canadian River in Indian Territory.

• 1877 - American gunman John Wesley Hardin, who was wanted for murder, was arrested by Texas Rangers on a train in Pensacola, Florida

• 1893 - A tornado killed more than 1,000 people when it devatated the cities of Savannah, Georgia, and Charleston, South Carolina

• 1912 - A ticker-tape parade was held in NYC for Jim Thorpe and returning US Olympic atheletes

• 1992 – Hurricane Andrew made landfall near Miami, Florida and left a path of devastation that extended to a second landfall in Louisiana. The Category 5 storm killed 39 and caused $26.5 billion damage. Homeowners in Miami set up armed patrols of their neighborhoods to prevent looting.

• 2001 – In McAllen, TX, Bridgestone/Firestone agreed to settle out of court and pay a reported $7.5 million to a family in a rollover accident in their Ford Explorer.

• 2006 - After signing a one-day contract with the San Francisco 49ers, Jerry Rice of Starkville, Mississippi officially retired from the NFL

• 2023 - Former US President Donald Trump surrendered at Fulton County Jail to be arrested on charges related to the 2020 Georgia election. His mugshot goes viral

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23 August 1305

On this date in 1305…

William Wallace was racked, hanged, drawn, quartered, and beheaded. English executioners salted and hung his body parts at different locations in Scotland as a warning for other Scot patriots, many of whose descendants would migrate the South in the 1700’s. The English later learned at the Battle of Bannockburn that an oppressor’s intimidation didn’t work against Scots any more than it does against their descendants.

Other Years:

• 1784 – – Eastern Tennessee settlers established the short-lived and extra-legal state of Franklin in what is now eastern Tennessee on lands ceded by North Carolina to pay off debts owed to the federal government. A year later the U.S. Congress rejected and abolished Franklin.

• 1864 – Federal troops supported by a naval fleet occupied Fort Morgan at the mouth of Mobile Bay in Alabama.

• 1917 – Two blacks and eleven whites were killed when blacks rioted in Houston, Texas.

• 1952 - Nashville native Kitty Wells becomes the first woman to reach #1 on the Billboard Country chart with “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels” a position held for 15 weeks

• 1982 – North Carolina Major Leaguer Gaylord Perry while playing for the Seattle Mariners was tossed out of a game for throwing an illegal spitball.

• 1984 – South Fork Ranch, the home of the fictitious Ewing clan of the CBS-TV show, “Dallas,” was sold to be transformed from a tourist site into a hotel.

• 2005 - Hurricane Katrina formed over the Bahamas and later became a Category 5 storm and devastated the Gulf coast

• 2011 – A 5.8 magnitude earthquake occurred in Mineral, Virginia and was felt as far north as Ontario, Canada and as far south as Atlanta, Georgia.

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22 August 2003

On this date in 2003…

The Alabama Supreme Court’s Chief Justice Roy Moore was suspended after refusing to comply with a federal court order in response to a Southern Poverty Law Center suit to remove a stone monument inscribed with the Ten Commandments from the lobby of the Alabama Supreme Court building. This was done despite the Ten Commandments displayed in th US SupremeCourt Buiding. The suspension was short-lived as Moore won re-election to the court by a landslide.

Other Years:

• 1775 – King George III proclaimed that the American colonies were in open rebellion.

• 1848 – The United States annexed New Mexico.

• 1862 - In a retaliatory raid, Confederate Major General J.E.B. Stuart captured the dress coat of Union General John Pope at Catlett Station, Virginia

• 1950 – Althea Gibson of South Carolina became the first black tennis player to be accepted into a national competition.

• 1956 - Elvis Presley began filming “Love Me Tender” a movie about the outlaw Reno Brothers

• 1959 - The American Football League was officially named at a meeting in Dallas, Texas

• 1962 - NS Savannah, the world’s first nuclear-powered cargo and passenger ship, completed its maiden voyage from Yorktown, Virginia, to Savannah, Georgia

• 1986 – Kerr-McGee Corp. agreed to pay the estate of the late Karen Silkwood $1.38 million to settle a 10-year-old nuclear contamination lawsuit from its Crescent, Oklahoma fuel plant.

• 1989 – Texas baseball legend Nolan Ryan became the first major league pitcher to strike out 5000 batters.

• 2007 – The Texas Rangers beat the Baltimore Orioles 30-3, the most runs scored by a team in modern Major League Baseball history.

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21 August 1864

On this date in 1864…

General Nathan Bedford Forrest’s Confederate cavalry recaptured Memphis, Tennessee.

Other Years:

• 1680 – The Pueblo Indians drove the Spanish out and took possession of Santa Fe, New Mexico.

• 1806 – Zebulon Pike’s Missouri expedition held a council with both the Grand and Little bands of the Osage tribe.

• 1821 – Confederate General William Barksdale was born in Smyrna, Tennessee.

• 1831 – The Nat Turner slave rebellion killed 55 people in Southampton County, Virginia.

• 1863 - William Clark Quantrill’s Confederate guerrillas sacked Lawrence, Kansas in retaliation for federal crimes against Missouri civillians

• 1895 - Confederate veteran Henry Morton Stanley made his first speech in the UK House of Commons in a discussion on Africa

• 1958 KUT-FM in Austin, Texas, began radio transmissions

• 1971 – At the age of 16, Laura Baugh pf Gainesville, Florida won the United States Women’s Amateur Golf tournament. She was becoming the youngest winner in the history of the tournament.

• 1995 - Atlantic Southeast Airlines Flight 529 crashed near Carrollton, Georgia, killing 9 crew members and passengers

• 1997 – Arkansas-based Hudson Foods closed a plant in Nebraska after it had recalled 25 million pounds of contaminated ground beef, the largest food recall in the U.S.

• 2021 - Flash flooding in Humphreys County, Tennessee, killed 22 people and left dozens missing

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20 August 1619

On this date in 1619…

The first known Africans to reach the English colonies landed at Jamestown, Virginia aboard Dutch vessel. The 20 Africans had been slaves transported on a Spanish ship captured by the Dutch. The men were sold or traded to the English and placed in seven years indentured servitude (just like Englishmen were) in exchange for supplies. At the end of their indenture, they were freed, given a parcel of land, and rights as English colonists. One of the Africans, Anthony Johnson, later sued John Casor, another African who broke his later indenture to him and won, the result was that a black man became the first person to hold a slave for life in the English colonies.

Other Years:

• 1780 – “Swamp Fox” Francis Marion attacked the British outpost and rescued Patriot prisoners at Nelson’s Ferry, South Carolina.

• 1781 - George Washington began moving his troops south to fight Cornwallis

• 1789 – Juan de Ugalde, Commanding General of all Spanish forces in northern Mexico and Texas, started a major campaign to pacify the Apache.

• 1866 – The U.S. government finally declared an end to the War of Northern Aggression.

• 1886 – The fifth strongest recorded hurricane in North America wiped out the town of Indianola, Texas, killing more than 74 victims.

• 1912 - The Plant Quarantine Act went into effect in an attempt to help prevent the spread of the boll wevil and other pests and diseases

• 1974 - A pitch by MLB legend and Texas Ranger Nolan Ryan’s was measured at a record 100.4 mph

• 1986 – Postal worker Patrick Sherrill shot 14 fellow workers dead in an Edmond, Oklahoma postal facility. This and other incidents involving postal workers in the 1980’s spawned the expression, “Going Postal.”

• 2019 - Computer systems in 22 small Texas towns were hacked and held for ransom in a coordinated attack

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19 August 1782

On this date in 1782…

A force of 400 Tories, Canadians, Mingo, Mohawk, and Shawnee, ambushed and scattered 182 Kentucky militiamen led by Colonel John Todd and Daniel Boone at the Battle of Blue Licks near present-day Mount Olivet, Kentucky. Boone’s son Israel was captured by the Shawnee and tortured to death. It was considered the worst defeat of frontier militia during the American War for Independence.

Other Years:

• 1814 – British troops defeated American forces at the Battle of Bladensburg and entered Washington, D.C.

• 1861 – The Confederate Congress agreed to an alliance with Missouri’s legitimate state government.

• 1895 – Reformed Texas gunman, gambler, and lawyer, John Wesley Hardin, was shot in the back by off-duty constable Johm Selman in an El Paso, Texas saloon. When asked about the ethics of shooting Hardin in the back, the coroner replied that due to Hardin’s reputation it “was good judgment.”

• 1921 - MLB legend Ty Cobb of Narrows, Georgia became the fourth and youngest player to achieve 3,000 hits

• 1960 – Francis Gary Powers of Kentucky, an American U-2 pilot, was convicted of espionage in Moscow.

• 1962 – Homero Blancas shot the lowest score in U.S. competitive golf history, a 55, at the Premier Invitational Golf Tournament held in Longview, Texas.

• 1966 - The Beatles are pelted with rotten fruit and firecrackers during a concert at the Mid-South Coliseum in Memphis, Tennessee in response to John Lennon’s Jesus remark.

• 1983 - LSU star and NFL running back Billy Cannon was sentenced to 5 years for counterfeiting

• 1995 - After five days, Shannon Faulkner quits as the first woman cadet at The Citadel

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18 August 1590

On this date in 1590…

Governor John White returned to Roanoke colony and found that the colonists had vanished. The only clue to the mysterious disappearance was the word, “Croatoan” found carved into a tree.

Other Years:

• 1587 – Virginia Dare was the first child born in the Americas to English parents, Eleanor and Ananias Dare, at the ill-fated Roanoke, North Carolina colony.

• 1774 – Explorer Meriwether Lewis was born near Charlottesville, Virginia.

• 1779 – A hurricane struck the Louisiana coast, killing many and sinking all but one of a fleet of Spanish warships.

• 1864 – Federal General Ulysses Grant refused a second Confederate request to exchange Prisoners of War.

• 1920 - State Representative Harry T. Burn cast the deciding vote in Tennessee to ratify of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution for women’s suffrage in the US

• 1956 - Elvis Presley’s “Hound Dog” and “Don’t Be Cruel” reached #1 on the charts and remained thereed for 11 weeks

• 1958 - Floyd Patterson of Waco, NC defeated Roy Harris in the 13th round for the heavyweight boxing title

• 1963 – James Meredith became the first black person to graduate from the University of Mississippi.

• 1981 – University of Georgia running back, Herschel Walker took out a Lloyd’s of London insurance policy for $1 million.

• 1983 – Hurricane Alicia struck Houston and Galveston, Texas killing 17 people.

• 1991 - Hurricane Bob hit North Carolina with 115 mph winds and heavy flooding

• 2011 - The “West Memphis Three” were released after 18 years of imprisonment

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17 August 1969

On this date in 1969…

Hurricane Camille struck the Gulf coast, killing 259 mainly in Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi and causing more than a billion dollars damage. Flooding from the deteriorating storm killed an additional 112 victims in Virginia.

Other Years:

• 1750 – A hurricane wrecked a fleet of four Spanish ships on the outer banks of North Carolina.

• 1786 – David “Davy” Crockett was born in Greene County in the State of Franklin. (now in Tennessee)

• 1862 – The Confederate cruiser C.S.S. Florida was officially designated and became the first foreign-built warship constructed for the Confederate States of America.

• 1863 – Federal batteries and ships bombarded Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor.

• 1894 – John Wadsworth of Louisville set a major league record when he gave up 28 base hits in a single game.

• 1915 - A mob lynched Jewish businessman Leo Frank in Cobb County, Georgia, after his death sentence for the murder of a 13-year-old girl was commuted to life

• 1958 - World’s first Moon probe, Thor-Able, exploded 77 seconds after launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida

• 1960 - Downed U-2 spy pane pilot Francis Gary Powers’ espionage trial began in Moscow

• 1973 - Mets first baseman Willie Mays of Westfield, Alabama hit his 660th and last career home run

• 1977 – FTD reported that in one day the number of orders for flowers to be delivered to Graceland since Elvis’s death had surpassed the number for any other event in the company’s history.

• 1983 - Hurricane Alicia killed 17 people in Texas

• 1996 – Ross Perot was announced to be the Reform Party’s presidential candidate. It was the party’s first-ever candidate.

• 2016 - Floodwaters in Louisiana, leave 13 dead and damage more than 4,000 homes

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16 August 1977

On this date in 1977…

Elvis Presley died at Graceland Mansion in Memphis, Tennessee, at age 42.

Other Years:

• 1691 – Yorktown, Virginia was founded.

• 1692 – Spanish soldier Diego de Vargas began his Reconquista of New Mexico.

• 1780 - British forces defeated Americans at Camden, South Carolina

• 1861 - US President Abraham Lincoln prohibited Union states from trading with Confederate states

• 1864 – The Confederate raider C.S.S. Tallahassee captured 5 yankee merchant ships off the coast of New England.

• 1920 - Cleveland Indians shortstop Ray Chapman of Beaver Dam, Kentucky was hit in the head by NY Yankees pitcher Carl Mays and died the next day

• 1938 – Legendary blues musician Robert Leroy Johnson was murdered by poisoned whiskey at the age of 27, near Greenwood, Mississippi.

• 1953 - KTAL TV channel 6 in Shreveport-Texarkana, LA-AR began broadcasting

• 1960 – During a balloon test of the first U.S. space suit, Joseph Kittinger of Tampa, Florida set the free-fall world record when he fell more than 16 miles before opening his parachute over New Mexico.

• 2016 - The documentary “When the Levees Broke,” directed by Spike Lee about Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans premiered at New Orleans Arena

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15 August 1935

On this date in 1935…

Famous Southerner, Cherokee, comedian, social commentator, and actor, Will Rogers was killed at the age of 55 in a plane crash with legendary Southern aviator Wiley Post near Point Barrow, Alaska.

Other Years:

• 1824 - Freed American slaves establish Liberia on the West African coast through the American Colonization Society. Many of them soon enslave native Africans.

• 1863 - The Confederate submarine “CSS H.L. Hunley” arrived in Charleston on railroad cars after transport from Mobile, Alabama, where it was built

• 1864 - The CSS Tallahassee captured six yankee schooners off the New England coast

• 1911 – Crisco was introduced by Procter & Gamble Company and spurred a revolution in Southern kitchens.

• 1954 - WCHS TV channel 8 in Charleston-Huntington, WV began broadcast

• 1955 – Hurricane Connie dissipated after killing 43 people in the Carolinas, Virginia, and Maryland.

• 1962 – Shady Grove Baptist Church burned in Leesburg, Georgia.

• 1970 – Mrs. Pat Palinkas became the first woman to ‘play’ in a pro football game when she held the ball during a kick for the Orlando Panthers.

• 1971 - KVRL TV 26 in Houston, Texas began broadcasts

• 1993 - Pitcher Nolan Ryan achieved his 324th and final victory as the Texas Rangers defeated the Cleveland Indians 4-1

• 1995 – Following a court order, Shannon Faulkner became the first female cadet enrolled at The Citadel. She dropped out after less than a week.

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14 August 1559

On this date in 1559…

Appointed by the Spanish Viceroy in Mexico to establish Spanish settlements on the Gulf Coast, Tristan de Luna y Arellano, with several priests, 500 soldiers, and 1,000 settlers landed at Pensacola Bay with thirteen ships. Most of the expedition was dead just a few days later due to a hurricane. The survivors soon starved.

Other Years:

• 1756 – Frontier legend Daniel Boone married Rebecca Bryan in Yadkin River, North Carolina.

• 1842 – The Second Seminole War ended with most Seminoles forced to relocate from Florida to Oklahoma.

• 1846 – The Cape Girardeau meteorite, a 2.3 kg chondrite-type meteorite struck near the town of Cape Girardeau, Missouri.

• 1861 – Having seized control of the city, federal invaders declared Martial Law at St Louis, Missouri due to pro-secession sentiment which surged throughout Missouri after federal troops and German immigrants unsuccessfully attacked the Missouri State Guard at the Battle of Wilson’s Creek.

• 1864 – Confederate General Joe Wheeler laid siege to federals at Dalton, Georgia.

• 1936 – In the last public execution in the U.S., Rainey Bethea was hanged in Owensboro, Kentucky.

• 1995 – Due to a federal judge’s order, Shannon Faulkner became the first woman to attend the Citadel.

• 1997 – The Oklahoma Court of Appeals upheld the death sentence of northern terrorist Timothy McVeigh for the Oklahoma City bombing.

• 2019 - “The 1619 Project,” a shoddy propaganda piece produced by Nikole Hannah-Jones claims to examine the legacy of slavery in America launched in The New York Times Magazine

• 2023 - Former US President Donald Trump and 18 others, including Rudy Giuliani were indicted by a grand jury in Atlanta on false felony charges claiming they attempted to overturn the questionable 2020 election in Georgia

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13 August 1863

On this date in 1863…

The crumbling and overcrowded Women’s Prison in Kansas City, Missouri collapsed, killing four women under age 20, and wounding many others who were jailed for aiding relatives in Confederate guerrilla bands or regular service. The incident was one of several northern atrocities that lead to the retaliation of the Lawrence, Kansas raid.

Other Years:

• 1608 - Captain John Smith’s story of Jamestown’s early days was submitted for publication in England

• 1728 – A hurricane struck Okracoke Island, North Carolina, sinking many ships and claiming many lives.

• 1906 – Black U.S. Army soldiers raided Brownsville, Texas. President Theodore Roosevelt orders dishonorable discharge for 167 of them.

• 1931 – The first community hospital in the U.S. was dedicated in Elk City, Oklahoma.

• 1934 – Al Capp’s comic strip “L’il Abner” first appeared in newspapers showcasing the adventures of the residents of Dogpatch, Arkansas.

• 1952 - Blues singer Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton of Ariton, Alabama recorded the song “Hound Dog,” later covered by Elvis Presley

• 1956 - Elvis Presley released the single record “Don’t Be Cruel”

• 1963 – U.S. Customs agents confiscated 21 gold coins from The Witte Museum in San Antonio, Texas.

• 1966 - Longview, Texas, radio station KLUE was struck by lightning the day after holding a “Beatles Bonfire.” The strike knocked an engineer unconscious and caused extensive damage.

• 1979 – The St. Louis Cardinals’ Lou Brock got his 3,000th career hit.

• 1986 – US Football League star Herschel Walker signed to play with the Dallas Cowboys.

• 2004 – Hurricane Charley, a Category 4 storm, struck at Punta Gorda, Florida and devastated the surrounding area.

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12 August 1831

On this date in 1831…

George Gaines, the younger brother of General Edmund Gaines and a man the Choctaw trusted, was appointed Special Agent to supervise the removal of the Choctaw tribe to the west bank of the Mississippi River. Against Choctaw wishes, at that point the Army took custody of the Choctaw, herding them down the Trail of Tears to Indian Territory.

Other Years:

• 1806 – Frontiersman Davy Crockett married Polly Finley in Tennessee.

• 1840 – Comanche warriors and Texas Rangers collided at the Battle of Plum Creek, near the present-day of Lockhart, Texas.

• 1861- Confederate troops fought off an attack by Apache Indians in central Texas.

• 1863 – Federal troops began indiscriminate shelling of the city of Charleston, South Carolina and her harbor forts often using incendiary shells against civilians in the city.

• 1898 – The United States illegally annexed the Kingdom of Hawaii as a territory.

• 1936 - he temperature reached 120°F in Seymour, Texas setting a state record

• 1955 - WPBT TV channel 2 in Miami, FL began broadcast

• 1960 – The first communications satellite, the balloon satellite Echo One was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

• 1964 - Mickey Mantle of Spavinaw, Oklahoma switch-hit a home run for the record 10th and final time in a game for the New York yankees

• 1966 - Longview, Texas radio station KLUE held a “Beatles Bonfire” to burn Beatles records and memorabilia after John Lennon’s ‘Jesus' remark.’ The station was struck by lightning the next day

• 2015 - Former US President Jimmy Carter revealed that he had cancer

• 2015 - The US Postal Service issued a second postage stamp featuring Elvis Presley

• 2017 - The “Unite the Right” event in Charlottesville, Virginia turned violent when police allowed leftist counter protestors to surround and attack people protesting the removal of the Robert E Lee monument.

• 2025 - US President Donald Trump deployed at least 800 National Guard troops in Washington, DC and declared federal control of the DC police force

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11 August 1909

On this date in 1909…

The S.S. Arapahoe became the first American ship to use an SOS signal when she ran into trouble in the “Graveyard of Ships” off the coast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. The ship lost power and was rescued 36 hours later after wireless operator R.J. Vosburgh gave the new distress signal.

Other Years:

• 1802 – Native American leader and mystic Tecumseh predicted an earthquake that would be the beginning of the end for the white settlers. The “New Madrid Earthquake” happened later and triggered the Creek War.

• 1926 - Cleveland Indians outfielder Tris Speaker of Hubbard, Texas hit his 700th double in a 7-2 loss to Chicago

• 1956 – Elvis Presley released “Don’t Be Cruel.”

• 1971 – Construction began on the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana.

• 1972 – The Mayor and city proclaim “Cheech & Chong Day” in San Antonio, Texas but most celebrants don’t remember it.

• 1978 - The Legionnaires’ disease bacteria was isolated in Atlanta

• 1984 – Carl Lewis of Birmingham, Alabama won his fourth gold medal in the 1984 Summer Olympics.

• 1997 – U.S. President Bill Clinton made the first use of the line-item veto adapted from the Confederate States Constitution and approved by Congress, rejecting three items in spending and tax bills.

• 2022 - US Attorney General Merrick Garland stated he personally approve the FBI search of former-President Trump’s Florida Mar-a-lago home

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