On this date in 1585…

Roanoke colonists led by Governor Ralph Lane burned and destroyedthe corn crops of the Algonquin village of Aquascogoc in present-day Hyde County North Carolina when the Indians refused to return a silver cup stolen on the previous days visit.

Other Years:

• 1790 – The U.S. Congress declared the city of Washington in the District of Columbia to be the permanent capital of the United States.

• 1894 – Several black strike-breakers hired by a mining company were killed in a fight with striking white miners in Alabama.

• 1935 – Oklahoma City became the first city in the U.S. to install parking meters.

• 1945 – The first detonation of an atomic bomb occurred in a test at the Trinity Site outside Alamogordo, New Mexico as part of the Manhattan Project.

• 1967 – A prison riot set fire to a prison barracks in Jay, Florida, killing 37 people.

• 1969 – Apollo 11 blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida and began the first manned mission to land on the moon.

• 1975 - The American /Soviet Apollo-Soyuz Project launched from Cape Canaveral, marking the first joint spaceflight between Cold War rivals.

• 1997 - Fashion designer Gianni Versace is murdered outside his Miami mansion by a spree killer.

• 2015 – A Mass shooter in Chattanooga at a US military recruitment center and a naval reserve training center kill fived and injure several others

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On this date in 1864…

An Erie Railroad train jammed with Confederate prisoners, collided with a freight train in New York. The wreck killed 48 prisoners and 17 guards instantly. More than 100 injured prisoners were dumped into the Elmira, New York prison compound without treatment. Most died within a few days. Today there is a monument naming the yankee guards. There is no such monument to the confederate dead, who were dumped in a mass grave, forever unknown.

Other Years:

• 1539 – Spanish Conquistador Hernando de Soto’s expedition began its march inland from Tampa Bay on his exploration of the South.

• 1830 – The Sioux, Sauk & Fox tribes signed a fourth Treaty of Prairie du Chien guaranteeing the U.S. government control of most of Minnesota, Iowa, and Missouri.

• 1862 – The ironclad ram C.S.S. Arkansas survived a night attack by the federal fleet of U.S. Admiral David Farragut as his ships downriver ran past the batteries at Vicksburg, Mississippi.

• 1870 – Georgia was the first Confederate state to be readmitted to the U.S. during reconstruction.

• 1878 - The Battle of Lincoln during the Lincoln County War of New Mexico began as Billy the Kid and others took shelter in the home of Alexander McSween

• 1916 – 22.22 inches of rain fell at Altapass, NC setting a state record

• 1933 – Texas/Oklahoma Aviation legend Wiley Post began the first solo flight around the world, completing the journey in 7 days and 19 hours

• 1948 – US President Harry Truman of Missouri was nominated for his first full term at the Democratic Convention in Philadelphia

• 1949 – WBTV TV channel 3 in Charlotte, NC began broadcasts

• 1954 – KOCO TV channel 5 in Oklahoma City, OK began broadcasts

• 1960 – Baltimore’s third baseman Brooks Robinson of Arkansas goes 5 for 5 for the cycle in the Orioles’ win over the White Sox

• 1973 – Nolan Ryan of Refugio, Texas became the first pitcher in two decades to win two no-hitters in a season while playing for the California Angels.

• 1974 – TV news reporter Christine Chubbuck shot herself live on WXLT-TV in Sarasota, FL, the first person to commit suicide on a live broadcast

• 1980 – Billy Carter, the brother of US President Jimmy Carter, registered as a foreign agent of the Libyan government

• 1995 – Northern Virginia began using its new 540 area code

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On this date in 1862…

The Confederate ironclad ram C.S.S. Arkansas attacked the federal fleet and severely damaged three ships off Vicksburg, Mississippi. The federal ironclad U.S.S. Carandolet sank in the Yazoo River from damage inflicted by the Arkansas, but was later raised and repaired. Also, a lightly-armored federal ram exploded with a shot through her boiler as the Arkansas ran through the federal fleet of U.S. Admiral David Farragut. Though damage and casualties to her crew were catastrophic, the Arkansas reached the shelter of the Vicksburg batteries and fended off several attacks by the federal fleet over the next fewl days. The Arkansas inspired the federal force to abandon its first attempt to besiege Vicksburg and withdraw down river to the safety of Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Other Years:

• 1798 – The U.S. Congress passed the Sedition Act, making it a federal crime to write, publish, or utter malicious statements about the U.S. government.

• 1822 – Peter Poyas led an unsuccessful slave revolt in South Carolina.

• 1850 – Florida physician John Gorrie made the first public demonstration of ice made by artificial refrigeration

• 1864 – Confederate cavalry commanded by General Nathan Bedford Forrest routed a superior federal force at the Battle of Tupelo, Mississippi.

• 1865 – The Chickasaw Nation is the last of the Five Civilized Tribes to surrender to Federal authority following the War of Northern Aggression

• 1912 – Folk singer/song writer Woody Guthrie was born in Okemah, OK

• 1951 – The George Washington Carver National Monument in Joplin, Missouri became the first national park to honor a black man.

• 1968 – Hank Aaron while playing for the Atlanta Braves hit his 500th career home run.

• 1975 – Disney Corporation announced its plan to build the EPCOT Center at Disneyworld in Orlando, Florida.

• 1976 – The Democratic Convention in NYC nominates former Georgia governor Jimmy Carter for president

• 1987 – Lt. Col. Oliver North of San Antonio, TX concluded 6 days of Congressional testimony in the Iran-Contra Affair

• 1988 – WYHY radio of Lebanon, TN offered $1 million to anyone who can prove Elvis is still alive

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On this date in 1821…

Confederate Lt. General Nathan Bedford Forrest was born at Chapel Hill, Tennessee.

Other Years:

• 1585 – A group of 108 English colonists, led by Sir Richard Grenville, reached Roanoke Island, North Carolina

• .1754 – During the French and Indian War, George Washington surrendered the small stockade of Fort Necessity to the French.

• 1780 – Georgia troops attacked and defeated a Tory encampment at Gowen’s Old Fort, South Carolina.

• 1832 – The source of Mississippi River discovered by American geographer Henry Schoolcraft

• 1862 – The Battle of Murfreesboro, fought in Rutherford County, Tennessee ends in a Confederate victory as a part of General Nathan Bedford Forrest’s Middle Tennessee Raid

• 1868 – Oscar J Dunn, a former slave, was installed as Louisiana reconstruction Lt. Governor.

• 1919 – Racial rioting occurred in Longview, Texas

• 1937 – Krispy Kreme Donuts was founded by Vernon Rudolph at Old Salem in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

• 1956 – RCA releases Elvis Presley’s hit single “Hound Dog,” a cover of Big Mama Thornton’s original, along with “Don’t Be Cruel”

• 1978 – Walter Poenisch completed his 129 mile swim to become the first person to swim from Cuba to Florida.

• 1984 – In the Arkansas Ozarks, Terry Wallis was injured in a car accident and stayed comatose, awakening in June, 2003.

• 1998 – “Image of an Assassination,” the video documentary on Abraham Zapruder’s home movie of U.S. President Kennedy’s assassination in Dallas went on sale.

• 2008 – Brewing company InBev announced a deal to buy St. Louis brewer Anheuser-Busch for almost $52 billion

• 2015 – Sandra Bland is found dead in Waller County Jail, Texas, after spending the weekend in jail following a traffic offense

• 2018 – Johnson & Johnson was ordered to pay record $4.7 billion in damages in talc cancer case by a jury in Missouri

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On this date in 1780…

Patriot forces commanded by Thomas Sumter decisively defeated a Tory force at Williamson’s Plantation in present-day York County, South Carolina. Prior to this fight, the British leaders thought that resistance had been crushed in the Carolinas. Sumter’s victory marked the first significant check on British advances in the Southern campaign.

Other Years:

• 1775 – South Carolina militia forces captured Fort Charlotte, South Carolina.

• 1862 – Federal troops occupied the Mississippi River port of Helena, Arkansas.

• 1878 – A Yellow Fever epidemic began in New Orleans, LA resulting in an estimated 4,500 deaths in the city

• 1909 – The 16th Amendment was passed by congress negating the constitutional prohibition against direct levies and empowering the incomes tax

• 1917 - Mining company sponsored vigilantes kidnapped and deported more than 1,200 striking miners, their families, and supporters from Bisbee, Arizona.

• 1931 – A major league baseball record for doubles in a single game was set by the St. Louis Cardinals and the Chicago Cubs combined for a total of 23.

• 1972 – Democrats nominated George McGovern for US president at their Miami, FL convention

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On this date in 1804…

U.S. Vice-President Aaron Burr killed former Treasury SecretaryAlexander Hamilton in a duel over long- festering political differences. The duel would end Burr’s political career and start him on a shameful slide into treachery and dishonor.

Other Years:

• 1863 – Federal troops attempted to assault Battery Wagner at Charleston, South Carolina. The attack was abandoned after the black 54th Massachusetts Regiment failed to breach the fort.

• 1864 – Confederate General Jubal A. Early’s troops attacked the fortifications of Washington, DC.

• 1935 – The Southern Tenant Farmers Union formed in Tyronza, Arkansas to seek relief for sharecroppers and tenant farmers that New Deal agricultural policies neglected to address. The STFU was unlike most unions formed during the depression since it accepted members of all races.

• 1943 – The US 45th Division composed mainly of Oklahoma National Guard took the airfield at Comiso, Sicily

• 1960 – “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee of Monroeville, AL was first published by J. B. Lippincott & Co.

• 1977 – The Medal of Freedom was awarded posthumously to Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. at the White House.

• 1985 – Nolan Ryan of Refugio, Texas became the first major league pitcher to earn 4,000 strikeouts in a career while playing for the Houston Astros.

• 1987 – Bo Jackson of Bessemer, Alabama signed a five-year contract to play football for the L.A. Raiders while continuing to play baseball for the Kansas City Royals.

• 1998 – U.S. Air Force Lt. Michael Blassie was laid to rest near his Missouri home after his removal from the Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington after his remains were positively identified.

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On this date in 1864…

Mill workers from Roswell, New Manchester and Marietta, Georgia were charged with treason by federal troops. Without a trial and shortly thereafter, 400-500 mostly women and children were deported to the north by federal General William Tecumseh Sherman. Most were never seen or heard from again.

One such worker was Adeline Bagley Buice:

(Virginia Flaggers) - Working at the Roswell Mill while her husband Joshua was serving in the Confederate Army, Adeline Bagley Buice was a pregnant seamstress when Union forces burned her place of work. Deported north with the other women, she traveled all the way to Chicago. In August, she gave birth to a daughter she named Mary Ann. Over the next five years, Adeline and Mary steadily made their way toward Georgia, mostly on foot.

In the meantime, Joshua Buice returned to Roswell at the end of the war, and discovered that his wife had been deported with the other mill workers. As the years passed and Adeline did not return, he could only assume that she had died, and he remarried. Many of the men who came home from the war to find their wives and families missing followed suit.

There is precious little information about what happened between Adeline and Joshua after she returned to Roswell.

Other Years:

• 1739 – The War of Jenkins’ Ear began between Great Britain and the Spain. The British would confirm their control of southern Georgia when colonists commanded by James Oglethorpe defeated an invasion force of Spanish regulars on St. Simons Island.

• 1832 – President Andrew Jackson vetoed legislation to recharter the Second Bank of the US

• 1836 – Nine hundred Creek resisters from Emathla’s band were captured and shipped west in shackles to Indian Territory.

• 1861 – U.S. President Abraham Lincoln wrote to Kentucky’s government and promised that federal troops will not enter that state. Obviously, Honest Abe lied because federal troops would occupy a camp outside Lexington less than a month later.

• 1925 – The Scopes “Monkey Trial” began jury selection in Tennessee.

• 1938 – Aviation legend Howard Hughes of Humble, TX flew around the world in 91 hours

• 1962 – Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested during a demonstration in Georgia.

• 1967 – Bobbie Gentry of Woodland, MS recorded “Ode to Billie Joe,” a hit which went on to win four Grammy awards

• 1972 – The Democrat National Convention opened in Miami Beach, Florida and chose George McGovern for its presidential candidate after front-runner George Wallace of Alabama was disabled in an assassination attempt.

• 1978 – ABC World News Tonight premieres on ABC with Max Robinson of Richmond, VA as the first Black anchor on a network newscast

• 1985 – After one of history’ worst marketing blunders, Coca-Cola Co. announced it would resume selling old-formula Coke

• 2005 – Hurricane Dennis struck the Florida Panhandle causing billions of dollars in damage.

• 2015 – The Confederate Battleflag is taken down for the last time from its compromise location at the memorial on the South Carolina Capitol grounds 1 day after the state legislature ordered its removal

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On this date in 1716…

Spanish missionaries established the Mission of Nuestra Senora deGuadalupe was established for the Nacanish and the Nocogdoche band of the Caddo tribe in what became Nacogdoches, Texas, the first stop for American settlers emigrating to Texas.

Other Years:

• 1755 – British General Edward Braddock was mortally wounded during Battle of Fort Duquesne during French and Indian War. Lt. Col. George Washington of the Virginia Militia assumes command and saves the force during the withdrawal.

• 1776 – The American Declaration of Independence was read aloud to Gen. George Washington’s troops.

• 1846 – The territory of the District of Columbia south of the Potomac River (39 square miles) was returned to Virginia by Congress.

• 1862 – Confederate General John Hunt Morgan recaptured Tompkinsville, KY

• 1864 – Confederate General Jubal Early’s troops advanced on and threatened Washington, D.C.

• 1864 – Factory works and surrounding homes in New Manchester, GA were burned under direct order of federal General William Tecumseh Sherman. A wooden dam across Sweetwater creek was blown up causing hundreds of thousands of dollars of further destruction to civilian property.

• 1868 – Louisiana and South Carolina are the last states to ratify the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution

• 1918 – 101 killed and 171 injured in worst the US train wreck in Nashville, TN

• 1948 – Satchel Paige made his MLB debut, pitching two scoreless innings for Cleveland against St. Louis

• 1967 WRET TV channel 36 in Charlotte, NC began broadcasts

• 1968 – The first All-Star baseball game to be played indoors took place at the Astrodome in Houston, Texas.

• 1982 – A Pan Am Boeing 727 crashed in a storm near Kenner, Louisiana, shortly after take-off, killing 153 people

• 1985 – Herschel Walker of Wrightsville, Georgia, a player for the New Jersey Generals, was named the Most Valuable Player in the United States Football League.

• 1988 – Astros pitcher Nolan Ryan became the seventh player to win 100 games with two teams as the Astros beat the Mets

• 2015 – The South Carolina House of Representatives approved taking down the Confederate flag from its compromise location at the Confederate monument on the Capitol grounds.

• 2018 – Hedge fund billionaire David Tepper bought the Carolina Panthers for a NFL record $2.275 billion

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On this date in 1863…

The last Confederate garrison on the Mississippi River at the stronghold of Port Hudson, Louisiana surrendered to federal troops after learning of the fall of Vicksburg, Mississippi and ending the longest siege on American soil to date.

Other Years:

• 1778 – George Washington established his headquarters at West Point for the Continental Army

• 1795 – Kent County Free School in Maryland changed its name to Washington College and became the first college to be named after U.S. President George Washington.

• 1797 – William Blount of Tennessee became the first U.S. Senator to be expelled by impeachment.

• 1861 – General Henry Hopkins Sibley is assigned command of Confederate troops in New Mexico territory

• 1870 – Reconstruction Governor Holden of North Carolina declared Casswell County to be in a state of insurrection

• 1889 – John L. Sullivan defeated Jake Kilrain in the last championship bare-knuckle fight, lasting 75 rounds in Richburg, MS.

• 1898 – The King of the con men Jefferson “Soapy” Smith of Coweta, GA is gunned down in Skagway, Alaska in a battle for control of crime in the mining camps

• 1947 – Radio reports were broadcast that a flying saucer had crashed outside Roswell, New Mexico.

• 1960 – The Soviet Union charged Frances Gary Powers of Kentucky with espionage after was shot down in a U-2 spy plane.

• 1988 – Miami Arena opened in Miami, Florida

• 1999 – Allen Lee Davis was executed for murder, the last use of the electric chair for capital punishment in Florida

• 2008 – Texas businessman T. Boone Pickens announces his “Pickens Plan”, an energy policy that moves away from imported oil

• 2011 – Space Shuttle Atlantis launched from Cape Canaveral, FL in the final mission of the U.S. Space Shuttle program

• 2015 – The NFL vacates the Washington Redskins’ trademark on the fictitious grounds it may cause offence to native Americans

• 2021 – Zaila Avant-garde, age 14, from Harvey, Louisiana, won Scripps National Spelling Bee title

• 2024 – Category 1 Hurricane Beryl made landfall in Texas and knocked out power to nearly 3 million customers

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On this date in 1865…

After a military trial that was later ruled unconstitutional, MarySurratt was hanged with the Lincoln assassination conspirators. Mrs. Surratt was the first woman executed by the U.S. government, but today she is widely considered to have been innocent and railroaded by government prosecutors during the post-assassination hysteria.

Other Years:

• 1540 – Spanish Conquistador Francisco Coronado attacked the Zuni village of Hawikuh in New Mexico while on his quest for the fabled “Seven Cities of Gold.”

• 1742 – At the Battle of Bloody Marsh, a Spanish assault on British colonial forces is beaten back in a decisive victory on Simons Island, GA

• 1862 – The first mobile railroad post office was tested on the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad in Missouri.

• 1863 – Orders barring Jews from serving under US General Ulysses S. Grant were revoked

• 1875 – Jesse James’ gang was blamed for the train robbery at Otterville, Missouri.

• 1876 – In Hamburg, South Carolina, white farmers battled a black reconstruction militia with 7 killed. The northern press dubs it the “Hamburg Massacre”

• 1898 – US President William McKinley approved the annexation of the Kingdom of Hawaii after northern interests overthrew the island’s government

• 1906 – Legendary baseball pitcher Leroy Robert “Satchel” Paige was born in Mobile, Alabama.

• 1912 – Oklahoma Native American athlete Jim Thorpe won 4 of 5 events to win the Pentathlon gold medal at the Stockholm Olympics

• 1928 – Sliced bread is sold for the first time by the Chillicothe Baking Company of Chillicothe, Missouri. It is described as “the greatest forward step in the baking industry since bread was wrapped”.

• 1948 – The Cleveland Indians signed 42-year-old veteran Negro Leagues pitcher Satchel Paige

• 1980 – Jim King completed a 368 hour marathon riding of the Miracle Strip Roller coaster in Panama City, FL

• 2001 – In his first appearance at Daytona since the death of his father, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. won the Pepsi 400

• 2016 – A lone black gunman killed five police officers and wounded others during a racial protest march in Dallas TX

• 2019 – Mississippi closed all its beaches after a toxic algae bloom due to flooding on the Mississippi River

• 2020 – Texas recorded more than 10,000 daily cases of COVID-19 for the 1st time

• 2021 – Defending champions Tampa Bay Lightning beat Montreal Canadiens, 1-0 in Game 5 to retain the Stanley Cup in hockey

• 2023 – The White House announced the last of US chemical weapons had been destroyed in eastern Kentucky, as part of international Chemical Weapons Convention

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On this date in 1962…

Southern literary genius and Nobel Prize winner, William Faulkner died of a heart-attack at the age of 64 in Byhalia, Mississippi.

Other Years:

• 1775 – Congress issued the “Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking up Arms”, written by Thomas Jefferson and John Dickinson, listing American grievances.

• 1861 – The Confederate cruiser C.S.S. Sumter released seven captured federal vessels in Cuban waters.

• 1862 – Fighting at Devall’s Bluff, Arkansas killed a combined 106 soldiers.

• 1869 – Black candidate for Lieutenant Governor of Virginia, Dr J. H. Harris lost even though white Southerners were mostly still forbidden to vote

• 1929 – St. Louis Cardinals set a MLB run record with 28 runs on 28 hits against Philadelphia

• 1954 – KMOS TV channel 6 in Sedalia-Warrensburg, MO began broadcasts

• 1957 – The Harry S. Truman Presidential Library formed in Independence, Missouri.

• 1957 – Althea Gibson of South Carolina won the Wimbledon women’s singles tennis title, becoming the first black athlete to win the event.

• 1986 – Atlanta infielder Bob Horner became the 11th player to hit 4 home runs in a MLB game against the Montreal Expos

• 1989 – The U.S. Army destroyed its last Pershing 1-A missiles at an ammunition plant in Karnack, Texas under the terms of the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty.

• 1994 – “Forrest Gump”, directed by Robert Zemeckis, starring Tom Hanks and based on the novel by Winston Groom was released

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On this date in 1871…

In a trial at Jacksboro, Texas Kiowa chiefs Satanta and Big Tree were found guilty of murdering wagon drivers in a raid and sentenced to hang. Satanta warned the court, “If you kill me, it will be a spark on the prairie. Make big fire-burn heap.” He promised that if released he would withdraw his warriors from Texas.

Fearing a Kiowa uprising, the Texas governor commuted the sentences to life in prison. Both Indians were freed. Satanta would later be returned to prison and commit suicide by jumping off a balcony in 1874.

Other Years:

• 1775 – After no reply from parliament, the Second Continental Congress drafted the ‘Olive Branch Petition’ to King George III

• 1861 – The Battle of Carthage, Missouri.

• 1863 – U.S. Federal troops occupied Vicksburg, MS, and distributed supplies to the Southern citizens they had starved for months.

• 1864 – Federal cavalry occupied Roswell, Georgia and burned the cotton and wool mills.

• 1939 – Flash floods killed 79 people in Northeastern Kentucky

• 1947 – Larry Doby of Camden, South Carolina signed a contract with the Cleveland Indians, becoming the first black player in the American League.

• 1954 – Eighteen-year-old Elvis Presley walked into the Sun Records Studio in Memphis, Tennessee to record two songs for his mother as a birthday gift.

• 1975 – Arthur Ashe of Richmond, Virginia became the first black man to win a Wimbledon singles title.

• 1983 – On life-support, a woman gave birth to baby 84 days after brain death in a Roanoke, VA hospital

• 2016 – The FBI released a report claiming Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was “extremely careless” handling classified emails but didn’t recommend prosecution

• 2020 – Florida reported a record 11,458 daily COVID-19 cases

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On this date in 1776…

The Second Continental Congress announced that it had unanimously adopted the Declaration of Independence, largely authored by Thomas Jefferson. The Declaration was actually adopted and signed on the 2nd of July.

Other Years:

• 1584 – An expedition Sir Walter Raleigh dispatched and led by Philip Amadas and Arthur Barlowe to explore the eastern coast of North America arrived with the first colonists on Roanoke Island to establish Sir Walter Raleigh’s colony.

• 1777 – Shawnee warriors attacked Boonesborough for a second time in four months. Again, the stockade proved too strong against the Shawnee assault and the Indians broke off the attack.

• 1803 – The Louisiana Purchase was announced to the American people.

• 1826 - Thomas Jefferson and John Adams both died on the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence

• 1828 – Confederate General John Johnston Pettigrew was born in Tyrrell County, North Carolina.

• 1831 - James Monroe of Virginia died, becoming the third Founding-era president to die on July 4.

• 1845 – The Texas Congress voted to allow annexation to the US

• 1863 – Vicksburg, Mississippi fell to federal forces.

• 1863 – More than six hundred died in a failed Confederate assault on federal forts around Helena, Arkansas in an effort to relieve pressure on the besieged town of Vicksburg, Mississippi by drawing away federal troops.

• 1870 – The Great Steamboat Race ended when the Robert E. Lee reached St. Louis, Missouri six hours and thirty-six minutes ahead of the Natchez.

• 1881 – Booker T. Washington established the Tuskegee Institute in Tuskegee, Alabama.

• 1954 WMSL TV channel 48 in Huntsville, AL began broadcast

• 1969 – 140,000 attended the Atlanta Pop Festival in Byron, GA, performers included Janis Joplin, Blood, Sweat & Tears, Chicago and Led Zeppelin

• 1984 – Richard Petty won his 200th and final victory in the Firecracker 400 at Daytona International Speedway

• 1995 – The Birmingham (Alabama) Barracudas played the first Canadian Football League beating Winnipeg 38-10

• 2025 – A night-time flash flood along the Guadalupe River in Texas killed at least 116 people including children at a girls summer camp

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On this date in 1863…

Confederate generals George Pickett and John Pettigrew launched their divisions on a doomed charge up Cemetery Ridge at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. After ineffective artillery fire began the battle, Pickets Division was practically destroyed by massed federal rifle and artillery fire, but even still managed to reach and briefly take a small part of the federal line before being repulsed by a counter attack.

Other Years:

• 1724 – Frenchman Etienne Veniard de Bourgmont left Fort Orleans to meet with the Padoucas tribe in an effort to establish peace and trade with them. He is accompanied by 100 Missouri and 64 Osage warriors.

• 1775 – Gen. George Washington took command of the Continental Army.

• 1861 – Colonel Thomas J. Jackson received his commission as brigadier general in the Confederate Army

• 1913 – Confederate veterans at the Great Gettysburg Reunion of 1913 reenacted Pickett’s Charge; upon reaching the high-water mark of the Confederacy they were met by the outstretched hands of friendship from Union survivors

• 1962 – Jackie Robinson of Cairo, Georgia became the first black player to be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

• 1966 – The Atlanta Braves’ Tony Cloninger, became the first National League player and only pitcher to hit 2 grand slams in a MLB game beating the San Fransisco Giants

• 1970 – The Atlanta International Pop Festival opened with 200,000 attendance, performers included the Allman Brothers, Grand Funk Railroad, and Jimi Hendrix

• 1983 – Calvin Smith of Bolton, MS set new a world record of 9.93 seconds for the 100m Dash in Colorado Springs

• 1990 – The members of the 2 Live Crew rap group were formally charged with obscenity in Florida.

• 1994 – According to the Texas Department of Public Safety, This is the deadliest day in Texas traffic history, with forty-six people were killed in crashes on the state’s highways.

• 1997 – Mississippi became the first state to settle the tobacco lawsuit.

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On this date in 1863…

The Battle of Gettysburg continued to rage with Confederate assaults on Little & Big Round Tops, Devil’s Den, the Wheatfield, the Peach Orchard, Cemetery Hill and Culp’s Hill at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

Other Years:

• 1776 – Richard Henry Lee of Virginia’s resolution that the American colonies “are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States” was adopted by the Continental Congress.

• 1810 – Confederate statesman and general, Robert Augustus Toombs was born in Washington, Georgia.

• 1843 – An alligator fell from sky during a thunderstorm into the streets of Charleston, South Carolina.

• 1937 – A 24-hour honor guard was first posted at the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia

• 1947 – An object crashed near Roswell, New Mexico that the U.S. Army Air Force insisted was a weather balloon, but eyewitness accounts claimed was an alien spacecraft.

• 1956 – Elvis Presley recorded “Hound Dog” and “Don’t Be Cruel” at the RCA studio in NYC

• 1962 – The first Wal-Mart Discount City opened in Rogers, Arkansas.

• 1964 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the most sweeping civil rights legislation since Reconstruction.

• 1980 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter re-instated draft registration for males 18 years of age.

• 1989 – Jockey Steve Cauthen of Walton, KY won the Irish Derby on Old Vic to become the first rider in history to sweep the world’s four major Derbies (Kentucky, Epsom, French, Irish)

• 1994 – A US Air DC-9 crashed in rural North Carolina, killing

• 1998 – Atlanta-based CNN retracted a story it aired that alleged that U.S. troops had used nerve gas to kill American defectors during the Vietnam War.

• 2001 – The Bush Administration announced it would let oil companies drill on 1,500,000 acres of the Gulf of Mexico

• 2015 – BP agreed to compensate US government & gulf states $18.7 billion for the 2010 Gulf oil spill

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On this date in 1941…

The U.S. Congress established the Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky.

Other Years:

• 1776 – The first vote on the Declaration of Independence for Britain’s North American colonies occurred

• 1795 – John Rutledge of South Carolina became the second chief justice of US Supreme Court

• 1836 – President Andrew Jackson announced a bequest by James Smithson of 100,000 gold sovereigns to found the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC

• 1859 – A balloon covered a record 809 miles over St Louis, MO

• 1861 – The U.S. War Department decreed that Kansas and Tennessee were to be scoured for “volunteers” to bolster the federal army.

• 1862 – The US Internal Revenue Law imposed the first federal taxes on inheritance, tobacco and on incomes over $600 (Later ruled unconstitutional, however those monies were never returned to citizens)

• 1863 – The Battle of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania began when Confederate troops searching for shoes and other needed desperately supplies collided with federal cavalry.

• 1881 – The US Assay Office in St Louis, Missouri opened

• 1904 – The Third Summer Olympic Games opened in St Louis, the first held in the United States

• 1916 – Coca-Cola introduced its current coke cocaine-free formula to the market

• 1933 – Wiley Post of Texas became the first person to fly solo around the world, traveling 15,596 miles in seven days, 18 hours and 45 minutes.

• 1949 – WBRC TV channel 6 in Birmingham, AL began broadcasting

• 1954 – WDBO TV channel 6 in Orlando, FL began broadcasting

• 1956 – Elvis Presley, wearing a tuxedo, made his first television appearance and sang to a basset hound on The Steve Allen Show

• 1960 – Fidel Castro nationalized Esso, Shell & Texaco assets in Cuba

• 1962 – NASA established the Launch Operations Center on Merritt Island, Florida and later named it the Kennedy Space Center

• 1969 – Shelby Singleton bought Sun Records from Sam Phillips in Memphis, TN

• 1971 – North Carolina was the 38th state to approve of lower voting age to 18, and ratified the 26th amendment

• 1980 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter signed legislation that provided for 2 acres of land near the Lincoln Memorial for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

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On this date in 2000…

Despite overwhelming public opposition, the Confederate Battleflag was removed from the statehouse dome in Columbia, South Carolina. Voter outrage with a “No Votes for Turncoats” campaign replaced the governor and almost all legislators responsible during the next election.

Other Years:

• 1521 – Spanish Captains Francisco Gordillo, and Pedro de Quexos, landed in Florida and claimed it for the King of Spain.

• 1831 – Future Confederate General Robert E. Lee married Mary Custis at the Arlington House in Arlington, Virginia.

• 1834 – The U.S. Congress created Indian Territory in present-day Oklahoma.

• 1862 – The Battle of Frayser’s Farm (White Oak Swamp), Virginia.

• 1870 – The steamboats Natchez and Robert E. Lee began their historic race on the Mississippi River at New Orleans, Louisiana.

• 1911 – The U.S. Assay Office in St Louis, Missouri closed.

• 1936 – Margaret Mitchell’s novel Gone with the Wind was published.

• 1956 - Elvis Presley performed two sold-out shows at the Mosque Theatre in Richmond, VA

• 1986 – Georgia’s anti-sodomy law was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision.

• 2013 – Nineteen fire fighters were killed while trying to control a wildfire in Yarnell, Arizona.

• 2022 - US Supreme Court decided in West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency that major regulatory actions with vast economic and political impact required clear congressional authorization

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On this date in 1852…

The Great Compromiser, statesman Henry Clay of Kentucky died at the age of seventy-five in Washington, D.C. With Clay’s passing the South would soon learn that compromise is not necessarily a good thing.

Other Years:

• 1704 – A force of 50 South Carolinian militia and 1,000 Creek warriors attacked and destroyed the Spanish San Damian de Cupahica Mission, near present-day Tallahassee, Florida.

• 1767 - British Parliament passed the Townshend Revenue Act levying taxes on America and intensifying opposition to British rule

• 1776 – Virginia adopted a state constitution and chose Patrick Henry as its first state governor.

• 1862 – The Battle of Savage’s Station, Virginia.

• 1899 – The Brazos River in Texas flooded 12 miles wide and caused $10 million in damage.

• 1939 - The “Dixie Clipper” completed it’s first commercial airline flight to Europe

• 1967 - Actress Jayne Mansfield and two others were killed when their car in passed through a mosquito sprayer fog and struck the rear of a truck east of New Orleans, LA

• 1972 - The US Supreme Court issued the Furman v. Georgia ruling, temporarily halting capital punishment in the US

• 2020 - The US Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that abortion restrictions in Louisiana were unconstitutional, striking down a 2014 state law

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On this date in 1776…

Patriot’s commanded by William Moultrie defended a palmetto log fort on Sullivan’s Island, South Carolina against an attack by the British fleet. The palmetto tree was added to South Carolina’s flag in 1861 to commemorate Moultrie’s heroic actions.

Other Years:

• 1776 - The final draft of Declaration of Independence was submitted to the Continental Congress

• 1824 – Confederate General William T. Wofford was born in Habersham County, Georgia.

• 1836 - James Madison, drafter of the Constitution, author of the “Federalist Papers” and fourth president of the US, died on his tobacco plantation in Virginia.

• 1865 – The cruiser C.S.S. Shenandoah fired the last shot in defense of the Confederate States in the northern Pacific Ocean.

• 1902 – The U.S. Congress authorized a $1 commemorative gold coin to support the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis, Missouri.

• 1904 - Helen Keller of Tuscumbia, AL became the first Deaf-Blind person to earn a bachelor’s degree, graduating from Radcliffe College in Cambridge, MA

• 1928 - Louis Armstrong made a 78 rpm recording of “West End Blues”

• 1935 – U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt ordered a federal gold depository to be built at Fort Knox, Kentucky to hold U.S. gold reserves and the gold the government had accumulate since banning private gold ownership by citizens.

• 1971 - US Supreme Court (8-0) overturns draft evasion conviction of Muhammad Ali (Cassius Clay)

• 2007 - Craig Biggio of the Houston Astros became the 27th member of the 3000 hit club

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On this date in 1874…

A Comanche war party attacked a group of twenty-eight buffalo hunters that includied Bat Masterson, in what is now Hutchinson County, Texas. The buffalo hunters’ deadly long-range fire successfully held off Chief Quanah Parker and a band of more than 300 warriors in what became known as the Second Battle of Adobe Walls.

Other Years:

• 1829 – English scientist James Smithson died, leaving an endowment to the U.S. Government to further the knowledge of natural sciences.

• 1846 – The Smithsonian Institution was established at Washington D.C. by an act of the U.S. Congress.

• 1862 – The Battle of Gaines’ Mill, Virginia.

• 1863 - A Skirmish at Fairfax Courthouse, Virginia delayed Confederate cavalry leader General J.E.B. Stuart ‘s travel to Gettysburg

• 1864 – Army of Tennessee Confederates under General Joseph Johnston decimated the federal troops of General William TecumsehSherman at the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain, Georgia

• 1957 – Hurricane Audrey killed 526 people in Louisiana and Texas.

• 1962 - Texan Ross Perot founded Electronic Data Systems

• 2015 - Out-of-state leftist black activist “Bree” Newsome climbed the flag pole at the Confederate Memorial on the South Carolina statehouse grounds and tore down the Confederate flag. She was immediately arrested

• 2016 - The US Supreme Court struck down a Texas law restricting abortion 5-3

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