Calhoun – Today In Southern History
18 March 1782
On this date in 1782 – Southern statesman, Secretary of War, and U.S. Vice-President John C. Calhoun was born in Abbeville, South Carolina.
Other Years:
1541 – Hernando de Soto observed the first recorded flood in American history on the Mississippi River.
1865 – The Confederate States Congress adjourned its final sesion.
1937 – A gas explosion at the school in New London, Texas killed 294 victims.
1954 – Texas tycoon Howard Hughes bought RKO Pictures for $23,489,478, making it the first motion picture studio to be owned by an individual.
1968 – The U.S. Congress repealed the requirement for a gold reserve to back U.S. currency and took America off the gold standard.
1981 – The U.S. government disclosed that it tested biological weapons in Texas in 1966.
1990 – In Tampa, Florida, a little league player was killed when hit with a pitch.
2003 – FBI agents raided the corporate headquarters of the HealthSouth Corporation in Birmingham, Alabama on suspicion of corporate fraud by the company’s executives.
Read ‘Why Know Southern History?’
There’s Plenty More to See At Our Sister Site ‘Southern Nation News’ for the best Southern News from Dixie Drudge
Copyright 2026, KnowSouthernHistory.Org