Chief Satanta – Today In Southern History
5 July 1871
5 July 1871
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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