Confederate Victory at Vicksburg – Today In Southern History
19 May 1863
On this date in 1863…
Federal General Ulysses Grant attempted unsuccessfully to storm the Confederate stronghold of Vicksburg, Mississippi by direct frontal assault. . His troops were repulsed with staggering losses and settled in for a long siege.
Other Years:
1585 - Spain confiscated English ships in Spanish harbors and began the Anglo-Spanish War
1795 – Johns Hopkins, founder of The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, was born at Anne Arundel, Maryland.
1796 – The first U.S. game law provided penalties for hunting or destroying game within Cherokee and Creek territory.
1828 U.S. President John Quincy Adams signs the Tariff of 1828/Tariff of Abominations into law to protect industry in the North and milk Southern states of their wealth
1865 – The C.S.S. Stonewall lowered its Confederate banner while anchored off Cuba.
1891 - Rice Institute is chartered in Houston, Texas, becomes Rice University
1909 - Jack Johnson of Galveston, Texas fights Philadelphia Jack O’Brien to a no decision in 6 rounds in Philadelphia and retains his world heavyweight title.
1912 – The Associated Advertising Clubs of America held its first convention in Dallas, Texas.
1972 - WMAV TV channel 18 in Oxford, MS (PBS) began broadcasting
1988 – Carlos Lehder Rivas, of Colombia’s Medellin drug cartel, was convicted in a Florida court of smuggling more than 3 tons of cocaine into the U.S.
1990 - “Elvis” TV drama series about early life of Elvis Presley last episode aired on ABC
2019 - US billionaire Robert F. Smith announces he will pay off college loans of nearly 400 students graduating Morehouse College in Atlanta
2022 Oklahoma passes the most restrictive abortion ban in the country
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