Elvis is Dead – Today In Southern History
16 August 1977
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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