Ernest Childers – Today In Southern History
8 April 1944
On this date in 1944…
Creek Indian soldier Ernest Childers of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor during WWII for his courageous actions on September 22, 1943 near Oliveto, Italy while serving as a 2nd Lieutenant with the 45th Infantry Division. Childers single-handedly killed two enemy snipers, attacked two machine gun nests, and captured an artillery observer that had been directing fire against his unit.
Other Years:
1818 - At the first meeting of Baton Rouge’s Board of Selectmen, they imposed a $5 tax on peddlers and beggars.
1861 – Virginia sent a three-man peace commission to Washington to diffuse the growing secession crisis. U.S. President Lincoln refused to meet with the commissioners.
1865 – Confederates routed federal troops at the Battle of Sabine Cross Roads at Mansfield, Louisiana
1861 – Georgia state troops seized the U.S. mint at Dahlonega, Georgia.
1972 - Ponchatoula, Louisiana held it’s first annual Strawberry Festival.
1974 - Hank Aaron breaks Babe Ruth’s home run record
2000 – Nineteen U.S. Marines were killed when a V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft crashed near Marana, Arizona.
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