Port Hudson – Today In Southern History

8 July 1863

8 July 1863

On this date in 1863…

The last Confederate garrison on the Mississippi River at the stronghold of Port Hudson, Louisiana surrendered to federal troops after learning of the fall of Vicksburg, Mississippi and ending the longest siege on American soil to date.

Other Years:

• 1778 – George Washington established his headquarters at West Point for the Continental Army

• 1795 – Kent County Free School in Maryland changed its name to Washington College and became the first college to be named after U.S. President George Washington.

• 1797 – William Blount of Tennessee became the first U.S. Senator to be expelled by impeachment.

• 1861 – General Henry Hopkins Sibley is assigned command of Confederate troops in New Mexico territory

• 1870 – Reconstruction Governor Holden of North Carolina declared Casswell County to be in a state of insurrection

• 1889 – John L. Sullivan defeated Jake Kilrain in the last championship bare-knuckle fight, lasting 75 rounds in Richburg, MS.

• 1898 – The King of the con men Jefferson “Soapy” Smith of Coweta, GA is gunned down in Skagway, Alaska in a battle for control of crime in the mining camps

• 1947 – Radio reports were broadcast that a flying saucer had crashed outside Roswell, New Mexico.

• 1960 – The Soviet Union charged Frances Gary Powers of Kentucky with espionage after was shot down in a U-2 spy plane.

• 1988 – Miami Arena opened in Miami, Florida

• 1999 – Allen Lee Davis was executed for murder, the last use of the electric chair for capital punishment in Florida

• 2008 – Texas businessman T. Boone Pickens announces his “Pickens Plan”, an energy policy that moves away from imported oil

• 2011 – Space Shuttle Atlantis launched from Cape Canaveral, FL in the final mission of the U.S. Space Shuttle program

• 2015 – The NFL vacates the Washington Redskins’ trademark on the fictitious grounds it may cause offence to native Americans

• 2021 – Zaila Avant-garde, age 14, from Harvey, Louisiana, won Scripps National Spelling Bee title

• 2024 – Category 1 Hurricane Beryl made landfall in Texas and knocked out power to nearly 3 million customers

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