Six Flags – Today In Southern History

Aug 01, 2026

1781 – British army commanded by Lord Cornwallis occupied Yorktown, Virginia.
1789 - The US Customs office begins enforcing the Tariff Act
1863 - Cavalry actions around Brandy Station, Virginia signal the end of the Gettysburg Campaign
1867 - Black people vote for the first time in a US state election in the South under Tennessee’s occupation government resulting in a republican victory
1927 - The Carter Family made their first country music recording in Bristol, Tennessee
1945 - NY Giants outfielder Mel Ott of Gretna, Louisiana hits a historic 500th MLB home run.
1966 – Charles Whitman wounded 31 and killed 16 people from the bell tower at University of Texas in Austin before himself being killed by a police officer.
1971 - Richard Petty won the Dixie 500 in Atlanta and became the first NASCAR driver to pass $1 million in career earnings
1977 - Francis Gary Powers of Jenkinstown, KY, the CIA U-2 spy plane pilot who was shot down over the Soviet Union, died from a news helicopter crash in Los Angeles
1988 - Rush Limbaugh of Cape Girardeau, Missour began his nationally syndicated radio program
1993 – The Great Mississippi and Missouri Rivers Flood of 1993 crests.
2001 – Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore installed a Ten Commandments monument in the state judiciary building, leading to a lawsuit from the Southern Poverty Law Center to have it removed and eventually his own removal from the court.

Today In Southern History