The Alabama's Last Fight – Today In Southern History
19 June 1864
On this date in 1864…
The most successful warship in American history, the C.S.S. Alabama, suffering from damp and decaying gunpowder, lost a duel with the U.S.S. Kearsarge and sank in the English Channel off Cherbourg, France.
1541 – Spanish Conquistador Hernando de Soto’s expedition met the Casqui tribe near present-day Helena, Arkansas and priests with the expedition offered to help with a drought that was ruining Casqui crops. After a large cross was erected and prayers offered, it began to rain. The Casqui became staunch allies of the Spanish.
1767 – The Governor of Louisiana issued an order recognizing the Chitimacha tribe and instructs the commander at Fort Manchac to treat them with all due respect.
1771 - Six of the twelve condemned Alamance Regulators were hanged by British Governor Tryon at Hillsboro, North Carolina following the Battle of Alamance.
1865 – Federal General Gordon Granger disobeyed orders and illegally declared all slaves in Texas free, giving rise to the “Juneteenth” celebration.
1964 – The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was approved after surviving an 83-day filibuster in the United States Senate.
1987 – In its Edwards v. Aguillard decision, the U.S. Supreme Court declared that a Louisiana Law requiring the teaching of Creation Science as a counterpoint to evolution was unconstitutional.
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