12 October 1861
On this date in 1861…
The tiny Confederate ironclad Manassas attacked the massive war sloop USS Richmond on the Mississippi River south of New Orleans. The Manassas retired under heavy fire after ramming and damaging the Richmond and a coal barge.
Other Years:
1773 – America’s first insane asylum opens for Persons of Insane and Disordered Minds in Williamsburg, Virginia.
1815 – Confederate General William Hardee was born.
1862 - Confederate General J.E.B. Stuart completed his second ride around McClellan’s yankee army during the Raid on Chambersburg
1870 – Confederate General Robert E. Lee died and was buried in Lexington, Virginia.
1886 – A major hurricane struck Indianola, Texas. The winds and storm surge killed 250 people.
1933 - American Gangster George Barnes of Memphis, Tennessee, known as Machine Gun Kelly, was sentenced to life in prison
1964 - Don Schollander of Charlotte, North Carolina swam an Olympic record 53.4 seconds to win the 100m freestyle gold medal, the first of Schollander’s 4 gold medals at the Tokyo Olympic Games
1996 – Members of all major Southern heritage groups met in summit at New Albany, Mississippi and issued the New Albany Declaration as a set of principles and objectives for the modern Southern Rights movement.
2015 – Dell Computer Corporation of Texas announced it was buying EMC for around $67 billion.
2022 - American radio host Alex Jones of Dallas ordered by a Connecticut jury to pay $965 million to families of those killed in 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School
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