The Great Comanche Raid – Today In Southern History
7 August 1840
7 August 1840
On this date in 1840…
During the “Great Raid,” a thousand Comanche warriors commanded by Chief Buffalo Hump sacked Linville and Victoria, Texas in retaliation for what they saw as a betrayal at the Council House fight. This raid became the inspiration for the fictional raid on Austin in Larry McMurty’s novel, Comanche Moon.
Other Years:
1670 – The Apache attacked the ancient Zuni Pueblo of Hawikuh, burning the new church and killing the priest.
1760 – Fort Loudon, Tennessee surrendered to a large Cherokee force.
1782 – George Washington created the Order of the Purple Heart.
1864 - A federal cavalry raid killed 400 Confederates and captured 400 horses at Moorefield in West(ern) Virginia
1927 - ‘King of the Rum Runners’ smuggler Horace Alderman of Florida killed three prohibition agents between Florida and Bimini
1939 - Millionaire Howard Hughes of Humble, Texas is presented with a Congressional Gold Medal
1942 – Singer B.J. Thomas was born in Hugo, Oklahoma.
1964 -Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin resolution, giving President Johnson broad powers in dealing with reported North Vietnamese attacks on United States forces.
1970 - WDHN TV channel 18 in Dothan, Alabama began broadcast
1981 - “The Washington Star” stopped publishing after 128 years in DC
1989 – A small plane carrying Congressman Mickey Leland, D-Texas, and 15 others crashed during a flight in Ethiopia. There were no survivors.
2010 - Jerry Riceof Starkville, MS and Emmitt Smith of Pensacola, FL were inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame
2019 - The largest single-state immigration raid occurred in Mississippi with nearly 700 people arrested
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