The Olympic Park Bombing – Today In Southern History
27 July 1996
27 July 1996
On this date in 1996…
Eric Robert Rudolph set off a bomb that killed two people at acelebration in Centennial Olympic Park at the Atlanta Olympic Games. In its infinite wisdom, the FBI harassed and investigated Richard Jewell, the security officer who found the bomb and saved countless lives, while Rudolph escaped.
Other Years:
1586 – Sir Walter Raleigh brought first tobacco to England from Virginia.
1816 – US troops destroyed Seminole Fort Apalachicola to punish Indians for encouraging and harboring runaway slaves
1824 – Florida Governor William Duval officially removed Principal Seminole Chief Neamathla from his position because of fears that he planned to lead an uprising of Seminole that had avoided removal from Florida.
1861 – Confederate troops occupied Fort Fillmore, New Mexico Territory.
1837 – The US Mint opened in Charlotte, North Carolina
1844 – A fire destroyed the US mint at Charlotte, North Carolina
1861 – Confederate troops occupied Fort Fillmore, New Mexico
1864 – Federal General William Tecumseh Sherman needlessly ordered the destruction of all railroad lines in federal occupied territory south of Atlanta.
1953 – Dizzy Dean from Lucas, AR was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame
1958 – Southern Aviator and WWII Flying Tiger commander, Lt. Gen. Claire Lee Chennault died at the age of 64 of lung cancer in New Orleans, Louisiana.
1962 – Martin Luther King, Jr. was arrested in Albany, Georgia.
1963 - Fritz Von Erich of Jewett, TX defeated Verne Gagne to become NWA champion
1981 - Adam John Walsh, age 6, was abducted from a mall in Hollywood, Florida and murdered. This led his father, John Walsh, to became a victims’ rights advocate and host of the television show America’s Most Wanted.
1993 – NBC TV was awarded coverage of the 1996 Atlanta Olympics for $456 million
2007 – News helicopters from KNXV and KTVK collided over Phoenix with no survivors while covering a police chase. This was the first known incidence of two news helicopters colliding in mid-air, and the worst civilian aviation accident in Phoenix history.
2019 – Swimmer Caeleb Dressel of Green Cove Springs, FL won three gold medals in one day at the World Championships in Gwangju, South Korea
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