The Palmetto Fort – Today In Southern History
28 June 1776
On this date in 1776…
Patriot’s commanded by William Moultrie defended a palmetto log fort on Sullivan’s Island, South Carolina against an attack by the British fleet. The palmetto tree was added to South Carolina’s flag in 1861 to commemorate Moultrie’s heroic actions.
Carolina Day, observed every year on June 28 throughout South Carolina, commemorates the successful defeat of British land and naval forces by Carolina and Virginia patriots on 28 June 1776.
Other Years:
1776 - The final draft of Declaration of Independence was submitted to the Continental Congress
1824 – Confederate General William T. Wofford was born in Habersham County, Georgia.
1836 - James Madison, drafter of the Constitution, author of the “Federalist Papers” and fourth president of the US, died on his tobacco plantation in Virginia.
1865 – The cruiser C.S.S. Shenandoah fired the last shot in defense of the Confederate States in the northern Pacific Ocean.
1902 – The U.S. Congress authorized a $1 commemorative gold coin to support the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis, Missouri.
1904 - Helen Keller of Tuscumbia, AL became the first Deaf-Blind person to earn a bachelor’s degree, graduating from Radcliffe College in Cambridge, MA
1928 - Louis Armstrong made a 78 rpm recording of “West End Blues”
1935 – U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt ordered a federal gold depository to be built at Fort Knox, Kentucky to hold U.S. gold reserves and the gold the government had accumulate since banning private gold ownership by citizens.
1971 - US Supreme Court (8-0) overturns draft evasion conviction of Muhammad Ali (Cassius Clay)
2007 - Craig Biggio of the Houston Astros became the 27th member of the 3000 hit club
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