The Powhattan Massacre – Today In Southern History
18 April 1644
On this date in 1644…
Warriors led by 99 year-old Chief Opechancanough of the Powhattan Confederacy attacked English settlers along the Pamunkey and York rivers. Twenty-two years after his first attack on Jamestown, Opechancanough’s followers killed more than 400 Virginia colonists.
Other Years:
1528 – Spanish Adventurer Pánfilo de Narváez claimed Florida for Spain after landing on the western Florida coast.
1847 – Captain Robert E. Lee was promoted to brevet major for heroism in the Battle of Cerro Gordo during the Mexican War.
1861 – Confederate troops captured the town and arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia.
1864 – Confederate and Indian troops under General John S. Marmaduke routed Federal troops and captured 198 supply wagons at Poison Springs, Arkansas.
1880 – An estimated F4 tornado struck Marshfield, Missouri, killing 99 people and injuring more than 100.
1881 – Billy the Kid escaped from the Lincoln County jail in Mesilla, New Mexico, after recovering a weapon stashed in the outhouse and killing two deputies.
1968 – The famed London Bridge was sold to a U.S. oil company to be dismantled and later re-erected in Arizona.
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