Today in History for Aug. 7, 2014

USS Eldridge

Aug. 7, 1813 – Gen. Ferdinand Claiborne inspected Fort Mims and recommended that at least two and possibly three additional blockhouses be built, but those orders were never accomplished.

Aug. 7, 1836 - Confederate General Evander Law was born in Darlington, S.C. When the war broke out, Law became a Lt. Colonel in the 4th Alabama Infantry and went on to have a distinguished career in the Confederate army, earning a reputation as a brave and effective field commander. He was the last surviving Confederate general before his death in 1920.

Aug. 7, 1862 – During the Civil War, a skirmish occurred near Moseley’s Plantation, in the vicinity of Decatur, Ala.

Aug. 7, 1862 – During the Civil War, a three-day Federal reconnaissance began from Pensacola to Bagdad and Milton, Fla.

Aug. 7, 1864 – During the Civil War, in direct disobedience to his orders, the Confederate commander of Fort Gaines, on Dauphin Island, Ala., Colonel Charles D. Anderson, spent this day arranging terms and making out rolls of men to be surrendered to Admiral Farragut and General Granger. A number of the surrendered personnel spent the rest of the war a relatively short distance away on Ship Island, Miss. Others were not so fortunate.

Aug. 7, 1882 - Isaac “Honest Ike” Vincent was elected to an unprecedented third term as Alabama State Treasurer. Thanking the Democratic Convention that had nominated him two months earlier, Vincent promised that he would “endeavor in the future, as I have in the past, to guard and advance your interests as faithfully as I would my own.” On Jan. 31, 1883, Gov. Edward A. O’Neal reported to the Legislature that Treasurer Vincent had absconded from office and that state funds totaling more than $200,000 were missing. 

Aug. 7, 1918 – During World War I, Army 2nd Lt. Claud M. McCall of Brewton was killed in action.

Aug. 7, 1942 - During World War II, the U.S. 1st Marine Division began Operation Watchtower, the first U.S. offensive of the war, by landing on Guadalcanal, one of the Solomon Islands.

Aug. 7, 1945 – The USS Eldridge arrived at Okinawa for local escort and patrol duty, and with the end of hostilities a week later, continued to serve as escort on the Saipan–Ulithi–Okinawa routes until November.

Aug. 7, 1946 - Lt. Gen. Holland "Howlin' Mad" Smith retired from the Marines after a 40-year career. A veteran of World Wars I and II, the Russell County, Ala. native became known as "the father of amphibious warfare," and was honored for his years of service by being retired as a full general.

Aug. 7, 1947 - Kon-Tiki, a balsa wood raft captained by Norwegian anthropologist Thor Heyerdahl, completed a 4,300-mile, 101-day journey from Peru to Raroia in the Tuamotu Archipelago, near Tahiti.

Aug. 7, 1953 – City Furniture Co. in Evergreen held its grand opening in the location formerly occupied by the Olen Department Store in the Binion Building on West Front Street.

Aug. 7, 1958 - Emilia Newcomb, age 22, spontaneously combusted while dancing at a party. She was reduced to a small pile of ash after a brief, intense flare, with only her shoes, slightly scorched, remaining.

Aug. 7, 1990 - President George Herbert Walker Bush ordered the organization of Operation Desert Shield in response to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait on August 2.