Today in History for Oct. 21, 2014

Natalee Ann Holloway

Oct. 21, 1496 – Spanish explorer and conquistador Hernando de Soto was born in Barcarrota, Badajoz, Extremadura, Spain.

Oct. 21, 1772 – English Romantic poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge was born in Ottery St. Mary, Devon, England.

Oct. 21, 1858 – Dr. Charles Brooks Thomas was born. He would later buy a plantation where Thomaston, Ala. is now located and would be appointed postmaster. Thomaston was named in his honor and he would become the town’s first mayor and had the land surveyed and laid out the town.

Oct. 21, 1861 - Union troops suffered a defeat at the Battle of Ball's Bluff. It was the second major engagement of the war. Colonel Edward Baker, a close friend of Abraham Lincoln, was killed in the battle becoming the first martyr of the war.

Oct. 21, 1863 – During the Civil War, a skirmish occurred at Cherokee Station, Ala. on the Memphis and Charleston Railroad.

Oct. 21, 1864 – During the Civil War, a skirmish occurred at Leesburg, Ala.

Oct. 21, 1888 - Margaret Fox, one of the Fox sisters, confessed that the "spirit rappings" she and her sisters made were a hoax, created by the cracking of their toe joints.


Oct. 21, 1917 – During WWI, four months after the first U.S. troops arrived in France, the first Americans entered combat when units from the U.S. Army's First Division were assigned to Allied trenches in the Luneville sector near Nancy, France.

Oct. 21, 1918 – During World War I, Army Pvt. Wm. S. Millican of Jackson and Army Pvt. John Butler of Furman in Wilcox County “died from disease.”

Oct. 21, 1921 – The Troy State Normal School (present-day Troy University) beat Repton High School, 12-6, in a football game in Troy. Troy would finish the season with a  1-7 record.

Oct. 21, 1921 – President Warren G. Harding delivered in Alabama the first speech by a sitting U.S. President against lynching in the deep South. Harding was the great-grandson of Conecuh County’s Henchie Warren, who is said to have hid a chest of gold in Shipps Pond during the Civil War.

Oct. 21, 1928 – Baseball Hall of Famer Whitey Ford was born in New York, New York. He spent his entire major league career with the New York Yankees.

Oct. 21, 1940 – The first edition of the Ernest Hemingway novel “For Whom the Bell Tolls” was published.

Oct. 21, 1948 – Major League Baseball shortstop and manager Bill Russell was born in Pittsburgh, Kansas. He would go on to play for and manage the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Oct. 21, 1956 - Billy Howton of the Green Bay Packers caught seven passes for 257 yards and two touchdowns against the Los Angeles Rams. The final score was, 42-17.

Oct. 21, 1960 – A major fire completely destroyed the Evergreen Heading Co. mill and warehouse on this early Friday morning. The mill, which manufactured wooden, paper-coated barrelheads, was founded in 1938, and Ward Alexander was the manager. It was believed that an electrical spark or spark from a boiler might have ignited shavings in the mill.

Oct. 21, 1960 – On homecoming night in Evergreen, Evergreen High School beat Frisco City, 21-14. Mary Hunter was named Miss Homecoming, and Joy Lure’ Davis was named Miss Football.

Oct. 21, 1966 - The U.S. Congress approved the AFL-NFL merger.

Oct. 21, 1967 – Future J.U. Blacksher head coach and principal Keith Cardwell scored a 21-yard touchdown and kicked the extra point to give the Bulldogs a 7-0 win over Excel.

Oct. 21, 1973 - Fred Dryer of the Los Angeles Rams became the first NFL player to record two safeties in a single game. The Rams defeated the Green Bay Packers, 24-7.

Oct. 21, 1975 - Carlton Fisk of the Boston Red Sox hit a home run in the 12th inning in a 7-6 win over the Cincinnati Reds in Game Six of the World Series.

Oct. 21, 1980 - The Philadelphia Phillies won their first World Series.

Oct. 21, 1984 - Steve Cox of the Cleveland Browns kicked a 60-yard field goal against the Cincinnati Bengals. It was the second longest field goal in NFL history. The Browns lost to the Cincinnati Bengals, 12-9.

Oct. 21, 1986 – The Monroeville City Council appointed Bill Dailey as Monroeville Police Chief. He replaced Charles Colbert, who had been chief for 12 years.

Oct. 21, 1986 – Natalee Ann Holloway was born in Clinton, Miss. At the age of 18, on May 30, 2005, she would disappear while on a high school graduation trip to Aruba, six days after her graduation from Mountain Brook High School in Alabama.

Oct. 21, 1998 - The New York Yankees set a major league baseball record of 125 victories for the regular and postseason combined.

Oct. 21, 2000 - The New York Yankees defeated the New York Mets 4-3 in 12 innings. It was the longest World Series game at 4 hours and 51 minutes.

Oct. 21, 2011 – “The Last Ride,” a film about the death of Hank Williams Sr., was released in theaters.