Today in History for Dec. 2, 2014

General Archibald Grace Jr.

Dec. 2, 1846 – Dr. Fielden Straughn Dailey was born at Tunnel Springs, Ala. An 1871 graduate of the Medical College of Alabama in Mobile, he was a Confederate veteran who fought during the last two years as a private.

Dec. 2, 1852 – Prominent Conecuh County Baptist minister, the Rev. Alexander Doniphan Travis passed away at the age of 62. He helped found Sparta and Evergreen, and he was the uncle of William Barret Travis, who was Texas commander at the Battle of the Alamo in 1836. Alexander Travis was buried in the Old Beulah Cemetery in Conecuh County.

Dec. 2, 1859 – Militant abolitionist leader John Brown was executed by hanging for treason and murder. He was convicted on Nov. 2 for the crimes related to his Oct. 16 raid on an arsenal in Harpers Ferry, Va.

Dec. 2, 1864 - Confederate General Archibald Gracie Jr. was killed in the trenches at Petersburg, Virginia. Although his family was from the North, his father owned a business in Mobile, Ala., and Gracie moved there upon his resignation from the army in 1856. Gracie soon became an ardent supporter of the southern cause, and he was active in the Alabama state militia. In early 1861, before Alabama seceded from the Union, Gracie was ordered by the governor to seize the federal arsenal at Mount Vernon. Gracie joined the 3rd Alabama when hostilities erupted between North and South, and he served in Tennessee and Kentucky during the first part of the war.

Dec. 2, 1865 - Adhering to President Andrew Johnson's Reconstruction plan, the Alabama legislature ratified the 13th Amendment, abolishing slavery in the United States, but with the caveat that such an action did "not confer upon Congress the power to legislate upon the political status of freedmen in this State." The 1868 legislature, adhering to Congress's more radical Reconstruction plan, would ratify the 13th Amendment again, but without the qualifying statement.

Dec. 2, 1882 – Martha Caroline Peacock, the wife of Noah Dallas Peacock (Lewis Lavon Peacock’s older brother), purchased 100 acres near Bullock in Crenshaw County for $125 from Pennsylvania native Washington Allen and his second wife, Catherine Ann Scott.

Dec. 2, 1908 – An organizational charter was issued to Fidelity Lodge No. 685 in Florala (Covington County, Ala.)

Dec. 2, 1915 – An organizational charter was issued to Local Lodge No. 779 in Huxford (Escambia County, Ala.)

Dec. 2, 1916 – In Lovecraftian fiction, British occultist and psychic Titus Crow, who dedicated his life to the study of the paranormal, especially the Cthulhu Mythos, was born in London, England. He first appeared in 1970’s “Billy’s Oak” by Brian Lumley.

Dec. 2, 1919 – During World War I, Army Pvt. William Jones of Camden “died from disease.”

Dec. 2, 1942 – Frisco City, Ala. native Grady Gaston’s plane, a United State’s Army Air Force Consolidated B-24 Liberator named “Little Eva,” crashed while returning from a bombing mission. The plane had gotten lost and ran out of fuel northwest of Burketown, Queensland (near the Gulf of Carpentaria) in Australia.

Dec. 2, 1942 - Opening a new era of science, the first controlled atomic chain-reaction took place in Stagg Field, a former squash-rackets court in Chicago.

Dec. 2, 1950 – Army PFC Barney A. Tolbert of Escambia County “died while missing” in Korea.

Dec. 2, 1963 - The Major League Rules Committee banned the use of oversized catcher's mitts. The rule went into effect in 1965.

Dec. 2, 1972 – The "December Giant," the largest sinkhole in the United States, collapsed in Shelby County, Ala. One of the most spectacular examples of a sinkhole, the “December Giant” was formed in a matter of hours. The "December Giant," also known as the "Golly Hole," sank to a depth of 150 feet and left a 450-by-350-foot-wide crater.

Dec. 2, 1975 - Ohio State University running back Archie Griffin became the first player in history to win the Heisman Trophy two years in a row.

Dec. 2, 1982 - Forty years later, Barney Clark received the first artificial heart, surviving for 112 days with it.

Dec. 2, 1983 – NFL quarterback Aaron Rodgers was born in Chico, Calif.

Dec. 2, 1984 - Dan Marino of the Miami Dolphins threw his 40th touchdown pass of the season.

Dec. 2, 1987 - "The Grabowski Shuffle" video by Mike Ditka and The Grabowskis was certified Gold and Platinum by the RIAA.

Dec. 2, 1988 - ESPN aired its 10,000th Sports Center, making it the most televised cable program in history.

Dec. 2, 2005 – Army Staff Sgt. Phillip Travis, 41, of Beatrice was killed when the truck he was riding in overturned at Tallil Air Force Base in Iraq.