Today in History for March 22, 2015

General James Harrison Wilson

March 22, 1457 – The “Gutenberg Bible” became the first printed book.

March 22, 1508 – Ferdinand II of Aragon commissioned Amerigo Vespucci as the chief navigator of the Spanish Empire.

March 22, 1622 – Algonquian Indians killed 347 English settlers around Jamestown, Virginia, a third of the colony's population, during the Second Anglo-Powhatan War. The incident is commonly referred to as the “Jamestown Massacre.”

March 22, 1713 – The Tuscarora War came to an end with the fall of Fort Neoheroka, which effectively opened up the interior of North Carolina to European colonization.

March 22, 1765 – The British Parliament passed the Stamp Act that introduced a tax to be levied directly on its American colonies. It was the first direct British tax on the American colonists and sought to raise funds for a standing British army in America. The legislation levied a direct tax on all materials printed for commercial and legal use in the colonies, from newspapers and pamphlets to playing cards and dice. It was repealed on March 17, 1766.

March 22, 1790 - Thomas Jefferson became the first U.S. Secretary of State.

March 22, 1794 - The U.S. Congress banned U.S. vessels from supplying slaves to other countries.

March 22, 1814 – General Andrew Jackson joined Col. Williams of the 39th Regiment at the mouth of Cedar Creek in Talladega County and built a fort, which Jackson named after Williams.

March 22, 1815 – General Ferdinand L. Claiborne died in Natchez, Miss. at the age of 45.

March 22, 1817 - Confederate General Braxton Bragg was born in Warrenton, North Carolina. Bragg commanded the Army of Tennessee for 17 months, leading them to several defeats and losing most of the state of Tennessee to the Yankees.

March 22, 1818 – English-Australian explorer John Ainsworth Horrocks was born at Penwortham Lodge, near Preston, Lancashire. He is best known for establishing the town of Penwortham in South Australia.

March 22, 1820 - U.S. Navy officer Stephen Decatur, hero of the Barbary Wars, was mortally wounded in a duel with disgraced Navy Commodore James Barron at Bladensburg, Maryland. Although once friends, Decatur sat on the court-martial that suspended Barron from the Navy for five years in 1808 and later opposed his reinstatement, leading to a fatal quarrel between the two men.

March 22, 1862 - Confederate Cavalry Commander Turner Ashby attacked Union troops that were moving out of Shenandoah Valley. The Confederates lost the Battle of Kernstown, Va. the next day.

March 22, 1865 – During the Civil War, a 33-day Federal cavalry operation began under the command of US Brigadier General James Harrison Wilson. This raid included the Battle of Selma, Ala.

March 22, 1869 - The Dale County Courthouse in Newton, Ala. burned, and the county seat was moved to Ozark in 1870.

March 22, 1873 - Slavery was abolished in Puerto Rico.

March 22, 1899 - Author Lella Warren was born in Clayton, Ala.

March 22, 1903 - Niagara Falls ran out of water due to a drought.

March 22, 1904 - The first color photograph was published in The London Daily Illustrated Mirror.

March 22, 1904 - A patent was issued for a "baseball catcher."

March 22, 1908 – Western writer Louis L'Amour was born in Jamestown, North Dakota. His first novel, “Westward the Tide,” was published in 1951. Over the next three decades, L’Amour wrote more than 100 novels, selling 320 million books worldwide, and is considered the finest writer in the Western genre.

March 22, 1924 – USA Today founder Allen H. Neuharth was born in rural South Dakota.

March 22, 1925 – In H.P. Lovecraft’s fictional work, “The Call of Cthulhu,” the Emma encountered a heavily armed yacht, the Alert, crewed by "a queer and evil-looking crew of Kanakas and half-castes" from Dunedin, New Zealand. Despite being attacked by the Alert without provocation, the crew of the Emma were able to kill the opposing crew, but lost their own ship in the battle. Commandeering the Alert, the surviving crew sailed on and made an unexpected discovery the following day.

March 22, 1930 – Composer and songwriter Stephen Sondheim was born in New York City.

March 22, 1931 – H.P. Lovecraft completed his novel, “At the Mountains of Madness,” which was originally published in the February, March and April 1936 issues of Astounding Stories.

March 22, 1931 - William Shatner was born in Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He gained worldwide fame and became a cultural icon for his portrayal of James T. Kirk, Captain of the USS Enterprise, in the science fiction television series Star Trek (1966–69).

March 22, 1939 - Author G. C. Skipper was born in Ozark, Ala.

March 22, 1939 - John J. Putnam, 34, sports editor of The Birmingham Post for 12 years, died at a hospital following an operation. He had been ill for several weeks. Before coming to Birmingham, Putnam was a reporter with The Muskogee (Okla.) Phoenix and on the sports staff of The Tampa (Fla.) Tribune.

March 22, 1941 – Former U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins was born in New York City.

March 22, 1947 – Best-selling author James Patterson was born in Newburgh, N.Y.

March 22, 1948 - "The Voice of Firestone" became the first commercial radio program to be carried simultaneously on both AM and FM radio stations.

March 22, 1952 – Sportscaster Bob Costas was born in New York City.

March 22, 1954 – The Western Auto Store on West Front Street in Evergreen, Ala. caught fire and “threatened the West Front Street business district momentarily and did considerable damage to the Western Auto Building.” The store was owned by M.B. English, and the building was owned by the W.K. Horton Sr. Estate.

March 22, 1957 – In an incident attributed to the “Dragon’s Triangle,” a U.S. military transport plane vanished southeast of Japan.

March 22, 1958 - Hank Williams Jr. made his stage debut in Swainsboro, Ga. at the age of eight.

March 22-29, 1960 - The trial of Richard Hickock and Perry Smith, the subjects of Truman Capote’s book “In Cold Blood,” took place at the county courthouse in Garden City, Kansas. They were both convicted of the mass murder after the jury deliberated for only 45 minutes. Their conviction carried a mandatory death sentence during that time.

March 22, 1965 - Bob Dylan's first electric album, "Bring it All Back Home," was released.

March 22, 1972 - The second movie version of Alabama author James H. Street's story "The Biscuit Eater" was released.

March 22, 1975 – A fire at the Browns Ferry Nuclear Power Plant in Decatur, Ala. caused a dangerous reduction in cooling water levels.

March 22, 1982 - Twenty-six senior citizens were injured and their church bus destroyed when it flipped and landed in a 12-foot-deep median south of Evergreen, Ala. The group from the First Baptist Church of Boaz was en route to Bellingrath Gardens south of Mobile about 2 p.m. when the driver lost control of the 1972 Chevrolet bus about 10 miles south of Evergreen on rain-slick Interstate 65. All passengers of the bus were injured. Six passengers were admitted to D.W. McMillan Memorial Hospital in Brewton, and five others were admitted to Evergreen Hospital. One woman was transferred from Evergreen to St. Margaret’s Hospital in Montgomery.

March 22, 1984 – The Evergreen Courant reported that Pvt. Tracy L. Hawsey, the son of Jimmy A. and Glenda Hawsey of 113 Desplous St. in Evergreen, had completed an ammunition storage course at the U.S. Army Missile and Munitions Center and School at Redstone Arsenal. Hawsey, a 1983 graduate of Evergreen High School, would eventually be elected Conecuh County Sheriff.

March 22, 1987 – Major League Baseball first baseman Ike Davis was born in Edina, Minnesota.

March 22, 1991 – The Creagh-Glover Family Cemetery near Catherine in Wilcox County, Ala. was added to the Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage.

March 22, 1993 - Cleveland Indians pitchers Steve Olin and Tim Crews were killed in a boating accident in Florida. Bob Ojeda was also seriously injured in the accident.

March 22, 1994 - The NFL announced the addition of the two-point conversion. It was the league's first scoring change in 75 seasons.

March 22, 1997 – The Comet Hale-Bopp had its closest approach to Earth.

March 22, 2012 – Buddy Raines discovered the “Mystery Track of Loree” in a field adjacent to his home in Conecuh County, Ala.