Monday, April 13, 2015

Today in History for April 13, 2015

Butch Cassidy (Robert LeRoy Parker)
April 13, 1692 – In connection with the Salem witchcraft trials, Ann Putnam Jr. accuses Giles Corey of witchcraft and alleges that a man who died at Corey's house also haunts her.

April 13, 1721 – Merchant and Maryland political official John Hanson, who signed the Articles of Confederation, was born near Port Tobacco, Province of Maryland.

April 13, 1742 - George Frideric Handel's oratorio “Messiah” made its world-premiere in Dublin, Ireland.

April 13, 1743 - Thomas Jefferson, who became the third President of the United States in 1801, was born in Albemarle County, Va.

April 13, 1775 - Lord North extended the New England Restraining Act to South, Carolina, Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Maryland. The act prohibited trade with any country other than Britain and Ireland.

April 13, 1777 – During the American Revolutionary War, American forces were ambushed and defeated in the Battle of Bound Brook, New Jersey. During the battle, General Lord Charles Cornwallis led a surprise attack on a small garrison of American troops in the village. The British captured several cannons and nearly all of the artillery detachment upon the retreat of Major General Benjamin Lincoln and his troops.

April 13, 1782 - Washington, North Carolina was incorporated as the first town to be named for George Washington.

April 13, 1813 – Amid the War of 1812, an American expedition launched from Fort Stoddert forced the Spanish to surrender Fort Conde in Mobile. Surrounded, with little hope of support from his government, Captain Cayetano Perez, commander of the Spanish forces at Ft. Charlotte (Conde) in Mobile, met with General James Wilkinson of the United States. Two days later, U.S. forces took possession of Ft. Charlotte (Conde) and Spanish Mobile as the Spanish evacuated the fort.

April 13, 1860 - The first mail was delivered via Pony Express when a westbound rider arrived in Sacremento, Calif. from St. Joseph, Mo.

April 13, 1861 - After 34 hours of bombardment, the Union-held Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor surrendered to Confederates as the first engagement of the Civil War ended in a Rebel victory. The fort was commanded by Union Major Robert Anderson and manned by 76 of his men. The Confederates were commanded by General Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard.

April 13, 1862 – During the Civil War, Decatur, Ala. was occupied by Federal forces.

April 13, 1862 – Third Sgt. Joseph G. Sanders, aka “The Turncoat of Dale County,” re-enlisted in the 31st Georgia Infantry for “two years, or the war” and was paid a $50 bonus for signing on again.

April 13, 1864 – During the Civil War, a skirmish was fought near Decatur, Ala.

April 13, 1865 – During the Civil War, the USS Ida sank in Mobile Bay, Ala. after striking a Confederate torpedo. A skirmish was also fought at Wetumpka and at Whistler (or Eight Mile Creek Bridge) in Alabama.

April 13, 1866 - Butch Cassidy (Robert LeRoy Parker) was born in Beaver, Utah. He is best known for being a train robber, bank robber and leader of the Wild Bunch Gang.

April 13, 1874 – The Alabama Scottish Rite Lodge of Perfection was officially chartered. It was renamed the Montgomery Lodge of Perfection on Oct. 20, 1955.

April 13, 1885 - Author Marie Stanley was born in Mobile, Ala.

April 13, 1900 - Author Elizabeth Bellamy died in Mobile, Ala.

April 13, 1915 – In Conecuh County, Ala. Circuit Court, the cases against Blackwell, Baggett and Bradley, who were indicted for murder, were continued to the next court term. The crime they allegedly committed happened more than 2-1/2 years before.

April 13, 1918 – During World War I, Army Pvt. Sterling Cunningham of Monroeville, Ala. “died from disease.”

April 13, 1921 - Sheriff Kendall arrested Jesse Armstrong at Brooklyn, Ala. at the request of the Escambia County Sheriff. Armstrong was later taken to Brewton where he was held for the killing of a man named Franklin a day or two before in the lower edge of Escambia County. Armstrong claimed that Franklin came to his home and shot him with a shotgun, and Armstrong then killed Franklin with a pistol. When Kendall arrested Armstrong, one of his eyes was shot out and several small shot penetrated his face and forehead.

April 13, 1928 – In Lovecraftian fiction, antiquarian Charles Dexter Ward of Providence, R.I. vanished from his room at a mental institution and was never heard from again. He first appeared in 1941’s “The Case of Charles Dexter Ward” by H.P. Lovecraft.

April 13, 1933 - The first flight over Mount Everest was completed by Lord Clydesdale.

April 13, 1936 - Mrs. John W. McCormick of Detroit, Mich. was killed almost instantly on this morning and her husband was seriously injured when their automobile crashed into another head-on near Castleberry, Ala. while passing a wagon on the highway.

April 13, 1943 – The Jefferson Memorial was dedicated in Washington, D.C. on the 200th anniversary of President Thomas Jefferson's birth. U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt dedicated the Jefferson Memorial.

April 13, 1945 – Harold Daw of Conecuh County, Ala. was killed in action in Germany and was buried in U.S. Military Cemetery in Eisenach, Germany.

April 13, 1947 - Alabama author R. T. Smith was born in Washington, D.C.

April 13, 1950 - Ron Perlman, who played the comic book character Hellboy in 2004’s “Hellboy” and 2008’s “Hellboy II: The Golden Army,” was born in New York City.


April 13, 1953 – CIA director Allen Dulles launched the covert mind-control program Project MKUltra. The project ran at least until the late 60's and notoriously tested drugs such as LSD on unwitting subjects.

April 13, 1954 – Henry “Hank” Aaron became the last former Negro League player to make his debut in the major leagues, when he took the field for the first time for the Milwaukee Braves.

April 13, 1954 – Birmingham, Ala. native Alex Grammas made his Major League debut, taking the field for the St. Louis Cardinals.

April 13, 1955 - 20.33 inches of rainfall recorded in Axis, Ala., setting the state record. Axis is located in Mobile County

April 13, 1963 - The New York Mets played their first home game at the Polo Grounds.

April 13, 1963 - Pete Rose of the Cincinnati Reds got his first hit in the major leagues.

April 13, 1971 – Butch Adams began working for The Evergreen Courant.

April 13, 1972 - The first strike in the history of Major League Baseball ended. Players had walked off the field 13 days earlier. Major league baseball owners and players agreed to not make up the games lost to the players strike.

April 13, 1975 – A formal dedication of Evergreen’s new “Avenue of Flags” was held downtown in downtown Evergreen, Ala. at 2 p.m.

April 13, 1976 – The United States Treasury Department reintroduced the two-dollar bill as a Federal Reserve Note on Thomas Jefferson's 233rd birthday as part of the United States Bicentennial celebration.

April 13, 1988 – Sparta Academy’s Lee Wild pitched a perfect game (and a no-hitter) against Crenshaw Academy at the Murphy Club in Evergreen. He faced only 15 batters in the five-inning game, which Sparta won, 11-0.

April 13, 1991 – Evergreen Courant publisher and editor Robert Gaston Bozeman Jr. passed away and was buried in Magnolia Cemetery in Evergreen, Ala. He was a former U.S. Marine, World War II veteran and a member of Alabama Press Association Hall of Honor (inducted 1999).

April 13, 1998 - A television version of Alabama author Thomas H. Cook's book “Evidence of Blood” was broadcast.

April 13, 2002 - The first Limestone Dust Poetry Festival was held in Huntsville, Ala.

April 13, 2002 - Barry Bonds hit his 574th career home run, and he moved past Harmon Killebrew and into sixth place.

April 13, 2003 - U.S. President George W. Bush warned Syria not to harbor any fleeing Iraqi leaders.

April 13, 2009 - The New York Mets opened the season at their new stadium, Citi Field.

April 13, 2009 - Former Major League Baseball all-star pitcher Mark “The Bird” Fidrych was found dead at the age of 54 following an accident at his Massachusetts farm involving a Mack truck he was working on. Fidrych, the 1976 American League Rookie of the Year, suffocated when his clothes got tangled in the truck’s power takeoff shaft.

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