Today in History for June 25, 2015

Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer

June 25, 1745 – Future South Carolina Patriot, physician and U.S. Treasurer Thomas Tudor Tucker was born in Port Royal, Bermuda.

June 25, 1788 – Virginia became the tenth state to ratify the United States Constitution.

June 25, 1799 – Scottish-English botanist and explorer David Douglas was born in Scone, Perth and Kinross, Scotland. He worked as a gardener, and explored the Scottish Highlands, North America, and Hawaii, where he died under mysterious circumstances while climbing Mauna Kea at the age of 35 in 1834.

June 25, 1813 – More than 300 hostile Creeks, under Prophet Francis, were camped at the Holy Ground in present-day Alabama.

June 25, 1819 – Alabama Masonic Lodge No. 51 (now No. 3 in Monroeville) was chartered by the Grand Lodge of South Carolina at its original location in Claiborne, Ala.

June 25, 1862 – Hilliard’s Legion was organized at Montgomery, Ala. and consisted of five battalions. Fourth Battalion was commanded by major John D. McLennan of Barbour County. The Legion proceeded to East Tennessee, nearly 3000 strong, under its commander, Col. Hilliard of Montgomery. Proceeding to Cumberland Gap, it was part of the force that besieged that position.

June 25, 1864 – Union troops from Pennsylvania begin tunneling toward the Rebels at Petersburg, Va. in order to blow a hole in the Confederate lines and end the stalemate. The brainchild of Lieutenant Colonel Henry Pleasants, the plan called for the men of his regiment–mostly miners from Pennsylvania’s anthracite coal region–to construct a 500-foot tunnel to the Confederate line, fill it with powder, and blow a gap in the fortifications. The explosion was set off on July 30, and a huge gap was blown in the Rebel line, resulting in the Battle of the Crater.

June 25, 1868 - Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina were readmitted to the Union.

June 25, 1876 – Native American forces led by chiefs Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull defeated U.S. Army troops led by Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer at the Battle of Little Bighorn in southern Montana. About 210 men of the U.S. 7th Cavalry were killed by Sioux and Cheyenne Indians as the battle, which became known as “Custer’s Last Stand.”

June 25, 1903 – English novelist, essayist and critic George Orwell was born Eric Arthur Blair in Motihari, British India. He is best known for his novels “Animal Farm” (1945) and “1984” (1949).

June 25, 1906 – Lightning struck the kitchen chimney of the J.C. Manning home, four miles southwest of Monroeville, Ala. shocking members of the family and breaking every piece of crockery in the house.

June 25, 1913 – American Civil War veterans began arriving at the Great Reunion of 1913, which was held at Gettysburg National Military Park in Adams County, Pa. This reunion included a Gettysburg Battlefield encampment of American Civil War veterans for the Battle of Gettysburg's 50th anniversary. The June 29–July 4 gathering of 53,407 veterans (~8,750 Confederate) was the largest ever Civil War veteran reunion.

June 25, 1917 - The first American fighting troops landed in France.

June 25, 1918 - Babe Ruth became the second American League player to hit a home run in four consecutive games.

June 25, 1929 - Best-selling children’s author and illustrator Eric Carle was born in Syracuse, N.Y.

June 25, 1931 – State Rep. A.C. Lee of Monroeville, Ala. introduced a resolution, which passed, renaming the “William Wyatt Bibb Bridge” at Claiborne the “Claiborne-Murphy Bridge.”

June 25, 1940 – The Montgomery Rebels of the Southeastern Baseball League stopped in Evergreen, Ala. to eat on their way to Mobile for a series against the Mobile Shippers.

June 25, 1942 – Dwight D. Eisenhower became the commander of the U.S. troops in Europe, and he would go on to become supreme commander of the entire Allied Armies in Europe.

June 25, 1943 – Greening Masonic Lodge No. 53 in Evergreen, Ala. installed its slate of officers for the coming year after the lodge’s annual election on June 11. The new officers included A.K. Williams, Worshipful Master; T.L. Jackson, Senior Warden; W.W. Overbey, Junior Warden; F.L. Cardwell, Treasurer; W.G. Jones, Secretary; Robert Soule, Senior Deacon; I.S. Baggett, Junior Deacon, S.J. Brundage, Tyler.

June 25, 1947 – “The Diary of a Young Girl” (better known as “The Diary of Anne Frank”) was published.

June 25, 1948 – Alabama native Joe Louis knocked out veteran fighter Jersey Joe Walcott in a rematch to retain the heavyweight championship, which he’d held since 1937. Walcott and Louis first fought in December 1947 at Madison Square Garden, when Louis won a 15-round decision in which he struggled to counter Walcott’s unorthodox style. The 1948 fight was the 25th and final time that Louis successfully defended his belt, and he announced his retirement in March 1949.

June 25, 1950 – The Korean War began when communist forces from North Korea invaded South Korea. Most of the actual combat occurred in the first year of the war, but it dragged on and on and more than three million people lost their lives. Truce negotiations began in 1951, and they were the longest truce negotiations in the history of warfare, lasting two years and 17 days, with 575 meetings between the opposing sides.

June 25, 1957 - Macon County, Ala. blacks kicked off a boycott of white businesses at a mass meeting in Tuskegee attended by 3,000 people. The boycott was in response to a plan to protect white political power in Tuskegee by gerrymandering its city limits so that all but a few African Americans would reside outside the city. The boycott, which brought national attention to Tuskegee, was sustained for four years and met many of the goals of its originator, the Tuskegee Civic Association.

June 25, 1958 – In Conecuh County Circuit Court, James L. Lane was found guilty of first-degree manslaughter and sentence to five years in state prison in connection with the murder of Willie D. White in August 1957. Lane and Joe Lewis Bradley had both been indicted for second-degree murder in connection with White’s death, and Bradley had been sentenced to 15 years in prison during a trial prior to Lane’s. Lane’s case was unusual because he wasn’t actually present when White was shot, but under Alabama law, he could be charged with second-degree murder for having previous knowledge that the murder was going to take place and for being a part of it. Testimony at the trial showed that Lane drove Bradley to the house where Bradley got the gun to kill White then drove Bradley back to the place where Bradley later killed White and that Lane not only knew that Bradley planned to kill White but also encouraged Bradley to do so.

June 25, 1963 - The movie “8½,” with Alabama author Eugene Walter playing the role of an American journalist, was released in the United States.

June 25, 1968 - Bobby Bonds of the San Francisco Giants hit a grand-slam home run in his first game with the Giants. He was the first player to debut with a grand-slam.

June 25, 1973 – The Rev. F.P. Bachman began serving as pastor at the First Assembly of God in Evergreen, replacing the Rev. J.E. Welburn, who resigned to continue his ministry in Alaska.

June 25, 1973 - White House Counsel John Dean admitted that U.S. President Nixon took part in the Watergate cover-up.

June 25, 1982 - John Carpenter's iconic science-fiction horror movie “The Thing” was released in U.S. theaters.

June 25, 1985 - ABC's "Monday Night Football" began with a new line-up. The trio was Frank Gifford, Joe Namath and O.J. Simpson.

June 25, 1985 - New York Yankees officials enacted the rule that mandated that the team's bat boys were to wear protective helmets during all games.

June 25, 1997 – French oceanographer and explorer Jacques Cousteau died of a heart attack at the age of 87 in Paris, France and was buried in the family vault of Saint-Andre-de-Cubzac in France. He invented the Aqua-Lung diving apparatus and was known around the world as an ecologist and filmmaker.

June 25, 1997 - An unmanned Progress cargo spacecraft crashed into Russia's Mir space station, knocking out power and rupturing a laboratory.

June 25, 2003 – Comic book superstar and avid baseball fan Todd McFarlane bought Barry Bonds 73rd home run ball at auction for $517,500.

June 25, 2004 – Conecuh County Sheriff’s deputies seized 23 kilograms of cocaine (about 50 pounds) during a traffic stop on Interstate Highway 65. The drugs had a street value of about $2 million.

June 25, 2004 – Conecuh County Relay For Life raised over $78,522.25 for the American Cancer Society.