Today in History for Nov. 13, 2017

Battle of Beuna Vista in the Mexican-American War.

Nov. 13, 354 AD – St. Augustine was born in Tagaste, Numidia, a part of North Africa that is now Algeria.

Nov. 13, 1775 – During the American Revolutionary War, Patriot revolutionary forces under General Richard Montgomery took and occupied Montreal without opposition.

Nov. 13, 1789 – American “Founding Father” Benjamin Franklin wrote a letter to a friend in which he said, "In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes."

Nov. 13, 1813 – The Upper Creek town of Atchinalgi in Randolph County, Ala. was destroyed by General James White and his Tennessee troopers.

Nov. 13, 1813 – General Ferdinand Claiborne broke up his camp at Pine Level (present-day Jackson, Ala.) and took up the line of march across Clarke County towards Weatherford’s Bluff, where he’d been ordered to establish a depot of provisions for General Andrew Jackson.

Nov. 13, 1833 – Actor Edwin Booth, the brother of John Wilkes Booth, was born in Bel Air, Maryland.

Nov. 13, 1841 – James Braid first saw a demonstration of “animal magnetism,” which led to his study of the subject he eventually called “hypnotism.”

Nov. 13, 1850 - Robert Louis Stevenson, the author of “Treasure Island,” was born in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Nov. 13, 1856 – Lawyer and associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court Louis Brandeis was born in Louisville, Ky.

Nov. 13, 1861 – During the Civil War, Federal operations between Greenville and Doniphan in Missouri, and through Texas and Wright Counties in Missouri began.

Nov. 13, 1861 – During the Civil War, a skirmish was fought near Romney, W.Va.

Nov. 13, 1861 - U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, Secretary of State William Seward and Presidential Secretary John Hay paid a late night visit to General George B. McClellan, who Lincoln had recently named general in chief of the Union army. McClellan snubbed the President by retiring to his chambers before speaking to the president. This would be the last time Lincoln called on McClellan, afterwards McClellan was to be summoned to the White House. In March 1862, the president removed McClellan as general in chief of the army.

Nov. 13, 1862 – During the Civil War, skirmishes were fought at Holly Springs, Miss. and near Nashville, Tenn. Two days of skirmishing also began in and about Sulphur Springs, Va. A six-day Federal expedition from Beaufort to Doboy River in Georgia began.

Nov. 13, 1863 – During the Civil War, Confederate Brigadier General Carnot Posey died at Charlottesville, Va. from an infection that sat in from a wound received on Oct. 14 at Bristoe Station, Va.

Nov. 13, 1863 – During the Civil War, skirmishes were fought at Mount Ida, Ark.; at Blythe’s Ferry, on the Tennessee River and at Palmyra in Tennessee; and near Winchester, Va. Multiple skirmishes were also fought with Indians near the Big Bar on the South Ford of the Trinity River in California. A two-day Federal reconnaissance to the entrance of the Cape Fear River in North Carolina also began.

Nov. 13, 1864 – During the Civil War, a skirmish was fought with Indians at Ash Creek, 12 miles from Fort Larned, Kansas, and a four-day Federal expedition against Confederate guerrillas in Pemiscot County, Mo. began.

Nov. 13, 1864 – During the Civil War, Confederate Lt. Gen. Jubal Early broke off contact with Union Maj. Gen Phillip H. Sheridan and withdrew further south back to New Market, Va. as his beleaguered force was further weakened when a large portion of his force was sent to assist Gen. Robert E. Lee’s dwindling siege lines around Petersburg, Va. Early, having fought over 70 engagements in his Valley Campaign, and taking the war north to the outskirts of Washington City, is not normally remembered in the same vain as Stonewall Jackson’s Valley Campaign ultimately because of Jackson’s success and Early’s defeat.

Nov. 13, 1865 - South Carolina, where the Civil War began four years before, became the 23rd state to ratify the 13th amendment, which abolished slavery.

Nov. 13, 1872 – Jacob W. Perrin died of paralysis at Buena Vista, Ala. Perrin was the first postmaster at Buena Vista, appointed in 1847, and renamed the village Buena Vista in honor of the Battle of Buena Vista in Mexico, in which he had fought in 1846. Community was originally settled in 1818 by Andrew Rikard, who named it Germany for the country of his ancestors.

Nov. 13, 1894 – German SS officer Arthur Nebe was born in Berlin.

Nov. 13, 1899 - Master archer Howard Hill was born in Wilsonville, in Shelby County, Ala. Hill's 1953 memoir, “Hunting the Hard Way,” details his work on Hollywood films and his hunting activities all over the world. Hill was internationally famous for his trick shots and prowess as a hunter. He served as a stuntman, producer, and director for many short and feature films from the 1930s to the 1950s, the most famous of which was “The Adventures of Robin Hood” (1938) starring Errol Flynn.

Nov. 13, 1900 - The Baltimore Orioles entered Major League Baseball's American League.

Nov. 13, 1905 - Miss Callie Faulk left Monroeville, Ala. on this Monday to begin teaching at Tekoa.

Nov. 13, 1906 - Alabama author Sara Henderson Hay was born in Pittsburgh, Pa.

Nov. 13, 1910 - Alabama author William Bradford Huie was born in Hartselle, Ala.

Nov. 13, 1912 – Fire destroyed the frame and sheet iron building owned by Allen Page and Mack T. Johnson in Castleberry, Ala. destroying the building and burning the entire stock of merchandise.

Nov. 13, 1916 - The British statesman Henry Charles Keith Petty-Fitzmaurice, better known as the fifth Marquess of Lansdowne, wrote a memorandum to the British cabinet questioning the direction of the Allied war effort in World War I.

Nov. 13, 1927 – The Holland Tunnel opened to traffic as the first Hudson River vehicle tunnel linking New Jersey to New York City.

Nov. 13, 1928 - Alabama author Alice Fellows was born in Tuscaloosa, Ala.

Nov. 13, 1939 – Crime writer George Vincent Higgins was born in Brockton, Mass.

Nov. 13, 1941 – The Evergreen Courant reported that W. Sam Cope had purchased the Rutland Funeral Home and changed the name to Cope Funeral Home. Cope had been in charge of the Rutland Funeral Home for the three previous years.

Nov. 13, 1941 – Poet Eamon Grennan was born in Dublin, Ireland.

Nov. 13, 1947 – The Soviet Union completed development of the AK-47, one of the first proper assault rifles.

Nov. 13, 1951 – During the Korean War, Army Cpl. Joel R. Martin, 29, of Conecuh County, Ala. was killed in action while serving with Co. I, 3^rd Battalion, 19^th Infantry Regiment, 24^th Infantry Division. Born on Feb. 10, 1922, he was buried in the Mobile Memorial Gardens Cemetery in Tillmans Corner, Ala. His name is also inscribed on the Courts of the Missing at the Honolulu Memorial. Martin was awarded the Purple Heart, the Combat Infantryman's Badge, the Korean Service Medal, the United Nations Service Medal, the National Defense Service Medal, the Korean Presidential Unit Citation and the Republic of Korea War Service Medal.

Nov. 13, 1951 – During the Korean War, Army Cpl. Eddie Gibby, 22, of Clarke County, Ala. was killed in action while serving with the 89th Medium Tank Battalion, 25th Infantry Division in North Korea. Gibby was awarded the Purple Heart, the Korean Service Medal, the United Nations Service Medal, the National Defense Service Medal, the Korean Presidential Unit Citation and the Republic of Korea War Service Medal. Born on June 2, 1929 in Clarke County, he was buried in the James Landing Cemetery at Barlow Bend in Clarke County, Ala.

Nov. 13, 1956 – The Supreme Court of the United States declared Alabama laws requiring segregated buses illegal, thus ending the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

Nov. 13, 1963 – NFL quarterback Vinny Testaverde was born in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Nov. 13, 1964 – Monroe County High School defeated traditional rival Frisco City, 21-12, in Monroeville, Ala. in the season finale for both teams. MCHS finished the season with a 5-5 overall record, and Frisco finished 3-5-1.

Nov. 13, 1967 - President Lyndon Johnson was briefed on the situation in Vietnam by Gen. William Westmoreland, Ambassador Ellsworth Bunker, and Robert W. Komer, the head of the Civil Operations and Revolutionary Development Support program.

Nov. 13, 1969 – During the Vietnam War, anti-war protesters in Washington, D.C. staged a symbolic “March Against Death.”

Nov. 13, 1971 - The NASA probe Mariner 9 became the first spacecraft to orbit another planet as it swung around Mars.

Nov. 13, 1974 - On this evening, Ronald “Butch” DeFeo Jr. entered an Amityville, N.Y. bar and told people his parents had been shot inside their home. Several bar patrons accompanied DeFeo back to his family’s home, at 112 Ocean Avenue, where a man named Joe Yeswit called Suffolk Country police to report the crime. When officers arrived, they found the bodies of Ronald DeFeo Sr., age 43, his wife Louise, 42, and their children Dawn, 18, Allison, 13, Marc, 11, and John, 9. The victims had been shot dead in their beds. Ronald DeFeo Jr., 22, initially tried to say the murders were a mob hit; however, by the next day he confessed to committing the crimes himself.

Nov. 13, 1974 - A movie version of Alabama author William Bradford Huie's “The Klansman” was released.

Nov. 13, 1981 – Marine Corps Cpl. Christopher Winchester was born. He would be killed on July 14, 2005 during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Later, a memorial marker was placed at the baseball fields in East Brewton.

Nov. 13, 1982 – The Vietnam Veterans Memorial was dedicated in Washington, D.C. after a march to its site by thousands of Vietnam War veterans.

Nov. 13, 1986 – The Evergreen Courant reported that freshman wide receiver Mike Bledsoe, a former Lyeffion High School standout, was playing football at Maryville College.

Nov. 13, 1991 - Roger Clemens won his third Cy Young Award for the American League.

Nov. 13, 1995 - Greg Maddox of the Atlanta Braves became the first Major League pitcher to win four consecutive Cy Young Awards.

Nov. 13, 1996 – Antioch Baptist Church and the Beck-Creswell House, both in Camden, Ala., were placed on the Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage.

Nov. 13, 1997 - Iraq expelled six United Nations arms inspectors that were U.S. citizens.

Nov. 13, 2002 – During the Iraq disarmament crisis, Iraq agreed to the terms of the UN Security Council Resolution 1441.

Nov. 13, 2003 - Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy S. Moore was removed from office when the Alabama Judicial Inquiry Commission determined that he violated his oath of office when he refused to obey a Federal court order to remove a granite display of the Ten Commandments from the rotunda of the Alabama Judicial Building.