Today in History for Jan. 21, 2018

Dr. Stanley Wilson

Jan. 21, 1527 – Spanish explorer Juan de Grijalva died in Nicaragua.

Jan. 21, 1674 - Using an almanac, Father Pierre Millet predicted this day’s lunar eclipse. He challenged the Iroquois shaman to predict the time or date of the eclipse, but he couldn’t. Millet made “religious” inroads among the Iroquois by his “successful” use of the almanac prediction.

Jan. 21, 1688 – On this day, a letter in Spanish and the Apalachee languages was written for transmission to King Charles II. The letter contained practically all of the Apalachee language known to be in existence. “The chiefs of the Apalachee express their pleasure at having missionaries among them and at being relieved from the former burdensome labors they were compelled to undergo in St. Augustine.”

Jan. 21, 1698 - French missionary Father de Montigny reached the Tensas Indian village on the Mississippi River in Louisiana, and he stayed with them to instruct them in Catholic Christianity.

Jan. 21, 1738 - Ethan Allen, future Revolutionary War hero and key founder of the Republic of Vermont, was born in Litchfield, Connecticut.

Jan. 21, 1765 - In a letter to Governor James Grant on this day from James Pampillone, he named the “Indian Towns, Number of Gun Men, and the miles distant from St Mark’s Fort Apalachee.” “Old Fields (the Spaniards had formerly a fort there), Flint River, or Chiskalalufa, Little Town, Tomawithlaw, Hitchetees and Ochesees. These are the nearest towns to me, belonging to the lower Creeks, the soil rich and fertile, and well-watered. The other towns are the Cowettas, Ufallees, Pallochucalla, Towassee, Swaglew, Latchaway, of them I have yet not account.”

Jan. 21, 1785 - The Chippewa, Delaware, Ottawa and Wyandot acknowledged the sole sovereignty of the U.S. Tribal land boundaries was established and no U.S. citizens could live on Indian lands without Indian approval. The treaty was signed on this day by 13 chiefs at Fort McIntosh in western Pennsylvania.

Jan. 21, 1789 – The first American novel, “The Power of Sympathy” or the “Triumph of Nature Founded in Truth,” was printed in Boston.

Jan. 21, 1793 – France’s King Louis XVI was beheaded for treason in Paris, one of tens of thousands of victims of the French Revolution.

Jan. 21, 1795 – English navigator and explorer Samuel Wallis was born near Camelford, Cornwall.

Jan. 21, 1812-ca. – Joseph Tarpley Peacock, the first son of Levi and Martha Peacock and the father of Lewis Lavon Peacock, was born in Wilkinson County, Ga.

Jan. 21, 1813 – General, explorer and politician John C. Frémont was born in Savannah, Ga.

Jan. 21, 1815 - Alabama author Joseph Glover Baldwin was born in Friendly Grove Factory, Va.

Jan. 21, 1824 – Civil War general Thomas Jonathan “Stonewall” Jackson was born in Clarksburg, Va.

Jan. 21, 1836 - President Jackson ordered General Winfield Scott to take command of the forces in Florida. Scott left Washington on this day, stopping in South Carolina and Georgia to arrange for militia and supplies and to set up a depot in Savannah. He didn’t arrive at his headquarters in Florida near St. Augustine until Feb. 22.

Jan. 21, 1840 - A skirmish between militia and Seminoles took place on this day near the Suwannee River.

Jan. 21, 1846 – Confederate veteran Robert Baxter Platt Jr. was born in Evergreen, Ala. During the Civil War, he served in Co. H of the 1st Mississippi Cavalry and was awarded the Southern Cross of Honor. He enlisted in February 1863 at Quitman, Miss. and fought at Holly Springs and Tupelo. He was paroled at Meridian, Miss. on May 13, 1865. After the war, he was a Methodist minister, cotton broker and cross-tie contractor for the Louisville & Nashville Railroad. He moved to Chattanooga in 1916, but had previously lived in Evergreen; Collierville and Memphis, Tenn. He passed away on March 29, 1934 and is buried in the Confederate Cemetery in Chattanooga, Hamilton County, Tenn.

Jan. 21, 1846 – The Alabama legislature selected Montgomery as the state’s new capital and later began its first session there on Dec. 6, 1847.

Jan. 21, 1846 - The first issue of the "Daily News," edited by Charles Dickens, was published.

Jan. 21, 1861 – James Adams Stallworth of Evergreen, Ala., who began serving in the U.S. Congress in March 1857, withdrew with the rest of the Alabama delegation when Alabama seceded from the Union at the start of the Civil War.

Jan. 21, 1861 – Former U.S. Secretary of War and the future president of the Confederacy, Jefferson Davis of Mississippi, bid farewell in a speech in the U.S. Congressional Chambers and resigned from the U.S. Senate. Four other Southerners also resigned, including Clement C. Clay Jr. and Benjamin Fitzpatrick of Alabama and Stephen R. Mallory and David L Yulee of Florida.

Jan. 21, 1862 – During the Civil War, Union Brig. Gen John Alexander McClernand returned to his base of operations at Columbus, Ky.

Jan. 21, 1863 - Rebels recaptured Sabine Pass, Texas, and opened an important port for the Confederacy. Two Confederate ships, the Bell and Uncle Ben, drove away two Union ships, the Morning Light and Velocity. The event is known as the First Battle of Sabine Pass.

Jan. 21, 1863 – A skirmish was fought in the vicinity of Columbia, Mo. and on the Shelbyville Pike, Tenn. A three-day Federal reconnaissance began between Murfreesborough and Cainsville, Tenn. Union Maj. Gen. Fitz John Porter was officially cashiered from the Union Army by order of President Lincoln. This order would be revoked in 1879 after a military review, and Porter would be reinstated as a Colonel in the Regular Army in 1886 without any back pay.

Jan. 21, 1864 – During the Civil war, a five-day Federal operation began between Waldron and Baker’s ‘Springs, Ark., and a two-day Federal operation began between Rossville and Dalton, Ga. A Federal reconnaissance was conducted from Chattanooga to Ooltewah, Tenn., and skirmishes were fought at Strawberry Plaines and Armstrong’s Ferry, Tenn. A five-day Federal reconnaissance began on the Matagorda Peninsula, Texas.

Jan. 21, 1865 - A two-day Federal operation began from Brashear City to Bayou Sorrel, La.

Jan. 21, 1869 – Russian mystic Grigori Rasputin was born in Pokrovskoye, Siberia.

Jan. 21, 1884 – Roger Nash Baldwin, one of the founders of the American Civil Liberties Union, was born in Wellesley, Mass.

Jan. 21, 1885 – Italian engineer and explorer Umberto Nobile was born in Lauro, in the southern Italian province of Avellino.

Jan. 21, 1895 – A man and a woman were killed by lightning near Suggsville, Ala. on this Monday. They were among 10 people who had “taken shelter from the rain in a small house, and it was said that “electricity came down the chimney and passed out at the door knocking” all of them down and killing two.

Jan. 21, 1905 – Fashion designer Christian Dior was born in Granville, France.

Jan. 21, 1907 – Mr. G.L. Witherington, a prosperous merchant-farmer of Mt. Pleasant, visited The Monroe Journal on this Monday.

Jan. 21, 1907 - Senator O.O. Bayles returned to Montgomery on this Monday to resume his legislative duties after spending a few days with his family, according to The Monroe Journal.

Jan. 21, 1915 – The Monroe Journal carried a story about Judge T.L. Sowell’s gold watch, which the judge’s father bought in New York City in 1847. During Wilson’s raid through Alabama in 1865, Judge Sowell’s father hid the watch in a glass jar with other valuables and buried them in the woods near his home in Monroe County, where they remained safe for three months. Judge Sowell received the watch, which was made in Liverpool, England, for his 21st birthday.

Jan. 21, 1918 - “The Eyes of Mystery,” a movie version of Alabama author Octavus Roy Cohen's book “The House in the Mist,” was released.

Jan. 21, 1918 – The Milt Tolbert Tent Theater Company, commencing on this Monday night, was “to begin a week’s engagement in Evergreen under canvas, opening… in the beautiful four-act pastoral” comedy, “The Village Parson.” On Friday night, Bertha M. Clay’s masterpiece, ‘Beyond Pardon,’ was to be presented. “Mr. Tolbert has a new and novel heating system, and the big tent will be comfortably heated at all times, no matter how cold it is outside, and the tent is positively waterproof, so one takes no chances with the elements. While the Tolbert Co. is new to Evergreen, several familiar faces will be seen, among whom are H.I. Hale, leading man; Sam Hunter, the well-known comedian; Miss Cora Lee and Miss Beatrice Gibson, as well as Hi Washburn, the eccentric dancer.”

Jan. 21, 1924 - In Moscow on this evening, shock and near-hysterical grief greeted the news that Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, leader of the radical socialist Bolshevik movement that toppled the czarist regime in 1917 and head of the first government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.), had died of a massive cerebral hemorrhage.

Jan. 21, 1925 – Austrian-born English novelist Eva Ibbotson was born in Vienna, Austria.

Jan. 21, 1936 - The pouring of the concrete on the Monroeville, Ala. square paving project started on this Tuesday afternoon. Although the gaps to be filled were prepared for the concrete several weeks before, work had been held up because of the weather and also the lack of some of the necessary materials.

Jan. 21, 1936 - Work began on this Tuesday on the foundation of the new Eastern Star Hall to be erected in the southern part of Monroeville, Ala. It was hoped to be ready for use within 60 days.

Jan. 21, 1937 – The Monroe Journal reported that Judge F.W. Hare had presided over Circuit Court in Mobile, Ala. during the past week. He was spending the week of Jan. 21 in Brewton where he was holding a non-jury term of court in Escambia County.

Jan. 21, 1937 – The Monroe Journal reported that at a regular annual meeting of the stockholders of the Peoples Bank of Frisco City, held the previous week, the following officers and directors were elected for 1937: President, J.B. Barnett; vice-president, J.J. McWilliams; cashier, W.A. Giddens; assistant cashier, J.A. Hayles; directors, J.B. Barnett, J.J. McWilliams, O. McNeil, W.M. Williams, John T. Lee, C.A. Florey, W.A. Giddens and Q. Salter.

Jan. 21, 1938 - Alabama author Julia Fields was born in Perry County, Ala.

Jan. 21, 1940 – The Gloria Colita (Colite?), a 125-foot schooner, sailed from Mobile on this day, loaded with a cargo of lumber bound for Guantanamo, Cuba. On Sun., Feb. 4, 1940, the Coast Guard cutter Cartigan found the Gloria Colita “adrift, crippled and unmanned” with everything in order about 150 to 200 miles south of Mobile in the Gulf of Mexico.

Jan. 21, 1952 – William Shawn took up the reins of The New Yorker, after the death of his predecessor and the magazine's founder, Harold Ross.

Jan. 21, 1952 – Pulitzer Prize-winning American critic, scholar and essayist Louis Menand was born in Syracuse, N.Y.

Jan. 21, 1954 - The first nuclear-powered submarine, USS NAUTILUS, was launched by First Lady Mamie Eisenhower, who broke the traditional bottle of champagne across the ship's bow.

Jan. 21, 1957 - David Anthony Stewart, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Bill Stewart, was born in the Monroeville Hospital.

Jan. 21, 1965 – The Evergreen Courant reported that The Birmingham News had named Repton High School as the 1964 Division 1-A football champions after the Bulldogs finished the season with a 5-1-3 overall record. Repton’s head coach during the 1964 season was Gene Madison, and players on that game included Capt. Jimmy Bradley, Nicky Thompson, Robert Lowery, Dwight Jerkins and Glenn Baggett. The results of Repton’s games in 1964 included, Baker (Fla.), won, 7-0; Excel, won, 14-6; Lyeffion, 0-0; Coffeeville, 0-0; Red Level, 12-12; McKenzie, lost, 13-6; Dozier, won, 31-0; Coffee Springs, won, 49-0; and Zion Chapel, won, 49-0.

Jan. 21, 1965 – Conecuh County’s 1965 Junior Miss, Sally Oswald, was to participate in the State Junior Miss Finals in Birmingham, Ala. on this Thursday.

Jan. 21, 1968 – The Battle of Khe Sanh, one of the most publicized and controversial battles of the Vietnam War, began, 14 miles below the DMZ and six miles from the Laotian border. Luther Upton of Uriah, Ala. was there with the U.S. Marine Corps.

Jan. 21, 1973 - The AFC beat the NFC, 35-31, in the NFL Pro Bowl in Dallas. The game had been played in Los Angeles since 1942.

Jan. 21, 1976 – Singer-songwriter and actress Emma Bunton of the Spice Girls was born in Finchley, London, England.

Jan. 21, 1976 – Olympic baseball player Patrick de Lange was born in Amsterdam.

Jan. 21, 1977 – United States President Jimmy Carter pardoned nearly all American Vietnam War draft evaders, some of whom had emigrated to Canada.

Jan. 21, 1979 - The Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Dallas Cowboys, 35-31, in Super Bowl XIII. The Steelers became the first team to win three Super Bowls.

Jan. 21, 1983 - In his second D.B. Cooper copycat incident, Glenn K. Tripp, while still on probation, hijacked Northwest Flight 608 en route and demanded to be flown to Afghanistan. When the plane landed in Portland he was shot and killed by FBI agents.

Jan. 21, 1983 – The Evergreen Chamber of Commerce held its annual “Promotion Banquet” at 7 p.m. at the Old L&N Depot on this Friday night in Evergreen. Escambia County native Dr. Stanley Wilson, Vice President for Agriculture, Home Economics and Veterinary Science at Auburn University, was the guest speaker. At that time, the depot was owned by the Murder Creek Historical Society.

Jan. 21-22, 1983 – Missy Price, Conecuh County’s Junior Miss, represented Conecuh County in the 1983 Alabama Junior Miss Pageant at Lee High School in Montgomery, Ala.

Jan. 21, 1986 - Former Major League player, Randy Bass, became the highest-paid baseball player in Japanese history. Bass signed a three-year contract for $3.25 million. He played for the Hanshin Tigers.

Jan. 21, 1993 – National Baseball Hall of Fame second baseman Charlie Gehringer died at the age of 89 in Bloomfield Hill, Mich. He played his entire career for the Detroit Tigers. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1949.

Jan. 21, 1994 – Episode No. 14 of “The X-Files” – entitled “Gender Bender” – aired for the first time.

Jan. 21, 1994 – The New Evergreen (Ala.) Commercial Historic District was placed on National Register of Historic Places.

Jan. 21, 1994 – Sparta Academy’s varsity boys basketball team beat Catherine Academy, 72-69, in Evergreen. Britt Ward, a senior, led Sparta with 27 points, and James Johnson followed with 16 points.

Jan. 21, 1997 - Don Mattingly of the New York Yankees officially announced his retirement.

Jan. 21, 1998 – Betty Lou Dougherty, 57, of Asheville, N.C. was last seen after visiting Montgomery, Gulf Shores, Tuscaloosa and Hamilton. Her rental car was found in the Range, Ala. community in February 1998, and her family hired a private investigator to find the woman in March 1998.

Jan. 21, 2006 – Conecuh County Attorney Richard Nix told the Conecuh County Commission on this Monday that records from the Merit Board supported a change in classification for Payroll Clerk Ann Sullivan. Nix researched the issue, which had been in the headlines of the Mobile Register for two weeks, and found the Jan. 23, 2003 minutes of the Merit Board recommended that her pay be changed to a grade equal currently of $10.66 per hour. She was raised to a scale of $10.71 in October.

Jan. 21, 2010 – The Evergreen Courant reported that Reid State Technical College in Evergreen, Ala. was to be featured in a segment of “On the Job,” a Montgomery-produced television program airing weekly on Alabama Public Television and WSFA-TV 12.2.

Jan. 21, 2012 - The 1964 Miller-Meteor Cadillac hearse that carried President Kennedy’s body from Parkland Memorial Hospital to Love Field for the flight to Washington, D.C. was sold at auction. Stephen Tebo paid $176,000 at the Barrett-Jackson Collector Car Event in Scottsdale, AZ.