Today in History for July 25, 2014

Pinckney D. Bowles

July 25, 1832 - The first recorded railroad accident in U.S. history occurred when four people were thrown off a vacant car on the Granite Railway near Quincy, Mass.

July 25, 1861 - The U.S. Congress passed the Crittenden-Johnson Resolution, declaring that the Civil War was being waged for the reunion of the states and not to interfere with the institutions of the South, namely slavery. The measure was important in keeping the pivotal states of Missouri, Kentucky, and Maryland in the Union.

July 25, 1862 – During the Civil War, skirmishes took place at Courtland and Trinity, Alabama.

July 25, 1864 - Federal cavalry operation took place from Decatur to Courtland, Ala.

July 25, 1868 - For the first time since 1861, Alabama's two U.S. senators took their seats in Congress, thus signifying Alabama's readmission to the Union. "Carpetbaggers" George E. Spencer and Willard Warner, both natives of northern states, represented Alabama as Republicans.

July 25, 1897 – Jack London set off for the Klondike Gold Rush.

July 25, 1904 – Newspaper editor and humor columnist Earl Lee Tucker was born on this day in Thomasville, Ala. For 30 years, Tucker wrote a popular humor column, "Rambling Roses and Flying Bricks," which originated in The Thomasville Times. Many of his columns were gathered in three books published in 1958, 1959, and 1960.

July 25, 1910 – Former Confederate officer Pinckney D. Bowles of Evergreen passed away at the age of 75 in Tampa, Fla.

July 25, 1914 – Monroeville’s baseball team suffered its first losses of the season, snapping a 23-game winning streak. They lost both games of a double header against Finchburg, 4-2 and 16-4, in Monroeville.

July 25, 1914 – A reunion of Capt. Thomas Mercer Riley’s Civil War company was held at Riley’s home in Monroe County with 10 former members of the unit being present - Capt. T.M. Riley, John A. McCants, Robert W. McCants, Hugh E. Coutney, W.S. Wiggins, Bright Waters, Joseph F. Watson, Julius C. Finklea and W.G. Riley.

July 25, 1917 – Edward C. Barnes was appointed to a second term as Evergreen’s postmaster.

July 25, 1944 – Staff Sgt. Donald E. Oliver of Conecuh County was killed in France. Funeral services for Oliver were held on July 2, 1948 at London Church with the Rev. C.L. Weekly officiating.

July 25, 1950 – The “Hub Drive-In” theater opened at Ollie near the present-day intersection of U.S. Highway 84 and State Highway 21 and was managed by Ralph Mann.

July 25, 1966 – Marine Corps Maj. Clifton Bishop Andrews of Fulton in Clarke County was killed in action in Vietnam.

July 25, 1977 – Jerry Willard Peacock, 18, of Evergreen drowned in boating accident on the Alabama River, north of Haines Island.