Today in History for April 1, 2015

Alabama Gov. John Gill Shorter

April 1, 1621 - The Plymouth, Mass. colonists created the first treaty with Native Americans.

April 1, 1748 - The ruins of Pompeii were found.

April 1, 1789 – In New York City, the United States House of Representatives held its first quorum and elected Frederick Muhlenberg of Pennsylvania as its first House Speaker.

April 1, 1826 – Samuel Morey received a patent for his compressionless “Gas or Vapor Engine,” known now as the internal combustion engine.

April 1, 1843 – William S. Crosby of the Conecuh Guards was born at Sparta, Ala. He entered Confederate service as a corporal on April 20, 1861 at Dalton, Ga. with Co. E of the 4th Alabama Infantry and continued with them until he was paroled at the close of the war.

April 1, 1854 – The land office closed at Sparta, Ala. and moved to Elba.

April 1, 1854 – Charles Dickens' novel “Hard Times” began serialisation in his magazine, Household Words.

April 1, 1860 - Author Mary Raymond Shipman Andrews was born in Mobile, Ala.

April 1, 1861 – The Conecuh Guards organized at Sparta, Ala. and Pinckney D. Bowles was elected captain.

April 1, 1862 - Federal gun boats proceeded from Pittsburg Landing, Tenn., southward on the Tennessee River to Eastport, Miss. and Chickasaw, Ala.

April 1, 1862 - As the first year of the Civil War came to a close, an order by Gov. John Gill Shorter prohibiting the distillation of hard liquors in Alabama went into effect. Shorter was willing to make some exceptions, but was determined to prevent distillers from "converting food necessary to sustain our armies and people into poison to demoralize and destroy them."

April 1, 1863 - The first wartime conscription law went into effect in the U.S.

April 1, 1865 – During the Civil War, at the Battle of Five Forks, the Union Army, led by Philip Sheridan, decisively defeated the Confederate States Army, led by George Pickett, leading to the breakthrough at Petersburg and the Appomattox Campaign. Union General Ulysses S. Grant also closed Confederate supply lines with the defeat of General Robert E. Lee at the Battle of Five Forks.

April 1, 1865 - Florida Governor John Milton committed suicide at his plantation in Sylvania. Before his death Milton had addressed the Florida legislature and said that the Yankees "have developed a character so odious that death would be preferable to reunion with them."

April 1, 1865 – Forces under Union Major General Frederick Steele, with 75 wagonloads of supplies, began bombarding the Confederate fort at Fort Blakeley.

April 1, 1865 – During the Civil War, the Federal ironclad, USS Rudolph, was sunk by a Confederate torpedo. Skirmishes were also fought at Centerville, Maplesville, Plantersville, Randolph and Trion, Ala.

April 1, 1865 – 2nd Cpl. Fred G. Roach of Conecuh Guards became the last member of Co. E to be killed during the Civil War when he was killed at Petersburg, Va.

April 1, 1865 - On this afternoon, after skirmishing all morning, General James H. Wilson's advanced guard ran into Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest's line of battle at Ebenezer Church, where the Randolph Road intersected the main Selma, Ala. road. Forrest had hoped to bring his entire force to bear on Wilson. Delays caused by flooding, plus earlier contact with the enemy, resulted in Forrest mustering fewer than 2,000 men, many of whom were not war veterans but militia consisting of old men and young boys. The outnumbered and outgunned Confederates fought bravely for more than an hour as more Union cavalry and artillery deployed on the field. Forrest was wounded by a saber-wielding Union Captain, whom he killed with his revolver. Finally, a Union cavalry charge broke the Confederate militia, causing Forrest to be flanked on his right. He was forced to retreat under severe pressure.

April 1, 1867 - Blacks voted in the municipal election in Tuscumbia, Ala.

April 1, 1872 - The first edition of "The Standard" was published.

April 1, 1883 – Actor Lon Chaney was born in Colorado Springs, Colo. Known as the “Man of a Thousand Faces,” he is best know for starring in such silent horror films as “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” (1923) and “The Phantom of the Opera” (1925).

April 1, 1906 – Heavy rains, high waters and a rising Alabama River, forced the steamer “Hard Cash” to tie up at the Claiborne, Ala. wharf for two days for lack of fuel because all the wood on yards between Claiborne and Mobile had been swept away.

April 1, 1913 – Stock of the M&R Railroad was acquired by the law firm of Barnett, Bugg & Lee.

April 1, 1914 – Pro Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Rube Waddell passed away at the age of 37 in Elmendorf, Texas. During his career, he played for the Louisville Colonels, the Detroit Tigers, the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Chicago Orphans, the Philadelphia Athletics and the St. Louis Browns. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1946.

April 1, 1915 – Camp William Lee No. 338 met at the Conecuh County Courthouse in Evergreen to elect delegates to the National Reunion in Richmond, Va. T.A. Jones was the camp’s adjutant, and G.R. Boulware was commander.

April 1, 1919 – Camp Capt. William Lee was scheduled to meet at the Conecuh County Courthouse in Evergreen. J.T. Fincher was the camp’s commander.

April 1, 1924 – Adolf Hitler was sentenced to five years in jail for high treason for his participation in the "Beer Hall Putsch." However, he spent only nine months in jail, during which he wrote “Mein Kampf.”

 

April 1, 1926 – Science fiction and fantasy author Anne McCaffrey was born in Cambridge, Mass. She's best known for her Dragonriders of Pern series, about Earth colonists on the planet of Pern living in a medieval-ish society with genetically engineered dragons. She was the first woman to be awarded the prestigious Hugo Award for Science Fiction, in 1968.

April 1, 1929 – Czech author Milan Kundera was born in Brno, Czechoslovakia. He is best known for his novels “The Unbearable Lightness of Being” (1984), “The Book of Laughter and Forgetting” (1978) and “The Joke” (1967).

April 1, 1930 - Leo Hartnett of the Chicago Cubs broke the altitude record for a catch by catching a baseball dropped from the Goodyear blimp 800 feet over Los Angeles, Calif.

April 1, 1931 - Jackie Mitchell became the first female in professional baseball when she signed with the Chattanooga Baseball Club.

April 1, 1935 - The first radio tube to be made of metal was announced.

April 1, 1936 – Major League Baseball pitcher Ron Perranoski was born in Patterson, New Jersey.

April 1, 1938 - The Baseball Hall of Fame opened in Cooperstown, New York.

April 1, 1939 – Pro Baseball Hall of Famer Phil Niekro was born in Blaine, Ohio. He would go on to play for the Milwaukee Braves, the Atlanta Braves, the New York Yankees, the Cleveland Indians and the Toronto Blue Jays. He was inducted into the Pro Baseball Hall of Fame in 1997.

April 1, 1941 - The first contract for advertising on a commercial FM radio station began on W71NY in New York City.

April 1, 1941 - Alabama author Lillian Hellman's play “Watch on the Rhine” opened on Broadway.

April 1, 1944 – Major League Baseball right fielder, designated hitter and first baseman Rusty Staub was born in New Orleans, La. During his career, he played for the Houston Colt .45s, the Houston Astros, the Montreal Expos, the New York Mets, the Detroit Tigers and the Texas Rangers.

April 1, 1948 – Major League Baseball first baseman and outfielder Willie Montanez was born in Catano, Puerto Rico. He would go on to play for the California Angels, the Philadelphia Phillies, the San Francisco Giants, the Atlanta Braves, the New York Mets, the Texas Rangers, the San Diego Padres, the Montreal Expos and the Pittsburgh Pirates.

April 1, 1963 - Workers of the International Typographical Union ended their strike that had closed nine New York City newspapers. The strike ended 114 days after it began on December 8, 1962.

April 1, 1966 – In Evergreen High School’s “Green and White” spring football game, the Greens beat the Whites, 19-14. Evergreen’s head coach was Cliff Little, and Perry Outlaw was an assistant coach.

April 1, 1967 - Wolfe Ambulance Service, owned by Frank Wolfe of Monroeville, began offering ambulance service to all of Conecuh County, and Cope Funeral Home stopped providing this service on this date.

April 1, 1969 - The final episode of "The Andy Griffith Show" aired.

April 1, 1972 - The Major League Baseball Players Association went on strike. The strike lasted 12 days and canceled 86 games.

April 1, 1976 – Jayvilla Plantation Site in Conecuh County, Ala. and the Bladon Springs Historic District in Choctaw County, Ala. were added to Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage.

April 1, 1976 – Apple Computer was officially incorporated.

April 1, 1992 – The Monroe County Heritage Museum in Monroeville, Ala. was officially incorporated and became an official part of the county government.

April 1, 1994 – Episode No. 19 of “The X-Files” – entitled “Shapes” – aired for the first time.

April 1, 1996 - U.S. President Bill Clinton threw out the first ball preceding a game between the Kansas City Royals and the Baltimore Orioles.

April 1, 1996 - Baseball umpire John McSherry died after collapsing during a game between the Cincinnati Reds and Montreal Expos.

April 1, 1997 – Comet Hale-Bopp was seen passing over perihelion.

April 1, 2005 - Alabama author Max Weatherly died in Fort Walton Beach, Fla.

April 1, 2008 - The Pentagon made public a legal memo dated March 14, 2003, that approved the use of harsh interrogation techniques against terror suspects. The memo stated that President George W. Bush's wartime authority trumped any international ban on torture.

April 1, 2010 – McKenzie High School in McKenzie, Ala. was added to the Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage.

April 1, 2014 – By proclamation of Mayor Pete Wolff, the City of Evergreen officially became one of the first cities in Alabama to become a “Purple Heart City” in honor of local Purple Heart recipients.