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| Mary Surratt |
April 17, 618 AD - In Scotland, 53 monks were burned alive
by a gang of armed women seeking revenge for being cheated out of their pasture
rights.
April 17, 1492 – Spain and Christopher Columbus signed the
Capitulations of Santa Fe, a contract to find a passage to Asia and the Indies
to acquire spices.
April 17, 1524 – Giovanni da Verrazzano discovered New York
harbor.
April 17, 1704 - John Campbell published what would
eventually become the first successful American newspaper. It was known as the
Boston "News-Letter."
April 17, 1783 - British Captain James Colbert launched a
raid on Fort Carlos, Arkansas. The British retreated after a six-hour battle.
The "Colbert Raid" was the only Revolutionary War action to take
place in Arkansas. The state of Arkansas maintained the fort and its surroundings
as the Arkansas Post Memorial and Arkansas Post Museum State Park.
April 17, 1790 – Benjamin Franklin passed away at the age of
84 in Philadelphia, Pa.
April 17, 1837 - Alabama author Elizabeth Bellamy was born
in Quincy, Fla.
April 17, 1852 – Pro Baseball Hall of Fame first baseman Cap
Anson was born in Marshalltown, Iowa. He would go on to play for the Rockford
Forest Citys, the Philadelphia Athletics and the Chicago White Stockings/Colts,
and he managed the Philadelphia Athletics, the Stockings/Colts and the New York
Giants. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1939.
April 17, 1861 – The state of Virginia's secession
convention voted to secede from the United States, becoming the eighth state to
join the Confederate States of America. Within the next five weeks, Arkansas,
Tennessee and North Carolina seceded bringing the total of Confederate states
to 11.
April 17, 1861 – During the Civil War, more Federal
reinforcements arrived at Ft. Pickens, near Pensacola, Fla.
April 17, 1863 – During the Civil War, skirmishes were
fought at Lundy’s Lane, Cherokee Station, Great Bear Creek and Barton Station,
Ala.
April 17, 1863 – During the Civil War, Grierson's Raid began
as troops under Union Army Colonel Benjamin Grierson left La Grange, Tenn. with
1,700 cavalry troops on a mission to destroy enemy supplies, telegraph lines
and railroads in central Mississippi. The raid ended on May 2 when Grierson and
his men rode into Union occupied Baton Rouge, La.
April 17, 1864 – During the Civil War, the Battle of
Plymouth began as Confederate forces under General Robert Hoke attacked
Plymouth, North Carolina. The rebels were attempting to recapture ports lost to
the Union two years before.
April 17, 1864 - During the Civil War, U.S. Civil War General Grant banned the
trading of prisoners.
April 17, 1864 - Union General Frederick Steele sent Colonel
John Williams to gather corn that had been found west of Camden. On the way
back, the wagon train was attacked and stopped by Confederate General Samuel
Maxey's troops.
April 17, 1865 - Mary Surratt was arrested as a conspirator
in the Lincoln assassination.
April 17, 1882 - Several copies of Sheriff Pat Garrett’s
wildly inauthentic biography, “An Authentic
Life of Billy the Kid,” arrived at the Library of Congress,
beginning the widespread dissemination of this highly fictionalized story of
the western outlaw.
April 17, 1892 - At Sportsman's Park in St. Louis, the first
National League game to be played on Sunday took place. The Reds beat the
Browns, 5-1.
April 17, 1897 – The Aurora, Texas, UFO incident reportedly
occurred when, according to locals, a UFO crashed on a farm near Aurora, Texas.
The incident (similar to the more famous Roswell UFO incident 50 years
later) was claimed to have resulted in a fatality from the crash and the
alleged alien body is to have been buried in an unmarked grave at the local
cemetery.
April 17, 1897 – Pulitzer Prize-winning author Thornton
Wilder was born in Madison, Texas. His works include “The Bridge of San Luis
Rey” (1927) and “Our Town” (1938).
April 17, 1904 - Joseph Stillwell “Joe” Cain Jr. passed away
at the age of 71 in Mobile, Ala. He is largely credited with the rebirth of
Mardi Gras celebrations in Mobile, Alabama, which had stopped due to the Civil
War.
April 17, 1908 – In Lovecraftian fiction, Kingston, New York
occultist Alonzo Hasbrouch Typer vanished near the abandoned van der Heyl mansion.
His disappearance left authorities puzzled, though a diary found in the van der
Heyl mansion in 1935 and the Rev. Edgar Dowling’s psychic research have
provided wildly unlikely accounts of his life thereafter. Typer first appeared
in 1938’s “The Diary of Alonzo Typer” by H.P. Lovecraft and William Lumley.
April 17, 1909 - Alabama author and illustrator Dorothea J.
Snow was born in McMinnville, Tenn.
April 17, 1919 – During World War I, Army Pvt. William A.
Glidewell of Red Level, Ala. “died from disease.”
April 17, 1923 – Major League Baseball shortstop and second
baseman Solly Hemus was born in Phoenix, Ariz. He would go on to play for the
St. Louis Cardinals and the Philadelphia Phillies. He also managed the
Cardinals for three seasons.
April 17, 1926 – H.P. Lovecraft returned to Providence, R.I.
from New York, settling at 10 Barnes Street, north of Brown University.
April 17, 1947 - Jackie Robinson of the Brooklyn Dodgers
performed a bunt for his first major league hit.
April 17, 1952 – Monroeville (Ala.) Little League held its
first official practices ever in preparation for its first season, which opened
on May 12, 1952.
April 17, 1953 – Army Pvt. James L.C. Jeter of Covington
County, Ala. was killed in action in Korea.
April 17, 1953 – “Bright
Road,” a movie version of Alabama author Mary Elizabeth Vroman's
story "See How They Run," was released.
April 17, 1955 – English physician and explorer Dr. Michael
“Mike” Adrian Stroud was born in England. He became an expert on human health
under extreme conditions and became widely known when he partnered with famous
explorer Ranulph Fiennes on polar expeditions.
April 17, 1960 - A television version of Alabama author
Octavus Roy Cohen's book “Aftermath”
was broadcast.
April 17, 1961 – NFL quarterback Boomer Esiason was born in
West Islip, N.Y. He went on to play for the Cincinnati Bengals, the New York
Jets and the Arizona Cardinals.
April 17, 1967 – Major League Baseball center fielder
Marquis Grissom was born in Atlanta, Ga. He went on to play for the Montreal
Expos, the Atlanta Braves, the Cleveland Indians, the Milwaukee Brewers, the
Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Francisco Giants.
April 17, 1969 - In Los Angeles, Sirhan Sirhan was convicted
of assassinating U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy. He was sentenced to death on
April 23, but that sentence was later reduced to life in prison.
April 17, 1970 - The crew of Apollo 13 safely returned to
Earth, in spite of a severe malfunction that occurred in their spacecraft on
their way to the moon.
April 17, 1973 – George Lucas began writing the treatment
for “Star Wars.”
April 17, 1976 - Mike Schmidt of the Philadelphia Phillies hit four consecutive home runs in a game against the Chicago Cubs. Schmidt was only the fourth player in the history of Major League Baseball to accomplish this feat.
April 17, 2001 - Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants hit
his 500th home run.
April 17, 2004 – The remains of the crew of the H.L. Hunley
submarine were laid to rest at Magnolia Cemetery in Charleston, S.C.
April 17, 2010 - Ubaldo Jiménez threw the first no-hitter in
Colorado Rockies history. The Rockies beat the Braves, 4-0.
April 17, 2012 – The Cleveland-Harris Cemetery in Clarke
County, Ala. was added to the Alabama Historic Cemetery Register.
April 17, 2014 – ‘A Celebration of Reading’ bronze sculpture
was unveiled on the Old Courthouse Museum lawn in Monroeville, Ala.
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