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| Union General Nathaniel Banks |
April 8, 6 BC - Gautama Buddha was born Prince Siddhartha in
India, in the sixth century B.C.E., and his parents were told by mystics that
he would grow up to be either a great political leader or a supremely
enlightened teacher.
April 8, 1513 - Explorer Juan Ponce de Leon claimed Florida
for Spain.
April 8, 1732 – Astronomer, mathematician and surveyor David
Rittenhouse was born near Germantown, Pa. During the Revolutionary War,
Rittenhouse worked as a weapons engineer, improving designs for cannons and
rifles. George Washington named him first director of the United States Mint in
1792. Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson held Rittenhouse in high regard,
and Philadelphia’s Southwest Square was renamed “Rittenhouse Square” in his
honor in 1825.
April 8, 1778 - John Adams arrived in Paris to replace Silas
Deane as a member of the American commission representing United States
interests.
April 8, 1789 - The U.S. House of Representatives held its
first meeting.
April 8, 1818 – General Andrew Jackson ordered his men to
hang Francis the Prophet and Micco Homollimico, Creek Indians who had been captured
a few days earlier.
April 8, 1825 – During his tour of the United States, the
Marquis de Lafayette was accompanied by Alabama Governor Pickens by steamboat
down Mobile Bay to Mobile Point, where he joined an official welcoming party
from Louisiana. He boarded the original steamer Natchez (built in 1823) which
took him to New Orleans to continue his tour of America.
April 8, 1861 – During the Civil War, federal reinforcements
for Fort Pickens, Fla. sailed from New York Harbor, N.Y.
April 8, 1864 - The U.S. Senate passed the 13th Amendment
(S.J. Res. 16) by a vote of 38 to 6.
April 8, 1864 – During the Civil War, a skirmish was fought near
Paint Rock Bridge, Ala.
April 8, 1864 – During the Civil War, at the Battle of
Mansfield, Union forces were thwarted by the Confederate army at Mansfield,
Louisiana. During the battle, Confederate General Richard Taylor attacked and
routed troops under Union General Nathaniel Banks. The Union troops held off
attacks the next day.
April 8, 1865 – Union Gen. E.R.S. Canby secured Spanish Fort
and immediately began to shift his men northward for three miles to join Union
Major General Frederick Steele at Fort Blakeley.
April 8, 1865 - U.S. President Lincoln headed back to
Washington, D.C. He had been in Richmond since April 4. While there, Lincoln
had visited the Confederate White House and the chambers of the Confederate
Congress.
April 8, 1904 – British mystic and occultist Aleister
Crowley transcribed the first chapter of “The Book of the Law,” which he said
was authored by a being called Aiwass.
April 8, 1911 - An explosion at Jefferson County’s Banner
Mine killed 129 miners. Most of the miners were prisoners leased to Pratt
Consolidated Coal Company under the state’s notorious convict lease system.
While many southern states leased convicts, Alabama’s program lasted the
longest, from 1846 to 1928. In 1883 at least 10 percent of state revenue was
derived from the convict lease program.
April 8, 1911 - Dutch physicist Heike Kamerlingh Onnes
discovered superconductivity.
April 8, 1912 – The plant of the Evergreen Manufacturing
Co., owned by W.K. Horton, was totally destroyed by fire in a blaze that began
a little before 8 p.m.
April 8, 1913 – The 17th Amendment to the United States
Constitution, requiring direct election of Senators, became law.
April 8, 1914 - State Superintendent of Education W.F.
Feagin spoke at an educational rally in Castleberry, Ala.
April 8, 1918 – William Jennings Bryan, famed orator,
congressman and three-time Democratic Presidential nominee, spoke at the Old Monroe
County Courthouse in favor of national prohibition.
April 8, 1920 – Dr. James Thomas Searcy passed away in
Tuscaloosa, Ala. at the age of 80 and was buried in Tuscaloosa’s Evergreen
Cemetery. He served as the first superintendent of the Mount Vernon Hospital,
which was renamed Searcy Hospital in his honor in 1919.
April 8, 1927 – Major League Baseball left fielder Charlie‘Smokey’
Maxwell was born in Lawton, Michigan. He went on to play for the Boston Red Sox,
the Baltimore Orioles, the Detroit Tigers and the Chicago White Sox.
April 8, 1927 - Horace Devaughn, a black man convicted of double murder in Jefferson County, was executed at Kilby Prison, marking Alabama's first use of the electric chair. Two weeks later, Virgil Murphy, a veteran of World War I who was convicted in Houston County of murdering his wife, became the first white man electrocuted in the chair. Before the state's use of the electric chair, executions generally were carried out in the counties by hanging.
April 8, 1935 – The Works Progress Administration was formed when the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1935 became law.
April 8, 1943 – Major League Baseball pitcher John Hiller
was born in Toronto, Ontario. He went on to play his entire career for the
Detroit Tigers.
April 8, 1946 – Pro Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Jim
"Catfish" Hunter was born in Hertford, N.C. He would go on to play
for the Kansas City/Oakland Athletics and the New York Yankees. He was inducted
into the Hall of Fame in 1987.
April 8, 1947 - Estimated at seven billion square miles, the
largest sunspot group was observed on the sun's southern hemisphere.
April 8, 1954 – Pro Baseball Hall of Fame catcher Gary
Carter was born in Culver City, Calif. He would go on to play for the Montreal
Expos, the New York Mets, the San Francisco Giants and the Los Angeles Dodgers.
He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2003.
April 8, 1955 – Novelist Barbara Kingsolver was born in
Annapolis, Maryland.
April 8, 1963 – Gregory Peck received an Academy Award for
Best Actor for his role as Atticus Finch in “To Kill a Mockingbird” at the 35th
Academy Awards in Santa Monica, Calif.
April 8, 1974 – At Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, Mobile
native Hank Aaron of the Atlanta Braves hits his 715th career home run off
Cincinnati’s Jack Billingham to break Babe Ruth's longstanding record. Aaron
finished his career with 755 home runs.
April 8, 1975 – Frank Robinson managed the Cleveland Indians
in his first game as major league baseball's first African American manager.
April 8, 1986 – Will Clark made his Major League
Baseball debut, taking the field for the first time with the San Francisco
Giants. Clark debuted with a home run off future Hall of Fame member Nolan
Ryan.
April 8, 1987 – Los Angeles Dodgers executive Al Campanis
resigned amid controversy over racially charged remarks he had made while on Nightline.
While on ABC's "Nightline" Campanis said that blacks "may not
have some of the necessities" to hold managerial jobs in major-league
baseball.
April 8, 1989 – Major League Baseball pitcher Jim Abbott,
who was born without a right hand, made his Major League debut, taking the field
for the first time with the California Angels.
April 8, 1990 - The first episode of "Twin Peaks"
aired on ABC-TV.
April 8, 1991 - Oakland A's stadium became the first outdoor
arena to ban smoking.
April 8, 1994 - Kurt Cobain of Nirvana was found dead at the
age of 27. He had committed suicide three days before.
April 8, 1994 - The RIAA announced that Pink Floyd's 1973
album "Dark Side of the Moon" had become the fourth biggest-selling
album in U.S. history. It had passed the 13 million mark in sales.
April 8, 1996 - Alabama author Rick Bragg was awarded the
Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing for his stories about contemporary America.
April 8, 1998 - The widow of Martin Luther King Jr.
presented new evidence in an appeal for new federal investigation of the
assassination of her husband.
April 8, 2004 – The Clerk of the House certified the actions
of the Alabama Legislature and House Resolution No. 100 was assigned Act. No.
2004-97, which declared Conecuh Ridge Alabama Fine Whiskey as Alabama’s
Official State Spirit.
April 8, 2008 - The Mets lost their last home opener at Shea
Stadium to Philadelphia Phillies.
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