Today in History for July 5, 2015

David G. Farragut

July 5, 1610 – John Guy set sail from Bristol with 39 other colonists for Newfoundland.

July 5, 1687 – Isaac Newton published one of the most important books in the history of science, “Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica” or "Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy."

July 5, 1775 – The Second Continental Congress adopted the Olive Branch Petition, written by John Dickinson, which appealed directly to King George III and expressed hope for reconciliation between the colonies and Great Britain.

July 5, 1777 - British General John Burgoyne led Redcoats, Hessian mercenaries, Canadians, Loyalists and Indians to a victory at Ticonderoga, N.Y.

July 5, 1801 – U.S. Naval officer David G. Farragut was born in Campbell's Station, Tenn. (now Farragut, Tenn.). He is best remembered for his order at the Battle of Mobile Bay, in which he was victorious, usually paraphrased as "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead" in U.S. Navy tradition.

July 5, 1819 - Alabama's first constitutional convention was convened in Huntsville, Ala. Less than a month later, the 44 delegates, representing 22 counties, adopted what would become known as the Constitution of 1819, the first of six Alabama constitutions.

July 5, 1819 – John Murphy and Dr. John Watkins represented Monroe County in the Alabama Constitutional Convention in Huntsville, Ala. Samuel Cook represented Conecuh County in the constitutional convention.

July 5, 1861 – Union and Rebel forces clashed at Carthage in southwestern Missouri, resulting in the first large-scale engagement of the war and signaling an escalation in the hostilities between the North and South. The Missouri State Guardsmen, a force of 6,000 men commanded by Confederate Governor Claiborne Jackson and Colonel Sterling Price, were poorly equipped and outfitted mostly in civilian clothing. Their Union counterpart was a force of 1,100, mostly German-Americans from St. Louis, commanded by General Franz Sigel. Both sides claimed victory.

July 5, 1863 - U.S. Federal troops occupied Vicksburg, Miss. and distributed supplies to the citizens.

July 5, 1864 – Joseph G. Sanders, aka “The Turncoat of Dale County,” was granted a provisional commission as a Second Lieutenant by Union Major General Nathaniel P. Banks, which he received on July 17, 1864 with orders to report for duty with Co. F of the First Florida Cavalry (U.S.) on Aug. 23 when the regiment was mustered in for Federal service in Florida. Sanders accordingly presented himself at the U.S. outpost at Barrancas, Fla., where he enrolled for a term of three years.

July 5, 1865 - The U.S. Secret Service Division was created to combat currency counterfeiting, forging and the altering of currency and securities.

July 5, 1865 - President Andrew Johnson signed an executive order that confirmed the military conviction of a group of people who had conspired to kill the late President Abraham Lincoln, then commander in chief of the U.S. Army, and with his signature, Johnson ordered four of the guilty to be executed. Confederate sympathizers David E. Herold, G. A. Atzerodt, Lewis Payne, Mary E. Surratt, Michael O’Laughlin, Edward Spangler, Samuel Arnold and Samuel A. Mudd were arraigned on May 9 and convicted on July 5 for “maliciously, unlawfully, and traitorously” conspiring with several others, including John Wilkes Booth, who had assassinated President Lincoln on April 14, 1865. In addition to targeting Lincoln, the conspirators had planned to kill General Ulysses S. Grant as he led Union armies in the Civil War against the southern states. Vice President Andrew Johnson, who succeeded Lincoln to the presidency, was also one of the group’s intended prey.

July 5, 1879 – Jesse D. Andrews shot and killed Daniel Powell during an argument at Cokerville (in Monroe County, Ala.?).

July 5, 1915 – “The Heart Punch,” a drama starring world heavyweight champion Jess Willard, was scheduled to be shown at the Arcade Theatre in Evergreen, Ala.

July 5, 1915 – The Liberty Bell left Philadelphia by special train on its way to the Panama-Pacific International Exposition. This was the last trip outside Philadelphia that the custodians of the bell intended to permit.

July 5, 1916 – The steamboat “City of Mobile” was destroyed during a “hurricane” at the wharf at the foot of Dauphin Street in Mobile, Ala.

July 5, 1917 – During World War I, Army Pvt. Robert B. Hines of Canoe, Ala. “died from disease.”

July 5, 1921 - After Judge Hugo Friend denied a motion to quash the indictments against the major league baseball players accused of throwing the 1919 World Series, a trial began with jury selection. The Chicago White Sox players, including stars Shoeless Joe Jackson, Buck Weaver and Eddie Cicotte, subsequently became known as the “Black Sox” after the scandal was revealed.

July 5, 1925 – French author, traveler and explorer Jean Raspail was born in Chemillé-sur-Dême, Indre-et-Loire, France.

July 5, 1928 – The Evergreen Courant reported that the Evergreen Motor Car Co. was moving into the “pretty new building recently completed on Rural Street” and was scheduled to officially open in that location on Sat., July 7. All seven models of the New Ford Car were to be on display on that day, several of which have not been shown in Evergreen, Ala. before.

July 5, 1928 – The Evergreen Courant reported that the newspaper was moving its offices to a new home two doors east of its present location, and its new home was to be in the building recently completed by the Evergreen Motor Car Co. Part of the newspaper’s equipment had already been moved, and the July 5 issue of the paper, which was about half its normal size, was composed in the old office and printed in the new because the printing presses had already been moved. The editor noted that the new location would be more accessible to the public because it was downstairs whereas the old location had been upstairs.

July 5, 1937 – SPAM was unveiled by Hormel Foods.

July 5, 1940 – Artist Chuck Close was born in Monroe, Wash.

July 5, 1950 – The Battle of Osan, the first face-off of American and North Korean troops in the Korean War, took place at Osan, just south of Seoul.

July 5, 1950 – Army Pvt. Charles R. Hendrix of Monroe County, Ala. was killed in action in Korea, and Army Pvt. O.C. Clarke Jr. of Covington County, Ala. died while a prisoner of war in Korea.

July 5, 1988 – The Evergreen City Council named veteran city employee Clayton Davis to serve as Water Department Superintendent, replacing Franklin Williamson, who had retired earlier that year.

July 5, 1988 – Terry Lynn Parker, 23, of Rt. 1, Evergreen was killed in a logging accident on this Tuesday morning while working with a logging crew in the Mobley Creek area of Covington County, near Brooklyn, Ala. Parker, who was employed by Bruce Salter Logging Co., was struck by a falling tree at 9 a.m. and pronounced dead at the scene at 11:25 a.m., according to Covington County Sheriff’s Investigator Max Hooks.

July 5, 1989 - The pilot episode of "Seinfeld" aired on NBC.

July 5, 1991 – Evergreen’s 14-&-15-year-old Babe Ruth All-Stars were scheduled to play South Monroe in Atmore, Ala. at 7:30 p.m.

July 5, 1998 - Roger Clemens of the Toronto Blue Jays got his 3,000th career strikeout.

July 5, 2002 – National Baseball Hall of Fame left fielder Ted Williams died of cardiac arrest at the age of 83 in Inverness, Fla., and his son sent his father’s body to be frozen at a cryonics laboratory. During his career, he played for the Boston Red Sox and managed the Washington Senators/Texas Rangers. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1966.

July 5, 2012 – Longtime local radioman Gary Downs, 63, passed away in a Monroeville, Ala. nursing home.

July 5, 2009 – The largest hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold ever discovered, consisting of more than 1,500 items, was found near the village of Hammerwich, near Lichfield, in Staffordshire, England.