Today in History for July 6, 2015

Brig. General James B. Ricketts

July 6, 1415 – Czech priest Jan Hus was burned at the stake by the Catholic Church for heresy because he supported many of the reforms urged by John Wycliffe, who believed that the Bible, not the Catholic Church, was the supreme authority in spiritual matters.

July 6, 1535 – Sir Thomas More was beheaded in the Tower of London for refusing to recognize his longtime friend King Henry VIII as the head of the Church.

July 6, 1699 - Captain William Kidd, the pirate, was captured in Boston, Mass. and deported back to England.

July 6, 1747 - John Paul Jones, the United States' first well known naval fighter in the American Revolutionary War, was born in Kirkcudbrightshire, Scotland.

July 6, 1775 - One day after restating their fidelity to King George III and wishing him “a long and prosperous reign” in the Olive Branch Petition, Congress issued a declaration setting “forth the causes and necessity of their taking up arms” against British authority in the American colonies. The declaration also proclaimed their preference “to die free men rather than live as slaves.”

July 6, 1777 – During the American Revolutionary War’s Siege of Fort Ticonderoga, after a bombardment by British artillery under General John Burgoyne, American forces retreated from Fort Ticonderoga, New York. General St. Clair led American forces away from the fort, and the British took the fort without firing a single shot.

July 6, 1779 – During the Battle of Grenada, the French defeat British naval forces during the American Revolutionary War.

July 6, 1785 – The dollar was chosen as the monetary unit of the United States.

July 6, 1846 - Author Howard Weeden was born in Huntsville, Ala.

July 6, 1854 – The first official convention of the Republican Party was held in Jackson, Michigan.

July 6, 1861 – A Mississippi riverboat pilot named Samuel Clemens traveled to Nevada with his brother Orion, who had been appointed the territorial secretary of Nevada.

July 6, 1862 - Writing under the name of Mark Twain, 25-year-old Samuel Clemens begins publishing news stories in the Territorial Enterprise in Virginia City, Nevada.

July 6, 1864 - Confederate General Julbal Early's troops crossed the Potomac River and captured Hagerstown, Maryland. After demanding and receiving $20,000, Early's troops moved toward Washington where they were turned away by troops from Grant's army. Early had sought to threaten Washington, D.C., and thereby relieve pressure on General Robert E. Lee, who was fighting to keep Ulysses S. Grant out of Richmond, Virginia.

July 6, 1864 - Union General-in-Chief Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant dispatched two brigades under Brig. Gen. James B. Ricketts in reaction to a raid by Lt. Gen. Jubal A. Early. This lead to the Battle of Monocacy on July 9.

July 6, 1879 – According to The Camden Banner newspaper in Wilcox County, Old Aunt Harriet Kaster died on this day at the age of 106. She’d been a family servant for Mrs. M.A. Kaster of Camden for 33 years. Known in Camden as “Old Aunt Ghosty,” she weighed just 44 pounds at the time of her death.

July 6, 1885 – Louis Pasteur successfully tested his rabies vaccine on a nine-year-old boy named Joseph Meister who’d been bitten by a rabid dog.

July 6, 1901 – Charlie “Ches” (Goatman) McCartney was born in Milledgeville, Baldwin County, Georgia. McCartney became a somewhat famous American itinerant wanderer who traveled up and down the eastern United States from 1930 to 1987 in a ramshackle wagon pulled by a team of goats. He claimed to have covered more than 100,000 miles and visited all states except Hawaii.

July 6, 1909 – As part of a Fourth of July celebration, Evergreen’s baseball team beat Gantt, 8-0, in Evergreen, Ala.

July 6, 1911 - Downing Lodge at Castleberry, Ala. elected the following officers: E. Downing Jr., Worshipful Master; R.T. Holland, Senior Warden; L.A. Kirkland, Junior Warden; J.W. Thurmond, Secretary; J.T. Buffington, Treasurer; R.E. Buffington, Senior Deacon; R.A. Baird, Junior Deacon; J.A. Davis, Tyler; G.W. Jones, Chaplain; J.I. Monk and J.M. Branch, stewards.

July 6, 1915 – A Conecuh County, Ala. jury found John Salter and Robert Watkins guilty of the murder of Martha Lassiter (on June 23, 1915) and sentenced them to death by hanging on Aug. 6, 1915. The trial began at 1 p.m., the taking of testimony and arguments by the state and the defense ended at 2:55 p.m. and the jury returned a verdict at 3:20 p.m. The trial was held before a large crowd and the main witness against Salter and Watkins was Wiley House, who was nearly murdered along with Lassiter.

July 6, 1915 – Geo. W. Johnson brought George Salter Jr., the editor of The Evergreen Courant, a cucumber that was nearly 12 inches long.

July 6, 1917 – During World War I, Arabian troops led by T. E. Lawrence ("Lawrence of Arabia") and Auda ibu Tayi captured the port of Aqaba (in present-day Jordan) from the Ottoman Empire during the Arab Revolt.

July 6, 1918 – During World War I, Army Sgt. Henry C. Lord of Andalusia, Ala. “died from disease.”

July 6, 1928 - "The Lights of New York" was previewed in New York's Strand Theatre. It was the first all-talking movie.

July 6, 1933 – The first Major League Baseball All-Star Game was played in Chicago's Comiskey Park. The American League defeated the National League, 4–2.

July 6, 1933 – “Mother” Nettles, who was born in January 1859, passed away. Her headstone is one of the three Isaac Nettles Gravestones in the Mount Nebo Baptist Church Cemetery near Carlton in rural Clarke County, Ala.

July 6, 1935 – The 14th Dalai Lama was born in Taktser, Tibet.

July 6, 1939 – The residence of E.R. Green at Burnt Corn, Ala. was completely destroyed by fire, but Green saved his automobile and school bus, which were parked in a garage near the dwelling.

July 6, 1942 – Anne Frank and her family went into hiding in the "Secret Annexe" above her father's office in an Amsterdam warehouse.

July 6, 1944 – Vredenburgh, Ala. native and former NFL running back Moses Denson was born. He went on to play for the University of Maryland-Eastern Shore, the Montreal Alouettes of the CFL and the Washington Redskins.

July 6, 1944 - Known as 'The Day the Clowns Cried,' the worst tragedy in the annals of circus history occurred. One hundred and sixth-eight people were killed and many more were injured when the Big Tent became engulfed in flames during a performance of the Ringling Brothers Circus in Hartford, Conn.

July 6, 1946 - George Walker Bush, the 43rd President of the United States, was born in New Haven, Conn.

July 6, 1947 – The AK-47 went into production in the Soviet Union.

July 6, 1953 – Birmingham, Ala. native Al Worthington made his Major League debut, taking the mound for the New York Giants.

July 6, 1957 – John Lennon and Paul McCartney met for the first time, as teenagers at the Woolton Village Fete in Liverpool, England, three years before forming the Beatles.

July 6, 1969 – In an incident attributed to the Bermuda Triangle, The Vagabond, a 12-meter owner-operated yacht was found adrift but otherwise shipshape west of the Azores with no sign of its owner, Capt. Wallace P. Williams, or its crew.

July 6, 1978 – Sunnyside Farm (The Witherington House) in Conecuh County, Ala. was added to Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage.

July 6, 1978 – Pine Flat Methodist Church at Forest Home in Butler County, Ala. was added to the Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage.

July 6, 1980 – Mobile, Ala. native Willie McCovey of the San Francisco Giants made his final Major League appearance.

July 6, 1983 - Fred Lynn of the California Angels hit the first grand slam in an All-Star game. The American League defeated the National League, 13-3.

July 6, 1994 - A movie version of Alabama author Winston Groom's book “Forrest Gump” was released.

July 6, 2000 - A jury awarded former NHL player Tony Twist $24 million for the unauthorized use of his name in the comic book Spawn and the HBO cartoon series. Co-defendant HBO settled with Twist out of court for an undisclosed amount.

July 6, 2005 - Alabama author James Haskins died in Gainesville, Fla.