1987 Faulkner Postage Stamp. |
Aug. 4, 1181 - Chinese and Japanese astronomers first
observed and recorded a supernova in the constellation Cassiopeia. The
phenomenon was visible in the night sky for around six months.
Aug. 4, 1526 – Spanish explorer and navigator Juan Sebastián
Elcano died at the age of 49 or 50 of malnutrition in the Pacific Ocean while
on the Loaisa Expedition. Elcano was a Spanish Basque explorer who completed
the first circumnavigation of the Earth. After Magellan's death in the
Philippines, Elcano took command of the nau Victoria from the Moluccas
to Sanlúcar de Barrameda in Spain.
Aug. 4, 1577 – “Black Shuck” reportedly appeared at churches
in Bungay and Blythburgh in Suffolk. The churches included the Holy Trinity
Church at Blythburgh and St. Mary’s Church at Bungay. At Holy Trinity, he
killed a man and boy and caused the steeple to collapse and killed two people
kneeled in prayer at St. Mary’s.
Aug. 4, 1735 - Freedom of the press
was established with an acquittal of John Peter Zenger. The writer of the New
York Weekly Journal had been charged with seditious libel by the royal governor
of New York. The jury said that "the truth is not libelous."
Aug. 4, 1753 – George Washington, a 21-year-old Virginia
farmer, was declared a Master Mason in a Masonic ritual performed by his fellow
Freemasons during a secret ceremony at Masonic Lodge No. 4 in Fredericksburg,
Va. Washington had been initiated into the Masons at age 20 on November 4,
1752. The following year, on March 3, 1753, he was passed as a "Fellow
Craft," and five months later, Washington was raised to the rank of Master
Mason. In 1788, shortly before becoming the first president of the United
States, Washington was elected the first Worshipful Master of Alexandria Lodge
No. 22.
Aug. 4, 1782 - The British playwright and general, John
Burgoyne, died in England. His humiliating surrender to Patriot forces at
Saratoga on October 17, 1777, left a black mark on his military career, but his
successful play “The Heiress,” released in 1786, secured his literary
reputation. The striking Patriot victory over Burgoyne is commonly thought to
be the turning point in the War of Independence in the Patriots’ favor.
Aug. 4, 1790 – A newly passed tariff act created the Revenue
Cutter Service, which was the forerunner of the United States Coast Guard.
Aug. 4, 1792 – Poet and essayist Percy Bysshe Shelley was
born in Field Place, Sussex, England.
Aug. 4, 1808 - Alabama author Henry W. Hilliard was born in
Fayetteville, N.C.
Aug. 4, 1821 – The Saturday Evening Post was published for
the first time as a weekly newspaper.
Aug. 4, 1824 – Col. Thomas Levingston Bayne, who lived in
Butler County, Ala. as a young man, was born at Clinton, Jones County, Ga. Was the
valedictorian at Yale in 1843, later served as City Attorney for New Orleans,
fought with the Fifth Co. of the Washington Artillery of New Orleans and was
severely wounded at the Battle of Shiloh.
Aug. 4, 1830 – The plans for the city of Chicago were laid
out on this date. The filing of the plans marked the first official recognition
of the municipality of Chicago. It was incorporated as a city on March 4, 1837.
Aug. 4, 1864 – The Union operation against Confederate defenses around Atlanta, Georgia, stalled when infighting erupted between Yankee generals. The problem arose when Union General William T. Sherman began stretching his force—consisting of the Army of the Ohio, the Army of the Tennessee, and the Army of the Cumberland—west of Ezra Church, the site of a major battle on July 28, to Utoy Creek, west of Atlanta.
Aug. 4, 1864 – Union Admiral David Farragut ordered the
“Chickasaw,” under Lt. Commander George H. Perkins to shell Fort Powell, a
Confederate fort on a sandbar just north of Heron Island, two miles north of
Dauphin Island, near the mouth of Mobile Bay.
Aug. 4, 1867 – National Baseball Hall of Fame first baseman
Jake Beckley was born in Hannibal, Mo. He went on to play for the Pittsburgh
Alleghenys, the Pittsburgh Burghers, the Pittsburg Pirates, the New York
Giants,the Cincinnati Reds and the St. Louis Cardinals. He was inducted into
the Hall of Fame in 1971.
Aug. 4, 1879 – The first bale of the new cotton crop reached
Mobile, Ala. and was raised by R.H. Hines of Wilcox County. The 560-pound bale
was classed low middling and brought 12 cents a pound at auction.
Aug. 4, 1879 – The Monroe Journal reported that Jonathan L.
Marshal had resigned from his position as Justice of the Peace at Beat 2.
Aug. 4, 1879 – The Monroe Journal reported that a black man
who worked for Jo. Boyles Jr. was shot and fatally wounded at Mount Pleasant,
Ala. a few days after July 5. The man had been walking from his house to his
corncrib after supper when an unknown gunman shot him in the thigh with a
shotgun.
Aug. 4, 1879 – W.H. Nettles, a wanted murderer who had
escaped from the Dallas County Jail, was spotted by several parties in
Kempville in Monroe County, Ala. Armed with two derringers and a “navy six,” he
swapped horses, “took dinner with an old countryman, secured whiskey from P.
McGlinn, got drunk and told “an old college mate” Charlie McClure “all about
killing Powell in Selma some time ago.” Nettles claimed that he’d meant to kill
Powell’s brother instead, but killed the wrong man. Nettles, who was using the
alias “Ledger,” said he was headed for Jacksonville, Fla.
Aug. 4, 1892 – Andrew and Abby Borden, the father and
stepmother of Lizzie Borden, were found murdered in their Fall River,
Massachusetts home. Lizzie, Andrew's daughter, was accused of the killings but
was later acquitted.
Aug. 4, 1901 – Jazz musician Louis Armstrong was born in the
Storyville neighborhood of New Orleans.
Aug. 4, 1903 – L.T. Rutland entered the hardware business in
Evergreen, Ala. when he joined the Dunn Hardware Co. as a clerk. A few years
later, he purchased an interest in the store and in 1917 he bought the store
and changed its name to Rutland Hare Co.
Aug. 4, 1913 – Poet and teacher Robert Hayden was born Asa
Bundy Sheffey in Detroit, Mich.
Aug. 4, 1914 - Britain declared war on Germany in World War
I, and the United States proclaimed its neutrality.
Aug. 4, 1915 – The Evergreen Courant reported that Ed
Jackson killed a rattlesnake on the farm of I.L. Mills, three miles from
Evergreen, Ala., that measured five feet, six inches in length, 7-1/4 inches in
circumference, weighed five pounds and had 20 rattles. The snake had just
bitten a dog and was ready to spring at Jackson when he saw the snake and shot
him.
Aug. 4, 1934 - Mel Ott became the first major league
baseball player to score six runs in a single game.
Aug. 4, 1937 - A movie version of Alabama author Octavus Roy
Cohen's book “The Outer Gate”
was released.
Aug. 4, 1942 – Major League
Baseball left fielder Cleon Jones was born in Mobile, Ala. He went on to play
for the New York Mets and the Chicago White Sox. In 1969, Jones caught the
final out of the "Miracle Mets" World Series Championship over the
Baltimore Orioles.
Aug. 4, 1944 – A tip from a Dutch
informer led the Gestapo to a sealed-off area in an Amsterdam warehouse, where
they found and arrested Jewish diarist Anne Frank, her family and four others.
Anne Frank’s famous diary would be published after her death.
Aug. 4, 1953 – L.T. Rutland observed the 50th anniversary of
his entry into the hardware business by entertaining the owners and employees
of Canterbury Hardware, Inc. with a party at his home.
Aug. 4, 1953 – The Repton Gin ginned a bale of cotton for
Leon Jordan of Excel, Ala. that weighed 611 pounds and sold for 45 cents a
pound. The Evergreen Gin ginned a bale for Fairview farmer Brown Hawkins that
weighed 385 pounds.
Aug. 4, 1961 – Barack Obama, the 44th President of the
United States, was born in Honolulu, Hawaii.
Aug. 4, 1964 – Civil rights workers Michael Schwerner,
Andrew Goodman and James Chaney were found dead in Mississippi after
disappearing on June 21.
Aug. 4, 1972 – Arthur Bremer, who attempted to assassinate
George C. Wallace, was sentenced to 63 years in prison, later reduced to 53
years. Bremer served 35 years and was released on parole on November 9, 2007.
Aug. 4, 1983 - New York Yankee outfielder Dave Winfield
threw a baseball during warm-ups and accidentally killed a seagull. After the
game, Toronto police arrested him for "causing unnecessary suffering to an
animal."
Aug. 4, 1985 - Tom Seaver of the Chicago White Sox recorded
his 300th pitching victory.
Aug. 4, 1985 - Rod Carew of the California Angels got his
3,000th major league hit.
Aug. 4, 1986 - The United States Football League called off
its 1986 season. This was after winning only token damages in its antitrust
lawsuit against the National Football League.
Aug. 4, 1987 - A new 22-cent U.S. stamp honoring noted
author William Faulkner, went on sale in Oxford, Miss. Faulkner had been fired
as postmaster of that same post office in 1924.
Aug. 4, 1987 - The Fairness Doctrine was rescinded by the
Federal Communications Commission. The doctrine had required that radio and TV
stations present controversial issues in a balanced fashion.
Aug. 4, 1990 - The European Community imposed an embargo on
oil from Iraq and Kuwait. This was done to protest the Iraqi invasion of the
oil-rich Kuwait.
Aug. 4, 1998 – Monroeville minister Thomas James Williams
Jr., 33, died at USA Medical Center in Mobile, Ala. after a collision with a
train at King’s Crossing in Evergreen, Ala. on Aug. 2, 1998.
Aug. 4, 2012 - Local weather reporter Betty Ellis reported
1.70 inches of rain in Evergreen, Ala.
Aug. 4, 2014 – Hillcrest High School’s varsity football team
officially began fall football practice at 5 p.m. under head coach Larry
Boykin.
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