Today in History for Sept. 6, 2015

Richard Taylor

Sept. 6, 1492 – Christopher Columbus sailed from La Gomera in the Canary Islands, his final port of call before crossing the Atlantic Ocean for the first time.

Sept. 6, 1522 – The Victoria, the only surviving ship of Ferdinand Magellan's expedition, returned to Sanlúcar de Barrameda in Spain, becoming the first ship to circumnavigate the world.

Sept. 6, 1540 – The DeSoto Expedition passed through the Indian village of Ecunchati (Ecunchate, Ikan-tchati, Red Ground), which was located on a buff on the Alabama River where the City of Montgomery, Ala. now stands.

Sept. 6, 1620 – The Pilgrims sailed from Plymouth, England, on the Mayflower to settle in North America.

Sept. 6, 1628 – Puritans settled Salem, which will later become part of Massachusetts Bay Colony.

Sept. 6, 1649 – English geographer and explorer Robert Dudley died at the age of 75 in Villa Rinieri, Italy. In 1594, he led an expedition to the West Indies, of which he wrote an account, and later designed and published “Dell'Arcano del Mare,” the first maritime atlas to cover the whole world.

Sept. 6, 1757 – French general and aristocrat, the Marquis de LaFayette, a prominent Freemason, was born in Chavaniac, France. He was a 19-year-old captain in the French army when he sailed to America in 1777 and offered to help the revolutionary cause. He was appreciated for his powerful court connections, and George Washington made him a major general. He led six light infantry battalions and a Light Corps, and in the closing days of the war helped confine General Cornwallis’s army to the coast of Virginia.

Sept. 6, 1781 – British Brigadier General Benedict Arnold, a former Patriot officer already infamous and much maligned for betraying the United States the previous year, added to his notoriety by ordering his British command to burn New London, Connecticut.  After looting the town, Arnold ordered his British soldiers to set fire to every building, causing the equivalent of more than $500,000 in damages. Benedict Arnold was already despised throughout the colonies for his attempt to sell the Patriot fort at West Point, New York, to the British in 1780 for a bribe of £20,000, and the burning of New London sealed his reputation as a public enemy and his name became a synonym in common American parlance for “traitor.”

Sept. 6, 1813 – Josiah Fisher and his three sons left Fort Madison (in present day Clarke County, Ala.) and went to Fisher’s farm, which was situated on the Alabama River, about a quarter-mile north of Sizemore’s Ferry. About sunset, he and his son Ben were shot by Indians, but they ultimately survived the attack.

Sept. 6, 1825 – During his tour of the United States, the Marquis de Lafayette arrived in Washington, D.C., where he met the new U.S. President John Quincy Adams, addressed a joint session of Congress and celebrated his 68th birthday at a White House banquet with President Adams.

Sept. 6, 1847 – Henry David Thoreau left Walden Pond and moved in with Ralph Waldo Emerson and his family in Concord, Massachusetts.

Sept. 6, 1860 – Noble Peace Prize-winning social reformer Jane Addams, who co-founded the Chicago settlement house, Hull-House, in 1889 when she was 29 years old, was born into an affluent Quaker family in Cedarville, Illinois.

Sept. 6, 1861 – During the Civil War, forces under Union General Ulysses S. Grant bloodlessly captured Paducah, Kentucky, giving the Union control of the Tennessee River's mouth.

Sept. 6, 1863 – During the Civil War, after months of campaigning against Battery Wagner on Morris Island in a protracted Union effort to capture nearby Charleston, South Carolina, the Confederate garrison finally fled the island. Although the Yankees captured Morris Island, Charleston was still beyond their grasp. The Confederates continued to defend the harbor and the city where the war began, until they finally evacuated the area in March 1865, just days before the end of the war

Sept. 6, 1864 – Confederate Lieutenant General Richard Taylor, the son of future U.S. President Zachary Taylor, assumed the command of the Department of Alabama, Mississippi and East Louisiana.

Sept. 6, 1901 – Leon Czolgosz, an unemployed anarchist, shot and fatally wounded US President William McKinley at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. McKinley died eight days later, and Czolgosz was executed the following October.

Sept. 6, 1905 - Frank Smith of the Chicago White Sox pitched a no-hitter against the Detroit Tigers. The game set a record for the most lopsided margin of victory for a no-hitter in American League history as the White Sox won, 15-0.

Sept. 6, 1909 - Robert Peary, American explorer, sent word that he had reached the North Pole. He had reached his goal five months earlier.

Sept. 6, 1915 – In the fictional video game, “Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth,” police police detective Jack Walters (voiced by Milton Lawrence) is summoned to the siege of a decrepit manor house in Boston, Massachusetts. The manor is inhabited by a bizarre cult called the Fellowship of the Yith, led by one Victor Holt who has asked specifically for Walters to come and talk to him. Taking cover from an ensuing firefight, Walters finds himself separated from the police and trapped inside the mansion, with no option but to investigate. When the rest of the police finally break in, they find the cultists dead by mass suicide and Walters apparently insane. He is committed to Arkham sanatorium, where he stays for several years.

Sept. 6, 1915 – “His Night Out,” starring Charlie Chaplin, was scheduled to be shown at the Arcade Theater in Evergreen, Ala.

Sept. 6, 1916 – The first self-service grocery store, Piggly Wiggly, was opened in Memphis, Tenn. by Clarence Saunders.

Sept. 6, 1924 - Urban Shocker of the St. Louis Browns pitched two complete games against the Chicago White Sox. He won both games, 6-2.

Sept. 6, 1936 – British aviator Beryl Markham flew alone across the Atlantic from east to west, becoming the second person and the first woman to cross the Atlantic in that direction. Flying east to west meant flying into the wind, which took longer, used more fuel, and was more dangerous. She made the journey in a blue monoplane dubbed the Messenger.

Sept. 6, 1943 - The youngest player to appear in an American League baseball game was pitcher Carl Scheib of the Philadelphia Athletics. Scheib was 16 years, eight months and five days old.

Sept. 6, 1946 – The first peanuts of the 1946 season arrived in Evergreen, Ala. on this day and were grown by S.J. Wiggins, who lived near McKenzie.

Sept. 6, 1948 – Evergreen High School in Evergreen, Ala. was scheduled to open the 1948-49 school year on this day at 8:30 a.m. J.J. “Jack” Finklea was the school’s principal.

Sept. 6, 1962 – Archaeologist Peter Marsden discovered the first of the Blackfriars Ships dating back to the 2nd century AD in the Blackfriars area of the banks of the River Thames in London.

Sept. 6, 1963 – In a “fierce, cross-county rivalry” that resumed after some 25 years, Evergreen High School beat Lyeffion High School, 26-0, at Brooks Stadium in Evergreen, Ala. John Robinson was Evergreen’s head coach, and Shirley Frazier was Lyeffion’s head coach. Probable starters for Lyeffion included Harold Brown, Pat Brown, Homer Chavers, Mickey Fountain, Donnie Garrett, Ronnie Golson, John Grimes, Larry Hardee, Lee Hardee, Keith Holcombe, Don Jones, Heyward Salter and Harold Wilson.

Probable starters for Evergreen included Scott Cook, Paul Deason, Alvin Dees, Tommy Hartley, Sid Lambert, Mike Mininger, Jimmy Raines, Robert Rigsby, Brent Thornley, Jimmy Warren and Jimmy Weaver.

Sept. 6, 1976 - Steve Yeager of the Los Angeles Dodgers was seriously injured when part of a broken bat struck him in the throat. He was waiting in the on-deck circle when the incident occurred.

Sept. 6, 1978 – The live-action TV movie “Dr. Strange,” starring Peter Hooten as Dr. Stephen Strange, premiered on television.

Sept. 6, 1978 - James Wickwire and Louis Reichardt reached the top of the world's second largest mountain, Pakistan's K-2. They were the first Americans to reach the summit.

Sept. 6, 1981 - Fernando Valenzuela of the Los Angeles Dodgers tied a National League record of seven shutouts by a rookie pitcher.

Sept. 6, 1984 – Enterprise Methodist Church (First United Methodist Church) in Coffee County, Ala. was added to the Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage.

Sept. 6, 1989 - The Pittsburgh Steelers were banned from practicing on their own field, Three Rivers Stadium, because The Rolling Stones were rehearsing for their upcoming concert.

Sept. 6, 1990 – The Monroe Journal reported that former Monroe County High School standout quarterback John Tomlinson of Monroeville, Ala. had joined 100 or so walk-ons at the University of Alabama to try and nail down a spot on the Crimson Tide’s 1990 football roster. Tomlinson, a 1988 graduate of Monroe County High in Monroeville, had signed a full scholarship with the University of West Georgia in Carrollton, Ga. in the spring of 1988. Tomlinson transferred to the University of Alabama in the fall of 1990, after discussing the move with his mother, Mary Tomlinson of Monroeville, and his younger brother, Tommy Tomlinson, who was on an academic scholarship at UA.

Sept. 6, 1990 – Iraqi officials warned that anyone trying to flee the country without permission would be put in prison for life.

Sept. 6, 1992 – Hunters discover the emaciated body of Christopher McCandless at his camp 20 miles west of the town of Healy, Alaska.

Sept. 6, 1995 – Baltimore Orioles shortstop Cal Ripken Jr. broke “Iron Horse” Lou Gehrig’s streak for consecutive games played when he took the field for his 2,131st straight game.

Sept. 6, 1995 - Bruce Hornsby and Branford Marsalis performed the National Anthem in Baltimore's Camden Yards before Cal Ripken Jr. set baseball's all-time consecutive games played record.

Sept. 6, 1996 - Eddie Murray of the Baltimore Orioles hit his 500th career home run during a game against the Detroit Tigers. He was only the third person to have at least 3,000 hits and 500 home runs.

Sept. 6, 1996 - A television version of LaVyrle Spencer's book “Family Blessings,” teleplay by Alabama author Robert Inman, was broadcast.

Sept. 6, 2000 - Scott Sheldon of the Texas Rangers became the third player in major league baseball history to play all nine positions in one game.

Sept. 6, 2001 - Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants became the fifth player in major league baseball history to hit 60 home runs in a season.

Sept. 6, 2006 - U.S. President George W. Bush acknowledged that the CIA had been running secret prisons overseas. The prisons were used to interrogate terrorist leaders that had been captured. The 14 suspects included the mastermind of the September 11, 2001 attacks in the U.S and the planners for the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole and the U.S. Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania.

  

Sept. 6, 2014 – Evergreen football standout Justin Nared was scheduled to take the field for his senior season as the starting quarterback when the Tuskegee University Golden Tigers opened their season against Alabama A&M University in Tuskegee. Nared, who led Tuskegee to the SIAC football title in 2012, missed three games in 2013 due to an injured shoulder. Entering the 2014 season, the 6-foot-1, 200-pound Nared, who played as a true freshman, was 11-2 as a starter over the previous two years.