Today in History for Nov. 12, 2015

Keneshaw Mountain Landis

Nov. 12, 1729 – French explorer Louis Antoine de Bougainville was born in Paris, France. A contemporary of the British explorer James Cook, he took part in the Seven Years' War in North America and the American Revolutionary War against Britain. Bougainville later gained fame for his expeditions, including circumnavigation of the globe in a scientific expedition, the first recorded settlement on the Falkland Islands, and voyages into the Pacific Ocean.

Nov. 12, 1775 - Upon hearing of England’s rejection of the so-called Olive Branch Petition on this day, Abigail Adams wrote to her husband, John Adams, “Let us separate, they are unworthy to be our Brethren. Let us renounce them and instead of supplications as formerly for their prosperity and happiness, Let us beseech the almighty to blast their councils and bring to Nought all their devices.”

Nov. 12, 1813 - Sam Dale, Jeremiah Austill, and James Smith became frontier heroes in a Creek War episode on the Alabama River known as “The Canoe Fight.” From their canoe, paddled by a black man named Caesar, the three Americans engaged a large canoe carrying nine Creek warriors. As militiamen and Indians watched from opposite sides of the river, Dale, Austill, and Smith killed the nine warriors in hand-to-hand combat. (Other sources say this event occurred on Jan. 12, 1813.)

Nov. 12, 1815 – Feminist Elizabeth Cady Stanton was born in Johnstown, New York.

Nov. 12-13, 1833 – In a spectacle seen across the Southeast, a fantastic meteor shower caused this night to be known as “the night stars fell on Alabama.” The shower created such great excitement across the state that it became a part of Alabama folklore and for years was used to date events. A century later it inspired a song and book, and in 2002 the state put the phrase "Stars Fell on Alabama" on its license plates.

Nov. 12, 1861 – During the Civil War, Federal reconnaissance to Pohick Church and Occoquan Creek, Va. began.

Nov. 12, 1861 – During the Civil War, a skirmish was fought on Laurel Creek, Cotton Hill, West Virginia.

Nov. 12, 1864 - Union General William T. Sherman ordered the business district of Atlanta destroyed before he embarked on his famous March to the Sea. He had captured Atlanta in early September 1864, and he ordered a systematic destruction ofthe city to prevent Confederates from recovering anything once the Yankees abandoned it. By one estimate, nearly 40 percent of the city was ruined.

Nov. 12, 1889 – DeWitt Wallace, the founder of “Reader’s Digest,” was born in St. Paul, Minn.

Nov. 12, 1892 - William "Pudge" Heffelfinger became the first professional football player on record, participating in his first paid game for the Allegheny Athletic Association.

Nov. 12, 1895 - Five days after a huge fire on Nov. 7, fire destroyed every business and house on the west side of the railroad tracks in Evergreen, Ala.

Nov. 12, 1912 – Dr. Woodrow Wilson Eddins born in Peterman, Ala. He went on to deliver over 9,000 babies, more than the entire population of Monroeville today.

Nov. 12, 1912 – The frozen bodies of Robert Scott and his men were found on the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica.

Nov. 12, 1914 – After an illness of about two weeks, former Conecuh County Sheriff Wiley W. Pridgen, 49, passed away in Evergreen, Ala. Pridgen, who was born on July 21, 1865, moved to Evergreen from Brewton in 1896 and was a partner in the stock and livery business with Walter Lee. A native of Texas, who came to Alabama 25 years before his death, Pridgen was later elected Conecuh County Sheriff, and he was an active member of the local Knights of Pythias lodge. His remains were shipped by train to Thomaston, Texas for burial, with his stepfather A.W. Eatman and Walter Lee serving as escorts. He was buried in Thomaston Community Cemetery in Thomaston in DeWitt County, Texas.

Nov. 12, 1914 – Mrs. W.C. Brantley passed away at her home near Repton, Ala. and was buried at Oak Grove Cemetery the next day.

Nov. 12, 1914 – The four-act comedy, “Hazel Adams,” was performed at Monroe County High School in Monroeville, Ala., starting at 8 p.m., a fundraiser for the school’s Domestic Science Department.

Nov. 12, 1915 – “The Master Hand,” starring Nat Godwin, was scheduled to be shown at the Arcade Theatre in Evergreen, Ala.

Nov. 12, 1917 - A movie version of Alabama author Mary Raymond Shipman Andrews' book “The Courage of the Commonplace” was released.

Nov. 12, 1920 - Judge Keneshaw Mountain Landis was elected the first commissioner of the American and National Baseball Leagues.

Nov. 12, 1921 – A fiddler’s convention was held in Paul, Ala.

Nov. 12, 1923 – English archaeologist and explorer Ian Graham was born in Campsea Ashe, a village in the East Anglia county of Suffolk, England. His explorations of Maya ruins in the jungles of Mexico, Guatemala and Belize helped establish the Corpus of Maya Hieroglyphic Inscriptions published by the Peabody Museum of Harvard University. Among his related works is a biography of an early predecessor, the 19th-century British Maya explorer Alfred Maudslay.

Nov. 12, 1932 – Ed Morrow, 30, was found dead from a shotgun wound near Heath’s Mill on the Farnham Plantation near Belleville, Ala. Deputy Sheriff W.A. Moore, Coroner L.B. Chapman and a coroner’s jury composed of C.A. Hart, C.E. Mills, Howard Landon, H.J. Owens, M.L. Sheffield and E. Lundy went to the scene, investigated and determined that his death was the result of a “gunshot wound inflicted by a person and persons unknown.” Moore went on to arrest Elisha Brown, Lewis King and Vester Daily in connection with Morrow’s death.

Nov. 12, 1933 - In Philadelphia, the first Sunday football game was played.

Nov. 12, 1933 – Hugh Gray took the first known photos alleged to be of the Loch Ness Monster. Gray was walking along the shore of Loch Ness when he saw an "object of considerable dimensions, making a big splash with spray on the surface of the Loch."  He had his camera with him, and captured what some believe to be the first  photographic evidence of the Loch Ness Monster. Others have dismissed the image as a distortion of a dog swimming through the water.

Nov. 12, 1944 – Sportscaster Al Michaels was born in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Nov. 12, 1945 – Singer and musician Neil Young was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Nov. 12, 1945 – Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and short-story writer Tracy Kidder was born in New York City.

Nov. 12, 1953 - The National Football League policy of blacking out home games was upheld by Judge Allan K. Grim of the U.S. District Court in Philadelphia.

Nov. 12, 1954 – Ellis Island formally closed its doors after processing more than 12 million immigrants to the United States in its more than a half century of service.

Nov. 12, 1956 – Prof. George Singer, famous hypnotist, conducted a two-hour show on hypnotism at the Evergreen City School Auditorium in Evergreen, Ala. The show was sponsored by the Evergreen Jaycees.

Nov. 12, 1958 – A team of rock climbers led by Warren Harding completed the first ascent of The Nose on El Capitan in Yosemite Valley.

Nov. 12, 1959 – The Monroe Journal reported that the “strange disappearance” of the Fred Hayles family of Uriah, Ala. remained unsolved after a month-long investigation covering several states had failed to produce any evidence as to their whereabouts. The family had been missing from their home since Oct. 10, and members of the missing family included Hayles, who was a farmer, his wife, four children his father.

Nov. 12, 1964 – The Evergreen Courant reported that the Evergreen Jaycees had named Evergreen High School’s Alvin Dees as Player of the Week for his performance in the Nov. 6 Evergreen-T.R. Miller game. Dees, a senior tackle and linebacker, received the award earlier in the season after Evergreen’s game against Greenville. Dees was named to the Birmingham Post-Herald’s All State football team in 1963.

Nov. 12, 1964 – The Evergreen Courant reported that Cadet 2nd Lt. David Hyde Jr., the son of Mr. D.T. Hyde of Evergreen, Ala., had been appointed Platoon Leader in Co. A by Col. John W. Paddock, Professor of Military Science at the University of Alabama’s Army ROTC Cadet Brigade. In addition to his activities in the Cadet Brigade, Cadet Hyde had been a member of the ROTC Rifle Team from 1962-1964. Hyde was a graduate of Evergreen High School in Evergreen, Ala.

Nov. 12, 1967 - The Detroit Lions set a National Football League record when they fumbled the ball 11 times. They only lost possession five of the 11 times.

Nov. 12, 1970 - Alabama author Michelle Richmond was born in Demopolis, Ala.

Nov. 12, 1972 - Don Shula, coach of the Miami Dolphins, became the first NFL head coach to win 100 regular season games in 10 seasons.

Nov. 12, 1986 – Katie Sue Burt, the widow of the late Conecuh County Commission Chairman David L. Burt, who passed away on Nov. 7, 1986, took the oath of office as Chairman of the Conecuh County Commission shortly after 9 a.m. in the commission meeting room. The oath of office was administered by Circuit Judge Robert E.L. Key in the presence of the members of the commission, members of the Burt family and friends.

Nov. 12, 1993 – Episode No. 9 of “The X-Files” – entitled “Space” – aired for the first time.

Nov. 12, 1994 – Heather Watson was named Conecuh County’s Junior Miss during the county’s annual Junior Miss program at Ed Reid State Technical College in Evergreen, Ala. Other contestants that year included Rachel Bohannon, Kelly Booker, Amanda Chavers, Kristie Ivey, Ruby Lett, Carmon Salter and Monica Williams.

Nov. 12, 1997 - The UN Security Council imposed new sanctions on Iraq for constraints being placed on UN arms inspectors.

Nov. 12, 2002 - Stan Lee filed a lawsuit against Marvel Entertainment Inc. that claimed the company had cheated him out of millions of dollars in movie profits related to the 2002 movie "Spider-Man." Lee was the creator of Spider-Man, the Incredible Hulk and Daredevil.

Nov. 12, 2003 – In Nasiriyah, Iraq, at least 23 people, among them the first Italian casualties of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, were killed in a suicide bomb attack on an Italian police base.

Nov. 12, 2008 – Pilgrims Rest Cemetery in Escambia County, Ala. was added to the Alabama Historic Cemetery Register.