Today in History for Dec. 10, 2015

Walter Johnson

Dec. 10, 1778 - John Jay, the former chief justice of the New York Supreme Court, was elected president of the Continental Congress. While Jay opposed British interference in the colonies, he was against complete independence from Great Britain. Despite his early misgivings about independence, Jay served as president of the Continental Congress from 1778 to 1779 and in 1782 signed the Treaty of Paris with Great Britain.

Dec. 10, 1810 – English mathematician and inventor Ada Augusta Byron, Countess of Lovelace, was born in London, England. More commonly known as Ada Lovelace, she was the only legitimate child of the tempestuous poet George Gordon, Lord Byron, from his brief marriage to Annabella Milbanke. Later in life, she teamed up famous mathematician and inventor Charles Babbage and her work with his “analytical engine” is why she is today considered to be the first computer programmer.

Dec. 10, 1812 – Clarke County was created by the Mississippi Territorial Government from lands taken from Washington County. The county was named for Revolutionary War soldier and Georgia Governor John Clarke.

Dec. 10, 1817 - Mississippi was admitted to the Union as the 20th American state.

Dec. 10, 1830 – Poet Emily Dickinson was born in Amherst, Mass.

Dec. 10, 1839 – Dr. James Thomas Searcy was born in Tuscaloosa, Ala. He would serve as the first superintendent of the Mount Vernon Hospital, which was renamed Searcy Hospital in his honor in 1919.

Dec. 10, 1851 – Melvil Dewey, the librarian who developed the Dewey Decimal System in 1876, was born in Adams Centre, New York.

Dec. 10, 1861 – The Confederate States of America accepted a rival state government's pronouncement that declared Kentucky to be the 13th state of the Confederacy.

Dec. 10, 1864 - Union Major General William Tecumseh Sherman completed his "March to the Sea" as his Unior Army troops reached the outer Confederate defenses of Savannah, Georgia. Since mid-November of that year, Sherman’s army had been sweeping from Atlanta across the state to the south and east towards Savannah, one of the last Confederate seaports still unoccupied by Union forces. Along the way, Sherman destroyed farms and railroads, burned storehouses, and fed his army off the land.

Dec. 10, 1868 – Escambia County, Ala. was formed by an act of the Alabama legislature from portions of Conecuh and Baldwin counties.

Dec. 10, 1884 – Mark Twain's “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” was first published in Canada and England. It wouldn’t be published in the United States for two more months.

Dec. 10, 1897 – Dr. H.C. Bradley of River Ridge, Ala. passed away.

Dec. 10, 1901 - The first Nobel prizes were awarded.

Dec. 10, 1904 - Ivan Pavlov, who knew a thing or two about making dogs salivate, received the Nobel Prize for physiology.

Dec. 10, 1906 – U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt won the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in the mediation of the Russo-Japanese War, becoming the first American to win a Nobel Prize.

Dec. 10, 1911 – English botanist and explorer Joseph Dalton Hooker died at the age of 84 in Sunningdale, Berkshire, England. Hooker was one of the greatest British botanists and explorers of the 19th century. Hooker was a founder of geographical botany, and Charles Darwin's closest friend.

Dec. 10, 1914 – Former Conecuh County Probate Judge Perry C. Walker, who was for many years a prominent citizen of Evergreen, Ala., passed away at the age of 64 in Salisbury, N.C. Born in Belleville on Feb. 22, 1850, he was elected to probate judge, succeeding his father, F.M. Walker, each serving in this capacity for 18 years. His remains were taken to Columbia, Ala. for burial.

Dec. 10, 1917 – During World War I, men ordered to report to the Local Board (in Monroeville, Ala.) for military duty and transportation to mobilization camp on this Monday included Burnie E. Jones, James Bernard Wright, Jack Lyon, Oscar William White, Denny C. Coleman.

Dec. 10, 1919 - The National League voted to ban spitballs by all new pitchers. The Rules Committee officially worked out the ban the following February.

Dec. 10, 1920 - Richard Furguson claimed to have been robbed of about $13 by a “strange man” near the mineral spring on this evening on his way home from Evergreen, Ala. He said the highwayman held a pistol on him while he was forced to hand over all of his money before the man escaped.

Dec. 10, 1925 – Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Carolyn Kizer was born in Spokane, Wash.

Dec. 10, 1927 - The Grand Old Opry made its first radio broadcast from Nashville, Tenn. and the phrase "Grand Ole Opry" was used for the first time on-air.

Dec. 10, 1929 – Paving equipment began to arrive for use in paving the Evergreen-Castleberry highway in Conecuh County, Ala. The Davis Construction Co. of Atlanta, Ga. was the contractor in charge of the project.

Dec. 10, 1938 – Filming on “Gone With the Wind” began with the “Burning of Atlanta” scene, although the role of Scarlett O’Hara still hadn't been cast.

Dec. 10, 1939 - The National Football League's attendance exceeded 1 million in a season for the first time.

Dec. 10, 1946 – National Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Walter Johnson died at the age of 59 in Washington, D.C. He played his entire career, 1907-1927, for the Washington Senators, and he also managed the Senators and the Cleveland Indians. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1936.

Dec. 10, 1947 - A radio version of Alabama author Ambrose Bierce's story "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" is broadcast as part of the “Escape” series.

Dec. 10, 1953 - Hugh Hefner published the first "Playboy" magazine with an investment of $7,600.

Dec. 10, 1959 – The Evergreen (Ala.) High School Quarterback Club held its annual banquet at the Evergreen High School lunchroom at 7:30 p.m. University of Alabama assistant football coach Bob Ford was the featured speaker.

Dec. 10, 1962 - Frank Gifford of the New York Giants was on the cover of "Sports Illustrated."

Dec. 10, 1972 - The American League voted to adopt the designated-hitter rule in a three-year experiment. In December 1975, the American League voted to permanently adopt the designated-hitter rule.

Dec. 10, 1972 - The longest non-scoring pass in National Football League history was made when Jim Hart of the St. Louis Cardinals threw a pass from his own one yard-line to Bobby Moore (Ahmad Rashad). Moore was tackled on the Rams' one-yard line. The pass was officially 98 yards.

Dec. 10, 1978 - Ed Wood Jr., the creator of such "classics" as “Plan 9 From Outer Space,” passed away at the age of 54 in Los Angeles, Calif.

Dec. 10, 1978 – The home of Lewie and Nina Wilson’s home in Conecuh County, Ala. (probably in Evergreen) was totally destroyed by fire.

Dec. 10, 1981 – The Evergreen Courant reported that the Evergreen (Ala.) Chamber of Commerce and the Downtown Action Committee had announced that most local stores would be open all day on Wednesdays from that date until Christmas.

Dec. 10, 1981 – Evergreen, Ala. weather observer Earl Windham reported that the area was about 14 inches short of its normal rainfall up to that point in 1981.

Dec. 10, 1983 – Evergreen (Ala.) High School’s Quarterback Club held its annual football banquet in the E.H.S. cafeteria, and Alabama offensive line coach Tom Goode was the guest speaker.

Dec. 10, 1993 – Episode No. 11 of “The X-Files” – entitled “Eve” – aired for the first time.

Dec. 10, 1994 - Art Monk of the New York Jets set an NFL record of 178 straight games with a reception.

Dec. 10, 1994 - Advertising executive Thomas Mosser of North Caldwell, N.J. was killed by a mail bomb that was blamed on the Unabomber.

Dec. 10, 2003 - The U.S. barred firms based in certain countries, opponents of the Iraq war, from bidding on Iraqi reconstruction projects. The ban did not prevent companies from winning subcontracts.

Dec. 10, 2003 - The National Archives released 240 hours of tape recordings from the Nixon White House from July through October 1972. On the tapes Nixon called Ronald Reagan "strange" and "uncomfortable to be around."

Dec. 10, 2006 - The San Diego Chargers running back LaDainian Tomlinson racks up his 29th touchdown of the year, breaking the National Football League record for touchdowns scored during a single season.

Dec. 10, 2007 - Michael Vick was sentenced by a federal judge in Richmond, Va. to 23 months in prison for bankrolling a dogfighting operation and killing dogs that underperformed.