Today in History for Jan. 23, 2016

Thomas Love Peacock

Jan. 23, 1622 – English explorer and navigator William Baffin died from a gunshot at Qeshm, Ormus. He was around 38 years old.

Jan. 23, 1737 – American Revolutionary Patriot John Hancock was born in Braintree (now Quincy), Province of Massachusetts Bay.

Jan. 23, 1775 - London merchants petitioned Parliament for relief from the hardships created by the curtailment of trade with the North American colonies. In the petition, the merchants provided their own history of the dispute between the colonies and Parliament, beginning with the Stamp Act of 1765. Most critical to the merchants’ concerns were the £2 million sterling in outstanding debts owed to them by their North American counterparts.

Jan. 23, 1783 – French novelist and essayist Stendhal was born Marie-Henri Beyle in Grenoble, France.

Jan. 23, 1789 – Georgetown University, originally called Georgetown College, was officially founded by John Carroll, the country’s first Catholic bishop.

Jan. 23, 1845 – Conecuh County attorney George Robert Farnham was born near Belleville, Ala. He joined the Monroe Guards at 16 and later served as Evergreen Baptist Church’s Sunday School Superintendent. He was President of the 1880 State Sunday School Convention and also served as a state senator.

Jan. 23, 1846 – Slavery in Tunisia was abolished.

Jan. 23, 1862 – During the Civil War, the blockade runner, Calhoun, was captured by the Federal Navy near the mouth of the Mississippi River. Also on that day, a third set of obstacles were sunk at the entrance to Charleston Harbor, S.C., in an attempt to deny usage to blockade runners.

Jan. 23, 1863 - A five-day Federal operation began between Fayetteville and Van Buren, Ark. A Federal expedition up the St Mary’s River from Beaufort, S.C. also began. A skirmish was also fought along the Bradyville Pike, in the vicinity of Murfreesborough and at Carthage, Tenn.

Jan. 23, 1863 - Union General Ambrose Burnside abandoned an offensive, known as the Mud March, against General Robert E. Lee. The attack started on Jan. 20 and was ended due to several days of heavy rain. As the Army of the Potomac continued to slog back to camp, U.S. Gen. Ambrose Burnside was quite depressed about the lack of successful conclusion to the project. Burnside sent a request to Lincoln that Generals Joseph Hooker, William B. Franklin, W. F. Smith and others be fired, demoted or transferred. Burnside wanted Hooker removed from the service altogether. Lincoln quietly ignored Burnside‘s tirade. Although it was little consolation to either Burnside or his wet, exhausted and shivering troops, the movement that became known to history as the “Mud March” had caused considerable alarm among Confederate commanders.

Jan. 23, 1864 - A six-day Federal operation began in North Alabama and a skirmish occurred at Woodville, Ala.

Jan. 23, 1864 During the Civil War, skirmishes were fought at Bailey’s on Cooked Creek, Burrowsville and Rolling Prairie, Ark.; at Cowskin Bottom in the Indian Territory; at Newport, Tenn.; and at Cowskin Bottom, in Newton County, Mo. A Federal operation also began between La Grange, Tenn. and Ripley, Miss. A five-day Federal operation also began between Patterson, Mo. to Cherokee Bay, Ark. A three-day Federal operation also began between Charlestown, West Virginia and Woodstock, Va. This operation moved through the towns of Berryville, Millwood, White Post, Newton, Middletown and Strasburg.

Jan. 23, 1865 During the Civil War, a skirmish was fought at Thompson’s Plantation, in the vicinity of Donaldsonville, La. and at Fort Brady, located along the James River in Virginia. A five-day Federal operation began in the Cumberland Gap, Tenn. area. A makeshift Confederate fleet departed Richmond, Va., sailing down the James River to attack the Federal supply depot at City Point. This attempt was unsuccessful.

Jan. 23, 1865 - Confederate General John Bell Hood was officially removed as commander of the Army of Tennessee. He had requested the removal several weeks before, and the action closed a sad chapter in the history of the Army of Tennessee. Hood lost a leg at Chickamauga in September 1863.

Jan. 23, 1866 – English author and poet Thomas Love Peacock died at the age of 80 from injuries sustained in a fire in which he had attempted to save his library in Lower Halliford, Shepperton, Surrey, England.

Jan. 23, 1882 – Brewton was made the county seat of Escambia County, Ala. Previously, the county seat had been located at Pollard.

Jan. 23, 1887 – Rube Burrow and his gang committed their second train robbery, robbing an eastbound Texas & Pacific train around 2:28 a.m.

Jan. 23, 1897 – Elva Zona Heaster was found dead in Greenbrier County, West Virginia. The resulting murder trial of her husband is perhaps the only case in United States history where the alleged testimony of a ghost helped secure a conviction.

Jan. 23, 1908 – The Conecuh Record reported that Dr. A.A. McKittrick had died.

Jan. 23, 1914 – The Rev. William Allen Parker, a native of Choctaw County, Ala., passed away at the age of 65 at Mt. Enterprise in Rusk County, Texas. He left Alabama about two years prior to his death and prior to that he was a Baptist minister in Washington, Clarke, Perry and Marengo counties for about 40 years. He was licensed to preach in October 1877 and was ordained a minister in May 1878 at Nannafalla Church in Yantley, Ala. He preached at Faunsdale and Dayton in 1897.

Jan. 23, 1918 – Nobel Prize-winning pharmacologist Gertrude Elion was born in New York City.

Jan. 23, 1922 – A 14-year-old Canadian boy with diabetes became the first patient to receive treatment by insulin injection.

Jan. 23, 1927 – Swedish-American businessman and explorer Lars-Eric Lindblad was born in Solna north of Stockholm, Sweden.

Jan. 23, 1929 – Evergreen High School’s boys basketball team beat Georgiana, 19-10.

Jan. 23, 1930 - Clyde Tombaugh first photographed Pluto.

Jan. 23, 1930 – Nobel Prize-winning poet and playwright Dereck Walcott was born in Castries, Saint Lucia.

Jan. 23, 1931 – In Lovecraftian fiction, Miskatonic University’s Pabodie Antarctic Expedition found the last Antarctic city of the Elder Things.

Jan. 23, 1936 – Advertising began for bids for the construction of the overhead bridge in Evergreen, Ala.

Jan. 23, 1941 – Charles Lindbergh testified before the U.S. Congress and recommended that the United States negotiate a neutrality pact with Adolf Hitler.

Jan. 23, 1950 - NFL owners approved the unlimited substitution rule that had been used on a trial basis for 1949.

Jan. 23, 1957 - Wham-O produced the first Frisbees. The name was derived from students throwing around empty pie tins from the Frisbie Pie Company. The first version of the Frisbee was marketed as the Pluto Platter to cash in on the public craze over space and UFOs.

Jan. 23, 1964 – The 24th Amendment to the United States Constitution, prohibiting the use of poll taxes in national elections, was ratified.

Jan. 23, 1973 - President Nixon announced that Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho, the chief North Vietnamese negotiator, had initialled a peace agreement in Paris “to end the war and bring peace with honor in Vietnam and Southeast Asia.” Kissinger and Tho had been conducting secret negotiations since 1969. After the South Vietnamese had blunted the massive North Vietnamese invasion launched in the spring of 1972, Kissinger and the North Vietnamese had finally made some progress on reaching a negotiated end to the war.

Jan. 23, 1974 - Mike Oldfield’s "Tubular Bells" opened the credits of the movie, "The Exorcist".

Jan. 23, 1976 – Major League Baseball pitcher Brandon Duckworth was born in Kearns, Utah. During his career, he played for the Philadelphia Phillies, the Houston Astros and the Kansas City Royals.

Jan. 23, 1977 – The miniseries “Roots” premiered on ABC.

Jan. 23, 1982 - Diana Ross performed the U.S. national anthem at Super Bowl XVI.

Jan. 23, 1985 - O.J. Simpson became the first Heisman Trophy winner to be elected to pro football’s Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.

Jan. 23, 1988 - Nirvana recorded a 10-song demo tape with producer Jack Endino. The Melvin's Dale Crover was on drums.

Jan. 23, 1998 – The Jackson Historic District in Jackson, Ala., which is spread over 180 acres and includes 140 buildings, was added to the National Register of Historic Places. The district is roughly bounded by College Avenue, Forest Avenue, Carroll Avenue, Cedar Street, Florida Street, Commerce Street, Clinton Street, and Spruce Street.

Jan. 23, 2002 – "American Taliban" John Walker Lindh returned to the United States in FBI custody.

Jan. 23, 2006 – Gardendale, Alabama’s historical society was formally established.

Jan. 23, 2009 – Sparta Academy’s varsity girls basketball team, ranked No. 2 in the state, beat Sumter Academy, 61-20, in Evergreen. Sparta’s varsity boys beat Sumter, 48-33.

Jan. 23, 2013 – The Brushey Creek Baptist Church Cemetery in Butler County, Ala. was added to the Alabama Historic Cemetery Register.

Jan. 23, 2015 – National Basetball Hall of Fame shortstop and first baseman Ernie Banks died at the age of 83 in Chicago, Ill. He played his entire career for the Chicago Cubs. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1977.