Henry Walter Bates |
Feb. 8, 1762 – Vietnamese emperor Gia Long was born.
Feb. 8, 1776 - General George Washington received a letter
from Cumberland, Nova Scotia, and the letter requested that he invade Novia
Scotia at his earliest possible convenience.
Feb. 8, 1777 - Major Timothy Bigelow became colonel of the
15th Massachusetts Colonial Line of the Continental Army. He had been a
prisoner of war until just six months before. After his promotion to colonel,
Bigelow fought valiantly in some of the most important battles of the
Revolutionary War, including the Battle of Saratoga in October 1777, the Battle
of Monmouth in June 1778 and the Battle of Yorktown in October 1781. A monument
dedicated to Bigelow is located at Worcester Common in Worcester, Massachusetts.
Feb. 8, 1804 – English explorer Richard Lemon Lander was
born in Truro, Cornwall.
Feb. 8, 1820 – Union General William Tecumsen Sherman was
born in Lancaster, Ohio.
Feb. 8, 1825 – English geographer, biologist and explorer Henry
Walter Bates was born in Leicester, Leicestershire, England, United Kingdom.
Feb. 8, 1828 - Jules Verne, considered the “Father of
Science Fiction,” was born in Nantes, France.
Feb. 8, 1831 – West Point cadet Edgar Allan Poe was tried
for gross neglect of duty and disobedience of orders for refusing to attend
formations, classes or church. Poe tactically pled not guilty to induce
dismissal, knowing he would be found guilty.
Feb. 8, 1836 – Former Tennessee Congressman David Crockett
arrived in San Antonio de Bexar with 12 other volunteers.
Feb. 8, 1850 – Kate Chopin, who is best known for her 1899
novel, “The Awakening,” was born in St. Louis, Mo.
Feb. 8, 1852 – The Brooklyn Academy in Conecuh County was
incorporated by the Alabama legislature.
Feb. 8-9, 1855 – The “Devil’s Footprints” Incident occurred
around the Exe Estuary in East Devon and South Devon, England. After a heavy
snowfall, trails of hoof-like marks appeared overnight in the snow covering a
total distance of some 40 to 100 miles. The footprints were so called because some
people believed that they were the tracks of Satan, as they were allegedly made
by a cloven hoof. Many theories have been put forward to explain the incident,
and some aspects of its veracity have also been called into question.
Feb. 8, 1861 - The Confederate States of America was formed
when the Constitution of the Confederates States of America was finalized and
adopted in Montgomery, Ala.
Feb. 8, 1861- During the Civil War, Arkansas State Troops seized the arsenal at Little Rock, Ark.
Feb. 8, 1862 - Union General Ambrose Burnside captured
Roanoke Island in North Carolina. It was one of the first major Union victories
of the Civil War and gave the Yankees control of the mouth of Albemarle
Sound, allowing them to threaten the Rebel capital of Richmond,
Virginia, from the south. The Federals suffered 37 men killed and 214
wounded, while the Confederates lost 23 men killed and 62 wounded.
Feb. 8, 1862 – During the Civil War, skirmishes were fought at Bolivar, Mo.; at Linn Creek, Va.; and in Mercer County, West Va. Federal gunboats also moved up the Pasquotank River, toward Elizabeth City, N.C.
Feb. 8, 1863 – During the Civil War, skirmishes were fought near Independence, Mo. and at Camp Sheldon, Miss.
Feb. 8, 1864 – During the Civil War, skirmishes were fought at Ten-Mile Run near Camp Finegan, Fla., as Federal forces moved inland from Jacksonville, Fla. Skirmishes were also fought at Ringgold, Ga.; at Barboursville, Ky. and at Donaldsonville, La. Multiple skirmishes were also fought at Coldwater Ferry, another in the vicinity of Morton, and another at Senatobia, Miss. Federal reconnaissance was conducted from Maryville, Tenn., on the main Sevierville Road.
Feb. 8, 1865 - The Battle of Dabney's Mill (Hatcher's Run)
ended after three days. Neither side ended with a significant advantage after
producing about 3,000 casualties.
Feb. 8, 1865 – In the United States, Delaware voters rejected the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and voted to continue the practice of slavery. (Delaware finally ratified the amendment on Feb. 12, 1901.) Massachusetts and Pennsylvania become the ninth and tenth states to ratify the 13th amendment abolishing slavery.
Feb. 8, 1865 - A two-day Federal operation down the Arkansas River, near Little Rock, Ark. began. Federal reconnaissance was conducted from Helena to Madison, Ark.
Feb. 8, 1865 – During the Civil War, skirmishes were fought at New Market, Bradfordsville and Hustonville, Ky.; with Indians on the North Platte River, near Rush Creek, the Nebraska Territory; and at White Pond, Williston, Walker’s Bridge and at Cannon’s Bridge on the Edisto River, S.C.
Feb. 8, 1896 - The Western Conference was formed by
representatives of Midwestern universities. The group later changed its name to
the Big 10 Conference.
Feb. 8, 1910 - William D. Boyce incorporated the Boy Scouts
of America.
Feb. 8, 1911 – Poet Elizabeth Bishop was born in Worcester,
Mass.
Feb. 8, 1912 – Aviation pioneer Robert G. Fowler became the
first person to fly west to east aross the United States when he arrived in
Jacksonville, Fla. He departed San Francisco on Sept. 11, 1911 and stopped in
Evergreen, Ala. on Jan. 15, 1912.
Feb. 8, 1915 – D. W. Griffith's controversial film “The
Birth of a Nation” premiered at Clune’s Auditorium in Los Angeles. This silent
film was America's first feature-length motion picture and a box-office smash,
and during its unprecedented three hours Griffith popularized countless
filmmaking techniques that remain central to the art today. Actually titled
“The Clansman” for its first month of release, the film provided a highly
subjective history of the Civil War, Reconstruction, and the rise of the Ku
Klux Klan.
Feb. 8, 1915 - The first quarterly term of the Commissioners
Court for the new year convened in Monroeville, Ala. with Commissioners
Lambert, Jackson, Holloman and Holloway in attendance.
Feb. 8, 1918 - "The Stars and Stripes" newspaper
was published for the first time.
Feb. 8, 1922 - United States President Warren G. Harding
introduced the first radio set in the White House.
Feb. 8, 1922 – In the fictional video game, “Call of
Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth,” private investigator Jack Walters helped
J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI raid the Marsh Gold Refinery in Innsmouth, where he
was attacked by an ancient creature known as a Shoggoth and uncovered a Cthulhu
shrine before the building is demolished.
Feb. 8, 1926 – Beat Generation icon Neal Cassady was born in
Salt Lake City.
Feb. 8, 1936 - The first National Football League draft was
held, and Jay Berwanger was the first to be selected, drafted by the
Philadelphia Eagles.
Feb. 8, 1938 – Longtime Monroe Journal publisher Q. Salter
died after he was stricken when leaving his office at The Monroe County Bank.
He died just minutes later without uttering a word. He’s buried in the old
Methodist Cemetery on Sumter Ave. in Monroeville.
Feb. 8, 1940 – The Evergreen Courant reported that Conecuh
County Superintendent of Education H.D. Weathers and Conecuh County Circuit
Court Clerk W.S. Dreaden had qualified to seek reelection in the upcoming
primary elections.
Feb. 8, 1949 – Evergreen High School officially dedicated
its new, $90,000 basketball gym, which was named “Memorial Gym” in honor of the
eight former Evergreen High School students who died during WWII (Laula M.
Middleton, Winton McIntyre, Paul Wesley Tranum, William Bucy Stinson, Judson
Cary Murphy, John Travis Aaron, James Freeman and Ely H. Cowart). The ceremony
was scheduled to take place between Evergreen’s B-team and varsity games
against the Loretto Saints. Alabama High School Athletic Association
Executive-Secretary J. Cliff Harper, who was also a former Evergreen High
School principal, was the guest speaker at the dedication.
Feb. 8, 1950 - The Associated Press named Jim Thorpe and
Baby Didrikson Zaharias the greatest male and female athletes of the first half
of the 20th century.
Feb. 8, 1952 – The Manistee & Repton Railroad ceased
operations.
Feb. 8, 1955 – Best-selling novelist John Grisham was born
in Jonesboro, Ark. His first novel, “A Time to Kill,” was published in 1989.
Feb. 8, 1956 – National Baseball Hall of Fame catcher,
manager and owner Connie Mack died at the age of 93 in Philadelphia. During his
career, he played for the Washington Nationals, the Buffalo Bisons and the
Pittsburgh Pirates and he also managed the Pirates and the Philadelphia
Athletics. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1937.
Feb. 8, 1959 - Alabama author William Miller was born in
Anniston, Ala.
Feb. 8, 1961 – John Thomas Coker, 32, of Evergreen, Ala.
died from injuries received in an accident on Feb. 7. Coker, a 1949 graduate of
Evergreen High School, was working with the Scott Co., dismantling an old
bridge across the Chattahoochee River, 17 miles east of Dothan, when he fell 42
feet to the bank of the river before sliding into the river itself. Foreman
Billy Biles rescued Coker from the river, and Coker was rushed to hospitals in
Dothan and Phenix City.
Feb. 8, 1962 – During what is now known as the “Charonne Massacre,”
nine trade unionists were killed by French police at the instigation of Nazi
collaborator Maurice Papon, then chief of the Paris Prefecture of Police.
Feb. 8, 1962 - The Military Assistance Command Vietnam (MACV), headed by Gen. Paul D. Harkins, former U.S. Army Deputy Commander-in-Chief in the Pacific, was installed in Saigon as the United States reorganized its military command in South Vietnam. Before MACV, the senior U.S. military command in South Vietnam was the U.S. Military Assistance and Advisory Group (MAAG-Vietnam), which was formed on Nov. 1, 1955 to provide military assistance to South Vietnam. MAAG-Vietnam had U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps elements that provided advice and assistance to the South Vietnamese Ministry of Defense, Joint General Staff and corps and division commanders, as well as to training centers and province and district headquarters.
Feb. 8, 1963 - Lamar Hunt, owner of the American Football
League franchise in Dallas, Texas, moved the operation to Kansas City. The new
team was named the Chiefs.
Feb. 8, 1963 – Travel, financial and commercial transactions
by United States citizens to Cuba were made illegal by the John F. Kennedy
administration.
Feb. 8, 1963
– The regime of Prime Minister of Iraq, Brigadier General Abd al-Karim Qasim was
overthrown by the Ba'ath Party.
Feb. 8, 1969 - The last issue of the "Saturday Evening
Post" was published. It was revived in 1971 as a quarterly publication and
later a six times a year publication.
Feb. 8, 1969 – The “Allende meteorite” fell near Pueblito de
Allende, Chihuahua, Mexico.
Feb. 8, 1971 – South Vietnamese ground troops launched an
incursion into Laos to try to cut off the Ho Chi Minh trail and stop communist
infiltration. Dubbed Operation Lam Son 719, the mission goal was to disrupt the
communist supply and infiltration network along Route 9 in Laos, adjacent to
the two northern provinces of South Vietnam. The operation was supported by
U.S. airpower (aviation and airlift) and artillery (firing across the border
from firebases inside South Vietnam).
Feb. 8, 1971 - In Cambodia, Premier Lon Nol suffered a paralyzing stroke and turned his duties over to Deputy Premier Sirik Matak. Debilitated by the stroke, Lon Nol resigned on April 20. A week later, he withdrew his resignation, staying on in a figurehead role as Sirik Matak continued to run the government pending his recovery.
Feb. 8, 1976 – Major League Baseball outfielder Adam Piatt
was born in Chicago, Ill. He went on to play for the Oakland Athletics and the
Tampa Bay Devil Rays.
Feb. 8, 1977 – The Murder Creek Historical Society acquired
the title to the Louisville & Nashville Railroad Co. Depot in Evergreen, Ala.
The title was transferred to the Society’s officers by I.L. Bell, L&N
Superintendent at Mobile, in a brief ceremony at the depot.
Feb. 8, 1985 – Monroe Academy beat Sparta, 67-61, in the
District Basketball Tournament in Monroeville, Ala. Al Etheridge, who was named
to the all-tournament team, led Sparta with 23 points.
Feb. 8, 1985 – Weather reporter Earl Windham reported a low
of 23 degrees in Evergreen, Ala.
Feb. 8, 1985 - "The Dukes of Hazzard" ended its
6-1/2 year run on CBS television.
Feb. 8, 1988 - The Excel (Ala.) Town Council planned to hold
a public hearing at 6 p.m. on this Monday night to hear citizens’ concerns
about proposed annexation. On Jan. 18, 1988, the council approved plans to
annex about two square miles north of the present town limits into the town.
The area included land between Highway 136 and Gardner Gin Road to the east and
land on the south side of Highway 84 to the H&R Block building.
Feb. 8, 1991 - Roger Clemens signed a contract with the
Boston Red Sox that paid $5,380,250 per year.
Feb. 8, 1991 – Sparta Academy’s varsity boys basketball team
beat Hooper Academy, 93-66, in Evergreen, Ala. Steven Gall led Sparta with 22
points.
Feb. 8, 2000 – Pro Football Hall of Fame outside linebacker
and defensive end Derrick Thomas died in Miami, Fla. at the age of 33 from
injuries suffered in a car accident weeks before. Thomas was an All-American at
the University of Alabama and went on to play his entire pro career for the
Kansas City Chiefs. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2009.
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