Today in History for Feb. 9, 2016

USS Constellation (CV-64)

Feb. 9, 1739 – William Bartram, one of America’s first professional botanists, was born near Philadelphia, Pa. Between 1773 and 1777, he went on a botanical and anthropological expedition through the Southeast, including Alabama, passing through Butler, Conecuh, Escambia and Monroe counties. He published the famous book, Bartram’s “Travels” in 1791.

Feb. 9, 1752 – Swedish biologist and explorer Fredrik Hasselqvist died at the age of 30 in Smryna, Turkey.

Feb. 9, 1773 - William Henry Harrison, the ninth president of the United States, was born on Berkeley Plantation in Virginia. Harrison served as president for a brief 32 days in 1841, the shortest term ever served. He was also the last president to be born an English subject.

Feb. 9, 1775 – During the American Revolutionary War, the British Parliament declared Massachusetts in rebellion.

Feb. 9, 1776 – Future New Jersey governor Joseph Bloomfield became captain of the third New Jersey Regiment of Foot in the Continental Army.

Feb. 9, 1778 - Rhode Island became the fourth state to ratify the Articles of Confederation.

Feb. 9, 1781 – German biologist and explorer Johann Baptist von Spix was born in Höchstadt an der Aisch, Prince-Bishopric of Bamberg.

Feb. 9, 1798 – Jephtha V. Perryman was born in Twiggs County, Ga. He would go on to serve as a legislator, judge and education superintendent in Conecuh County, Ala.

Feb. 9, 1825 – After no candidate received a majority of electoral votes in the U.S. presidential election of 1824, the United States House of Representatives elected John Quincy Adams as President of the United States.

Feb. 9, 1818 – Dallas County, Ala. was created by the Territorial Legislature.

Feb. 9, 1852 – The Conecuh Plank Road Co. was officially incorporated.

Feb. 9, 1861 – This day’s edition of Harper’s Weekly magazine included a sketch of U.S. Representative James Adam Stallworth of Evergreen, Ala.

Feb. 9, 1861 – During the Civil War, Jefferson Davis was elected the Provisional President of the Confederate States of America by the Confederate convention at Montgomery, Ala.

Feb. 9, 1861 - Fort Pickens, Fla. refused to receive the Federal troops that arrived on the steamer, Brooklyn, in order to maintain the status quo of that situation.

Feb. 9, 1862 – During the Civil War, a skirmish was fought at Marshfield, Mo., and Confederate Brigadier General Gideon Johnson Pillow assumed command of Fort Donelson in Tennessee.

Feb. 9, 1863 – During the Civil War, skirmishes were fought in the vicinity of Moscow, Tenn. and in the vicinity of Somerville, Va.

Feb. 9, 1864 – During the Civil War, skirmishes were fought at Morgan's Mill, Tomahawk Gap, and in White County, Ark.; near Point Washington, Fla.; at Donaldsonville and another at New River, La.; near Senatobia, Miss.; and in Hardin County, Tenn.

Feb. 9, 1864 – A two-day Federal operation began up the Nassau River from Fernandina, Fla., and Yazoo City, Miss. was occupied by Federal forces. Federal reconnaissance began toward Swansborough, Young’s Crossroads and the White River, N.C.

Feb. 9, 1864 – During the Civil War, 109 Federal officers escaped from Libby Prison, Richmond, Va., by digging a tunnel. Two drowned and 48 others were apprehended again.

Feb. 9, 1864 – During the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln sat for several photographs, including the one which would eventually be on the modern day $5 bill.

Feb. 9, 1864 - Union General George Armstrong Custer and Elizabeth “Libbie” Bacon were married in the First Presbyterian Church in Monroe, Michigan. Custer was killed on June 25, 1876 by Lakota and Northern Cheyenne Indians at the Battle of the Little Big Horn in Montana.

Feb. 9, 1865 – During the Civil War, skirmishes were fought at Binnaker’s Bridge and at Homan’s Bridge on the South Edisto River, S.C. and near Memphis, Tenn. Confederate General Robert E. Lee also proposed a pardon for all deserters who would return to their units within 30 days. President Jefferson Davis approved the pardon.

Feb. 9, 1870 – U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant signed a joint resolution of Congress establishing the U.S. Weather Bureau, which is now known as the National Weather Service.

Feb. 9, 1902 - Dr. Eugene-Louis Doyen of Paris surgically separated Radica and Doodica, Siamese twins from the Barnum and Bailey Circus. The operation was initially considered a success, but both girls died within a year of the procedure.

Feb. 9, 1903 - Alabama's last county, Houston County, was created by act of the legislature. Formed from parts of Dale, Geneva, and Henry counties in the extreme southeastern corner of the state, it was named for former Gov. George S. Houston. The city of Dothan was made the county seat.

Feb. 9, 1907 – Trường Chinh, the fourth President of Vietnam, was born in Duc Tan, Mộ Đức District, Quảng Ngãi Province, Indochina.

Feb. 9, 1913 – A group of meteors was visible across much of the eastern seaboard of North and South America, leading astronomers to conclude the source had been a small, short-lived natural satellite of the Earth.

Feb. 9, 1914 – Legendary baseball owner and showman Bill Veeck was born in Chicago.

Feb. 9, 1915 - The third attraction in the Lyceum series was presented at the Monroe County High School auditorium in Monroeville, Ala. Wells Watson Ginn appeared in the “varied and entertaining role of impersonator and reader.”

Feb. 9, 1922 – In the fictional video game, “Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth,” after a FBI raid on the Marsh Gold Refinery in Innsmouth, the U.S. military began a combined land-and-sea assault on Innsmouth. The only part of the town that proved resistant to the attack was the headquarters of the Esoteric Order of Dagon, a religious organization devoted to two undersea demigods and Cthulhu that holds the whole town under its grip. The building proved unbreachable for the Coast Guard and the Marines, but private investigator Jack Walters found a way in through an old smuggling entrance that was guarded by a star-spawn of Cthulhu.

Feb. 9, 1923 – Irish playwright and novelist Brendan Behan was born in Dublin.

Feb. 9, 1930 - A movie version of Alabama author Octavus Roy Cohen's book “The Other Tomorrow” was released.

Feb. 9, 1939 – The Evergreen Courant reported that Robert Fields, 60, of McKenzie, Ala., was being held in Conecuh County Jail on a charge of murder in connection with the fatal stabbing two weeks before of his 20-year-old wife, Eva Bell. Bell was found on the shoulder of Highway 31, one mile south of the Conecuh-Butler county line, on the night of Jan. 27, stabbed to death near the heart with an ice pick, or similar instrument. Fields, who sometimes went by the name of Mayweather, disappeared from his home on the night the body was found and authorities immediately instituted a search. Using bloodhounds obtained from the sheriff of Butler County and with the aid of two highway patrolmen, Sheriff J.G. Moore and his deputies found Fields on Feb. 7 near Nymph, after receiving reports he had been seen in that vicinity.

Feb. 9, 1944 – Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winning novelist Alice Walker was born in Eatonton, Ga.

Feb. 9, 1953 - The movie "Superman" premiered.

Feb. 9, 1954 – Evergreen High School’s varsity boys basketball team, led by head coach Wendell Hart, improved to 11-5 on the season by beating Repton, 51-48, in Repton, Ala. on this Tuesday night. Repton, led by head coach Albert Arnold, dropped to 14-2 on the season with the loss. Randy White led Evergreen with 26 points. Other top Evergreen players in that game included Ward Alexander Jr., Wayne Douglas, Jimmy Frazier and Hosea King. Ray Blackwell led Repton with 17 points. Other top Repton players in that game included Paul Brantley, Billy Farrish and Roger Kearly. Repton center Harry Giles led the game at halftime after becoming ill and it was later determined that he had appendicitis.

Feb. 9, 1960 - A verbal agreement was reached between representatives of the American and National Football Leagues. Both agreed not to tamper with player contracts.

Feb. 9, 1961 – Former pro and college football play Lum Snider spoke to the Evergreen, Ala. Rotary Club. Snider, a native of Cleveland, Tenn., was an All-SEC and All-American guard at Georgia Tech. He went on to play for the Philadelphia Eagles and later coached for the British Columbia Lions in Vancouver. At the time of his visit to Evergreen, he was an International Paper Co. salesman and a resident of Birmingham.

Feb. 9, 1963 - The eighth annual Moore Academy Homecoming Celebration was scheduled to be held at Pine Apple, Ala. on this Saturday. The Moore Academy Hawks were also scheduled to play the Camden Tigers in the annual basketball game to get under way at 7 p.m.

Feb. 9, 1964 – The Beatles appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show for the first time, as teenage girls screamed hysterically in the audience and 73 million people watched from home – a record for American television at the time. Their appearance on the show is considered the beginning of the "British Invasion" of music in the United States.

Feb. 9, 1965 – The United States Marine Corps sent a MIM-23 Hawk missile battalion to South Vietnam, the first American troops in-country without an official advisory or training mission. This air defense missile battalion was deployed to Da Nang as ordered by President Lydon Johnson to provide protection for the key U.S. airbase there. This was the first commitment of American combat troops in South Vietnam and there was considerable reaction around the world to the new stage of U.S. involvement in the war. Predictably, both communist China and the Soviet Union threatened to intervene if the United States continued to apply its military might on behalf of the South Vietnamese. In Moscow, some 2,000 demonstrators, led by Vietnamese and Chinese students and clearly supported by the authorities, attacked the U.S. Embassy. Britain and Australia supported the U.S. action, but France called for negotiations.

Feb. 9, 1971 – Pitcher Leroy "Satchel" Paige of Mobile, Ala. became the first Negro League veteran to be nominated for the Baseball Hall of Fame. In August of that year, Paige, a pitching legend known for his fastball, showmanship and the longevity of his playing career, which spanned five decades, was inducted.

Feb. 9, 1972 - The aircraft carrier USS Constellation joined aircraft carriers Coral Sea and Hancock off the coast of Vietnam. From 1964 to 1975, there were usually three U.S. carriers stationed in the water near Vietnam at any given time. Carrier aircraft participated in the bombing of North Vietnam and also provided close air support for U.S. and South Vietnamese forces in South Vietnam. In 1972, the number of U.S. carriers off Vietnam increased to seven as part of the U.S. reaction to the North Vietnamese Eastertide Offensive that was launched on March 30–carrier aircraft played a major role in the air operations that helped the South Vietnamese defeat the communist invasion.

Feb. 9, 1976 – Actor Charlie Day was born in New York City. He is best known for playing Charlie Kelly on "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia."

Feb. 9, 1985 – Sparta Academy’s boys basketball team beat Wilcox Academy, 71-69, in the consolation game of the District Tournament at Monroe Academy in Monroeville, Ala. Sparta Academy’s Al Etheridge and Jim Wagstaff were named to the All-Tournament Team.

Feb. 9, 1986 – Halley's Comet last appeared in the inner Solar System.

Feb. 9, 1992 - Thomas Scholl of Munich issued the world's fastest yodel-- 22 tones (15 falsetto) within one second.

Feb. 9, 1993 - Fourteen people were arrested when violence erupted at the Dallas Cowboys Super Bowl victory parade.

Feb. 9, 1997 - "The Simpsons" became the longest-running prime-time animated series, breaking the record previously held by "The Flintstones.”

Feb. 9, 2001 - "Hannibal," the sequel to "Silence of the Lambs," opened in theaters.

Feb. 9, 2009 - Alex Rodriguez of the New York Yankees admitted that he had taken banned substances from 2001 to 2003.

Feb. 9, 2014 – Former Auburn University center and linebacker Hal Herring died at the age of 89 in Cumming, Ga. Herring played at West Point High School in Cullman, Auburn University and for the Buffalo Bills and the Cleveland Browns.