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| Benjamin Grierson |
April 17, 618 AD - In Scotland, 53 monks were burned alive
by a gang of armed women seeking revenge for being cheated out of their pasture
rights.
April 17, 1397
– Geoffrey Chaucer told “The
Canterbury Tales” for the first time at the court of Richard II. Chaucer
scholars have also identified this date (in 1387) as the start of the book's pilgrimage
to Canterbury.
April 17, 1492 – Spain and Christopher Columbus signed the
Capitulations of Santa Fe, a contract to find a passage to Asia and the Indies
to acquire spices.
April 17, 1524 – Giovanni da Verrazzano discovered New York
harbor.
April 17, 1704 - John Campbell published what would
eventually become the first successful American newspaper. It was known as the
Boston "News-Letter."
April 17, 1783 - British Captain James Colbert launched a
raid on Fort Carlos, Arkansas. The British retreated after a six-hour battle.
The "Colbert Raid" was the only Revolutionary War action to take
place in Arkansas. The state of Arkansas maintained the fort and its
surroundings as the Arkansas Post Memorial and Arkansas Post Museum State Park.
April 17, 1790 – Benjamin Franklin passed away at the age of
84 in Philadelphia, Pa.
April 17, 1794
– German botanist and explorer Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius was born in
Erlangen, Germany.
April 17, 1820 – National Baseball Hall of Famer Alexander
Cartwright, considered to be the inventor of the modern game of baseball, was
born in New York City. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1930.
April 17, 1837 - Alabama author Elizabeth Bellamy was born
in Quincy, Fla.
April 17, 1852 – National Baseball Hall of Fame first
baseman Cap Anson was born in Marshalltown, Iowa. He would go on to play for
the Rockford Forest Citys, the Philadelphia Athletics and the Chicago White
Stockings/Colts, and he managed the Philadelphia Athletics, the Stockings/Colts
and the New York Giants. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1939.
April 17, 1861 – The state of Virginia's secession
convention voted to secede from the United States, becoming the eighth state to
join the Confederate States of America. Within the next five weeks, Arkansas,
Tennessee and North Carolina seceded bringing the total of Confederate states
to 11.
April 17, 1861 – During the Civil War, more Federal
reinforcements arrived at Ft. Pickens, near Pensacola, Fla.
April 17, 1861 - Missouri’s governor refused to provide its allotment of militia to the United States.
April 17, 1862 – During the Civil War, skirmishes were fought at Warsaw, Mo.; at Monterey, Tenn., right across the state line from Corinth, Miss.; at Woodson Gap, Tenn.; at Falmouth, Rude’s Hill and Piedmont, Va.; and at Holly River, West Virginia. A five-day Federal operation between Summerville and Addison, West Virginia began. The occupation of Fredericksburg, Mount Jackson and New Market, Va. began.
April 17, 1863 – During the Civil War, skirmishes were
fought at Lundy’s Lane, Cherokee Station, Great Bear Creek and Barton Station,
Ala.
April 17, 1863 – During the Civil War, Grierson's Raid began
as troops under Union Army Colonel Benjamin Grierson left La Grange, Tenn. with
1,700 cavalry troops on a mission to destroy enemy supplies, telegraph lines
and railroads in central Mississippi. The raid ended on May 2 when Grierson and
his men rode into Union occupied Baton Rouge, La.
April 17, 1863 – During the Civil War, skirmishes were fought along the Amite River and another at Vermillion Bayou, La.; in the vicinity of Relleford’s Mill, Mo.; at Core Creek, N.C.; and at Suffolk, Va. A two-day Federal operation between Winchester to Stump’s Tannery, Va. began. A five-day Federal operation originating at Saint Martinsville to Breaux Bridge, and then to Opelousas, La. began. A three-day Federal operation between New Berne and Washington, N.C. began.
April 17, 1864 – During the Civil War, the Battle of
Plymouth began as Confederate forces under General Robert Hoke attacked
Plymouth, North Carolina, 50 miles north of New Bern. The rebels were
attempting to recapture ports lost to the Union two years before. The four-day
battle ended with the fall of Plymouth, but the Yankees kept the city bottled up
with a flotilla on nearby Albemarle Sound. The Confederates lost 163 men killed
and 554 wounded, but captured the entire Union garrison and vast amounts of
supplies and arms. The Union lost about 150 killed and wounded, while several hundred
of the captured soldiers eventually died at the notorious Andersonville Prison
in Georgia.
April 17, 1864 - U.S. Civil War General Grant banned the
trading of prisoners.
April 17, 1864 - Union General Frederick Steele sent Colonel
John Williams to gather corn that had been found west of Camden. On the way
back, the wagon train was attacked and stopped by Confederate General Samuel
Maxey's troops.
April 17, 1864 – During the Civil War, skirmishes were fought in Limestone Valley and Red Mound, Ark.; at Holly Springs, Miss.; in the vicinity of Ellis’ Ford, Va.; and at Beaver Creek, N.C.
April 17, 1865 - Mary Surratt was arrested as a conspirator
in the Lincoln assassination.
April 17, 1865 – During the Civil War, a skirmish was fought near Morgantown, N.C.
April 17, 1882 - Several copies of Sheriff Pat Garrett’s
wildly inauthentic biography, “An Authentic
Life of Billy the Kid,” arrived at the Library of Congress,
beginning the widespread dissemination of this highly fictionalized story of
the western outlaw.
April 17, 1885 – Isak Dinesen was born Karen Dinesen on a
rural estate called Rungsted near Copenhagen, Denmark.
April 17, 1892 - At Sportsman's Park in St. Louis, the first
National League game to be played on a Sunday took place. The Reds beat the
Browns, 5-1.
April 17, 1894 – Naomi Rabb Winston was born in Evergreen,
Ala. She went on to study at the Art Students League in New York, and she
painted many oil paintings. She also designed the Official Great Seal of
Alabama.
April 17, 1895 – The “atrocious murder” of Watts Murphy
occurred on this Wednesday in the northeastern portion of Monroe County, near
the Butler County line. Murphy had three men working for him, cutting logs, and
as he approached them to give them instructions, one of the men struck him on
the neck or shoulder with an axe, killing him. They then piled logs and brush
on top of his body and set it on fire. All three were arrested, and one of them
made a full and detailed confession. Those arrested in connection with the
crime were Cal Johnson, Fred Douglas, Jim Calhoun, Sim Jernigan, Mary Davis and
a woman called “Jenny.” The murderers were taken into custody by a posse and
were transported to the jail in Greenville.
April 17, 1897 – The Aurora, Texas, UFO incident reportedly
occurred when, according to locals, a UFO crashed on a farm near Aurora, Texas.
The incident (similar to the more famous Roswell UFO incident 50 years
later) was claimed to have resulted in a fatality from the crash and the
alleged alien body is to have been buried in an unmarked grave at the local
cemetery.
April 17, 1897 – Pulitzer Prize-winning author Thornton
Wilder was born in Madison, Texas. His works include “The Bridge of San Luis
Rey” (1927) and “Our Town” (1938).
April 17, 1904 - Joseph Stillwell “Joe” Cain Jr. passed away
at the age of 71 in Mobile, Ala. He is largely credited with the rebirth of
Mardi Gras celebrations in Mobile, Alabama, which had stopped due to the Civil
War.
April 17, 1908 – In Lovecraftian fiction, Kingston, New York
occultist Alonzo Hasbrouch Typer vanished near the abandoned van der Heyl
mansion. His disappearance left authorities puzzled, though a diary found in
the van der Heyl mansion in 1935 and the Rev. Edgar Dowling’s psychic research
have provided wildly unlikely accounts of his life thereafter. Typer first
appeared in 1938’s “The Diary of Alonzo Typer” by H.P. Lovecraft and William
Lumley.
April 17, 1909 - Alabama author and illustrator Dorothea J.
Snow was born in McMinnville, Tenn.
April 17-19, 1916 – The uniform examination of applicants
for teachers’ certificates was held in Monroeville, Ala. during this three-day
period, under the supervision of County Superintendent J.A. Barnes. Some 25 or
30 applicants were enrolled.
April 17, 1919 – During World War I, Army Pvt. William A.
Glidewell of Red Level, Ala. “died from disease.”
April 17, 1923 – Major League Baseball shortstop and second
baseman Solly Hemus was born in Phoenix, Ariz. He would go on to play for the
St. Louis Cardinals and the Philadelphia Phillies. He also managed the
Cardinals for three seasons.
April 17, 1925
– Austrian-German SS officer Erich Göstl was born in Vienna, Austria.
April 17, 1926 – H.P. Lovecraft returned to Providence, R.I.
from New York, settling at 10 Barnes Street, north of Brown University.
April 17, 1945
– During World War II, Brazilian forces liberated the town of Montese, Italy
from Nazi forces.
April 17, 1947 - Jackie Robinson of the Brooklyn Dodgers
performed a bunt for his first major league hit.
April 17, 1952 – Monroeville (Ala.) Little League held its
first official practices ever in preparation for its first season, which opened
on May 12, 1952.
April 17, 1953 – Army Pvt. James L.C. Jeter of Covington
County, Ala. was killed in action in Korea.
April 17, 1953 – “Bright
Road,” a movie version of Alabama author Mary Elizabeth Vroman's
story "See How They Run," was released.
April 17, 1955 – English physician and explorer Dr. Michael
“Mike” Adrian Stroud was born in England. He became an expert on human health
under extreme conditions and became widely known when he partnered with famous
explorer Ranulph Fiennes on polar expeditions.
April 17, 1960 - A television version of Alabama author
Octavus Roy Cohen's book “Aftermath”
was broadcast.
April 17, 1961 – NFL quarterback Boomer Esiason was born in
West Islip, N.Y. He went on to play for the Cincinnati Bengals, the New York
Jets and the Arizona Cardinals.
April 17, 1963 – Ground was broken for the Miller’s Ferry
lock and dam in Wilcox County, Ala., marking the beginning of development on
the Alabama River.
April 17, 1967 – Major League Baseball center fielder
Marquis Grissom was born in Atlanta, Ga. He went on to play for the Montreal
Expos, the Atlanta Braves, the Cleveland Indians, the Milwaukee Brewers, the
Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Francisco Giants.
April 17, 1969 - In Los Angeles, Sirhan Sirhan was convicted
of assassinating U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy. He was sentenced to death on
April 23, but that sentence was later reduced to life in prison.
April 17, 1970 - The crew of Apollo 13 safely returned to
Earth, in spite of a severe malfunction that occurred in their spacecraft on
their way to the moon.
April 17, 1972 - The first major antiwar protest of 1972 was held. The demonstration, held at the University of Maryland, was organized to protest the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC). Hundreds of students were arrested and 800 National Guardsmen were ordered onto the campus. Significant protests continued across the country in reaction to the increased bombing of North Vietnam, which had been initiated in response to the new communist offensive in South Vietnam.
April 17, 1973 – George Lucas began writing the treatment
for “Star Wars.”
April 17, 1975 - The Khmer Rouge troops captured Phnom Penh and government forces surrendered. The war between government troops and the communist insurgents had been raging since March 1970, when Lt. Gen. Lon Nol had ousted Prince Norodom Sihanouk in a bloodless coup and proclaimed the establishment of the Khmer Republic.
April 17, 1976 - Mike Schmidt of
the Philadelphia Phillies hit four consecutive home runs in a game against the
Chicago Cubs. Schmidt was only the fourth player in the history of Major League
Baseball to accomplish this feat.
April 17, 2001 - Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants hit
his 500th home run.
April 17, 2004 – The remains of the crew of the H.L. Hunley
submarine were laid to rest at Magnolia Cemetery in Charleston, S.C.
April 17, 2010 - Ubaldo Jiménez threw the first no-hitter in
Colorado Rockies history. The Rockies beat the Braves, 4-0.
April 17, 2012 – The Cleveland-Harris Cemetery in Clarke
County, Ala. was added to the Alabama Historic Cemetery Register.
April 17, 2014 – ‘A Celebration of Reading’ bronze sculpture
was unveiled on the Old Courthouse Museum lawn in Monroeville, Ala.
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