Today in History for April 22, 2016

USS Nashville

April 22, 1500 - Portuguese navigator Pedro Alvares Cabral discovered Brazil.

April 22, 1519 – Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés established a settlement at Veracruz, Mexico.

April 22, 1692 – In connection with the Salem witchcraft trials, Mary Easty, another of Rebecca Nurse's sisters who defended her, was examined by John Hathorne and Jonathan Corwin. Hathorne and Corwin also examined Nehemiah Abbott, William and Deliverance Hobbs, Edward and Sarah Bishop, Mary Black, Sarah Wildes and Mary English.

April 22, 1707 – Novelist Henry Fielding was born in Sharpham, England.

April 22, 1724 – Enlightment philosopher Immanuel Kant was born in Konigsberg, Prussia. His most influential work was “The Critique of Pure Reason” (1781).

April 22, 1778 - Commander John Paul Jones began an American raid on the port at Whitehaven, England. At 11 p.m., Jones led a small detachment of two boats from his ship, the USS Ranger, to raid the shallow port, where, by his own account, 400 British merchant ships are anchored.

April 22, 1833 – English engineer and explorer Richard Trevithick died at the age of 62 in Dartford, Kent, England.

April 22, 1844 – Lewis Powell, who was hanged as a Lincoln assassination conspirator, was born in Randolph County, Ala.

April 22, 1861 - Colonel Robert E. Lee was appointed commander of Virginia's forces with the rank of major general.

April 22, 1861 - The Norfolk Navy Yard in Virginia was lost to the Confederates, which made the Washington Navy Yard essential. It was also running short of personnel. On this day, the commandant, Capt. Franklin Buchanan, suffered a change of allegiance and went South. The Chief of Navy Ordnance, George Magruder, had an outbreak of pacifism and went to Canada for the duration. The entire yard was down to 150 men after the shuffling was done.

April 22, 1862 – Lt. William Lee of the Conecuh Guards was promoted to the rank of captain.

April 22, 1862 – During the Civil War, a skirmish was fought in Arkansas Pass, Texas. Harrisonburg and Luray, Va. were occupied by Federal forces

April 22, 1863 - Union Colonel Benjamin Grierson's troops cut telegraph wires near Macon, Miss. during a two-week raid along the length of the state. This action was a diversion in General Ulysses S. Grant’s campaign to capture Vicksburg, Mississippi, the last remaining Confederate stronghold on the Mississippi River. On April 22, he dispatched Co. B of the 7th Illinois regiment to destroy telegraph lines at Macon, while Grierson rode to Newton Station.

April 22, 1863 – During the Civil War, a skirmish was fought in the vicinity of Tuscumbia, Ala. at Rock Cut.

April 22, 1863 - After receiving his new uniform on this day, Admiral Farragut prepared a letter which was sent to the assistant Secretary of the Navy. It read, in part, “Pray do not be changing our uniform every week or two.” He goes on, “The star is the designation of an admiral and should therefore be visible...but this adding stripes until they reach a man’s elbow ...is a great error. You must count the stripes to ascertain the officer’s rank, which at any distance is almost impossible.”

April 22, 1863 – During the Civil War, skirmishes were fought in the vicinity of Washington, La., on the Bayou Boeuf Road; at Fredericktown, Mo.; in the vicinity of Hartsville, Tenn.; at Point Pleasant, West Va.; and at Fisher’s Hill, out from Strasburg, Va.

April 22, 1863 - A three-day Federal operation between Belle Pain to Port Royal, Va. began. Federal transports successfully ran past the Confederate batteries at Vicksburg and Warrenton, Miss.

April 22, 1864 - Union Lieutenant Colonel Francis Drake's troops left Camden, Arkansas.

April 22, 1864 – The U.S. Congress passed the Coinage Act of 1864 that mandated that the inscription In God We Trust be placed on all coins minted as United States currency.

April 22, 1864 – During the Civil War, a three-day Federal operation between Jacksonport and Augusta, Ark. began. Skirmishes were fought in the vicinity of Cotton Plant, Ark.; at Cloutierville and Tunica Bend, La. and on the Duck River in Tennessee.

April 22, 1865 – During the Civil War, Talladega, Ala. was occupied by Federal troops.

April 22, 1865 – During the Civil War, skirmishes were fought at Buzzard Roost, Ga.; near the mouth of the Big Gravois, Mo., in the vicinity of Osage, Mo.; in the vicinity of Linn Creek, Mo.; and near Howard’s Gap in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. A six-day Federal operation began against Indians in the Nebraska Territory. A two-day Federal operation against Indians began in the Dakota Territory.

April 22, 1876 – The first game in the history of National League was played at the Jefferson Street Grounds in Philadelphia. Eight baseball teams began the inaugural season of the National League, and this game is often pointed to as the beginning of Major League Baseball. Boston beat Philadelphia, 6-5.

April 22, 1886 - Alabama author Father Abram J. Ryan died in Louisville, Ky.

April 22, 1889 - Louisa Frances Garland, the wife of Univeristy of Alabama President Landon Garland, passed away at the age of 76 and was buried in Oxford Memorial Cemetery in Oxford in Lafayette County, Miss. Tradition states that Louisa Garland convinced Union soldiers not to burn the President’s Mansion when they attacked the University’s campus on April 4, 1865.

April 22, 1889 – German SS officer Richard Glücks was born in Odenkirchen, German Empire.

April 22, 1895 – The spring term of Monroe County (Ala.) Circuit Court convened at 12 p.m. with Judge John C. Anderson presiding and Solicitor Benjamin F. Elmore representing the state. The criminal docket was “unusually heavy” with two capital cases set for trial, one for murder and another for arson.

April 22, 1898 - The first shot of the Spanish-American war occurred when the USS Nashville captured a Spanish merchant ship.

April 22, 1899 – Novelist and critic Vladimir Nabokov was born in St. Petersburg, Russia.

April 22, 1905 – The drying house at the Shoal Creek Lumber Co. at Nadawah, Ala. caught fire on this Saturday around 3 p.m. According to the Camden Banner, “pumps were at once set to work and a steady stream of water was poured on the highly combustible material, but to no purpose.”

April 22, 1912 – In a surprising move, the State Board of Control elected Prof. J.T. McKee, principal of Cullman County High School, as president of the Second District Agricultural School in Evergreen, Ala., replacing Prof. Henry T. Lile. The meeting was held in the office of Alabama Gov. Emmet O’Neal in Montgomery. McKee was to assume charge of the SDAS on July 1. The Board of Control was composed of O’Neal, Henry J. Willingham, State Superintendent of Education; Capt. Reuben F. Kolb, State Commissioner of Agriculture; C.A. O’Neal of Andalusia and J.T. Williams of Evergreen.

April 22, 1914 - Babe Ruth made his pitching debut with the Baltimore Orioles.

April 22, 1914 – German SS officer Michael Wittmann was born in Vogelthal, Kingdom of Bavaria, German Empire.

April 22, 1915 - The New York Yankees wore pinstripes and the hat-in-the-ring logo for the first time.

April 22, 1915 – The Monroe Journal reported, in “County High School Notes,” that “both school and town thoroughly enjoyed three most interesting ball games between Atmore and Monroeville. Our boys were determined not to break their record and as usual, come out victorious.”

April 22, 1922 - Legendary jazz bassist, bandleader, and composer Charles Mingus, sometimes known as "The Angry Man of Jazz," was born in Nogales, Arizona.

April 22, 1922 - Corporal Dewitt Lowrey was born in Atmore, Ala. He was a soldier with Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, in the 101st Airborne Division of the United States Army during World War II. Lowrey was one of the 140 Toccoa men of Easy Company. Lowrey's life story was featured in the 2009 book “We Who Are Alive and Remain: Untold Stories from Band of Brothers.”

April 22, 1933 – Extensive damage to berry and corn crops was reported from practically every section of Conecuh County, Ala. from hailstorms that visited almost every neighborhood in the county. In some instances, the stones were large, some communities reporting stones the size of guinea eggs, while in others they were smaller. Duration of the storms varied in the different localities, some reports saying the hail lasted from five to 15 minutes.

April 22, 1943 – Poet Louise Gluck was born in New York City.

April 22, 1945 – During World War II, after learning that Soviet forces had taken Eberswalde without a fight, Adolf Hitler admitted defeat in his underground bunker and stated that suicide was his only recourse.

April 22, 1949 – Dr. Neff, the “Mystifier of Magicians,” was scheduled to present his “original Madhouse of Mystery” at the Pix Theatre in Evergreen, Ala. on this Friday night. The screen show was scheduled for 9:30 p.m. and the stage show was scheduled for 10:30 p.m.

April 22, 1951 - Alabama author Andrew Hudgins was born in Killeen, Texas.

April 22, 1962 – A large sawmill fire, the second in the town’s history, occurred at Vredenburgh, Ala. The mill didn’t resume operations again until Jan. 4, 1965.

April 22, 1967 – Actress Sheryl Lee, who played Laura Palmer on “Twin Peaks,” was born in Augsburg, West Germany.

April 22, 1968 - In a news conference, Defense Secretary Clark Clifford declared that the South Vietnamese had “acquired the capacity to begin to insure their own security [and] they are going to take over more and more of the fighting.” Clifford’s comments about the combat capabilities of the South Vietnamese were part of his effort to set the stage for U.S. disengagement from the war.

April 22, 1969 – British yachtsman Sir Robin Knox-Johnston won the Sunday Times Golden Globe Race and completed the first solo non-stop circumnavigation of the world.

April 22, 1972 - Antiwar demonstrations prompted by the accelerated U.S. bombing in Southeast Asia drew somewhere between 30,000 to 60,000 marchers in New York; 30,000 to 40,000 in San Francisco; 10,000 to 12,000 in Los Angeles; and smaller gatherings in Chicago and other cities throughout the country. The new bombing campaign was in response to the North Vietnam’s massive invasion of South Vietnam in March. As the demonstrations were happening, bitter fighting continued all over South Vietnam. In the Mekong Delta, for example, the fighting was the heaviest it had been in 18 months.

April 22, 1976 - Alabama author Joe David Brown died at his home near Mayfield, Ga.

April 22, 1977 - Purnell Salter, 80, of Burnt Corn and Evergreen died in a Monroeville, Ala. hospital. Salter was a member of a prominent, pioneer Conecuh County family, and his ancestors were among the first settlers of the county. He had a keen interest in local history and genealogy and provided The Evergreen Courant newspaper with historical information on many occasions.

April 22, 1982 - The Atlanta Braves ended their 13-game winning streak to start the season. It was the longest streak of wins at the beginning of the season in Major League Baseball history.

April 22, 1993 – Alabama lieutenant governor Jim Folsom Jr. became Alabama’s 50th govenor when Guy Hunt was convicted of state ethics law violations. Folsom Jr.’s term as governor ended on Jan. 16, 1995. He was succeeded by Fob James, who narrowly beat Folsom during the 1994 governor’s race.

April 22, 1993 - The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum was dedicated in Washington, D.C.

April 22, 1994 – Richard Nixon, the 37th President of the United States, died in New York City at the age of 81.

April 22, 1994 – Episode No. 21 of “The X-Files” – entitled “Tooms” – aired for the first time.

April 22, 2004 - Pat Tillman, who gave up his pro football career to enlist in the U.S. Army after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, was killed by friendly fire while serving in Afghanistan. He was 27 years old.

April 22, 2006 - The first Alabama Book Festival was held in Montgomery, Ala.

April 22, 2010 - The NFL Draft was aired in prime time for the first time.