Today in History for May 24, 2016

Elmer Ephraim Ellsworth

May 24, 1607 – One hundred English settlers disembarked in Jamestown, the first English colony in America.

May 24, 1626 – Peter Minuit bought the island of Manhattan from the Lenape Indians.

May 24, 1738 – John Wesley was converted, essentially launching the Methodist movement; the day is celebrated annually by Methodists as Aldersgate Day and a church service is generally held on the preceding Sunday.

May 24, 1764 - Bostonian lawyer James Otis denounced "taxation without representation" and called for the colonies to unite in demonstrating their opposition to Britain’s new tax measures.

May 24, 1767 - The first Quartering Act expired. This act was enacted by the Parliament of Great Britain on May 3, 1765.

May 24, 1775 - John Hancock was elected president of the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia, Pa.

May 24, 1819 - Queen Victoria was born at 4:15 a.m. at Kensington Palace in London She was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from June 20, 1837 until her death on Jan. 22, 1901. From May 1, 1876, she used the additional title of Empress of India.

May 24, 1825 – During his tour of the United States, the Marquis de Lafayette visited Wheeling, Va.

May 24, 1828 – An Act of Congress was approved to establish an arsenal at Mount Vernon, Ala., which was garrisoned by federal troops until 1861, when it was seized by Alabama militia under the orders of Gov. Andrew B. Moore.

May 24, 1830 – The first passenger railroad service in the U.S. began when the first revenue trains in the United States begin service on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad between Baltimore, and Ellicott's Mills, Maryland.

May 24, 1840 – About seven weeks after Philadelphia Baptist Church was organized at Tunnel Springs, Ala., the first new members were added to the church roll, Robert Colvin and his wife, Sarah Colvin.

May 24, 1841 – Early Alabama soldier and pioneer Samuel Dale died in Daleville in Lauderdale County, Miss. at the age of 69 (possibly 68). (Some sources say he died on May 23.)

May 24, 1844 - Samuel Morse sent the message "What hath God wrought" (a biblical quotation, Numbers 23:23) from the Old Supreme Court Chamber in the United States Capitol to his assistant, Alfred Vail, in Baltimore, Maryland, to inaugurate the first telegraph line.

May 24, 1845 – Confederate soldier John Pitts Anderson was born in Sparta, Ala. In September 1861, at the age of 17, he enlisted in the Miller Guards at Sparta and was promoted to Second Sgt. of Co. E, 38th Alabama Regiment on June 11, 1862. He was on the muster roll at Camp Holt in Mobile on June 16, 1862. Between June 6, 1864 and June 22, 1864, he was listed as sick with febris continue at St. Mary’s Hospital in Dalton, Ga. He was listed as a prisoner of war at Fort Blakeley on April 9, 1865 and was forwarded to Ship Island Prison in Mississippi on April 16, 1865. He was forwarded to Vicksburg on May 1, 1865 and was paroled after taking the oath of allegiance. He would pass away near Sparta in Conecuh County on Sept. 1, 1914 and is buried at Hampden Ridge.

May 24, 1856 – John Brown and his men killed five slavery supporters at Pottawatomie Creek, Kansas.

May 24, 1861 – During the Civil War, Union troops occupied Alexandria, Virginia.

May 24, 1861 – During the Civil War, Sterling Price refused to disband his troops.

May 24, 1861 - Col. Elmer Ephraim Ellsworth of the 11th New York Fire Zouaves was killed in the Marshall House Inn in Alexandria, Virginia, after he and his men removed a Confederate flag. He is generally regarded as the first officer killed while on duty in the American Civil War.

May 24, 1861 - Benjamin Butler used the term "contraband" to describe slaves who have crossed into the Northern camps.

May 24, 1862 – During the Civil War, actions occurred at Middleton and Newtown; and skirmishes were fought at Berryville and Linden and Seven Pines, Virginia.

May 24, 1863 - Bushwackers led by Captain William Marchbanks attacked a U.S. Federal militia party in Nevada, Missouri.

May 24, 1863 – During the Civil War, skirmishes were fought at Woodbury, Tennessee and at Mound Plantation, Louisiana.

May 24, 1863 – During the Civil War, the siege of Vicksburg, Mississippi entered its sixth day.

May 24, 1864 - Union General Ulysses S. Grant moved his troops south toward Cold Harbor, Va. after a second attempt to dislodge the Rebels on the North Anna River around Hanover, Va.

May 24, 1864 – During the Civil War, skirmishes were fought at Holly Springs, Miss. and near Nashville, Tenn.

May 24, 1865 – During the Civil War, the Grand Review of Sherman's Army took place.

May 24, 1883 - After 14 years of construction, the Brooklyn Bridge was first officially opened to traffic.

May 24, 1886 - A primary election was held on this Monday in Monroe County, Ala., and “passed off very quietly,” according to the May 27, 1886 edition of The Journal. The Journal also reported that “there was a larger white democratic vote polled in Monroeville (during the election) than there has been since 1874.”

May 24, 1902 - Bill Bradley of the Cleveland Indians became the first American League player to hit home runs in four consecutive games.

May 24, 1906 - The Monroe Journal reported that Capt. J.F. Foster, editor of The Wilcox Banner, had been appointed as probate judge of Wilcox County, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Judge James T. Beck.

May 24, 1906 – The Monroe Journal reported that Drs. Clarence Jones of Camden, A.G. Stacey of Activity, John J. Dailey of Tunnel Springs, E.G. Burson of Furman and Dr. Farish of Wilcox were before the Board of Censors of the Monroe County Medical Society that week undergoing examination for license to practice medicine. Dr. Jones had been in the quarantine service in Mexican waters for a year previous to this. The other young gentlemen were recently graduates of the Alabama Medical College.

May 24, 1906 – The Monroe Journal reported that the following cases, appealed from the Monroe County Circuit Court, had been passed upon by the supreme court during its recent term: George Untriner, murder in second degree, reversed and remanded: Frank Coker, murder, affirmed; Tom Snider, murder, reversed and remanded; Andrew Rogers, murder, affirmed; Sonny Coker, rape, affirmed. In Coker’s case, the penalty was fixed by the jury at death by hanging. It was said that admissions made by prosecutrix since the trial confirmed belief that the conviction was secured on false testimony. The case was likely to be appealed to the pardon board.

May 24, 1906 – The Monroe Journal, in news from the Chestnut community, that Messrs. B.C. Dawson, H.L., Mack and J.W. Dailey, and L.D. and W.M. Hestle made a business trip to Camden during the previous week.

May 24, 1906 – The Monroe Journal, in news from the Monday community, reported that H.W. Boulware of Repton visited Monday during the first of the week.

May 24, 1909 – Brewton, Ala. was hit by a “cyclone” on this night that did “considerable damage” to buildings and blew the roof off the Pine Belt News office. Trees were also uprooted and telegraph poles and wires were blown down.

May 24, 1915 - Active work on the construction of the Gulf, Florida and Alabama railroad was resumed and the portion of the railroad between Broughton and a point near Monroeville, Ala. was “being made ready for to laying of steel to facilitate the transportation of material and supplies while station contracts are being let for filling in the gaps between graded portions north of this place.”

May 24, 1918 – During World War I, Army Pvt. Arthur L. Mims of Florala, Ala. was killed in action.

May 24, 1918 - Cleveland defeated the New York Yankees, 3-2, in the 19th inning.

May 24, 1921 – H.P. Lovecraft’s mother, Sarah Susan Phillips Lovecraft, passed away at Butler Hospital of complications from a gall bladder operation. She’d been admitted to Butler Hospital in 1919 after a nervous breakdown and had never emerged.

May 24, 1922 – Graduation exercises were scheduled to be held at Beatrice High School at 8 p.m.

May 24, 1929 - The Detroit Tigers defeated the Chicago White Sox, 6-4, in 21 innings.

May 24, 1930 - Babe Ruth hit home runs in both games of a double header.

May 24, 1935 - The Cincinnati Reds beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 2-1, on this night in 1935 in Major League Baseball’s first-ever night game, played courtesy of recently installed lights at Crosley Field in Cincinnati. The switch for the floodlights was thrown by U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt.

May 24, 1940 – The Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala. was officially opened to traffic.

May 24, 1940 - The first movie version of Alabama author James H. Street's story "The Biscuit Eater" was released.

May 24, 1940 - The first night game at St. Louis's Sportsman Park was played.

May 24, 1940 – Poet Joseph Brodsky was born in Leningrad, Russia. He would go on to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1987.

May 24, 1941 – Singer-songwriter Bob Dylan was born Robert Allen Zimmerman in Duluth, Minnesota.

May 24, 1951 - Willie Mays began playing for the New York Giants.

May 24, 1958 – United Press International was formed through a merger of the United Press and the International News Service.

May 24, 1962 - The officials of the National Football League ruled that halftime of regular season games would be cut to 15 minutes.

May 24, 1963 – Novelist Michael Chabon was born in Washington, D.C.

May 24, 1964 - Senator Barry Goldwater (R-Arizona), running for the Republican Party nomination in the upcoming presidential election, gave an interview in which he discussed the use of low-yield atomic bombs in North Vietnam to defoliate forests and destroy bridges, roads, and railroad lines bringing supplies from communist China. During the storm of criticism that followed, Goldwater tried to back away from these drastic actions, claiming that he did not mean to advocate the use of atomic bombs but was “repeating a suggestion made by competent military people.” Democrats painted Goldwater as a warmonger who was overly eager to use nuclear weapons in Vietnam.

May 24, 1965 – Two Evergreen High School baseball players – Mike Fields and Steven Baggett – played in the Lions Club East-West All-Star Game in Montgomery, Ala. on this Monday night as the East won, 3-0. Fields, a catcher and outfielder, and Baggett, a third baseman, both played on the West Team. Henry Allmon was Evergreen’s head baseball coach.

May 24, 1967 - The AFL granted a franchise to the Cincinnati Bengals.

May 24, 1971 - At Fort Bragg, North Carolina, an antiwar newspaper advertisement signed by 29 U.S. soldiers supporting the Concerned Officers Movement resulted in controversy. The group had been formed in 1970 in Washington, D.C., by a small group of junior naval officers opposed to the war. The newspaper advertisement at Fort Bragg was in support of group’s members, who had joined with antiwar activist David Harris and others in San Diego to mobilize opposition to the departure of the carrier USS Constellation for Vietnam. No official action was taken against the military dissidents at Fort Bragg and the aircraft carrier sailed on schedule from San Diego.

May 24, 1980 – Monroeville, Alabama’s Babe Ruth Baseball Field was officially named “Ronnie Dees Babe Ruth Field” in honor of former MCHS coach Ronnie Dees.

May 24, 1982 – During the Liberation of Khorramshahr, Iranians recaptured the port city of Khorramshahr from the Iraqis during the Iran–Iraq War.

May 24, 1983 - The Brooklyn Bridge's 100th birthday was celebrated.

May 24, 1984 - The Detroit Tigers won their 17th straight road game.

May 24, 1989 – “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” was first released in theaters.

May 24, 1989 - Lee Gutterman of the New York Yankees set a record for pitching 30-2/3 innings before giving up his first run of the season.

May 24, 1990 - Andre Dawson was intentionally walked five times during a game.

May 24, 2000 – “The Ballad of Little River: A Tale of Race and Restless Youth in the Rural South” by Paul Hemphill was released.

May 24, 2001 – Temba Tsheri, a 16-year-old Sherpa, became the youngest person to climb to the top of Mount Everest.

May 24, 2005 – Natalee Ann Holloway, 18, graduated from Mountain Brook High School. Six days later, she would disappear while on a high school graduation trip to Aruba.

May 24, 2006 - The fifth season of "American Idol" ended, and Birmingham, Ala. native Taylor Hicks was voted the winner.

May 24, 2012 – Dutch-German SS officer Klaas Carel Faber died at the age of 90 in Ingolstadt, Germany.