Today in History for June 14, 2016

Robert H. Milroy

June 14, 1285 – During thhe Second Mongol invasion of Vietnam, forces led by Prince Trần Quang Khải of the Trần dynasty destroyed most of the invading Mongol naval fleet in a battle at Chuong Duong.

June 14, 1703 – French adventurer Jean Herauld Gourville died in Paris at the age of 77.

June 14, 1775 – During the American Revolutionary War, the Continental Army was established by the Continental Congress, marking the birth of the United States Army. The Army was founded for purposes of common defense. On June 15, George Washington was appointed commander-in-chief.

June 14, 1775 - Dr. Joseph Warren was appointed a Major General by the Provincial Congress. He was killed a three days later at the Battle of Bunker Hill.

June 14, 1777 – The Stars and Stripes was adopted by Congress as the Flag of the United States. The Flag Resolution stated "Resolved: that the flag of the United States be made of thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new Constellation." On May 20, 1916, President Woodrow Wilson officially proclaimed June 14 "Flag Day" as a commemoration of the "Stars and Stripes."

June 14, 1789 – Whiskey distilled from maize was first produced by American clergyman the Rev Elijah Craig. It was named Bourbon because Rev. Craig lived in Bourbon County, Kentucky.

June 14, 1801 - Benedict Arnold died at the age of 60 in London. He was buried in his Continental Army uniform at St. Mary's Church, Middlesex, London.

June 14, 1811 - Harriet Beecher Stowe was born in Litchfield, Connecticut. She is best known for her 1852 novel, “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.”

June 14, 1820 – Writer and publisher John Bartlett was born in Plymouth, Mass. He is best known for his book, “Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations.”

June 14, 1861 – During the Civil War, a skirmish was fought near Seneca Mills, Md.

June 14, 1861 – During the Civil War, Joe Johnston began to withdraw from Harpers Ferry by blowing up the 800-foot B&O trestle over the Potomac River.

June 14, 1862 – During the Civil War, a two-day Federal operation between Pensacola and Milton, Fla. began.

June 14, 1862 – During the Civil War, a skirmish was fought at Clear Creek, near Baldwyn, Miss.

June 14, 1863 – During the Civil War, at the Second Battle of Winchester, a small Union garrison was easily defeated by the Army of Northern Virginia in the Shenandoah Valley town of Winchester, Va. Richard Ewel's Confederate troops captured 4,000 Federals, 300 wagons, hundreds of horses and 23 artillery pieces. Union commander Robert Milroy and 2,700 soldiers escaped to safety.

June 14, 1863 – During the Civil War, a second assault took place on the Confederate works during the Siege of Port Hudson, La.

June 14, 1863 – During the Civil War, skirmishes were fought at Nine Mile Ordinary, Va.; at Green Hill, Tenn.; at Falling Waters and Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia; at Williamsport, Md.; at Elk River Bridge in middle Tennessee; at Iuka, Miss.; and on Morris Island, S.C.

June 14, 1863 – During the Civil War, the siege at Vicksburg, Miss. entered Day 27.

June 14, 1863 – During the Civil War, draft riots occurred in New York City.

June 14, 1863 – During the Civil War, Morgan’s raiders fought a skirmish at Camp Dennison, Ohio, which was near Cincinnati.

June 14, 1864 – During the Civil War, skirmishing began around Petersburg, Va. The battle was the last great battle of the war in Virginia as the two armies settle into trenches.

June 14, 1864 – During the Civil War, the USS Kearsarge arrived off Cherbourg, France, to blockade CSS Alabama.

June 14, 1864 – During the Civil War, at the Battle of Pine Mountain, Ga., Confederate General Leonidas Polk was killed by a Union shell.

June 14, 1864 – During the Civil War, skirmishes were fought at New Glasgow, Va.; at near Bean’s Station and in Lincoln County, Tenn.; and at Melville and Lexington, Mo.

June 14, 1865 – During the Civil War, skirmishes were fought on the Santa Fe Road and near Fort Zarah, Kansas.

June 14, 1877 - The first Flag Day observance was held on the 100th anniversary of the adoption of the American flag. In 1949, Congress officially designated June 14 as a national day of observance to be known as Flag Day.

June 14, 1890 – Margaret E. Austill, a former resident of the Singleton community in Clarke County, Ala., passed away in Mobile at the age of 86. She was the widow of the late Jerry Austill of Clarke County, one of the heroes of the celebrated Canoe Fight on the Alabama during the Creek Indian War.

June 14-16, 1896 – Commencement exercises at the Monroeville Academy were scheduled to be held. On Sun., June 14, at 11 a.m., the commencement sermon was to be given, and on Mon., June 15, at 8 p.m., the prize declamation was to take place. On Tues., June 16, at 10 a.m., the annual literary address was to be given by the Hon. J.G. Harris of Montgomery, Ala.; at 3 p.m., a meeting of the board of trustees was to be held; and at 8 p.m., the annual concert and awarding of medals was to take place. J.N. Powers was the school’s principal.

June 14, 1900 – Hawaii became a United States territory.

June 14, 1904 - Author George Wylie Henderson was born in Warriorstand, Ala.

June 14, 1904 – Photojournalist Margaret Bourke-White was born in the Bronx, N.Y.

June 14, 1914 – On a Sunday afternoon, Reese Carlisle, age seven, fell a distance of about eight feet from a tree at the orphanage at Evergreen, Ala., broke his neck and died before those standing nearby could reach him. His funeral took place the next morning, with six older boys serving as pallbearers, and the rest of the orphans followed them to the cemetery.

June 14, 1915 – The Conecuh County Sheriff’s Department busted an illegal distillery near Brooklyn, Ala. on this Monday. The alleged operators, bothers Wiley Baker and Joe Baker, were arrested and taken to jail.

June 14, 1922 - President Warren G. Harding, while addressing a crowd at the dedication of a memorial site at Fort McHenry for the composer of the "Star Spangled Banner," Francis Scott Key, becomes the first president to have his voice transmitted by radio. The broadcast heralded a revolutionary shift in how presidents addressed the American public. Harding was the great-grandson of Conecuh County’s Henchie Warren, who is said to have hidden a chest of gold in Shipps Pond.

June 14, 1923 – Louise Short Widows and Orphans Home moved to Troy.

June 14, 1924 - Author Oxford Stroud was born in Demopolis, Ala.

June 14, 1932 – Baseball teams from Evergreen and McKenzie were scheduled to play in Evergreen, Ala. Hyde was slated to pitch for Evergreen, and Red Hall was set to pitch for McKenzie. Evergreen entered the game 2-2 overall. They opened the season with a 2-1 over McKenzie; dropped a 4-3 game in Greenville; won a 5-2 game in Evergreen against Greenville; and lost to McKenzie in Evergreen.

June 14, 1934 – The Monroe Journal reported that with only three small boxes yet unheard from, the big end of the vote in the gubernatorial race in Monroe County went to Bibb Graves. It was expected that when the official tabulation was made, Graves would lead by more than 100 votes. In the races for sheriff, tax collector and tax assessor of Monroe County, J.P. Farish, A.L. Nettles and H.L. Lazenby won by safe majorities.

June 14, 1936 – In South Alabama Baseball League action, the Evergreen Merchants beat Century, 4-3, on this Sunday in Evergreen. “Grinning Bill” Seals pitched for Evergreen, and “Cow” Soward, former Dixie Amateur pitcher, pitched for Century. In the second inning, Evergreen scored all of its four runs on two hits, four free rides and two errors. Century was unable to bunch its hits when they would have counted except in the third, sixth and eighth innings when they tallied one run each. The game was protested by Manager Ash of Century, who said he would seek to have the game played over because of interference from the Evergreen bench. The Merchants pulled themselves out of two holes by a pair of fast doubles which were the only highlights of the game.

June 14, 1936 - An automobile accident late on this Sunday night near the Conecuh-Butler county line claimed the life of Solomon Kendrick, 22-year-old son of David Kendrick, well known resident of Beat One. The youth, who was known to his friends as “Tops,” was almost instantly killed when an automobile he was driving overturned just across the line in Butler County. Deep sand ruts in the road were believed to have caused Kendrick to lose control of the car.

June 14, 1936 - George W. Foshee, 64, a prominent farmer of the Cohassett community, died on this Sunday afternoon at his home near the eastern border of the county after an illness which began about two years ago. Foshee had spent his entire lifetime at Cohassett and passed away in the old family home there. While principally a farmer, he also was engaged in the ginning business at Red Level and had been in the sawmill business for many years. He was a Baptist and a Mason and funeral services were held on the afternoon of Mon., June 15, from the Long Branch Baptist Church where services were conducted by his pastor, Rev. R.D. Wright. At the grave, fraternal exercises were conducted by members of the Red Level Masonic lodge.

June 14, 1941 - Author John Armistead was born in Mobile, Ala.

June 14, 1946 – Prominent pioneer citizen of Conecuh County, Jeptha Perryman Tomlinson, passed away at the age of 85 at his plantation home a few miles north of Evergreen, Ala. on this Friday around 1 p.m.

June 14, 1951 - The U.S. Census Bureau unveiled the first commercially produced electronic digital computer, UNIVAC I. UNIVAC I (which stands for Universal Automatic Computer) weighed 16,000 pounds and took up 350 square feet of floor space — about the size of a one-car garage. UNIVAC was designed for the rapid and relatively simple arithmetic calculation of numbers needed by businesses, rather than complex scientific calculations.

June 14, 1957 – Novelist Mona Simpson was born Mona Jandali in Green Bay, Wisc.

June 14, 1962 – The Evergreen Courant reported that the Evergreen Senior League Tigers beat the Indians, 11-5. Bubba Faulkner and Mike Fields pitched for the Tigers, and Bob Ivey and Paul Deason pitched for the Indians. Joe Sasser, Calvin Smith and Mitch Kilpatrick recorded two hits each for the Tigers.

June 14, 1962 – The Evergreen Courant reported that the Evergreen Senior League Braves beat the Tigers, 7-6. Sammy Brown hit a three-run, inside-the-park home run for the Braves, and Grady Hobbs and Ronnie Jackson pitched for the Braves. Mike Fields pitched for the Tigers, and Sid Lambert hit a two-run, inside-the-park home run for the Tigers.

June 14, 1962 – The Evergreen Courant reported that Mamie A. Ellis of Evergreen, Ala. had ended her long career by retiring at the close of the previous school year. She’d taught in Conecuh County schools for 23 years and had also taught for several years at the old Baptist Orphanage in Evergreen. She began teaching in 1915 at Flat Rock, Effie and Ivey schools, taught for 20 years at Repton Elementary and a year at Brooklyn.

June 14, 1963 - Duke Snider of the New York Mets hit his 400th career home run.

June 14, 1964 - The St. Louis Cardinals traded Ernest Broglio for Chicago Cub Lou Brock.

June 14, 1966 – The Vatican abolished the Index of Prohibited Books. Officially known as the Index Librorum Prohibitorum, the Index was made up of books that Roman Catholics were forbidden to read for fear of endangering their faith or their morals. The first formal index, called the Pauline Index, was published in 1559 by Pope Paul IV, but the church's practice of censoring or forbidding books had been going on for over a thousand years by that time.

June 14, 1968 – A Federal District Court jury in Boston convicted Dr. Benjamin Spock and three others, including Yale University Chaplain William Sloane Coffin Jr., of conspiring to aid, abet and counsel draft registrants to violate the Selective Service Act. The 1968 convictions were overturned in 1969. In November of that year, Spock joined a Washington, D.C., antiwar demonstration of more than 250,000 people, sponsored by the New Mobilization Committee, a group organized by Spock and others on July 4.

June 14, 1969 - Reggie Jackson hit two home runs and drove in 10 runs in a 21-17 victory over the Boston Red Sox.

June 14, 1969 - The U.S. command announced that three combat units would be withdrawn from Vietnam. They were the 1st and 2nd Brigades of the U.S. Army 9th Infantry Division and Regimental Landing Team 9 of the 3rd Marine Division – a total of about 13,000 to 14,000 men. These troops were part of the first U.S. troop withdrawal, which had been announced on June 8 by President Richard Nixon at the Midway conference with South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu. Nixon had promised that 25,000 troops would be withdrawn by the end of the year, and more support troops were later sent home in addition to the aforementioned combat forces in order to meet that number.

June 14, 1978 – “The American Dance Machine,” a production making use of historical material arranged by Alabama author Albert Murray, opened on Broadway.

June 14, 1984 – The Evergreen Courant reported that Troy State University would be well represented in the 1984 Miss Alabama Pageant as four TSU coeds would be trying to capture the coveted Miss Alabama title on June 16 in Birmingham. The girls, Cordella Johnson from Evergreen (Miss Troy State University), Juaneysa Wilkins from Warner Robbins, Ga. (Miss Deep South), Miss Marla Franklin from Birmingham (Miss Spirit of 76) and Miss Pam Love from Decatur (Miss World Celebration), were to all travel to Birmingham on Sun., June 10, to begin a week of competition. The final night of competition was scheduled for Sat., June 16. Johnson, a graduating senior at TSU, was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Alex Johnson of Evergreen. She majored in speech and debate with minors in general business and management and broadcast journalism while at TSU.

June 14, 1984 – The Evergreen Courant reported that Alan Hammonds, a senior at Hamshire-Fannett High School, Beaumont, Texas, had signed an athletic agreement with Culver-Stockton College in Canton, Mo., confirming his intention to play football next fall for the C-SC Wildcats. Hammonds, six-foot-2 and 175 pounds, played quarterback for Hamshire-Fannett. He was the son of Billy and June Hammonds of Beaumont, Texas, formerly of Evergreen. He was the grandson of Edna Johnson and the late Andrew Johnson of Owassa and Edna Hammonds of Evergreen and the late Jesse Hammonds. While in high school, Hammonds was selected All-District for three years as Hamshire-Fannett finished as the district champions in 1983. He was named outstanding high school junior and lettered three years in high school. Hammonds set a new total offensive record in rushing and passing – 3,068 yards in three years. The C-SC football Wildcats played in the Heart of America Athletic Conference, which included several nationally prominent teams, a Division II conference of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics.

June 14, 1996 - Cal Ripken Jr. broke Sachio Kinugas's record of 2,216 consecutive games played.

June 14, 1996 - Jeff Bagwell of the Houston Astros tied a Major League Baseball record when he hit four doubles. The Astros defeated the San Francisco Giants, 9-1.

June 14, 1996 - John Smoltz of the Atlanta Braves tied a franchise record with his 13th consecutive win.

June 14, 1996 - Ellis Burks hit the first inside-the-park home run in Coors Field.

June 14-17, 2000 – Monroe County Heritage Museum performed “To Kill a Mockingbird” at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.

June 14, 2002 - Sammy Sosa of the Chicago Cubs hit his 25th home run of the season. The home run tied him with Stan Musial and Willie Stargell for 19th on the all-time list at 475 homers.

June 14, 2003 - The Frankfurt Galaxy became the first team in the NFL Europe League to win three World Bowls.

June 14, 2003 - Alabama author John Weld died in Laguna Beach, Calif.

June 14, 2004 - Jim Thome of the Philadelphia Phillies became the 37th player in major league history to reach 400 career home runs.