Today in History for June 30, 2016

Salmon P. Chase

June 30, 1520 – Spanish conquistadors led by Hernán Cortés fought their way out of Tenochtitlan.

June 30, 1685 – Poet and dramatist John Gay was born in Barnstaple, England.

June 30, 1775 - The Continental Congress drafted its rationale for taking up arms against Great Britain in the Articles of War. In the Articles of War, written one year before the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, Congress referred to “his Majesty’s most faithful subjects in these Colonies” and laid the blame for colonial discontent not on King George III, but on “attempts of the British Ministry, to carry into execution, by force of arms, several unconstitutional and oppressive acts of the British parliaments for laying taxes in America.” By phrasing their discontent this way, Congress attempted to notify the king that American colonists were unhappy with parliamentary policy.

June 30, 1805 – The U.S. Congress organized the Michigan Territory.

June 30, 1817 – English botanist and explorer Joseph Dalton Hooker was born in Halesworth, Suffolk, England. Hooker was one of the greatest British botanists and explorers of the 19th century. Hooker was a founder of geographical botany, and Charles Darwin's closest friend.

June 30, 1841 – Confederate soldier John Miller Lee was born at Burnt Corn. He enlisted in Wood’s Cavalry in Mobile on Sept. 29, 1861 then transferred to Co. B of the 3rd Alabama Cavarly (The Monroe Blues). He was elected 2nd lieutenant and assigned to Manigault’s Brigade S.O. No. 78 and detailed as division escort in Anderson's Division. He was wounded near Atlanta on Aug. 16, 1864. When the 1907 Alabama Confederate Census was conducted, he was living in the Diadem community in Conecuh County. When he filed for his Confederate pension, his witnesses were F.M. Dean and F.H. Lee. When the 1921 Confederate Census was conducted, he was living at Rt. B, Box 108, in Evergreen.

June 30, 1859 – French acrobat Charles Blondin became the first person to cross Niagara Falls on a tightrope.

June 30, 1860 - A debate on the merits of the theory of evolution took place at Oxford University. It occurred as part of the annual meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. Darwin's book “On the Origin of Species” (1859) had just been published seven months earlier, and was hotly contested by scientists and theologians on both sides of the issue.

June 30, 1861 - Below New Orleans, the CSS Sumter, commanded by Raphael Semmes, ran the blockade and began a career as a Federal commerce raider.

June 30, 1862 – The Seven Days’ Battles continued at Glendale (White Oak Swamp), Va. as Robert E. Lee had a chance to deal a decisive blow against George B. McClellan’s Army of the Potomac. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia had already won the Seven Days’ Battles, but the Confederates’ attempt to rout McClellan cost many Southern casualties. Lee’s failure at Glendale permitted McClellan’s army to fall back to higher, more defensible locations.

June 30, 1862 – During the Civil War, skirmishes were fought at Adam’s Bluff, Arkansas; at Henderson, Kentucky; at Powell River and another at Rising (or Morning) Sun, Tennessee; and at Jones’ Bridge, New Kent Courthouse, Turkey Bridge (or Malvern Cliff,) and at White Oak Swamp Bridge in Virginia.

June 30, 1862 - The Federal naval bombardment of Tampa, Florida began.

June 30, 1863 – During the Civil War, fighting took place at Goodrich’s Landing, Louisiana. Skirmishes were also fought near Westminster, Maryland; near Hudson’s River and Neosho River, Missouri; and at Fairfield, Hanover, and at Sporting Hill, Pennsylvania.

June 30, 1863 – During the Civil War, Federals evacuated Maryland Heights, Maryland.

June 30, 1863 – During the Civil War, the siege at Vicksburg, Miss. entered Day 44.

June 30, 1863 – During the Civil War, Confederates evacuated Tullahoma, Tennessee, and began to withdraw down to and then across the Tennessee River.

June 30, 1864 – During the Civil War, skirmishes were fought at Acworth, Allatoona and La Fayette, Georgia; and on Four Mile Creek, near Deep Bottom, Virginia.

June 30, 1864 – During the Civil War, Confederate General Jubal Early’s force occupied New Market, Virginia as it made its way northward.

June 30, 1864 – During the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln accepted Salmon P. Chase’s, the US Secretary of the Treasury’s, resignation.

June 30, 1864 – U.S. President Abraham Lincoln granted the Yosemite Valley to California for "public use, resort and recreation".

June 30, 1865 – During the Civil War, a skirmish was fought with Indians at Rock Creek in the Dakota Territory.

June 30, 1865 - The US Military Commission found the following guilty of conspiring to murder President Lincoln with these sentences doled out: Samuel Arnold, life imprisonment; George Atzerodt, death by hanging; David Herald, death by hanging; Dr. Samuel Mudd, life imprisonment; Michael O’Laughlin, life imprisonment; Lewis Payne, death by hanging; Edward Spangler, six years imprisonment; and Mrs. Mary Surratt, death by hanging.

June 30, 1865 - President Johnson named Benjamin F. Perry provisional governor of South Carolina

June 30, 1881 – Lobina Knight Mitchell was mistakenly murdered in Cragford, Ala. by Charles J. Waldrop, who was hanged for the crime on July 3, 1881.

June 30, 1882 – Charles J. Guiteau was hanged in Washington, D.C. for the assassination of U.S. President James Garfield.

June 30, 1892 – German SS officer Oswald Pohl was born in Duisburg-Ruhrort.

June 30-July 2, 1896 – The Confederate reunion was scheduled to be held in Richmond, Va. It was expected to “be one of the memorable occurrences of an eventful year.” It was said that every one of the 833 camps of United Confederate Veterans would be represented; that many thousands of old soldiers of the Confederacy who were not members of this organization and a host of the sons of veterans would also attend. It was believed that this would be a larger gathering of the “followers of the lost cause” than had assembled on any occasion since the war.

June 30, 1906 – Prof. L.K. Benson, a graduate of Southern University, was named principal of the Monroeville Institute in Monroeville, Ala. He replaced I.A. Weaver, who took the job as editor of the Lineville Headlight.

June 30, 1908 – The famous Tunguska event explosion occurred in Siberia near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River in what is now Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia. This meteor (or comet) explosion flattened nearly 770 square miles of trees and struck people unconscious some 40 miles away. Commonly thought to be caused by the air burst of a comet or meteor over the area, the impact was a 1,000 times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, and it knocked over an estimated 80 million trees.

June 30, 1910 – Evergreen Postmaster Dean reported that receipts of the Evergreen Post Office for the fiscal year ending on June 30, amounted to $6,961.85 as compared with $5,969.25 for the previous year, showing a net increase in receipts for the year of $995.65.

June 30, 1911 - Polish poet Czeslaw Milosz was born in Szetejnie, Lithuania.

June 30, 1915 – The Evergreen Courant reported that the following officers had been recently elected at Downing Lodge, No. 580, in Castleberry, Ala. Those officers included S. Castleberry, Worshipful Master; J.W. Thurmond, Senior Warden; L.A. Kirkland, Junior Warden; J.F. Albreast, Treasurer; E.A. White, Secretary; R.A. Baird, Senior Deacon; E.L. Connor, Junior Deacon; J.D. Davis, Tyler; Rev. S.B. Strout, Chaplain; John L. Monk and J.M. Branch, Stewards.

June 30, 1915 – The Evergreen Courant reported that J.G. Barrow was now in charge of Hotel Evergreen in Evergreen, Ala.

June 30, 1915 – The Conecuh County Grand Jury was scheduled to meet in Evergreen, Ala. in regard to the trial of John Salter and Robert Watkins who made a full confession to the brutal murder of Martha Lassiter, the attempted murder of Wiley House and the robbery and burning of House’s residence near Burnt Corn on June 23, 1915.

June 30, 1921 – U.S. President Warren G. Harding appointed former President William Howard Taft Chief Justice of the United States.

June 30, 1928 - As mandated by the state legislature, convict leasing ended in Alabama. While many southern states leased convicts to private industry as laborers, Alabama's program, begun in 1846, lasted the longest, and for much of that time the notorious system was a key revenue source for the state.

June 30, 1934 – The Night of the Long Knives, Adolf Hitler's violent purge of his political rivals in Germany, took place.

June 30, 1936 - Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind, one of the best-selling novels of all time and the basis for a blockbuster 1939 movie, was published on this day.

June 30, 1941 - A radio version of Alabama author Octavus Roy Cohen's book “I Love You Again” was broadcast as part of “The Lux Radio Theatre” series.

June 30, 1946 – The Louisville & Nashville Railroad announced a number of train schedule changes for its depot in Evergreen, Ala. that took effect one minute after midnight on this date. Train No. 5 for Mobile and New Orleans was changed to No. 7 and began leaving at 6:15 a.m. instead of 5:40 a.m. Train No. 4 for Montgomery, Atlanta, Washington, Birmingham, Louisville, Cincinnati, St. Louis and Chicago began leaving at 4:10 p.m. instead of 4:20 p.m. Train No. 38 for Jacksonville, Montgomery, Atlanta, Washington and New York began leaving at 5:22 a.m. instead of 5:03 a.m. Train No. 6 for Montgomery began leaving at 1:59 p.m. instead of 1:50 p.m.

June 30, 1948 – The Evergreen Greenies were scheduled to play Brewton in Brewton on this Wednesday night.

June 30, 1956 – A TWA Super Constellation and a United Airlines DC-7 collided above the Grand Canyon in Arizona and crashed, killing all 128 on board both airliners.

June 30, 1958 - The U.S. Congress passed a law authorizing the admission of Alaska as the 49th state in the Union.

June 30, 1959 – At the close of business on this day, Clyde Dickey Bozeman took over the operations of The Thomasville Times in Thomasville, Ala. after buying it from Times editor and publisher Earl L. Tucker.

June 30, 1960 – This day’s edition of The Monroe Journal contained the following advertisement: COMPLETE SELL OUT! “To Kill A Mocking Bird” by Harper Lee of Monroeville, Ala. Published by J.B. Lippincott Co. “The Book With A Southern Setting… A Love Story Pure And Simple” Chosen As… A Literary Guild Selection… Reader’s Digest Condensation… More Book Are On Order, Place Your Order Now! At Ernestine’s Book & Gift Shop, Monroeville.

June 30, 1960 – The Monroe Journal reported that Jack Matchett, fireman, U.S. Navy, son of Mr. and Mrs. Lee Matchett of Frisco City, was serving aboard the attack aircraft carrier USS Shangri-la, conducting underway training at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

June 30, 1967 – Morris T. Ward resigned as principal at Evergreen High School, where he had served as principal for six years, to accept a position as assistant to Wilcox County Superintendent of Education Guy S. Kelly. Ward, who had been a successful coach at Lyeffion and Thomaston, had been Evergreen’s principal since July 1, 1961. Harvey G. Pate was Conecuh County’s Superintendent of Education at the time of Ward’s resignation.

June 30, 1969 – In an incident often attributed to the Bermuda Triangle, the 60-foot Maple Bank was found drifting north of Bermuda with no trace of survivors.

June 30, 1962 - Sandy Koufax struck out 13 batters and walked five to lead the Brooklyn Dodgers to victory over the New York Mets, 5-0, with his first career no-hitter.

June 30, 1966 – The National Organization of Women was founded in Washington, D.C. by a group of 28 women.

June 30, 1967 - The South Vietnamese Armed Forces Council resolved rival claims to the presidency in favor of Nguyen Van Thieu, Chief of State. Former Premier Nguyen Cao Ky, who had announced on May 11 that he would run for president, was forced to accept second place on the presidential ticket.

June 30, 1970 - The Cincinnati Reds moved to their new home at Riverfront Stadium.

June 30, 1970 - The U.S. Senate voted 58 to 37 in favor of adopting the Cooper-Church amendment to limit presidential power in Cambodia. The amendment barred funds to retain U.S. troops in Cambodia after July 1 or to supply military advisers, mercenaries, or to conduct “any combat activity in the air above Cambodia in direct support of Cambodian forces” without congressional approval. The amendment represented the first limitation ever passed in the Senate concerning the president’s powers as commander-in-chief during a war situation. The House of Representatives rejected the amendment on July 9, and it was eventually dropped from the Foreign Military Sales Act.

June 30, 1971 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the government could not prevent the Washington Post or the New York Times from publishing the “Pentagon Papers.”

June 30, 1976 – “The Outlaw Josie Wales,” a movie version of Alabama author Forrest Carter's book “Gone to Texas” (also called “The Rebel Outlaw Josie Wales”), was released.

June 30, 1978 - At Atlanta's Fulton County Stadium, Mobile, Ala. native Willie McCovey hit his 500th home run.

June 30, 1984 - Alabama author Lillian Hellman died in Martha's Vineyard, Mass.

June 30, 1988 – In Conecuh County, Ala. Odis Mims caught an 18-1/2 pound catfish on this Thursday evening.

June 30, 1988 – Weather reporter Harry Ellis reported 1.33 inches of rain in Evergreen, Ala.

June 30, 1989 – Eleven people were injured, but no one was killed, when a van belonging to the Springhill Church of God in Mobile, Ala. suffered a blow out, struck a guard rail and turned over just north of the Conecuh County, Ala. line on Interstate Highway 65.

June 30, 1995 – Moore Academy School at Pine Apple in Wilcox County, Ala. was added to the Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage.

June 30, 1995 – The Givens House in Andalusia, Ala. was added to the Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage.

June 30, 1999 – Weather reporter Harry Ellis reported total rainfall for the month of June 1999 amounted to 10.13 inches in Evergreen, Ala.