Today in History for June 6, 2016

June 6, 1586 – Francis Drake's forces raided St. Augustine in Spanish Florida.

June 6, 1622 – French-American missionary and explorer Claude-Jean Allouez was born in Saint-Didier-en-Velay, France. He is best known for being a Jesuit missionary, who explored North American and founded several missions, including the St. Francis Xavier Mission in Wisconsin.

June 6, 1749 – The Conspiracy of the Slaves in Malta was discovered.

June 6, 1755 – American soldier Nathan Hale was born in Coventry, Connecticut Coloney. He became a soldier in the Continental Army during American Revolutionary War and is considered to be America's first spy. He is known for his famous quote "I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country."

June 6, 1775 - Marinus Willett and a small group of Sons of Liberty confronted British soldiers as they were evacuating New York City. They seized wagonloads of weapons.

June 6, 1799 – Aleksandr Pushkin, the father of modern Russian literature, was born in Moscow.

June 6, 1812 – The last issue of The Mobile Centinel, the first newspaper in Alabama, was published at Fort Stoddert. The first issue was published on May 11, 1811 (some sources say May 23, 1811.)

June 6, 1813 – During the War of 1812, at the Battle of Stoney Creek, a British force of 700 under John Vincent defeated an American force twice its size under William Winder and John Chandler.

June 6, 1815 – Rev. William C. Morrow was born in Pulaski County, Tenn. He went on to become a Presbyterian minister whose first assignment was to serve Old Flat Creek Church at Turnbull in Monroe County, Ala.

June 6, 1833 - Andrew Jackson became the first U.S. president to ride in a train. It was a B&O passenger train.

June 6, 1840 – In this day’s issue of Philadelphia’s “Saturday Evening Post,” Edgar Allan Poe bought advertising space for the prospectus of “The Penn,” a monthly literary journal he intended to begin publishing. The journal was never produced before Poe's death.

June 6, 1849 – Edmund P. Gaines passed away at the age of 76 in New Orleans and was buried in the Church Street Graveyard in Mobile, Ala. Born in Culpepper County, Va. on March 20, 1777, he and a detachment of mounted riflemen arrested former Vice President Aaron Burr on the road north of Fort Stoddert in February 1807 and escorted him to Washington, D.C. for trial on charges of treason.

June 6, 1861 – During the Civil War, the Federal cabinet decided that war expenses should be paid by the national government, except those of the states for mobilization prior to swearing in of the men.

June 6, 1862 - On this day, during the Battle of Memphis, after a lengthy naval battle, the Union claimed Memphis, Tenn., the Confederacy's fifth-largest city, a naval manufacturing yard, and a key Southern industrial center.

June 6, 1862 – During the Civil War, skirmishes were fought at Grand River, Oklahoma and near Tompkinsville, Kentucky. An “affair” also occurred at Port Royal Ferry, South Carolina. Fighting also occurred south of Corinth, with skirmishes from Booneville, Mississippi, to Baldwyn, Mississippi.

June 6, 1862 – During the Civil War, in a rear guard action, just south of Harrisonburg, Va., Stonewall Jackson’s colorful cavalry chief, Turner Ashby, was killed.

June 6, 1863 - Robert E. Archer, one of four Confederate soldier sons of Amos Archer of Monroe County, Ala., died at Alton Prison, Ill. after being captured at Port Gibson. A member of Co. E of the 23rd Alabama Regiment, he was buried in the prison cemetery. His other Confederate soldier brothers were Thomas F. Archer, William Archer and James O. Archer.

June 6, 1863 – During the Civil War, skirmishes were fought near Doniphan and Rocheport in Missouri; near Perryville, Virginia; near Richmond, Louisiana; near Shawneetown, Kansas; and at Waitsborough, Kentucky. An “affair” also occurred near Waverly, Missouri.

June 6, 1863 – During the Civil War, the siege at Vicksburg, Miss. entered Day 19.

June 6, 1864 – During the Civil War, an engagement was fought at Old River Lake, Arkansas, and a skirmish was fought near Moorefield, West Virginia.

June 6, 1865 – Confederate soldier Lafayette Washington Duke of Co. C, 5th Alabama Infantry Regiment was released after taking the Oath of Allegiance. Wounded and given furlough home to Monroe County on June 27, 1862, he was taken prisoner at the Wilderness on May 5, 1864, forwarded to Point Lookout, Md. on May 18, 1864 and then to Elmira Prison, N.Y. on Aug. 15, 1864. He eventually returned home to Monroe County, became a Baptist minister and eventually moved to Texas. He is buried in Waco, McLennan County, Texas.

June 6, 1865 - Confederate raider William Quantrill died from shot in the back that he received while escaping from a Union patrol near Taylorsville, Ky. He was 27 years old.

June 6, 1868 – English sailor and explorer Robert Falcon Scott was born in Plymouth, Devon, England, UK. He led two expeditions to the Antarctic regions: the Discovery Expedition, 1901–04, and the ill-fated Terra Nova Expedition, 1910–13. During the second venture, Scott led a party of five which reached the South Pole on Jan. 17, 1912 only to find that they had been preceded by Roald Amundsen's Norwegian expedition.

June 6, 1889 – The Great Seattle Fire destroyed all of downtown Seattle.

June 6, 1890 – Hugh T. Fountain was appointed to another term as postmaster at Burnt Corn, Ala.

June 6, 1895 – The Monroe Masonic Chapter No. 4 was scheduled to hold a regular convocation in the Masonic Hall at Perdue Hill, Ala. at 10 a.m. to elect officers, pay dues and handle other business maters.

June 6, 1907 – National Baseball Hall of Fame catcher Bill Dickey was born in Bastrop, La. He played his entire career for the New York Yankees. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1954.

June 6, 1915 – 1,600 pounds of dynamite in a warehouse of the Blacksher Warehouse Co. at Uriah, Ala. exploded on this Sunday afternoon. The explosion, which was felt and heard for miles around, injured seven people, but no one was killed. The warehouse and two residences were destroyed, debris was scattered for some distance, but the cause of the explosion was unknown.

June 6, 1925 – Hall of Fame Alabama high school football coach and former Livingston College coach Morris Higginbotham was born in Birmingham, Ala.

June 6, 1925 – Poet Maxine Kumin was born in Philadelphia.

June 6, 1928 - Nixon Ousley, charged with the murder of Calvin Casey near Excel on Sun., May 27, was given a preliminary hearing before Judge Fountain on this Wednesday and remanded to jail without bail to await the action of the grand jury. Evidence brought out in the trial differed materially from reports current previous to the hearing, the claim of self-defense being supported only by the testimony of the defendant himself. It appears from the evidence of witnesses for the state that Casey was unarmed at the time of the shooting.

June 6, 1933 – The first drive-in theater opened in Camden, New Jersey.

June 6, 1934 - Myril Hoag of the New York Yankees hit six singles in a game against the Boston Red Sox.

June 6, 1939 - The New York Giants hit five home runs in the fourth inning in a 17-3 victory over the Cincinnati Reds.

June 6, 1939 – Evergreen’s mayor and city council, at their regular weekly meeting on this Tuesday night, awarded contract to the Lane-Central Co. of Memphis for the installation of a new well. Work was to begin within the next week and it was expected that it would be ready for use not later than July 15. The well was to be located on the triangular lot in front of the City School next to the overhead bridge. The contractors expected that it would be necessary to go a depth of approximately 300 feet to secure ample water supply. This was about the depth of the old well.

June 6, 1939 - T.O. Langham, newly elected member of the Evergreen City Council, was sworn in during a meeting on this Tuesday night and participated in the proceedings of the meeting.

June 6, 1944 – Major Vernon “Junie” Burns of Megargel, Ala. was severely wounded while commanding a 70-man landing craft at Normandy Beach when their boat struck a mine. He’d played guard on Auburn’s football team for three seasons prior to this. His leg was later amputated, but he received a Silver Star for valor in combat for preventing 11 of his men from drowning.

June 6, 1946 – The National Basketball Association was created with eleven teams.

June 6, 1948 – The Rev. Sam Granade preached his first sermon in Evergreen, Ala. as pastor of the First Baptist Church of Evergreen.

June 6, 1949 - George Orwell’s novel of a dystopian future, “Nineteen Eighty-four,” was first published.

June 6, 1950 – The first issue of "The Frisco City Sun" was published. The last issue was published on Aug. 29, 1951.

June 6, 1964 - Two U.S. Navy jets flying low-altitude target reconnaissance missions over Laos were shot down by communist Pathet Lao ground fire. Washington immediately ordered armed jets to escort the reconnaissance flights, and by June 9, escort jets were attacking Pathet Lao headquarters. The downing of the two reconnaissance aircraft and the retaliatory strikes were made public, but the full extent of the U.S. involvement in Laos was not. In fact, the U.S. fighter-bombers were flying combat missions in support of Royal Lao forces in their war against the communist Pathet Lao and would continue to do so until 1973.

June 6, 1965 - Tom Tresh of the New York Yankees hit home runs on three consecutive at-bats against the Chicago White Sox.

June 6, 1968 - U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy died at 1:44 a.m. in Los Angeles after being shot by Sirhan Sirhan. Kennedy was was shot the evening before while campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination.

June 6, 1969 - Graduation exercises were held for the 30^th session of the Alabama Police Academy, and among those graduating from that session was Larry C. Morrison, patrolman, Evergreen Police Department. Col. Floyd Mann was Director of the Department of Public Safety.

June 6, 1971 – During the Vietnam War, the Battle of Long Khanh between Australian and Vietnamese communist forces began.

June 6, 1972 – Monroe County High School left-handed pitcher Larry Snowden was selected in the 30th round of the 1972 MLB June Amateur Draft by the Pittsburgh Pirates.

June 6, 1972 - South Vietnamese forces drove out all but a few of the communist troops remaining in Kontum. Over 200 North Vietnamese had been killed in six battles in and around the city.

June 6, 1985 – The grave of "Wolfgang Gerhard" was opened in Embu, Brazil; the exhumed remains were later proven to be those of Josef Mengele, Auschwitz's "Angel of Death." Mengele is thought to have drowned while swimming in February 1979.

June 6, 1992 - Eddie Murray passed Mickey Mantle on the all-time switch-hitter RBI list. Mantle held the record at 1,509.

June 6, 1996 – Sixteen guests and staff members at the Craigcarroch House Hotel on the shore of Loch Ness reported having seen the powerful wake of some large marine creature moving across the lake for five to 10 minutes. Although none of the witnesses to the event said that they actually saw Nessie, Kate Munro, one of the hotel’s owners, said that it had to have been a very large creature to create such a frothy disturbance and to move in a zigzagging motion on an otherwise placid lake surface.

June 6, 1996 - John Valentin became the 14th player in Boston Red Sox history to hit on all at-bats during a game. He hit for the cycle when he went 4-for-4 against the Chicago White Sox.

June 6, 1996 - Baseball's executive council told Marge Schott, owner of the Cincinnati Reds, to give up day-to-day operations within a week or face a suspension of more than a year. Schott had caused controversy with comments she made concerning Adolph Hitler in an ESPN interview.

June 6, 2001 - U.S. District Court Judge Matsch rejected a request to delay the execution of convicted Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh. The date was left at June 11.

June 6, 2002 – In what is now called the “Eastern Mediterranean Event,” a near-Earth asteroid estimated at 10 meters in diameter exploded over the Mediterranean Sea between Greece and Libya. The resulting explosion was estimated to have a force of 26 kilotons, slightly more powerful than the Nagasaki atomic bomb.

June 6, 2003 - The Seattle Mariners were defeated by the New York Mets to end their 13-game road winning streak.

June 6, 2008 – The Huntsville Stars retired former president and general manager Don Mincher’s No. 5 jersey in an on-field ceremony even though he never played for the team.