Today in History for June 7, 2016

Theodore O'Hara

June 7, 1494 – Spain and Portugal signed the Treaty of Tordesillas which divided the New World between the two countries.

June 7, 1498 - Christopher Columbus left on his third voyage of exploration.

June 7, 1712 - The Pennsylvania Assembly banned the importation of slaves.

June 7, 1775 - The United Colonies changed their name to the United States.

June 7, 1776 – Richard Henry Lee presented the "Lee Resolution" to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia that would declare the colonies independent. The motion was seconded by John Adams and led to the United States Declaration of Independence.

June 7, 1800 – Explorer David Thompson reached the mouth of the Saskatchewan River in Manitoba.

June 7, 1825 – During his tour of the United States, the Marquis de Lafayette met with local Revolutionary War veterans at Silvius Hoard's Tavern, Rochester, N.Y.

June 7, 1861 – During the Civil War, Federal forces blockaded Apalachicola, Fla.

June 7, 1861 – During the Civil War, a Confederate reconnaissance was conducted from Yorktown to Newport News, Va.

June 7, 1862 – The United States and the United Kingdom agreed in the Lyons–Seward Treaty to suppress the African slave trade.

June 7, 1862 - Alabama author Johnson Jones Hooper died in Richmond, Va.

June 7, 1862 - Benjamin Butler, considered by some to be a tyrant, and by others a just ruler at New Orleans, added to his infamy by having William B. Mumford hanged for tearing down and destroying the United States flag over the New Orleans Mint.

June 7, 1862 – During the Civil War, a three-day Federal operation began in the vicinity of Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

June 7, 1862 – During the Civil War, skirmishes were fought at Chattanooga and Jackson, Tennessee and on James Island, South Carolina.

June 7, 1863 - A Confederate attempt to rescue Vicksburg and a Rebel garrison held back by Union forces to the east of the city failed when Union troops turned back the attack at the Battle of Milliken’s Bend, La. Confederate losses stood at 44 killed, 131 wounded and 10 missing; the Union suffered much heavier losses: 101 killed, 285 wounded, and 266 missing.

June 7, 1863 – During the Civil War, the siege at Vicksburg, Miss. entered Day 20.

June 7, 1892 – Benjamin Harrison became the first President of the United States to attend a baseball game.

June 7, 1895 – A teachers institue for the white teachers of Monroe County, Ala. was scheduled to be held at Perdue Hill on this Friday. The Hon. J.G. Harris, former State Superintendent of Public Instruction, was one of the scheduled speakers. An institute for colored teachers was also scheduled for that same day at Bethel Church, near Monroeville, and was to be conducted by F.J. Marshall.

June 7, 1867 - Journalist and poet Theodore O'Hara died near Guerryton, Ala.

June 7, 1879 – Danish anthropologist and explorer Knud Rasmussen in Ilulissat in western Greenland. He has been called the “father of Eskimology” and was the first European to cross the Northwest Passage via dog sled.

June 7, 1892 - John Joseph Doyle became the first pinch-hitter in baseball when he was used in a game.

June 7, 1899 – Novelist Elizabeth Bowen was born in Dublin, Ireland.

June 7, 1902 – Conecuh County, Ala. Sheriff W.W. Pridgen arrested 64-year-old Albert Brown in Stockton on 31-year-old murder charges and transported him to the Conecuh County Jail in Evergreen. Brown was arrested for the stabbing of Levi Brown on the night of Aug. 10, 1871 on the railroad tracks in downtown Evergreen. Levi Brown died three days later, but Albert Brown claimed he stabbed the man in self-defense.

June 7, 1902 – Fred Johnson from Mill beat was placed in the Conecuh County, Ala. Jail on charges of assault with intent to murder after he allegedly struck Eli Harris on the head with a hoe, “inflicting a very dangerous wound from the effects of which it is feared he will not recover. Harris has been unable to speak ever since the blow was struck.” Johnson was tried before Judge I. Nichols, who set Johnson’s bail at $1,500 and bound him over to await the grand jury.

June 7, 1906 - There was to be an ice cream supper and box party given at the home of Mr. and Mrs. J.C. Griffin on this Thursday night for the purpose of buying an organ for the Excel Baptist Church.

June 7, 1909 - Hon. Nicholas Stallworth, age 64, died at 2 a.m. at his home on Evergreen’s Main Street, after a long illness. A long-time judicial circuit solicitor, he was also a former state senator, prominent Mason, Knight of Pythias and active member of St. Mary’s Episcopal Church. He joined the Conecuh Guards at age 15 and was youngest member of the Fourth Ala. Reg. He was wounded at Battle of Cold Harbor, was discharged, and later became Adjutant of the 23rd Ala. After the war, he became a lawyer and farmer.

June 7, 1911 – The Evergreen Courant reported that during the month of May, postmaster Dean reported that 127,450 piece of mail of various classes passed through the Evergreen Post Office.

June 7, 1913 - Hudson Stuck, an Alaskan missionary, led the first successful ascent of Mt. McKinley, the highest point on the American continent at 20,320 feet.

June 7, 1916 - A number of Evergreen citizens attended the Brewton-Auburn baseball game at Brewton, Ala.

June 7, 1916 - Hon. J.W. McDuffie, solicitor of the first judicial circuit, was in Evergreen on this day.

June 7, 1916 - Irby Pope, editor of The Marion Times, favored The Monroe Journal with a fraternal visit when he passed thru Monroeville on this day. Having been recently nominated for clerk of the circuit court of Perry County, Pope felt justified in indulging in a motor trip to Pensacola, his first vacation in nine years. The party accompanying Pope consisted of Marvin Moore, banker, M.H. Wilbourne, merchant, and R.E. Lee, planter, all of Marion.

June 7, 1920 - Author and Poet Laureate Carl Patrick Morton was born in Leeds, Ala.

June 7, 1928 – The Monroe Journal reported that Armfield McWilliams was in jail, charged with the murder of Will Horn on Monday night, June 4. Horn was called to his door and when he appeared was shot to death without warning. Suspicion rested upon McWilliams and he was arrested and lodged in jail. The killing occurred on the J.M. Wiggins plantation, six miles north of Monroeville.

June 7, 1928 – The Monroe Journal reported, under the headline “RAIN! RAIN! RAIN!,” that Monroe County was “just now in the midst of another visitation of excessive rain, greatly hampering farm work, which was already delayed. The rains began Sunday afternoon (June 3) and have continued with slight intermission up to the time of this writing. Roads are again in bad condition and railway traffic badly crippled. Mail service has been shut off since Sunday.”

June 7, 1934 - The first cotton bloom reported in Monroe County, Ala. was brought to The Monroe Journal office on this Thursday morning by Horace J. Lamar, principal of the Bethlehem Industrial Academy. On that same day, W.E. Deer of Claiborne reported the finding of a bloom in his fields at Claiborne. On Fri., June 8, W.H. Richardson, who resided on the Ridge, brought a bloom to The Journal that had been gathered from his fields that morning.

June 7, 1935 – Novelist Harry Crews was born in Bacon County, Ga.

June 7, 1936 – Croatian explorer Stjepan Seljan passed away at the age of 60 in Ouro Preto, Brazil.

June 7, 1944 – Duriing World War II’s Battle of Normandy, at Ardenne Abbey, members of the SS Division Hitlerjugend massacred 23 Canadian prisoners of war.

June 7, 1949 – The Hi-Ho Restaurant on Pineville Road in Monroeville, Ala., less than half a mile from the square, opened. It was operated by Emma Yarbrough and Buck Marshall.

June 7, 1952 – Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk was born in Istanbul.

June 7, 1954 – Novelist and poet Louise Erdrich was born in Little Falls, Minnesota.

June 7, 1961 – The Evergreen Squadron of the Civil Air Patrol joined other squadrons from Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas Wings in a search for a Piper Comanche airplane believed to be missing somewhere in the coastal area with a doctor and one passenger from Tampa, Fla. aboard. The plane, scheduled to fly along the Gulf coast, through Mexico and into Guatamala, South America, was last seen at Cross City, Fla., where it made a stop for refueling and some minor repairs. Base of operations for the search was St. Elmo, 25 miles southwest of Mobile, and personnel from the Evergreen squadron participating in the search included Lt. R.V. McClendon, Lt. Gordon W. Wright, S-M A.I. Jeffcoat and Lt. David E. McKenzie, who flew the squadron’s airplane.

June 7, 1962 – In the Evergreen (Ala.) Senior League, the Pirates beat the Indians, 2-0. Pirates pitcher Steve Baggett threw a one-hitter, had to hits and drove in both his team’s runs. Paul Deason pitched for the Indians.

June 7, 1964 – In an incident often attributed to the “Bermuda Triangle,” licensed pilot Carolyn Cascio and one passenger, who were flying in a light plane, vanished on a flight from Nassau to Grand Turk Island, Bahamas.

June 7, 1965 – The Evergreen Pony League was scheduled to open the 1965 season with a 6:30 p.m. game at the field at the Recreation Center in Evergreen, Ala. Bill Chapman was the league’s president.

June 7, 1965 - General Westmoreland requested a total of 35 battalions of combat troops, with another nine in reserve. This gave rise to the “44 battalion” debate within the Johnson administration, a discussion of how many U.S. combat troops to commit to the war. In the end, Johnson acquiesced to Westmoreland’s request; eventually there would be over 500,000 U.S. troops in South Vietnam.

June 7, 1968 – Army Sgt. William Morris Cooper of Georgiana, Ala. was killed in action in Vietnam.

June 7, 1971 – Army PFC Edwin Radford, a 1970 graduate of Evergreen High School, began a two-week assignment as an Army hometown recruiter in Evergreen, Ala. He’d recently completed airborne training at Fort Benning, Ga.

June 7, 1972 - Senator George McGovern (D-South Dakota) announced at a news conference that he would go “anywhere in the world” to negotiate an end to the war and a return of U.S. troops and POWs. McGovern, who had swept the Democratic Party spring primaries, was one of the earliest and most vocal opponents of American policy in Vietnam, and he made the war one of the central issues of the campaign. To many American voters, McGovern’s call for an immediate end to the war was tantamount to unconditional surrender. Incumbent Richard Nixon, who had campaigned on pursuing “peace with honor” in Vietnam decisively defeated McGovern when it became known that his envoy, Henry Kissinger, was close to negotiating a settlement with the North Vietnamese in peace talks.

June 7, 1973 – The Monroe Journal reported that Mike Floyd, son of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Raymond Floyd, had killed a large rattlesnake that measured six feet, two inches in length. Floyd and Tommy Waters killed the snake near Uriah.

June 7, 1974 – British adventurer, author and television host Edward Michael “Bear” Grylls was born in the United Kingdom.

June 7, 1978 - Alabama author Lee McGiffin died in Fort Worth, Texas.

June 7, 1979 - Alabama author Forrest Carter died in Abilene, Texas.

June 7, 1981 – The Israeli Air Force destroyed Iraq's Osiraq nuclear reactor during Operation Opera.

June 7, 1982 - Steve Garvey became the fifth player in Major League Baseball history to play in 1,000 consecutive games.

June 7, 1982 – Priscilla Presley opened Graceland to the public. The bathroom where Elvis Presley died five years earlier was kept off-limits.

June 7, 1983 - Steve Carlton temporarily passed Nolan Ryan in career strikeouts when he registered his 3,522nd.

June 7, 1986 - The Kansas City Royals drafted football star Bo Jackson, the 1985 Heisman Trophy winner out of Auburn University, in the fourth round of the Major League Baseball amateur draft. Jackson’s decision to pursue baseball instead of football shocked the NFL and football fans across the country.

June 7, 1987 – Walter “Johnny D.” McMillian was arrested for the murder of Ronda Morrison of Monroeville, Ala.

June 7, 1988 – German SS officer Martin Sommer died at the age of 73 in Schwarzenbruck.

June 7, 1989 - The Toronto Skydome hosted the first game to be played indoors and outdoors in the same day. The roof was closed when the weather became threatening.

June 7, 1993 - The ground breaking ceremony was held for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, Ohio.

June 7, 1998 - The Baltimore Orioles retired Eddie Murray's No. 33 jersey.

June 7, 2013 – Jacob May, the grandson of Birmingham, Ala. native Lee May, was drafted by the Chicago White Sox in the third round, 91st overall, in the 2013 MLB Draft. Lee May, known as the “Big Bopper,” was a three-time All Star.