Today in History for June 8, 2016

Samuel D. Sturgis 

June 8, 632 – Muhammad, Islamic prophet, died in Medina and was succeeded by Abu Bakr who became the first caliph of the Rashidun Caliphate.

June 8, 1692 – In connection with the Salem witchcraft trials, Bridget Bishop was the first to be tried and convicted of witchcraft. She was sentenced to death. Also on this day, 18-year-old Elizabeth Booth was accused of witchcraft.

June 8, 1776 – During the American Revolutionary War, at the Battle of Trois-Rivières, American attackers were driven back at Trois-Rivières, Quebec. Canadian Governor Sir Guy Carleton defeated American Patriot forces under John Sullivan, and the Patriots retreated toward Montreal.

June 8, 1787 – Hinchey W. Warren was born in Burke County, Ga., and he moved to Conecuh County, Ala. around 1818, settling near his fathter about a mile east of Sparta. He was the great-grandfather of 29th U.S. President, Warren G. Harding.

June 8, 1789 – James Madison introduced 12 proposed amendments to the United States Constitution in the House of Representatives. By 1791, 10 of them were ratified by the state legislatures and became the Bill of Rights. Another was eventually ratified in 1992 to become the 27th Amendment.

June 8, 1818 – Newton, Ala. Methodist minister William “Bill” Sketoe Sr. was born in Madrid, Spain. His lynching in Newton on Dec. 3, 1864 gave birth to one of Alabama's best-known ghost stories, the story of “Sketoe’s Hole.” (13 Alabama Ghosts)

June 8, 1845 - Andrew Jackson, the seventh President of the United States, passed away at the age of 78 from chronic tuberculosis, dropsy and heart failure in Nashville, Tenn.

June 8, 1848 – The world’s first professor of agricultural physics, Franklin Hiram King, was born on a farm near Whitewater, Wisconsin.

June 8, 1861 - In Tennessee, voters approved a referendum to secede from the Union and joined the Confederacy.

June 8, 1861 – During the Civil War, Governor John Letcher of Virginia officially transferred the armed forces of his state to the Confederate States. This action put General Robert E. Lee out of a job, as he had commanded the Virginia troops. He continued to act as an adviser to President Jefferson Davis.

June 8, 1862 – During the Civil War, at the Battle of Cross Keys, Confederate forces under General Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson saved the Army of Northern Virginia from a Union assault on the James Peninsula led by General George B. McClellan. This battle was part of the Shenandoah Valley campaign and was a prelude to the larger Battle of Port Republic on June 9.

June 8, 1862 – During the Civil War, skirmishes were fought near Fair Oaks and Muddy Creek in Virginia and in the vicinity of Charleston Harbor, S.C.

June 8, 1863 - Confederate Nathan Bedford Forrest learned that Union General Samuel D. Sturgis was moving toward Tupelo, Miss. In response, Forrest selected Brice's Crossroads for an attack on the Union cavalry. The plan worked and Forrest was able to capture 1,600 troops, 16 cannons and 176 supply wagons.

June 8, 1863 – During the Civil War, residents of Vicksburg, Miss. fled into caves as General Ulysses S. Grant's army began shelling the town during the 21st day of the siege.

June 8, 1867 – Architect Frank Lloyd Wright was born in Richland Center, Wisc.

June 8, 1867 – Mark Twain boarded the side-wheel steamer “The Quaker City” and set off on a five-month trip to Europe and the Mediterranean. He published his experiences from the trip in a book called “Innocents Abroad, or The New Pilgrims’ Progress,” the most popular travel book of his time.

June 8, 1902 – B.P. Pearson, a “crazy man” from Mississippi City, “terrorized” the people of Repton on this Friday morning. Around 8 a.m., he came out of a Repton hotel in a “demented condition” with two revolvers and a Winchester rifle and “seemed to want to shoot any who was in sight.” He shot, but missed, Jack Campbell and after about two hours, A.E. Peterman and marshall J.E. Robinson persuaded Pearson to lay down his guns.

June 8, 1906 – Theodore Roosevelt signed the Antiquities Act into law, authorizing the President to restrict the use of certain parcels of public land with historical or conservation value.

June 8, 1910 – John W. Campbell, the editor who ushered in the Golden Age of Science Fiction, was born in Newark, N.J.

June 8, 1915 - U.S. Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan resigned in a disagreement over U.S. handling of the sinking of the Lusitania.

June 8, 1916 – Biophysicist Francis Crick was born in Northampton, England.

June 8, 1916 – The Conecuh Record reported that Winton Deming, who was taking a four-year course in electrical engineering at Auburn, was at home for vacation.

June 8, 1916 – The Monroe Journal reported that H.B. Dameron of Lynchburg, Va. had been in Monroe County, Ala. for a week prospecting with a view to the purchase of a large body of land suitable for the establishment of a stock farm. Dameron inspected several properties and seemed “strongly impressed with their adaptability to the purpose contemplated.”

June 8, 1919 - Mr. and Mrs. A.C. Lee and Miss Kittie Williams returned on this Sunday from Washington, where they’d spent several days.

June 8, 1924 – English mountaineer and explorer Andrew Irvine died at the age of 22 on the North Face, Mount Everest, Nepal.

June 8, 1934 - Richard T. (Dick) Rives, prominent lawyer of the firm of Hill, Hill, Whiting, Thomas & Rives of Montgomery, Ala., was to address the voters of Conecuh County at the courthouse on this Friday night at eight o’clock, speaking in the interest of the candidacy of Col. Bibb Graves for Governor. C.B. Wilson was Conecuh County manager for Bibb Graves.

June 8, 1934 - Thirty-four members of Monroe County High School’s graduating class were presented diplomas by Prof. J.A. York at the close of the commencement exercises at the high school auditorium on this Friday evening. Annie Maude Hayles delivered the class salutatory address, and Carolyn Andress rendered a piano solo, “Valse Caprice” by Wachs. Armistead Harper made the president’s address, and Bonnie Hendrick was valedictorian.

June 8, 1937 - The world's largest and smelliest flower, the 8-1/2-foot-tall 'corpse flower' (Titan arum) bloomed at the Botanic Garden in New York. The flower's putrid odor is meant to attract pollinators such as carrion beetles and flesh flies found on the plant's native island, Sumatra.

June 8, 1939 - The board of directors of the Southern Pine Electric Membership Corporation, sponsor for the REA lines under construction at that time in Conecuh, Monroe and Escambia counties in Alabama, announced a rate schedule in this day’s edition of The Evergreen Courant for the approximately 600 subscribers on the several lines.

June 8, 1939 – Pro Football Hall of Fame cornerback Herb Adderley was born in Philadelphia, Pa. He went on to play for Michigan State, the Green Bay Packers and the Dallas Cowboys. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1980.

June 8, 1943 - Olympian Willie Davenport was born in Troy (Pike County, Ala). Davenport is one of only a few athletes to have competed in both the winter and summer Olympic Games. He garnered international recognition between 1964 and 1976 for his explosive speed and exquisite form in the high hurdles. As a bobsledder in 1980, he became one of the first African Americans to participate in the Winter Olympics. From 1968 to 1980, Davenport served on the United States Olympic Committee as a member of the Board of Directors and Executive and upon retirement from competition in 1982 was inducted into the United States Track and Field Hall of Fame. Davenport joined the Army National Guard, where he rose to the rank of colonel, and as chief of the Office of Sports Management, he coached the All-Army men's and women's track teams to an unprecedented four undefeated seasons between 1993 and 1996.

June 8, 1947 – A baseball game between the Evergreen Greenies and Frisco City was postponed due to rain.

June 8, 1947 – Mrs. Harry Monroe was hit in the eye by a foul ball during a baseball game in Brooklyn, Ala. She was rushed to Hill Crest Infirmary in Andalusia, where she received 16 stitches under her eye, and was later carried to Jackson Hospital in Montgomery. The June 12 edition of The Courant reported that she was improving from her injuries.

June 8, 1947 – Crime novelist Sara Paretsky was born in Ames, Iowa.

June 8, 1949 – The celebrities Helen Keller, Dorothy Parker, Danny Kaye, Fredric March, John Garfield, Paul Muni and Edward G. Robinson are named in an FBI report as Communist Party members.

June 8, 1949 – George Orwell's prescient classic “1984” was published.

June 8, 1951 – German SS officer Oswald Pohl was executed by hanging at the age of 58 at Landsberg Prison in Landsberg am Lech.

June 8, 1952 - Miss Wilma Maurice Golson, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Otis Benjamin Golson, married Robert Gaston Bozeman Jr. on this Sunday. Golson was a popular member of the graduating class of the Evergreen High School. Bozeman was the son of Robert Gaston Bozeman Sr. and the late Mrs. Susan Dickey Bozeman. He was a veteran of World War II, serving overseas with the 1^st Marine Division.

June 8, 1954 - The Evergreen City Council voted to install another street light on Williams Avenue, part of the new subdivision being developed by J.R. Canterbury off Rural Street. City Clerk G.L. Wilkinson was also authorized to begin rewriting the city license schedule and bringing it up to date, including cross filing. Certain rate increases were expected to be in order, too, but most rates were expected to remain the same.

June 8, 1961 - The Milwaukee Braves set a Major League Baseball record when they hit four consecutive home runs in the seventh inning.

June 8, 1965 – A State Department press officer noted that, “American forces would be available for combat support together with Vietnamese forces when and if necessary,” alerting the press to an apparently major change in the U.S. commitment to the war. Prior to this time, U.S. forces had been restricted to protecting American airbases and other installations.

June 8, 1966 - It was announced that the NFL and AFL had merged and there would be a single schedule for both the NFL and AFL.

June 8, 1968 - James Earl Ray was captured at the London Airport. He was suspected of assassinating Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

June 8, 1969 - The New York Yankees retired Mickey Mantle's No. 7 jersey.

June 8, 1969 - President Nixon and South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu met at Midway Island in the Pacific. At the meeting, Nixon announced that 25,000 U.S. troops would be withdrawn by the end of August. Nixon and Thieu emphasized that South Vietnamese forces would replace U.S. forces. Along with this announcement of the first U.S. troop withdrawal, Nixon discussed what would become known as “Vietnamization.” Under this new policy, Nixon intended to initiate steps to increase the combat capability of the Republic of Vietnam Armed Forces so that the South Vietnamese would eventually be able to assume full responsibility for the war.

June 8, 1972 – During the Vietnam War, nine-year-old Phan Thị Kim Phúc was burned by napalm, an event captured by Associated Press photographer Nick Ut moments later while the young girl was seen running down a road, in what would become an iconic, Pulitzer Prize-winning photo.

June 8, 1976 – Major League Baseball catcher Kenji Johjima was born in Sasebo, Japan. He played for the Seattle Mariners from 2006 to 2009.

June 8, 1976 – Tennis player and coach Lindsay Davenport was born in Palos Verde, Calif.

June 8, 1978 – The TG&Y Family Center officially opened in Evergreen, Ala.

June 8, 1982 – National Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Satchel Page passed away at the age of 75 in Kansas City, Mo. A native of Mobile, Ala., he played for the Cleveland Indians, the St. Louis Browns and the Kansas City Athletics as well as a long list of Negro League teams. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1971.

June 8, 1984 - "Ghostbusters" was first released in theaters across the U.S.

June 8, 1997 – Betty Carrier was honored for her 24 faithful years of service as director of the Child Development Center at Evergreen Baptist Church, where the Rev. Phil Weaver was the church’s pastor at the time.

June 8, 1999 - Retired long time City of Evergreen Assistant Street Superintendent Sanford Moye was tragically killed when his Ford Expedition was struck by a southbound train on this Tuesday morning at the depot crossing in downtown Evergreen, Ala. The crossing near the depot had been the scene of several collisions over the previous several years, but this accident was the first one to involve a fatality in many years.

June 8, 2004 - Nate Olive and Sarah Jones began the first known continuous hike of the 1,800-mile trail down the U.S. Pacific Coast. They completed the trek at the U.S.-Mexico border on Sept. 28.

June 8, 2005 - Alex Rodriguez became the youngest player to reach 400 career home runs in a 12-3 win over the Milwaukee Brewers.

June 8, 2006 – City of Evergreen and Conecuh County officials signed a joint partnership agreement with W&B Trading Co., a biodiesel manufacturing facility to be constructed near Castleberry. The $10 million facility was to emply 24 people and construction was to begin within 30 to 45 days.