Today in History for May 13, 2017

James Rayford Gohagin

May 13, 1607 - Jamestown, Virginia was settled as a colony of England.

May 13, 1637 - Cardinal Richelieu of France invented the table knife. Distinguished by its rounded tip the Cardinal ordered his kitchen staff to file off the sharp points on all the knives to improve his guests' table manners. It was common at the time to stab meat, eating it off the knife, and to pick one’s teeth with the instrument after the meal.

May 13, 1648 - Margaret Jones of Plymouth was found guilty of witchcraft and was sentenced to be hanged by the neck.

May 13, 1778 - In Pennsylvania, Oneida Indians arrived to aid Marquis de Lafayette.

May 13, 1787 - Captain Arthur Phillip left Britain for Australia. He successfully landed 11 ships full of convicts on Jan. 18, 1788 at Botany Bay. The group moved north eight days later and settled at Port Jackson.

May 13, 1807 - Connecticut Patriot Eliphalet Dyer passed away at the age of 85 at his home in Windham, Conn. He had won many elections to the colonial assembly between 1747 to 1784 and served in the Stamp Act Congress.

May 13, 1821 - The first practical printing press was patented in the U.S. by Samuel Rust.

May 13, 1842 – Arthur Sullivan, of Gilbert and Sullivan fame was born in London. He wrote the music for their 14 comic operas, which included H.M.S. Pinafore (1878), The Pirates of Penzance (1879), and The Mikado (1885).

May 13, 1846 – The United States declared war on Mexico, leading to the Mexican-American War.

May 13, 1861 – The Great Comet of 1861 was discovered by John Tebbutt of Windsor, New South Wales, Australia. It was visible to the naked eye for approximately three months.

May 13, 1861 – During the Civil War, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom issued a "proclamation of neutrality" which recognized the breakaway states as having belligerent rights and declared Britain’s neutrality in the war.

May 13, 1861 – George McClellan was appointed commander of the Department of Ohio. The following day he was promoted to major general, his rank in the Ohio militia. Only General-in-Chief Winfield Scott held a higher rank.

May 13, 1861 - North Carolina elected delegates to the Secession Convention.

May 13, 1861 - Acting completely without orders or authorization of any sort, Union General Benjamin Butler occupied the city of Baltimore. He moved troops from outlying Relay Station, Md., into town and seized Federal Hill. His first justification was the claim that he had heard that there was a riot going on. As there was in fact no civil disturbance, he searched around until he found weapons stores, munitions and other supplies he claimed were intended for distribution to the “rebels.”

May 13, 1862 – The USS Planter, a steamer and gunship, stole through Confederate lines and was passed to the Union by a southern slave, Robert Smalls, who later was officially appointed as captain, becoming the first black man to command a United States ship.

May 13, 1862 – Third Sgt. Joseph G. Sanders, aka “The Turncoat of Dale County,” was elected to be the captain and commander of his company. He participated with his regiment in the Seven Days Battle, the Second Battle of Bull Run and the Battle of Antietam, where he was wounded and was subsequently absent sick for 31 days in December 1862. Returning to his unit in January 1863, he accompanied them to Port Royal, Va., where he continued to serve until July 20, 1863 (just after the Battle of Gettysburg), when his health allegedly began to fail. Accordingly, he requested and obtained a medical furlough to return to his home in Dale County, which was granted on Oct. 9, 1863.

May 13, 1862 – During the Civil War, a skirmish was fought on the Rappahannock River in Virginia.

May 13, 1863 - Union General Ulysses S. Grant advanced toward the Mississippi capital of Jackson during his bold and daring drive to take Vicksburg, the last Confederate stronghold on the Mississippi River.

May 13, 1863 - Gov. Zebulon B. Vance of North Carolina added to the pressures preying on the mind of President Jefferson Davis on this day. Vance was concerned about the rate of desertion among Confederate troops. He studied the subject and wrote to Davis that the causes he had found for desertion included homesickness, fatigue, inability to enter their preferred regiment, refusal of officers to grant furloughs, and “hard fare,” presumably referring to the food.

May 13, 1863 – During the Civil War, skirmishes were fought at Upperville, Virginia and near South Union and Woodburn, Kentucky.

May 13, 1864 - Twenty hours of fighting ceased at the “Bloody Angle,” just before dawn at Spotsylvania. The battle continued until May 19.

May 13, 1864 – During the Civil War, the Battle of Resaca began with Union General Sherman fighting toward Atlanta.

May 13, 1864 – The first soldier was interred at Arlington National Cemetery, in what was formerly Robert E. Lee's rose garden.

May 13, 1864 – During the Civil War, skirmishes were fought at Dalton and Resaca, Ga.; at Luce's Plantation; at Spavinaw, Ark.; at Cuba, Mo.; and at Pulaski, Tenn.

May 13, 1864 - The naval component of the Red River expedition had been stranded by low water above the rapids near Alexandria. In a brilliant and desperate feat of engineering, a dam had been constructed to raise the water level. On this day, the dam was blown up and the last three ships rode the wave downstream to freedom. The last of Banks’ troops boarded the ships and steamed home as quickly as possible.

May 13, 1865 – During the Civil War, at the Battle of Palmito Ranch, in far south Texas, more than a month after Confederate General Robert E. Lee's surrender, the last land battle of the Civil War ended with a Confederate victory.

May 13, 1867 - Confederate President Jefferson Davis became a free man after spending two years in prison for his role in the American Civil War.

May 13, 1874 - Author Maude McKnight Lindsay was born in Tuscumbia, Ala.

May 13, 1887 – Conecuh County, Ala. claimed the Burnt Corn post office rather than Monroe County. Hugh T. Fountain was postmaster at the time. Three years later, it was again in Monroe County when Fountain was appointed again as postmaster on June 6, 1890.

May 13, 1888 – With the passage of the Lei Áurea ("Golden Law"), Brazil abolished slavery.

May 13, 1890 – Monroe County Probate Judge and State Senator E.T. “Short” Millsap born in Evergreen, Ala.

May 13, 1894 - Author Emma Gelders Sterne was born in Birmingham, Ala.

May 13, 1905 - U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt opened the White House Conservation Conference in Washington, DC.

May 13, 1905 – D.L. Neville in Monroe County, Ala. sustained “painful burns” on this Saturday evening. He was attempting to light a cigarette and accidentally set his clothing on fire. Before anyone could help him, the upper portion of his body was “seriously burned.”

May 13, 1906 - Children’s day exercises in the Drewry Sunday school were to be held on this Sunday at 10 a.m. in the church.

May 13, 1906 - Dr. Busey and Miss Mary Shivers were married on this Sunday afternoon at Manistee by Mr. Galloway, the Justice of the Peace, and “the Dr.’s many friends were quite surprised,” The Monroe Journal reported.

May 13, 1907 – Novelist Daphne du Maurier was born in London, England.

May 13, 1911 - The New York Giants set a Major League Baseball record. Ten runners crossed home plate before the first out of the game against St. Louis. Fred Merkle of the New York Giants also recorded six RBI in one inning.

May 13, 1914 – The large, stone Confederate monument on The Quad at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa was erected by the Alabama Division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy.

May 13, 1914 - Joe Louis, "The Brown Bomber," was born near LaFayette, Ala. In 1926 the family moved to Detroit and Louis began boxing. Louis held the world heavyweight boxing title from 1937 to 1948 and made a division record 25 successful title defenses. His matches in 1936 and 1938 against Max Schmeling of Germany were seen by many as heroic fights between the democratic free world and the Nazi forces. Louis died in 1981.

May 13, 1915 – The Monroe Journal in Monroeville, Ala. reported that Prof. G.A. Harris had been re-elected to another term as Monroe County High School’s principal.

May 13, 1915 – “Since leaving Paris yesterday we have passed through streets and streets of such murdered houses, through town after town spread out in its last writhings,” the celebrated novelist Edith Wharton wrote on May 13, 1915, from the town of Nancy, in the Argonnes region of France. “And before the black holes that were homes, along the edge of the chasms that were streets, everywhere we have seen flowers and vegetables springing up in freshly raked and watered gardens.”

May 13, 1917 – Three peasant children reported the first apparition of Our Lady of Fátima (the Virgin Mary) in Fátima, Portugal.

May 13, 1917 – David Gross, son of Tillman Gross, a well-known Evergreen man, was instantly killed at Century, where he was employed, on this Sunday. He was at the station awaiting the arrival of the train to come home, when in some way the train struck him with the result as stated. His body was brought to Evergreen for interment the next day.

May 13, 1928 - Author Thomas McAfee was born in Haleyville, Ala.

May 13, 1930 – Norwegian scientist, explorer, academic and Nobel Prize laureate Fridtjof Nansen died of a heart attack at the age of 68 in Polhøgda, Lysaker, Norway.

May 13, 1937 – The Evergreen Courant announced that J.C. (Cary) Murphy had purchased the City Café, a popular restaurant, which was formerly operated by J. Arthur Lewis.

May 13, 1937 – Evergreen’s baseball team was scheduled to play Century in Evergreen, Ala.

May 13, 1937 - A “Spring Dance” was scheduled to be held on this night at the National Guard Armory in Evergreen, Ala. The dance was sponsored by the Evergreen Baseball Club, proceeds from which were to be placed in the fund for enclosing Gantt Field.

May 13, 1939 – The first commercial FM radio station in the United States was launched in Bloomfield, Connecticut. The station later becomes WDRC-FM.

May 13, 1941 – Singer and songwriter Richard Steven Valenzuela, better known as Ritchie Valens, was born in Pacoima, a neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles.

May 13, 1944 – Scottish judge and explorer Sir Crispin Agnew, 11th Baronet, was born. As an active climber and mountaineer and member of the Alpine Club, he was involved with the army's policy of developing adventurous training for soldiers of all ranks. He took part in or led a number of expeditions, including expeditions to Api Himal in 1980, Everest in 1976, Nuptse Himal in 1975, the Northern Ice-cap, Chilean Patagonia in 1972/73, Elephant Island, Antarctica in 1970/71 and Greenland in 1968 and 1966.

May 13, 1949 – John Singleton Peacock, the oldest of Lewis Lavon and Safronia Caroline Martin’s 10 (possibly 11) children, passed away at the age of 81.

May 13, 1953 - Willie Mays and Darryl Spencer, both on the New York Giants, each hit two home runs and a triple in the same game.

May 13, 1955 - Mickey Mantle hit three consecutive home runs.

May 13, 1958 - Stan Musial became the eighth player in Major League history to get 3,000 hits.

May 13, 1958 – Ben Carlin became the first (and only) person to circumnavigate the world by amphibious vehicle, having travelled over 11,000 miles by sea and 39,000 miles by land during a 10-year journey.

May 13, 1958 - Evergreen (Ala.) Little League began official play on this Tuesday night with games between the Chicks and Orioles and the Yankees and the Dodgers. In the American League, the Chicks dropped the Orioles by a score of 9-1. Glass was the winning pitcher for the Chicks and Engle was credited with the loss for the Orioles. The Chicks were credited with two hits, both collected by second sacker Kelly. Kelly tagged a single in the third inning and a double in the fourth. The Orioles failed to touch Glass for a single hit. Losing pitcher Engle fanned 10 men and walked 10. Glass struck out six men and walked four. In the National League, the Dodgers continued their winning ways from previous seasons by dropping the Yankees by a score of 13-7. Briggs was credited with the win for the Dodgers and Cloud was the losing pitcher for the Yanks. Lambert led the Dodger hitters at the plate with two doubles for three trips. He was followed by Tolbert and Jackson with singles, and Briggs who connected with a three-bagger. The losing Yanks were led at the plate by Scott Cook who tagged two doubles and Salter, Warren and Hayes who singled. Although both teams were even on hits, superior fielding by the Dodgers spelled defeat for the Yanks.

May 13, 1962 – Scottish poet Kathleen Jamie was born in Renfrewshire, Scotland.

May 13, 1964 – Satirist and TV host Stephen Colbert was born in Washington, D.C.

May 13, 1967 - Mickey Mantle hit his 500th home run.

May 13, 1969 - Army SPC5 James Rayford Gohagin, 21, of Atmore, Ala. was killed in action in Vietnam. Gohagin was killed at Firebase Airborne, during a Sapper attack on top of Dong Ngai Mountain at 3:10 a.m. Gohagin was reported to be one of two Men inside a Conex container used as a fire control center. He was a member of the 319^th Artillery, 101^st Airborne Division. Born on Oct. 31, 1947, he was buried in the McCullough Community Cemetery in McCullough.

May 13, 1971 - Still deadlocked, the Vietnam peace talks in Paris entered their fourth year.

May 13, 1972 - The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Minnesota Twins, 4-3, in 22 innings. The game was actually started on May 12.

May 13, 1972 - Seventeen U.S. helicopters landed 1,000 South Vietnamese marines and their six U.S. advisors behind North Vietnamese lines southeast of Quang Tri City in the first South Vietnamese counterattack since the beginning of the communist Nguyen Hue Offensive.

May 13, 1974 – During a special meeting on this Monday afternoon, Evergreen (Ala.) Mayor Henry Sessions tendered his resignation to the Evergreen City Council. Sessions said that he was resigning “due to the new Ethics Law passed by the legislature last year. He said that he just did not feel that he could involve his entire family in the financial disclosure required by law.” Mayor Pro-Tem Clarence E. (Buddy) Evers took Sessions’ place.

May 13, 1976 – NBA shooting guard Trajan Langdon was born in Palo Alto, Calif. He would go on to play for Duke University and the Cleveland Cavaliers.

May 13, 1981 – Mehmet Ali Ağca attempted to assassinate Pope John Paul II in St. Peter's Square in Rome. The Pope was rushed to the Agostino Gemelli University Polyclinic to undergo emergency surgery and survived.

May 13, 1982 - The Chicago Cubs became the first Major League Baseball team to win 8,000 games.

May 13, 1982 – The Evergreen Courant reported that Eddie Salter had won both the total beard length and total weight divisions of the turkey hunting contest at Carter’s Hardware & Supply Co. that season. Eddie’s five Toms had beards that measured 53-1/4 inches and weighed 95 and 7/8 pounds.

May 13, 1983 - Reggie Jackson became the first Major League player to strike out 2,000 times.

May 13, 1985 - Carlton Fisk became the fifth catcher in Major League history to steal 100 bases.

May 13, 1985 - Tony Perez became the oldest Major League Baseball player to hit a grand slam home run at the age of 42 and 11 months.

May 13, 1986 – Actress Lena Dunham was born in New York City.

May 13, 1991 - At Yankee Stadium fans sang Madonna's song "Like a Virgin" to Jose Canseco.

May 13, 1994 – Episode No. 24 of “The X-Files” – entitled “The Erlenmeyer Flask” – aired for the first time.

May 13, 1994 - The Cleveland Indians began an 18-game win streak.

May 13, 1995 – Alison Hargreaves, a 33-year-old British mother, became the first woman to conquer Everest without oxygen or the help of sherpas.

May 13, 1999 – The Furman Historic District in Furman in Wilcox County, Ala. was added to the National Register of Historic Places. The district’s boundaries are roughly Old Snow Hill Road, Wilcox County Road 59, Burson Road, and AL 21. It contains 1,030 acres, 73 buildings, and 14 structures.

May 13, 2000 - Alabama author Fred Bonnie died in Spartanburg, S.C.

May 13, 2006 – Right-handed pitcher Christopher Scottie Booker of Monroeville, Ala. made his first and only appearance for the Kansas City Royals.

May 13, 2013 - Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield departed the International Space Station to return to Earth after almost a year in space. 

May 13, 2016 – J.U. Blacksher’s varsity baseball team advanced to the Class 1A state baseball finals for the first time in school history by beating Brantley, 10-9, at Uriah in Game 3 of a best-of-three series.