Today in History for June 23, 2017

Grave of Lewis Lavon Peacock

June 23, 1611 – The mutinous crew of Henry Hudson's fourth voyage set Henry, his son and seven loyal crew members adrift in an open boat in what is now Hudson Bay. They are never heard from again.

June 23, 1775 – German adventurer and author Karl Ludwig von Pöllnitz died in Berlin.

June 23, 1776 - Off the coast of Charleston, South Carolina, British Commodore Sir Peter Parker notified General Sir Henry Clinton of his intention to land on the South Carolina mainland the next day.

June 23, 1780 – During the American Revolution, the Battle of Springfield was fought in and around Springfield, New Jersey (including Short Hills, formerly of Springfield, now of Millburn Township).

June 23, 1812 – During the War of 1812, Great Britain revoked the restrictions on American commerce, thus eliminating one of the chief reasons for going to war.

June 23, 1860 - The U.S. Secret Service was created to arrest counterfeiters.

June 23, 1861 – During the Civil War, a skirmish was fought at Righter, Va. and the USS Massachusetts captured four vessels in the Gulf of Mexico.

June 23, 1862 - Confederate General Robert E. Lee met with his corps commanders to plan an attack on General George McClellan's Army of the Potomac. Launched on June 26, the attack would break the stalemate of the Peninsular campaign in Virginia and trigger the Seven Days’ Battles.

June 23, 1862 - U.S. President Abraham Lincoln took a train from Washington to West Point, New York. The next day he called on Winfield Scott to discuss Union strategy in Virginia.

June 23, 1862 – During the Civil War, skirmishes were fought at Pineville and Raytown, Mo.; at New Kent Courthouse, Va.; and at Augusta, Ark.

June 23, 1863 - Union General William Rosecrans marched his troops out of their camp in Murfreesboro, Tenn., and the Federal Army of the Cumberland began the Tullahoma Campaign against the Confederate Army of Tennessee.

June 23, 1863 – During the Civil War, skirmishes were fought at Rover and Unionville, Tenn. and near Papinsville, Mo. The destruction of Sibley, Missouri also took place on this day.

June 23, 1863 – During the Civil War, Confederate forces overwhelmed a Union garrison at the Battle of Brasher City in Louisiana.

June 23, 1863 – During the Civil War, the siege at Vicksburg, Miss. entered Day 36.

June 23, 1864 – During the Civil War, combat occurred of Jones' Bridge, Va. Skirmishes were fought at Nottaway Court House, Cove Gap, and New Castle, Va.; and at Okolona, Miss.

June 23, 1865 – During the Civil War, at Fort Towson in the Oklahoma Territory, Confederate Brigadier General Stand Watie, who was also a Cherokee chief, surrendered the last sizable and significant rebel army following the Battle of Doaksville. Watie was the last Confederate general in the field to surrender.

June 23, 1866 – The first issue of The Monroe Journal newspaper was published in Claiborne, Ala. Z.D. Cottrell was the newspaper’s editor.

June 23, 1868 – The typewriter was patented on this day by Christopher Latham Sholes of Milwaukee, Wisc.

June 23, 1879 - A match game of baseball was played in Evergreen on this evening between the Greenville and Evergreen Baseball Clubs. The score resulted as follows: Evergreen 29, Greenville 16.

June 23, 1886 - A “little negro boy” was killed near Monroeville on this Wednesday by a falling tree, according to The Monroe Journal.

June 23, 1889 – Russian poet Anna Akhmatova was born Anna Andreyevna Gorenko near the Black Sea port of Odessa in Ukraine.

June 23, 1896 – On this Tuesday night, Jeff and Fayette Salter, who had been confined in the Conecuh County Jail for several months awaiting trial on a charge of murder, escaped. The combination on the cell door, for some cause, was not turned on as usual on Tuesday evening, and finding it unlocked, they managed to get the door open and climbed on top of the cage and prized the tin ceiling loose overhead, through which they reached the loft. They tore their blankets into strips and tied them together, by the means of which they made their escape from the building through a small aperture over the main door. Sheriff Irwin and his deputy, J.R. McCreary, at once began a search for the escaped prisoners, but up to June 25, no trace of them had been found. Sheriff Irwin offered a reward of $100 for their apprehension and detention.

June 23, 1907 - Elijah Gulsby died at his home near Peterman on this Sunday, after several weeks sickness with typhoid fever. W.L. Rikard and son, E.L., attended the burial of Gulsby near Peterman on this Sunday.

June 23, 1912 - Author Douglas Fields Bailey was born in Dothan, Ala.

June 23, 1912 – Mathematician and logician Alan Mathison Turing was born in London, England.

June 23, 1915 – The Evergreen Courant reported that the following slate of new officers had been elected at Greening Masonic Lodge, No. 53, in Evergreen, Ala.: J.T. Amos, Worshipful Master; T.B. McDonald, Senior Warden; Byron Tisdale, Junior Warden; H.H. Floyd, Treasurer; J.A. Smith, Secretary; J.W. Hagood, Senior Deacon; L.J. Mixon, Junior Deacon; F.N. Hawkins, Tyler; H.L. Tucker and S.L. Tisdale, Stewards; G.E. Mize, Chaplain; E.C. Barnes, Marshal.

June 23, 1915 – The Evergreen Courant reported that the following slate of new officers had been elected at Sepulga Masonic Lodge No. 233: Jese A. Jones, Worshipful Master; S.S. Kendrick, Senior Warden; W.T. McCrory, Junior Warden; J.E. Dean, Treasurer; T.A. Jones, Secretary; J.T. Salter, Senior Deacon; E.O. Mixon, Junior Deacon; C.C. Lane and C.A. Sims, Stewards; C.G. Middleton, Tyler; F.M. Fletcher, Chaplain.

June 23, 1915 – “One of the foulest and most horrible crimes ever committed” in Conecuh County, Ala. occurred on this Wednesday night when John Salter and Robert Watkins murdered Martha Lassiter and tried to rob and murder Wiley House. They also burned House’s home near Burnt Corn to hide their crime, which they confessed to on June 26.

June 23, 1915 - Exactly one month after Italy declared war on Austria-Hungary, the Italian army attacked Austro-Hungarian positions near the Isonzo River, in the eastern section of the Italian front; it would become the first of twelve Battles of the Isonzo fought during World War I.

June 23, 1917 – In a game against the Washington Senators, Boston Red Sox pitcher Ernie Shore retired 26 batters in a row after replacing Babe Ruth, who had been ejected for punching the umpire.

June 23, 1920 – Confederate veteran Lewis Lavon Peacock died of influenza at the age of 75 and was buried at Flat Rock Church in Conecuh County, Ala. Born on Sept. 20, 1844, he served as a corporal in Co. D of the 59^th Alabama Infantry. During the Civil War, he fought in the Battle of Chickamauga, claimed to have been wounded at Petersburg and was among the Confederates who surrendered with Robert E. Lee at Appomattox in April 1865. No photo of Peacock is known to exist.

June 23, 1924 - Author C. Eric Lincoln was born in Athens, Ala.

June 23, 1926 – 8,040 college applicants in 353 locations around the U.S. were administered an experimental college admissions test that would eventually become known as the Scholastic Aptitude Test or the SAT.

June 23, 1927 – The Evergreen Courant featured a large, front-page announcement telling readers that the owners of The Courant had bought The Conecuh Record from owner Alice Whitcomb and that the two papers had been combined into The Evergreen Courant.

June 23, 1927 – The Evergreen Courant reported that Judge and Mrs. S.P. Dunn, Mr. and Mrs. Jno. Cunningham, Mr. and Mrs. Jno. E. Powell and Mrs. W.C. Relfe were enjoying a week’s camp fish at Judge Joh. D. Leigh’s lake near Brewton.

June 23, 1928 – Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Michael Shaara was born in Jersey City, N.J. He received the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1975 for his Civil War novel, “The Killer Angels.”

June 23, 1929 - Author Babs H. Deal was born in Scottsboro, Ala.

June 23, 1930 - The Monroe County Board of Education, at its meeting on this Monday, let the contract for building the school at Frisco City, to replace a building there that was destroyed by fire a few months before. There were more than a dozen bids offered for this construction, and the contract was awarded to Messrs. Cumbie & Dean of Clayton, Ala. for $53,855.10. That price covered the building completed, including plumbing and heating system. The building was to be constructed of brick, was to be a combination elementary and high school building of sufficient capacity to care for 600 pupils, and was to have a large and commodious auditorium. It was to be a modern building in all particulars. The contract called for completion not later than Jan. 1, 1931. The finances were provided by the County Board of Education, the State of Alabama and the Town of Frisco City.

June 23, 1936 – Monroeville’s baseball team beat Thomasville in a non-league game at Legion Field in Monroeville.

June 23, 1940 – During World War II, German leader Adolf Hitler surveyed newly defeated Paris in now occupied France. During the three-hour tour of the architecture of Paris, Hitler was accompanied by architect Albert Speer and sculptor Arno Breker, and this tour was Hitler’s only visit to the city.

June 23, 1941 – The Lithuanian Activist Front declared independence from the Soviet Union and formed the Provisional Government of Lithuania. It lasted only briefly as the Nazis will occupy Lithuania a few weeks later.

June 23, 1942 - Frances Caroline Adams, the five-year-old daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Fred Adams of the Lyeffion community, drowned about 12:30 p.m. on this Tuesday in a hole of water near the home in which she and several other children were playing. Her younger brother also got into the hole and was at the point of drowning when help arrived, but he was revived. According to reports, the tragedy occurred at a hole of water in a gulley near the Adams home. Evidently recent heavy rains had washed the hole much deeper than anyone knew about, as it was discovered after the accident that the water was over a man’s head. The little girl, her younger brother and some other children were playing in the water and got beyond their depth. One of those who made it to the bank went to the house and gave the alarm. When the mother and neighbors reached the hole, the little girl had disappeared beneath the muddy water, but the little boy was clinging to something which enabled him to keep his head out of the water some of the time at least.

June 23, 1945 - Lamar Roberts died early on this Saturday morning in a hospital in Atmore as a result of injuries sustained in the crash of his car and a truck he was meeting on a hill south of Little River about eight p.m. on Fri., June 22. Sheriff Nicholas and Deputy C.A. Sizemore reached the scene shortly after the accident, but reported that the cause of the crash could not be determined.

June 23, 1951 - Alabama author Peter Huggins was born in Oxford, Miss.

June 23, 1951 - A 200-mile stretch of Kansas was hit by one of the most expensive hailstorms in U.S. history, with over $15 million in crops and property damage.

June 23, 1953 - Author Roy Hoffman was born in Mobile, Ala.

June 23, 1953 - New officers for Alabama Masonic Lodge No. 3 at Monroeville were elected at a meeting held on this Tuesday. Chosen as Worshipful Master was Kermit Branum while the other following officers were also elected: B.C. Jones, senior warden; M.F. Russell, junior warden; W.J. Falkenberry, treasurer; W.S. Nash, secretary; D.L. Russell, chaplain; W.D. Pickens, senior deacon; J.G. Turberville, junior deacon; F.A. Watkins, senior steward; Wayne Colin, junior steward; and T.E. Hall, tyler.

June 23, 1961 – Writer David Leavitt was born in Pittsburgh, Pan.

June 23, 1961 – During the Cold War, the Antarctic Treaty, which set aside Antarctica as a scientific preserve and banned military activity on the continent, came into force after the opening date for signature set for the Dec. 1, 1959.

June 23, 1964 - At a news conference, President Lyndon B. Johnson announced that Henry Cabot Lodge had resigned as ambassador to South Vietnam and that Gen. Maxwell Taylor would be his replacement.

June 23, 1969 - Ben Het, a U.S. Special Forces camp located 288 miles northeast of Saigon and six miles from the junction of the Cambodian, Laotian and South Vietnamese borders, was besieged and cut off by 2,000 North Vietnamese troops using artillery and mortars.

June 23, 1969 - G.E. Hendrix was reelected Worshipful Master of Masonic Lodge No. 702 in Frisco City on this Monday evening. Elected to serve with Hendrix during the ensuing year were J.N. Youngblood, senior warden; Randolph Lambert, junior warden; Jeffie Jones, secretary; C.P. Wilkerson, treasurer; Morton Carpenter, senior deacon; Rayford Sawyer, junior deacon; Sam Brooks, tyler; L.B. Headley, chaplain; John Sigler, senior steward; W.C. Majors, marshal.

June 23, 1972 – As related to the Watergate Scandal, U.S. President Richard M. Nixon and White House Chief of Staff H. R. Haldeman were taped talking about using the Central Intelligence Agency to obstruct the Federal Bureau of Investigation's investigation into the Watergate break-ins.

June 23, 1976 – Actor, director and photographer Aaron Ruell was born in Fresno, Calif. He is best known for his role as Kip Dynamite in “Napoleon Dynamite.”

June 23, 1976 – NFL wide receiver Brandon Stokley was born in Blacksburg, Va. He went on to play for Louisiana-Lafayette, the Baltimore Raves, the Indianapolis Colts, the Denver Broncos, the Seattle Seahawks and the New York Giants.

June 23, 1989 - Tim Burton’s noir spin on the well-known story of the DC Comics hero “Batman” was released in theaters.

June 23, 2009 – American physician and explorer Jerri Nielsen passed away at the age of 57 in Southwick, Mass.

June 23, 2013 – Nik Wallenda became the first man to successfully walk across the Grand Canyon on a tight rope.

June 23, 2013 – About 16 militants stormed a high-altitude mountaineering base camp near Nanga Parbat in Gilgit–Baltistan, Pakistan and killed ten climbers, as well as a local guide.