Today in History for July 16, 2017

Benjamin Franklin Riley

July 16, 1194 – Italian nun and saint Clare of Assisi was born in Assisi.

July 16, 1540 – The DeSoto Expedition arrived at the ancient Indian town of Coosa (Cosa, Coca), located on the east bank of Talladega Creek, 1-1/2 miles northeast of Childersburg in Talladega County, Ala. They departed on Aug. 20, 1540.

July 16, 1661 – Canadian captain, explorer, and politician Pierre Le Moyne d’Iberville was born in Ville-Marie, New France. In addition to being a ship captain and explorer, d’Iberville was a soldier, colonial administrator, knight of the order of Saint-Louis, adventurer, privateer, trader, member of Compagnies Franches de la Marine and founder of the French colony of Louisiana of New France.

July 16, 1779 – During the American Revolutionary War, 1,200 light infantry of the Continental Army, on the orders of George Washington, seized a fortified British Army position, believed to be impregnable, in a midnight bayonet attack at the Battle of Stony Point. American Brigadier General Anthony Wayne led the successful attack and earned the moniker "Mad" Anthony Wayne. Fifteen Americans were killed and 83 were wounded while the British lost 94 killed and wounded and 472 captured.

July 16, 1790 – The District of Columbia was established as the capital of the United States after signature of the Residence Act.

July 16, 1808 - Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, two of the few white men who had actually seen the mysterious territory of the Far West, helped form a new company to exploit the region’s abundant fur-bearing animals.

July 16, 1849 – Benjamin Franklin Riley, author of “History of Conecuh County, Alabama,” was born at Pineville in Monroe County, Ala.

July 16, 1861 – During the Civil War, at the order of President Abraham Lincoln, Union troops began a 25-mile march into Virginia for what would become the First Battle of Bull Run, the first major land battle of the war.

July 16, 1861 - The U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution recognizing George Brinton McClellan for his accomplishments in Virginia.

July 16, 1862 – During the Civil War, David Farragut was promoted to rear admiral, becoming the first officer in United States Navy to hold an admiral rank.

July 16, 1862 – During the Civil War, “We are coming, Father Abraham, Thee Hundred Thousand More” appeared in the Saturday Evening Post. Written by James Sloan, the marching song was intended to help raise volunteers following Lincoln's request to Congress that it increase the size of the army to 500,000 men.

July 16, 1862 – During the Civil War, Union Major General Henry Halleck assumed his new role as General-in-Chief of all U.S. land forces.

July 16, 1862 – During the Civil War, Federal reconnaissance was conducted along the Richmond Road, near Westover, Va.

July 16, 1863 – Anti-draft riots entered their fourth day in New York City in response to the Enrollment Act, which was enacted on March 3, 1863. Order was restored the next day when Union troops returned from Gettysburg. More than 1,000 people died and property damage topped $2 million.

July 16, 1863 – During the Civil War, skirmishes were fought at Bolton, Clinton and Grant’s Ferry (over the Pearl River) as Sherman’s forces closed in on Jackson, Miss.; in the vicinity of Grimball’s Landing, S.C.; and at Shanghai and Shepherdstown, W.Va.

July 16, 1863 – During the Civil War, Jackson, Miss. was evacuated by Joseph E Johnston’s Confederate forces.

July 16, 1863 – During the Civil War, a five-day Federal operation originating from Germantown and extending to Collierville and Concordia, Tenn. began.

July 16, 1864 – During the Civil War, skirmishes were fought at Grand Gulf, Miss.; at Ellistown, Miss.; along the Charles City Road and Darbytown Road, in the vicinity of Richmond, Va.; near Warrensburg and another near Huntsville, Mo.; on James Island, S.C.; at Four Mile Creek, Malvern Hill, Purcellville and Wood Grove, Va.; and at Turner’s Ferry, Ga.

July 16, 1864 – During the Civil War, in Georgia, Sherman’s force continued to cross the Chattahooche River and maneuver around the north side of Atlanta.

July 16, 1872 – Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen was born in Borge, Østfold, Norway. He led the Antarctic expedition (1910–12) that was the first to reach the South Pole on Dec. 14, 1911. In 1926 he was the first expedition leader to be recognized without dispute as having reached the North Pole.

July 16, 1886 – The Monroe Journal reported that Monroeville merchant E.D. Conover was having a cellar excavated under his dining room.

July 16, 1886 – The Monroe Journal reported that S.N. Van Praag, the secretary of the Pensacola & Memphis Railroad, was in Monroeville that week and “opened the subscription books to the capital stock of the (rail)road, and… obtained several subscribers.”

July 16, 1886 – The Monroe Journal reported that the “young men of Monroeville” had organized a Young Men’s Social Club.

July 16, 1886 – The Monroe Journal announced that the surviving members of the 23^rd Alabama Regiment were considering holding a reunion. Names and addresses of former regiment members were being sought, and company captains and senior officers were asked to draft rolls of their companies and to see how many were interested in having a reunion. Co. E was to report to Capt. Graham at Bermuda, Ala.; Co. D to Lt. Beard, Evergreen, Ala.; Co. H to Capt. Selman, Powelton, Fla.; Co. K to Capt. Cobb, Suggsville, Ala. As soon as the general level of interest in the reunion could be determined, it was suggested that a reunion committee be formed with one member from each company.

July 16, 1886 – The Monroe Journal reprinted an item from The Montgomery Advertiser that refuted the “old story” that Bell’s Landing in Monroe County was named after Belle Boyd, the famous female Confederate soldier and spy.

July 16, 1886 – The Monroe Journal reported that a “large concourse of people” was “expected to witness the Masonic procession and funeral of Mr. Nathan Bell from the Masonic Hall” on Sun., July 18.

July 16, 1886 – The Monroe Journal reported that Capt. J.R. Cowan of Clarke County was visiting his brother, the Rev. E.E. Cowan, that week.

July 16, 1887 – Baseball legend Joseph Jefferson “Shoeless Joe” Jackson was born in Pickens County, S.C. During his career, he played for the Philadelphia Athletics, the Cleveland Naps/Indians and the Chicago White Sox. An outfielder, he is best remembered for his performance on the field and for his alleged association with the Black Sox Scandal, in which members of the 1919 Chicago White Sox participated in a conspiracy to fix the World Series.

July 16, 1889 – Rube Burrow shot and killed Jewel, Ala. postmaster Moses J. Graves, 41, during a dispute over a package from a Chicago firm that made false beards and wigs. This incident launched Burrow into the national limelight as it was reported in The New York Sun, The New York Tribune and The Boston Daily Globe.

July 16, 1896 – The Monroe Journal reported that Misses Boykin and LaPointe, “two of Portland’s fair damsels,” left Perdue Hill several days before on the steamer Tensie Moore for their home.

July 16, 1900 - Harper Councill Trenholm, president of Alabama State College from 1925 to 1962, was born in Tuscumbia. A graduate of Morehouse College and the University of Chicago, Trenholm served as instructor and director of the college extension program before assuming the presidency. During his long tenure Alabama State graduated its first four-year college class in 1932, developed a model teacher in-service program that served African-American teachers statewide, and began the legendary Turkey Day Classic football rivalry between Alabama State and Tuskegee Institute.

July 16 1903 - The Monroe Journal reported that F.M. Clecker of Atlanta, Ga., superintendent of construction for M.T. Lewman & Co., had arrived a few days before and was at work laying off the ground and preparing to lay the foundation for the new Monroe County courthouse.

July 16, 1903 – The Monroe Journal reported, in news from that Burnt Corn community, that John Betts was having an addition built to his house, “which will make him a large and handsome dwelling when completed.”

July 16, 1903 – The Monroe Journal reported that there had been only 20 applicants before the board of Confederate Pension Examiners that session. In 1902, there were 39.

July 16, 1906 - Author James Still was born near LaFayette, Ala.

July 16, 1906 - Sonnie Coker, the young black man whose death sentence was commuted by the governor to life imprisonment, was taken into custody by an agent of the state convict department on this Monday and removed to “his destined place of employment,” according to The Monroe Journal.

July 16, 1906 - One of the “most enjoyable events of the season” was the dance given by the young men of Perdue Hill on this Monday night. Beside the regular music provided for the evening, Mr. and Mrs. E.L. Baggett performed a few selections on the mandolin and piano, “delighted the crowd with a number of jolly rag time selections.” Monroeville, Manistee, Mt. Pleasant, Claiborne, Mobile and Pensacola were well represented at the evening’s entertainment.

July 16, 1914 – The Monroe Journal reported that the steamboat connected with Henry Goldsmith was stranded in the “mid reaches” of the Alabama River with “no prospect of being floated until a much higher stage of water is available. The river is lower now than at any time within the last seven years.”

July 16, 1915 – A Farmers Institute meeting was scheduled to be held at the Conecuh County Courthouse in Evergreen, Ala.

July 16, 1916 – In what was described as a “tragic death,” Conecuh County Tax Collector William Samuel Oliver was found dead at his home in Evergreen on this Sunday night and was a “shock to the entire community.” According to The Conecuh Record, “his body, cold in death, was found by his wife early Monday morning. He was in his night clothes and an empty double barrel gun at his side. A watermelon in a sack, several small pieces of money and a razor were also found near the body. There are conflicting views as to the manner in which Mr. Oliver met his death. The verdict of the coroner’s jury was to the effect he met death at the hands of some party or parties unknown.” Oliver was born in Century, Fla. on Feb. 11, 1872. His parents, J.W. Oliver and Mary Oliver, moved to Conecuh County when he was a small boy, and the greater part of his life was spent in Conecuh County, the last 11 years in Evergreen. In 1904, he was elected tax collector of Conecuh County, which office he held continuously until his death, having been elected to this position three times.

July 16, 1918 – During World War I, Army Pvt. Bryant W. Price of McKenzie, Ala. and Army soldier Joshua Lowe of Repton, Ala. “died from wounds.”

July 16, 1918 - In Yekaterinburg, Russia, Czar Nicholas II and his family are executed by the Bolsheviks, bringing an end to the three-century-old Romanov dynasty.

July 16, 1919 – The Evergreen Courant reported that Circuit Solicitor G.O. Dickey and family were soon to become citizens of Evergreen, Ala. They planned to move into the former residence of H.L. Tucker.

July 16, 1919 – Austrian SS officer Hermine Braunsteiner was born in Vienna, Republic of German-Austria.

July 16, 1926 - The first underwater color photographs appeared in "National Geographic" magazine. The pictures had been taken near the Florida Keys.

July 16, 1928 – Former Confederate soldier Thomas Lindsey Downs passed away at the age of 98 in Monroe County, Ala. Born on May 17, 1830 in Georgia, he went on to enlist as a private in Co. F of the 36th Alabama Infantry. He was taken prisoner at Duck River, Tenn. and was forwarded to Camp Chase Prison in Ohio. He is buried in the Biggs Cemetery at Peterman, Ala.

July 16, 1933 - Mrs. R.A. Smith and Miss Ida Rutherford left Monroeville with a group on this Sunday for a visit to Chicago and the Century of Progress Exposition.

July 16, 1935 – 1,000 or more farmers visited the Experiment Field three miles south of Monroeville, Ala.

July 16, 1939 – Evergreen’s baseball team was scheduled to meet the team from Atmore on this Sunday at 3:30 p.m. at Gantt Field in Evergreen, Ala.

July 16, 1940 - Adolf Hitler ordered the preparations to begin on the invasion of England, known as Operation Sea Lion.

July 16, 1941 – Joe DiMaggio hit safely for the 56th consecutive game, a streak that still stands as a Major League Baseball record.

July 16, 1945 - At 5:29:45 a.m., the Manhattan Project came to an explosive end as the first atom bomb was successfully detonated at the White Sands Proving Ground’s Trinity test site in Alamogordo, New Mexico.

July 16, 1945 – During World War II, the heavy cruiser USS Indianapolis left San Francisco with parts for the atomic bomb "Little Boy" bound for Tinian Island.

July 16, 1946 – Pro Football Hall of Fame offensive tackle Ron Yary was born in Chicago, Ill. He went on to play for USC, the Minnesota Vikings and the Los Angeles Rams. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2001.

July 16, 1948 – Brooklyn Dodgers manager Leo “The Lip” Durocher announced that he would be joining the New York Giants, the Dodgers’ archrival. The move was the swiftest and most stunning managerial change in baseball history.

July 16, 1950 – Army PFC James Clarence Stanford, 19, of Wilcox County, Ala. was killed in action in Korea. Born on June 18, 1931, he was killed with serving in the 19^th Infantry, Co. D, 24^th Division in Taejon, Korea. He was buried in the Friendship Baptist Church Cemetery in Pine Apple.

July 16, 1950 – The Paul Aces baseball team picked up their eighth win in a row by beating the Flat Rock Rockets, 8-3, behind the pitching of Bertie Hassel and Harold Godwin.

July 16, 1951 – “The Catcher in the Rye” by J. D. Salinger was published for the first time by Little, Brown and Company.

July 16, 1962 – In Evergreen Senior Baseball League action, the Braves scored four runs in the sixth inning to take a 5-1 win from the Pirates on this Monday night. Claude Aaron’s double, a single by Larry Ellis, a walk and an error in the Pirate outfield allowed the winners their final four runs. The Braves tied it in the fourth when Ronnie Jackson stole home after he had walked. Jackson went all the way for the winners as did Steve Baggett for the Pirates.

July 16, 1962 – In Evergreen Senior Baseball League action, the Tigers scored six runs in the third inning on this Monday night as they mauled the Indians, 11-4. A triple by Calvin Smith, a double by Willie Mack Pate, and singles by Sid Lambert, Mike Fields and Joe Sasser were the blows that put the Indians on the canvass for the 10-count in the third. Lambert was three-for-three to lead the eight-hit Tiger offense. Mike Fields scored the mound win with “Bubba” Faulkner finishing the final inning. Paul Deason was plastered out of the box in the third and was replaced by Bob Ivey who finished the game.

July 16, 1964 – The Evergreen Courant reported that Howard Cook killed a “monster rattlesnake” during the past week near Jay Villa, Ala. The snake was 5-foot-4 inches long, five inches wide across the back and three inches across at the jaws.

July 16, 1964 - Little League Baseball Incorporated was granted a Federal Charter unanimously by the United States Senate and House of Representatives.

July 16, 1965 – South Vietnamese Colonel Phạm Ngọc Thảo, a formerly undetected communist spy and double agent, was hunted down and killed by unknown individuals after being sentenced to death in absentia for a February 1965 coup attempt against Nguyễn Khánh.

July 16, 1965 - Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara conducted a fact-finding mission in South Vietnam, and Henry Cabot Lodge arrived in Saigon to resume his post as ambassador.

July 16, 1968 – Pro Football Hall of Fame running back Barry Sanders was born in Wichita, Kansas. He went on to play for Oklahoma State and the Detroit Lions. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2004.

July 16, 1970 - The Pittsburgh Pirates played their first game at Three Rivers Stadium.

July 16, 1973 – During the “Watergate Scandal,” former White House aide Alexander Butterfield informed the United States Senate that President Richard Nixon had secretly recorded potentially incriminating conversations.

July 16, 1973 - The Senate Armed Services Committee began a probe into allegations that the U.S. Air Force made thousands of secret B-52 raids into Cambodia in 1969 and 1970 at a time when the United States recognized the neutrality of the Prince Norodom Sihanouk regime in Cambodia.

July 16, 1975 - The summer reading program at the Conecuh County Public Library was to be highlighted by a visit on this Wednesday by Kathryn Windham, noted Alabama author. Windham was scheduled to be at the library from 10 to 11 a.m. to tell some of her favorite ghost stories. She had compiled and written several collections of Alabama ghost stories, which had been handed down from generation to generation. Clara Trawick was Evergreen’s librarian at the time.

July 16, 1976 – The Owassa Post Office closed. The office had been temporarily closed since June 30, when Postmaster Lola M. Brown retired.

July 16, 1977 – Evergreen, Ala. weather observer Earl Windham reported a high temperature of 100 degrees on this day.

July 16, 1979 – Iraqi President Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr resigned and was replaced by Saddam Hussein.

July 16, 1984 - U.S. Senator Jeremiah Denton of Mobile, Ala. was scheduled to speak at the Conecuh County Courthouse in Evergreen, Ala. at 4:15 p.m.

July 16, 1985 - The Major League Baseball All-Star Game, televised on NBC-TV, was the first program broadcast in stereo by a TV network.

July 16, 1992 – Pro Football Hall of Fame defensive tackle Buck Buchanan, a native of Gainesville, Ala. (Sumter County), died at the age of 51 in Kansas City, Mo. During his career, he played for Parker High School in Birmingham, Grambling and the Kansas City Chiefs. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1992.

July 16, 1992 – The Evergreen Courant reported that the 1992 Evergreen Little League All-Stars finished the playoffs with one win and two losses during the past week in the district tournament in Atmore. Players on the team included Derrick Carmichael, Chris Mitchell, Lee Goodwin, Charlie Ward, Jonathan Salter, Walter Bone, Chris Mobley, Jason Shehan, Jennifer Meeks, Stephen Ellenburg, Roderick McIntyre and Jason Robinson. Ray Etheridge was the team’s manager, and assistant coaches included Stanley Mitchell and Jeff Etheridge.

July 16, 1992 – The Evergreen Courant reported that James C. King, a lifelong resident of Conecuh County, had announced his intentions to seek election to the Evergreen City Council in District One. King was a graduate of Marion Military Institute, Auburn University and had served in the Merchant Marines for four years during World War II. He was treasurer of the Evergreen Presbyterian Church. King retired from Knud Neilsen Co. and was also a self-employed businessman.

July 16, 1994 – Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 collided with Jupiter. Impacts continued until July 22.

July 16, 1998 - Alabama author John Henrik Clarke died in New York, N.Y.

July 16, 2005 - J.K. Rowling's book "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" was released. It was the sixth in the Harry Potter series. The book sold 6.9 million copies on its first day of release.

July 16, 2011 – Former Auburn University offensive tackle Forrest Blue died at the age of 65 in Carmichael, Calif. During his career, he played for Auburn, the San Francisco 49ers and the Baltimore Colts.