Today in History for July 30, 2017

Congressman John McDuffie

July 30, 762 AD – Baghdad was founded by caliph Al-Mansur.

July 30, 1502 – Christopher Columbus landed at Guanaja in the Bay Islands off the coast of Honduras during his fourth voyage.

July 30, 1619 – In Jamestown, Virginia, the first representative assembly in the Americas, the House of Burgesses, convened for the first time.

July 30, 1729 - The city of Baltimore was founded in Maryland.

July 30, 1733 – The first Masonic Grand Lodge in the future United States was constituted in Massachusetts.

July 30, 1780 - Colonel Isaac Shelby and 600 Patriots took Fort Anderson, also known as Fort Thicketty, located 10 miles southeast of Cowpens, South Carolina, and held by a Loyalist garrison, without firing a shot.

July 30, 1813 – Gen. Ferdinand L. Claiborne and his Mississippi militia reached Mount Vernon and learned that settlers had constructed Fort White, a small defensive fort a short distance northeast of Grove Hill in Clarke County, for defense against Red Stick raids.

July 30, 1818 – Novelist and poet Emily Bronte was born in Thornton, Yorkshire, England. She is best remembered for her 1847 novel, “Wuthering Heights.”

July 30, 1825 – Malden Island was discovered by Captain George Byron, 7th Baron Byron.

July 30, 1838 - A rain of frogs fell in London, England.

July 30, 1859 – The first ascent of Grand Combin, one of the highest summits in the Alps, was achieved.

July 30, 1862 – During the Civil War, skirmishes were fought at Miller's Ranch, Calif. and at Clark's Mill, Mo.

July 30, 1862 – During the Civil War, the term “Copperhead” was used for the first time in writing by the Cincinnati Gazette. It was used to indicate people who would not admit they were Southern sympathizers, and "peace at any price" Democrats. People who did admit Southern sympathies were called "dough-heads." The paper used the term when referring to members of the Indiana Democratic Convention.

July 30, 1862 – During the Civil War, in Boston, bells which had been contributed by Southern churches, plantations and individuals to be cast into cannons were sold at auction. Federal General Benjamin F, Butler had confiscated them at New Orleans.

July 30, 1863 – During the Civil War, skirmishes were fought near Elm Springs, Ark.; near Lexington and near Marshall in Missouri; at Irvine, Ky.; at Barnwell’s Island, S.C.; and at Grand Junction, Tenn.

July 30, 1864 – During the Civil War, at the Battle of the Crater, the Union’s ingenious attempt to break the Confederate lines at Petersburg, Va., by blowing up a huge cache of gunpowder at the end of a 500-foot tunnel they had dug under the Rebel trenches, failed. Although the explosion created a gap in the Confederate defenses, a poorly planned Yankee attack wasted the effort and the result was an eight-month continuation of the siege. The crater that was created was 170 feet long, 60 to 80 feet wide and 30 feet deep. (Just 11 days before this, on July 19, 1864, Lewis Lavon Peacock was admitted to General Hospital at Howard’s Grove, Richmond, Va. for acute diarrhea, where he spent over a month recuperating.)

July 30, 1864 – During the Civil War, skirmishes were fought at Hay Station Number 3 and near Pine Bluff in Arkansas; at Hillsborough, Clinton, Newnan, and at Clear Creek in Georgia; at Emmitsburg and Monocacy Junction in Maryland; at Lee's Mill, Va.; at Clifton, Tenn.; at Bayou Tensas, La.; and at Union Church and on the Chariton Road in Missouri.

July 30, 1866 – Armed Confederate veterans in New Orleans rioted against a meeting of Radical Republicans, killing 48 people and injuring another 100.

July 30, 1886 – The Monroe Journal reported that Capt. John Quill would soon launch his fine new boat, the “Nettie,” upon the “majestic Alabama.”

July 30, 1886 – The Monroe Journal reported that Lizzie Dorsey was accidentally drowned in Murder Creek in Escambia County.

July 30, 1886 – The Monroe Journal reported that Greensboro boasted of a 12-fingered man named of Richard Coprich.

July 30, 1886 – The Monroe Journal reported that there were at present 693 patients under treatment in the insane asylum at Tuscaloosa.

July 30, 1886 – The Monroe Journal reported that caterpillars had made their appearance in different portions of Butler County.

July 30, 1886 – The Monroe Journal reported that a railroad accident had occurred recently on the Nashville & Eufaula Railroad in which five persons lost their lives.

July 30, 1886 – The Monroe Journal reported that Geo Elg, the shoemaker, had been “quite sick” for several days.

July 30, 1886 – The Monroe Journal reported that Patsy Lee, a “dusky damsel” of Montgomery, tried to commit suicide with morphine during the previous week.

July 30, 1886 – The Monroe Journal reported that the senior class at the State University that term consisted of 41 members of the average age of 19.

July 30, 1890 – National Baseball Hall of Fame outfielder and manager Casey Stengel was born in Kansas City, Mo. During his career, he played for the Brooklyn Dodgers/Superbas/Robins, the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Philadelphia Phillies, the New York Giants and the Boston Braves and he managed the Brooklyn Dodgers, the Boston Braves, the New York Yankees and the New York Mets. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1966.

July 30, 1896 - J.F. Gardner had the misfortune to lose his steam sawmill and ginnery by fire on this Thursday afternoon. The fire was supposed to have originated from the furnace while the hands were at dinner, and had made such headway when discovered that it was impossible to quench the flames with the help available. The machinery was not seriously damaged but a quantity of lumber was destroyed.

July 30, 1898 - "Scientific America" carried the first magazine automobile ad. The ad was for the Winton Motor Car Company of Cleveland, Ohio and beckoned magazine readers to "dispense with a horse.”

July 30, 1912 - The Monroe County Masonic Conference was scheduled to convene with Tunnel Springs Lodge No. 578 at Tunnel Springs, Ala., at nine o’clock on this Tuesday and was to continue three days.

July 30-31, 1914 – Monroeville’s baseball team played a three-game series against Pensacola. Monroeville won the first game, 8-1, but dropped the second game, 3-0. Monroeville won the third game, 8-7.

July 30, 1915 – A “total stranger in the community” named Mr. Brown died at the Simmons House in Monroeville, Ala. after several days illness. He had been employed on the construction of the “Deep Water railroad” when he was “stricken with illness” and taken from the work camp to Monroeville for medical attention. He was buried in the cemetery at the Methodist Church.

July 30, 1915 - In Flanders, Belgium, the Germans put their new weapon, the flammenwerfer, or flamethrower, to devastating use against the Allies at the Battle of Hooge.

July 30, 1918 – During World War I, Army Pvt. Lessee L. Veasey of Andalusia, Ala. was killed in action.

July 30, 1928 - Alabama author Pauline Boyd was born in Chicago, Ill.

July 30, 1929 - The District Convention for the Tenth District of the Knights of Pythias was held with the Armour Lodge No. 31 on this Tuesday evening. Grand Keeper of Records Joe King Stanley of Montgomery presided over the meeting. The convention was well attended by local Pythians and quite a number of visiting members. Among those from out of town were Grand Chancellor T.A. Godwin, Florala; Judge E.S. Thigpen, Andalusia; Past Chancellor Burleson of Mobile; and Grand Prelate Wood, Mobile. There were a number of members of the Castleberry lodge present also. The local lodge had as its Chancellor Commander, W.A. Suddith, and W.B. Northcutt was Secretary.

July 30, 1931 – The Evergreen Junior baseball team was scheduled to play Brewton on this day at Gantt Field at 2 p.m. in Evergreen, Ala. Later that day, at 3:30 p.m. at Gantt Field, the Evergreen “colored team” was scheduled to play a team from Selma.

July 30, 1932 – Walt Disney's “Flowers and Trees,” the first cartoon short to use Technicolor and the first Academy Award winning cartoon short, premiered.

July 30, 1935 – Congressman Frank Boykin was first elected to Congress to fill the unexpired term of Monroe Countian John McDuffie who had resigned from office. Boykin went on to represent the district in Washington for the next 53 years.

July 30, 1935 - C.E. Mills, a farmer living five miles south on the Castleberry highway, ginned two bales of cotton at the gin plant of the Evergreen Manufacturing Co. on this Tuesday, being the first of the 1935 season to be ginned in Evergreen and so far as The Courant had learned, the first to be ginned in Conecuh County.

July 30, 1936 – The Southwestern Division of the Medical Association met at First Baptist Church on the Square in Monroeville, Ala.

July 30, 1936 – American blues guitarist Buddy Guy was born George Guy in Lettsworth, La.

July 30, 1938 – The Bermuda baseball team beat Lenox, 22-5.

July 30, 1939 – Will Riley, a native of Chestnut Corner, passed away at his home in Beatrice, Ala. at around 7 a.m. He was the L&N Railroad Co. station agent at McWilliams for 13 years and later the Sherrill Oil Co. distributor in Camden, serving Wilcox and surrounding counties.

July 30, 1943 - Adolf Hitler learned that Axis ally Italy was buying time before negotiating surrender terms with the Allies in light of Mussolini’s fall from power.

July 30, 1945 – During World War II, the USS Indianapolis was torpedoed by Japanese submarine I-58 and sank within minutes in shark-infested waters. Only 317 of the 1,196 men on board survived. However, the Indianapolis had already completed its major mission: the delivery of key components of the atomic bomb that would be dropped a week later at Hiroshima to Tinian Island in the South Pacific.

July 30, 1947 – At the L.D. King Mill in Conecuh County, Ala., a fire broke out near a boiler shortly after noon and did considerable damage to machinery and equipment before being brought under control by the fire department.

July 30, 1954 – J.W. Reeves, farmer at Castleberry, Ala., ginned the first bale of the 1954 cotton season in Conecuh County. He had the cotton ginned at the Evergreen Gin, and it weighed 473 pounds. It graded middling one-inch staple.

July 30, 1956 – A joint resolution of the U.S. Congress was signed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, authorizing “In God we trust” as the U.S. national motto.

July 30, 1959 – Mobile, Ala. native Willie McCovey made his Major League debut for the San Francisco Giants. In his Major League debut, McCovey went four-for-four against Hall-of-Famer Robin Roberts, hitting two triples and two singles, en route to a .354 batting average that year, in which he won National League Rookie of the Year honors while playing in just 52 games.

July 30, 1959 – In Evergreen Junior Baseball League action, the Orioles beat the Hawks, 23-5. Jack White was the Oriole pitcher. Jack Driver, Larry Wright, Tommy Chapman and Marvin Salter were the Hawk pitchers. Wayne Caylor had a single for the Orioles. Wright had a triple and Jimmy Riley was one-for-two for the losers.

July 30, 1959 – In Evergreen Junior Baseball League action, the Dodgers beat the Yankees, 5-1, on this Thursday night. Ronnie Jackson notched the win on the rubber as he whiffed 15 battled Yankees batsmen. Bubba Faulkner finished the game on the mound. Robert Rigsby and Terry Salter faced the bats of the distressing Dodgers. Wayne Tolbert and Ed Briggs were two-for-three and Faulkner was one-for-one for the winners of 46 straight games. Mitchell Kilpatrick’s single and Ronnie Hayes’ double were the only two Yank bingles.

July 30, 1963 – Sweet Water, Ala. was officially incorporated as a municipality, according to the Alabama League of Municipalities.

July 30, 1964 - At about midnight, six “Swifts,” special torpedo boats used by the South Vietnamese for covert raids, attacked the islands of Hon Me and Hon Ngu in the Tonkin Gulf. Although unable to land any commandos, the boats fired on island installations. Radar and radio transmissions were monitored by an American destroyer, the USS Maddox, which was stationed about 120 miles away.

July 30, 1965 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Social Security Act of 1965 into law, establishing Medicare and Medicaid. It went into effect the following year and was the country's first national health insurance program.

July 30, 1965 – Manuel Stablers, who lived on the Franklin Road near Fountain, Ala., found Tom Clausell, 71, sitting under a tree eight miles north of Monroeville. Clausell had been missing since July 25, and Stablers took him to the hospital, from which he was released on Aug. 1.

July 30, 1968 - Ron Hansen of the Washington Senators made the first unassisted triple play in the Major Leagues in 41 years.

July 30, 1969 – During the Vietnam War, U.S. President Richard Nixon made an unscheduled visit to South Vietnam and met with President Nguyễn Văn Thiệu and U.S. military commanders.

July 30, 1971 - U.S. President Nixon gave the keynote speech at a banquet honoring seven new inductees into the Professional Football Hall of Fame.

July 30, 1974 – During the “Watergate Scandal,” U.S. President Richard Nixon released subpoenaed White House recordings after being ordered to do so by the Supreme Court of the United States. The U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee also voted to impeach President Nixon for blocking the Watergate investigation and for abuse of power.

July 30, 1975 – Teamsters president Jimmy Hoffa disappeared from the parking lot of the Machus Red Fox restaurant in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit, at about 2:30 p.m. He was never seen or heard from again, and was declared legally dead on July 30, 1982. There have been rumors, since disproved, that he was murdered and his body was buried in the end zone at Giants Stadium.

July 30, 1990 – George Steinbrenner was forced by Commissioner Fay Vincent to resign as principal partner of New York Yankees for hiring Howie Spira to "get dirt" on Dave Winfield.

July 30-Aug. 3, 1990 – Sparta Academy’s varsity cheerleaders attended a UCA Clinic at Huntingdon College in Monroeville. They returned home with seven blue Superior ribbons, three gold Outstanding ribbons and a Superior trophy. The members of the cheerleading squad, who were sponsored by Linda Coker, included Capt. Kimberli Griffin, Co-Capt. Stacey White, Co-Capt. Ashley Earnest, Stephanie Booth, Julie Brundage, Pam Jones, Michelle Pate and Kaye Salter.

July 30, 1996 - A federal law enforcement source said that security guard Richard Jewell had become the focus of the investigation into the bombing at Centennial Olympic Park. Jewell was later cleared as a suspect.

July 30, 1999 – “The Blair Witch Project”, a low-budget, independent horror film that will become a massive hit, was released in U.S. theaters.

July 30, 2007 – Pro Football Hall of Fame head coach Bill Walsh died at the age of 75 in Woodside, Calif. He is best known for his time as head coach of the San Francisco 49ers and Stanford. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1993.

July 30, 2009 - Sparta Academy began fall football practice on this Thursday, and 22 players made up that year’s fall roster. Players on the roster included Nick Andrews, Tom Andrews, Brandon Baggett, Will Booker, Joey Bradley, Michael Brown, Brooks Carpenter, Michael Cook, Devlin Crosby, Ashton Culp, Alex Fleming, Nicholas Hardin, Taylor Harrelson, Jacob Hendrix, Chance House, Cody House, Jody House, Davis Johnson, Logan Manus, John McDonald, Dylan Middleton and Drayton Rodgers. Sparta was scheduled to kick off its regular season schedule on Fri., Aug. 21, when the Warriors were to take on Escambia Academy at Stuart-McGehee Field in Evergreen. In 2008, Sparta slammed Escambia, beating the Cougars, 35-0, in the season-opener at Canoe.

July 30, 2010 – The Harrison Cemetery near Kinston along with Grancer Harrison's Grave was vandalized. Approximately 50 headstones were overturned.

July 30, 2014 – James Hurd turned a lot of heads in Evergreen when he carried a large wooden cross up and down U.S. Highway 84 and 31 in Evergreen, Ala. Many believed that Hurd, age 30, was on a cross-country trip, but he actually lived in Evergreen. A former resident of Selma, Hurd, a devout Christian, was carrying the cross to encourage people to attend church.