Today in History for Sept. 16, 2017

Thomas Hill Watts

Sept. 16, 1387 (c.1386) – Henry V, the king of England immortalized by Shakespeare, was born at Monmouth Castle, Monmouth, Principality of Wales. He was the first king of England to grow up speaking and writing fluently in English. Previous kings had spoken either French or Saxon.

Sept. 16, 1620 - The Mayflower departed from Plymouth, England. The 90-foot ship arrived at Provincetown, Mass. on Nov. 21 and then at Plymouth, Mass. on Dec. 26. There were 102 passengers onboard.

Sept. 16, 1630 - The village of Shawmut changed its name to Boston.

Sept. 16, 1672 – Anne Bradstreet, America’s first published poet, died.

Sept. 16, 1776 – During the American Revolution, General George Washington arrived at Harlem Heights, on the northern end of Manhattan, and took command of a group of retreating Continental troops. The day before, 4,000 British soldiers had landed at Kip’s Bay in Manhattan (near present-day 34th Street) and taken control of the island, driving the Continentals north, where they appeared to be in disarray prior to Washington’s arrival. Despite the American failure to stop the British invasion of New York City the previous day at Kip’s Bay, the successful Battle of Harlem Heights restored public confidence in the American troops and lifted the spirits of the Continental Army.

Sept. 16, 1779 – During the American Revolutionary War, the Franco-American Siege of Savannah began.

Sept. 16, 1782 - The Great Seal of the United States was impressed on a document to negotiate a prisoner of war agreement with the British. It was the first official use of the impression.

Sept. 16, 1798 – Justus Wyman was born in Woburn, Middlesex, Mass. He lived at Fort Claiborne in Monroe County, Ala. in 1817 and is considered to be Alabama’s first historian. He wrote a historical sketch of the new state before moving to Montgomery in 1820. He died in September 1855 in Talladega Springs, Ala. and is buried in Oakwood Cemetery in Montgomery, Ala.

Sept. 16, 1803 – French explorer, hydrographer, and cartographer Nicolas Baudein died at the age of 49 of tuberculosis, apparently in the home of Madame Alexandrine Kerivel, in Mauritius.

Sept. 16, 1814 – Francis Scott Key completed his poem, "The Star-Spangled Banner," which became the official national anthem of the United States on March 3, 1931.

Sept. 16, 1832 - Confederate General George Washington Custis Lee was born to Robert E. and Mary Custis Lee in Fort Monroe, Virginia. In August 1861, Confederate President Jefferson Davis selected Lee to serve as his aide-de-camp, and he was soon promoted to colonel. During the Gettysburg campaign, when his father’s army was in Pennsylvania, Lee commanded part of the force defending Richmond, and he oversaw the Richmond defenses during Union General Ulysses S. Grant’s Virginia campaign of 1864.

Sept. 16, 1838 – James J. Hill, one of America’s most successful railroad tycoons, was born in southern Ontario.

Sept. 16, 1861 – During the Civil War, a skirmish was fought near Poolesville, Md.

Sept. 16, 1861 - Confederate forces evacuated Ship Island, Miss. In the future, Ship Island would be used as a valuable staging area for Federal operations against the Mississippi River and New Orleans. It was also utilized as a base of operations for refueling the Federal blockading squadron along the Gulf Coast for the duration of the Civil War and became a Federal prisoner of war camp.

Sept. 16, 1861 – During the Civil War, a skirmish was fought at Magruder’s Ferry, Va.

Sept. 16, 1861 – During the Civil War, a skirmish was fought at Princeton, W.Va.

Sept. 16, 1861 – Confederate General Sterling Price was an aggressive commander when he had the opportunity. He had fought Franz Sigel and Nathaniel Lyon to a draw at Wilson’s Creek in August, and then withdrawn to Arkansas to get his large but undisciplined army better organized. On this day, he was back with a vengeance, in the small Missouri town of Lexington. He had the Union forces under Colonel James Mulligan surrounded and under siege. Mulligan’s commander, General Fremont (of Pathfinder fame), was supposed to be organizing a relief force to march from St. Louis, but was too busy having his own people, who were purportedly allies, arrested.

Sept. 16, 1862 - Union General George B. McClellan arrived in Sharpsburg, Md. and prepared to attack General Robert E. Lee's forces along Antietam Creek. The next day the Battle of Antietam took place.

Sept. 16, 1862 – During the Civil War, skirmishes were fought near Oakland Station, near Munfordville, in Kentucky; in Monroe County, Mo.; at Leesburg, Va.; and at Iuka, Miss.

Sept. 16, 1862 – During the Civil War, Federal reconnaissance was conducted from Burnsville to Iuka in Mississippi, and a Federal operation began between Aldie and Thoroughfare Gap in Virginia. A three-day Federal operation began between Upton’s Hill and Leesburg in Virginia.

Sept. 16, 1863 – During the Civil War, skirmishes were fought at Brownsville, Ark.; at Montezuma, Tenn.; and at Smithfield, W.Va.

Sept. 16, 1863 – During the Civil War, skirmishes were fought near Lee and Gordon’s Mills, on Chickamauga Creek, in Georgia, 12 miles south of Chattanooga, as Union Major General Wills S. Rosecrans positioned his forces near that location and Alpine, Ga. General William Rosecrans’ Federal army had taken Chattanooga four days before, but Braxton Bragg’s Confederate army was nowhere close to defeated. The Southern forces were strung out on a roughly north-south line on the east side of a ridge called Lookout Mountain. Rosecrans’ army was scattered and vulnerable, especially the men with General George Henry Thomas to the south near LeMoyne Cove. Thomas could have easily been isolated and defeated, but the orders to do so never got delivered to Confederate General Thomas C. Hindman. The man carrying the orders, a French soldier-of-fortune known as Major Nocquot, was not available to testify at the court-martial of Hindman, as he had disappeared. Some $150,000 in Army funds went missing around the same time, but in all the confusion no connection was ever proved.

Sept. 16, 1864 - Confederate Cavalry General Nathan Bedford Forrest’s nearly monthlong raid into Alabama and Middle Tennessee began.

Sept. 16, 1864 – Mathew Anderson, who established the Anderson Stage Stop on the Old Federal Road along the Conecuh-Monroe county line, joined Dailey’s Co. of the Monroe County Home Guard Militia.

Sept. 16, 1864 – Richard Francis Burton and John Hanning Speke were scheduled to debate the source of the Nile at a meeting at the British Association for the Advancement of Science.

Sept. 16, 1864 – During the Civil War, skirmishes were fought at Hay Station in the Indian Territory; at Bayou Maringouin, La.; at Columbia, Mo.; and at Coggin's Point and Snicker‘s Gap in Virginia. Confederate cavalry under Wade Hampton took advantage of superior Union stocks by staging a raid at Coggins' Point, Va., where they captured 300 Federals and, more importantly, what they were guarding - a herd of some 2,400 cattle. Getting them back to Petersburg would take several days and several skirmishes, but the food was desperately needed by the besieged forces there.

Sept. 16, 1880 – The Cornell Daily Sun printed its first issue in Ithaca, New York. The Sun is the nation's oldest, continuously-independent college daily.

Sept. 16, 1889 – The home of C.T. Simmons, “one of Monroe’s most substantial citizens,” burned in the Carlisle community. The fire was discovered around 10 a.m. and it was a total loss. Among the losses was Simmons’ “very valuable” library.

Sept. 16, 1889 – The Pineville Academy in Monroe County, Ala. opened for the 1889-1890 school year with Prof. W.L. Pruett as principal and Miss Hamel of Nashville as assistant.

Sept. 16, 1892 – Former Alabama Gov. Thomas Hill Watts, who was born in Butler County, Ala. in 1819, passed away at the age of 73 in Montgomery and was buried in Oakwood Cemetery in Montgomery, Ala. Born on Jan. 3, 1819 in Butler County, he served as a Colonel in the Confederate Army during the Civil War and served as Governor of Alabama from 1863 to 186. He was a member of the Alabama State Legislature from 1842 to 1845, a member of the Alabama State Senate from 1847 to 1853, a candidate for United States Representative from Alabama for the 1st District in 1855, a delegate to the Alabama Secession Convention in 1861 and Confederate Attorney General from 1862 to 1863.

Sept. 16, 1893 - The "Cherokee Strip" in Oklahoma was swarmed by hundreds of thousands of settlers.

Sept. 16, 1895 - The Monroeville Academy opened on this Monday “with a very good enrollment.” Prof. Powers was in charge of the school.

Sept. 16, 1895 - The Perdue Hill High School opened on this Monday “with a goodly number of students.” Prof. N.J. Ivey was in charge of the school and Miss Lizzie Burroughs was his assistant.

Sept. 16, 1898 – Illustrator H.A. Rey was born Hans Augusto Reyersbach in Hamburg, Germany. Along with his wife, he created the children’s book character, “Curious George.”

Sept. 16, 1905 – S.D. Bartlett, one of Monroe County’s oldest and most highly esteemed citizens, died at the age of 74 at his home near Burnt Corn.

Sept. 16, 1907 - Judge Terry McCall Richardson, the 31-year-old son of Judge J.C. Richardson of Conecuh’s judicial circuit, was found dead in his bed at the St. Charles Hotel in Luverne, Ala. at an early hour on this Monday morning. Born on Dec. 23, 1875, he was buried in the Oakwood Cemetery in Montgomery.

Sept. 16, 1911 – English-French mountaineer, explorer, and author Edward Whymper died at the age of 71 in his room at the Grand Hotel Couttet in Chamonix, France.

Sept. 16, 1912 – During a municipal election in Evergreen, Ala., W.B. Ivey was elected mayor and J.G. Lundy, A.H. Mason, F.A. Pritchett, G.W. Salter Jr. and H.A. Shields were elected to the council.

Sept. 16, 1912 – The State High School Commission announced that the Conecuh County High School would be located in Castleberry, Ala. after the town offered a guarantee of $10,000 and six acres of land.

Sept. 16, 1915 – The Agricultural School and City School in Evergreen, Ala. opened for the 1915-16 school year.

Sept. 16, 1916 – During World War I, one month after succeeding Erich von Falkenhayn as chief of the German army’s general staff, General Paul von Hindenburg ordered the construction of a heavily fortified zone running several miles behind the active front between the north coast of France and Verdun, near the border between France and Belgium.

Sept. 16, 1919 – H.P. Lovecraft finished writing “The Transistion of Juan Romero,” which was originally published years later, in 1944, in “Marginalia.”

Sept. 16, 1919 – The American Legion was officially incorporated.

Sept. 16, 1924 - Jim Bottomley knocked in 12 runs in a single game, setting a Major League Baseball record.

Sept. 16, 1925 – Blues singer and guitarist B.B. King was born in Itta Bena, Miss.

Sept. 16, 1936 – French physician and explorer Jean-Baptiste Charcot died at the age of 69 when the Pourquoi-Pas? was wrecked in a storm off the coast of Iceland.

Sept. 16, 1939 – According to the Department of Commerce, only 3,734 bales of cotton had been ginned in Monroe County, Ala. from the 1939 crop, compared to 13,047 that was baled up to that date in 1938.

Sept. 16, 1940 – The Monroeville (Ala.) Elementary School was scheduled to open for the first day of the 1940-41 school year. R.H. Vickery was principal and the rest of the faculty included Clara A. Nettles, Mable Caley, Cornelia Tucker, Katie Haskew, Eugenia Agee, Mrs. P.S. Jackson, Ruth Tatum, Kayren Campbell, Mrs. J.M. McNeil, Mrs. Foy Feagin and Mr. Williams.

Sept. 16, 1940 – Voter turnout in Monroeville, Alabama’s municipal elections on this Monday was very light with only 73 regular ballots and one absentee ballot cast.

Sept. 16, 1940 - U.S. President Roosevelt signed into law the Selective Training and Service Act, which set up the first peacetime military draft in U.S. history.

Sept. 16, 1943 – The Evergreen Courant reported that the casualty list released on Sept. 14 by the War Department listed as “killed in New Guinea,” Sgt. Pettus T. Bruner of Birmingham. Bruner, age 24, went into the Army about two years before and had been serving in the Southwest Pacific area for the previous 18 months. He was the son of Mrs. P.M. Bruner and the late Dr. Bruner, former residents of Evergreen, a nephew of J.H. Dey and a cousin of Mrs. E.B. McRady and M.B. Binion, all of Evergreen.

Sept. 16, 1943 – The Evergreen Courant reported that State Revenue Commissioner H.G. Dowling announced during the previous week the appointment of county boards of equalization for all counties of the state, for terms of four years, beginning Oct. 1. The following were appointed members of the Conecuh County board: James E. Skinner, Castleberry; Luman J. Foshee, Rt. 1, Red Level; and J.C. Brown, Repton.

Sept. 16, 1950 – Scholar, literary critic, historian and television host Henry Louis Gates Jr. was born in Keyser, W.Va.

Sept. 16, 1953 - The St. Louis Browns of the American League were given permission to move to Baltimore, Md., where they became the Baltimore Orioles.

Sept. 16, 1955 – National Baseball Hall of Fame shortstop and center fielder Robin Yount was born in Danville, Ill. He played his entire career, 1974-1993, for the Milwaukee Brewers. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1999.

Sept. 16, 1958 – Baseball pitcher Orel Hershiser was born in Buffalo, N.Y.

Sept. 16, 1960 - In a cable to Secretary of State Christian A. Herter, U.S. Ambassador in Saigon, Elbridge Durbrow analyzed two separate but related threats to the Ngo Dinh Diem regime, danger from demonstration or coup, predominantly “non-Communist” in origin; and the danger of a gradual Viet Cong extension of control over the countryside.

Sept. 16, 1963 - The science-fiction anthology TV series “The Outer Limits” debuted on ABC. The eerie opening of each episode featured the image of an oscilloscope: "There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling transmission...We can change the focus to a soft blur or sharpen it to crystal clarity. For the next hour, sit quietly and we will control all that you see and hear. We repeat: there is nothing wrong with your television set. You are about to participate in a great adventure. You are about to experience the awe and mystery which reaches from the inner mind to... The Outer Limits."

Sept. 16, 1963 – The fall term of the Conecuh County (Ala.) Circuit Court was scheduled to open on this Monday morning at the Conecuh County Courthouse with Circuit Judge A.H. Elliott presiding. Robert E.L. Key was the circuit solicitor, and Henry J. Kinzer was the county solicitor.

Sept. 16, 1966 – Novelist and short-story writer Elizabeth McCracken was born in Boston, Mass.

Sept. 16, 1966 – Mobile, Ala. native Willie McCovey hit what was described as “the longest (home run) ever hit” in Candlestick Park. In all, he hit 231 home runs at Candlestick, the most of any player.

Sept. 16, 1966 – Evergreen High School lost their second game of the season, falling 20-6 to Monroe County High School in Monroeville, Ala. Evergreen’s only touchdown came on pass from Homer Faulkner to Jack White.

Sept. 16, 1969 - President Richard Nixon announced the second round of U.S. troop withdrawals from Vietnam.

Sept. 16, 1976 – NBA shooting guard Greg Buckner was born in Hopkinsville, Ky. He went on to play for Clemson, the Dallas Mavericks, the Philadelphia 76ers, the Denver Nuggets, the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Memphis Grizzlies.

Sept. 16, 1983 – Undefeated Evergreen High School was scheduled to play Monroe County High School at Brooks Memorial Stadium in Evergreen, Ala. Evergreen had won its first two games but was idle the week before the Monroe game.

Sept. 16, 1983 – Sparta Academy, 2-1 overall, was scheduled to play Fort Dale Academy at Stuart-McGehee Field in Evergreen, Ala.

Sept. 16, 1988 – Shields beat R.C. Hatch, 84-0, in Beatrice, Ala. with Shields quarterback Jeff Montgomery completing six of eight passes for 177 yards and four touchdowns. He also kicked two extra points, completed a pass for a two-point conversion and scored on a two-point conversion run.

Sept. 16, 1988 - Tom Browning pitched the 12th perfect game in Major League Baseball history.

Sept. 16, 1990 - An eight-minute videotape of an address by U.S. President George H.W. Bush was shown on Iraqi television. The message warned that action of Saddam Hussein could plunge them into a war "against the world."

Sept. 16, 2004 – Hurricane Ivan made landfall at Gulf Shores, Ala. around 2 a.m. with winds between 120 and 130 miles per hour.

Sept. 16, 2006 - The first episode of the animated television series “Horseland,” co-written by Alabama author Carter Crocker, was broadcast.

Sept. 16, 2007 – Mercenaries working for Blackwater Worldwide shot and killed 17 Iraqis in Nisour Square, Baghdad.

Sept. 16, 2009 – The Monroeville (Ala.) Downtown Historic District was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

Sept. 16, 2011 – Sparta Academy beat Elwood Christian, 48-0, at Block Park in Selma, Ala. Dalton Baggett led Sparta’s offense with 16 carries for 105 yards and three touchdowns and the defense with five solos and four assists.

Sept. 16, 2011 – Hillcrest High School beat region opponent Straughn, 27-26, in overtime in Straughn, Ala.

  

Sept. 16, 2014 – The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant launched its Kobani offensive against Syrian–Kurdish forces.