Today in History for Oct. 30, 2017

Murdock McCorvey Fountain

Oct. 30, 1485 – King Henry VII of England was crowned.

Oct. 30, 1735 - John Adams, the second President of the United States, was born in Braintree, Mass. His son, John Quincy Adams, became the sixth President of the U.S.

Oct. 30, 1751 - Irish playwright and Whig politician Richard Brinsley Sheridan was born in Dublin.

Oct. 30, 1775 - The Continental Congress appointed seven members to serve on an administrative naval committee tasked with the acquisition, outfitting and manning of a naval fleet to be used in defense against the British. Almost two weeks earlier, on October 13, 1775, Congress had authorized the construction and arming of vessels for the country’s first navy. Members of the first naval committee included some of the most influential members of the Continental Congress and several “founding fathers,” including John Adams, Joseph Hewes, John Langdon, Richard Henry Lee, Silas Deane and Stephen Hopkins, the committee’s chairman.

Oct. 30, 1811 – Jane Austen’s novel “Sense and Sensibility” was first published.

Oct. 30, 1831 – In Southampton County, Va., escaped slave Nat Turner was captured and arrested for leading the bloodiest slave rebellion in United States history.

Oct. 30, 1861 – During the Civil War, a skirmish was fought near Morgantown, Ky.

Oct. 30, 1861 – During the Civil War, a skirmish was fought near Greenbriar, W.Va.

Oct. 30, 1862 - Union General Ormsby MacKnight Mitchell, commander of the Department of the South, died from yellow fever at Beaufort, S.C. In 1862, Mitchell directed raids into northern Alabama and captured Huntsville, Ala. in April 1862.

Oct. 30, 1862 – Union Major General William S. Rosecrans assumed command of the Department of the Cumberland, superseding Union Major General Don Carlos Buell.

Oct. 30, 1863 – During the Civil War, skirmishes were fought in the area surrounding Salyersville, Ky.; in the vicinity of Opelousas, La.; near New Berne, N.C.; at Leiper’s Ferry (on the Holston River) and to push Confederates away from Brown’s Ferry, Tennessee; and near Catlett’s Station, Va. A second day of skirmishing also occurred at Fourteen Mile Creek in the Indian Territory.

Oct. 30, 1863 - The federal steamer Chattanooga delivered supplies to famished Federal defenders at Chattanooga, Tenn.

Oct. 30, 1864 - Union forces recaptured Plymouth, N.C.

Oct. 30, 1864 – During the Civil War, a second day of skirmishing occurred in the vicinity of Muscle Shoals (or Raccoon Ford), near Florence, Ala.

Oct. 30, 1864 – During the Civil War, Major General Nathan Bedford Forrest captured the gun boat, Undine (No. 55) and transports near Fort Heiman, Ky. A skirmish was also fought at Bainbridge, Tenn.

Oct. 30, 1869 – Monroe County Probate Judge Murdock McCorvey Fountain was born at Tunnel Springs, Ala. He graduated from Perdue Hill High School in 1889 and was appointed Monroe County Sheriff in 1902 when Sheriff John S. Howington was killed while in office. He was elected Monroe County Probate Judge in 1916.

Oct. 30, 1885 – Poet and critic Ezra Pound was born in Hailey, Idaho.

Oct. 30, 1898 – National Baseball Hall of Fame first baseman Bill Terry was born in Atlanta, Ga. He played his entire career for the New York Giants and managed the Giants from 1932 to 1941. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1954.

Oct. 30, 1912 - Alabama author Willis Brewer died in Montgomery, Ala.

Oct. 30, 1914 – Julian Andrews shot and killed Wright Eddins near Bone Hill church in northeastern Monroe County, Ala. Andrews was arrested, brought to Monroeville and placed in jail.

Oct. 30, 1915 – Pioneering broadcast journalist Fred W. Friendly was born Ferdinand Friendly Wachenheimer in New York City.

Oct. 30, 1916 – National Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Leon Day was born in Alexandria, Va. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1995.

Oct. 30, 1917 – Major League Baseball shortstop and catcher Bobby Bragan was born in Birmingham, Ala. He went on to play for the Philadelphia Phillies and Brooklyn Dodgers, and he also managed the Pittsburgh Pirates, Cleveland Indians and the Milwaukee/Atlanta Braves.

Oct. 30, 1918 – The Ottoman Empire signed an armistice with the Allies, ending the First World War in the Middle East.

Oct. 30, 1919 - The professional baseball association ruled that spitballs and shineballs were illegal.

Oct. 30, 1930 – The Evergreen Courant published a special “Conecuh County Agricultural, Industrial and Historical Edition.” The front page of the 50-page edition was printed in green ink, it was the largest newspaper ever published in Conecuh County, Ala.

Oct. 30, 1935 – American writer Robert Caro was born in New York City.

Oct. 30, 1936 – The first ever night football game in the history of Frisco City High School was played on this day. Frisco City faced Monroe County High School and lost, 13-12. It was FC’s only documented loss of the entire season.

Oct. 30, 1936 – In a game played at 2:30 p.m. during the Conecuh County Fair, Evergreen High School beat Repton High School, 47-0, at Gantt Field in Evergreen, Ala.

Oct. 30, 1936 – Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and biographer Robert Caro was born in New York City.

Oct. 30, 1938 - Martians invaded New Jersey! Well, at least that's what many radio listeners thought, when they tuned into Orson Welles' broadcast of “War of the Worlds” on CBS radio. As part of the realistic radio play, an announcer interrupted a dance orchestra to describe a crash in a farmer's field, and then later he warned of tentacled creatures inside giant attack machines. The public went into a panic--it's estimated that as many as one million people believed a real invasion was underway.

Oct. 30, 1941 – One thousand five hundred Jews from Pidhaytsi (in western Ukraine) were sent by Nazis to Bełżec extermination camp.

Oct. 30, 1942 – Lt. Tony Fasson, Able Seaman Colin Grazier and canteen assistant Tommy Brown from the HMS Petard boarded U-559, retrieving material which would lead to the decryption of the German Enigma code.

Oct. 30, 1944 – Anne and Margot Frank were deported from Auschwitz to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where they die from disease the following year, shortly before the end of World War II.

Oct. 30, 1945 – Jackie Robinson of the Kansas City Monarchs signed a contract for the Brooklyn Dodgers to break the baseball color barrier.

Oct. 30, 1948 - Alabama author Dennis Covington was born in Birmingham, Ala.

Oct. 30, 1952 – The Evergreen Courant reported that the Evergreen City Council had approved a zoning plan and ordinance as presented to them by the City Planning Commission.

Oct. 30, 1952 – The Evergreen Courant reported that all the remaining right-of-way deeds for the paving of the portion of U.S. Highway 84 through Herbert and Cohassett to Andalusia by the Conecuh County (Ala.) Board of Directors had been signed. Up to that point, county officials had been working to have that portion of the highway paved for a number of years.

Oct. 30, 1952 – The Evergreen Courant reported that the State of Alabama, as part of a federal aid project, had completed the construction of the new bridge over Murder Creek between Evergreen and Fairview in Conecuh County, Ala. As of this date, the approaches to the bridge were being completed and was expected to be finished at an early date.

Oct. 30, 1953 – Excel High School’s football team beat Red Level, 12-0. Standout Excel players in that game included Charles Byrd, James Fleming and Gerald Stacey.

Oct. 30, 1954 – In an incident attributed to the Bermuda Triangle, a U.S. Navy Super Constellation disappeared with 42 passengers and crew while flying in fair weather from Patuxent River Naval Air Station, Md. to the Azores.

Oct. 30, 1964 – The Monroe County Board of Education appointed Monroe County High School head coach James Allen as principal of MCHS and promoted assistant coach Ronald M. Dees to head coach. The changes were made due to the resignation of MCHS principal B.E. Lee, who had been named as the president of the forthcoming junior college in Monroeville. The changes were to take effect on Feb. 1, 1965.

Oct. 30, 1965 – During the Vietnam War, near Da Nang, United States Marines repelled an intense attack by Viet Cong forces, killing 56 guerrillas.

Oct. 30, 1970 - Jim Morrison was sentenced to six months in jail and fined $500 for exposing himself in Miami, Fla.

Oct. 30, 1970 – In Vietnam, the worst monsoon to hit the area in six years caused severe floods, killed 293, left 200,000 homeless and virtually halted the Vietnam War.

Oct. 30, 1974 – Excel High School began a streak of 20 straight games without a loss (including ties) that ended on Nov. 6, 1975.

Oct. 30, 1974 – As a member of the California Angels, Major League Baseball player Nolan Ryan threw the fastest recorded pitch, at 100.9 MPH.

Oct. 30, 1976 – NBA power forward and center Maurice Taylor was born in Detroit, Mich. He went on to play for the University of Michigan, the Los Angeles Clippers, the Houston Rockets, the New York Knicks and the Sacramento Kings.

Oct. 30, 1979 - In a run-off, Richard Arrington was elected as the first black mayor of Birmingham, Alabama’s largest city. Arrington served in that post for nearly 20 years, until his resignation in July 1999.

Oct. 30, 1988 - Kurt Cobain smashed his very first guitar.

Oct. 30, 1988 - The New York Jets beat the Pittsburgh Steelers for the first time.

Oct. 30, 1988 - Over 2,000 people attended an open house on this Sunday afternoon at the new Hillcrest High School in Evergreen, Ala. The school cost over $5 million to construct and was set to open in the fall of 1989. The open house was hosted by the Conecuh County Board of Education and Superintendent Steve Coker.

Oct. 30, 2001 - In New York City, U.S. President George W. Bush threw out the first pitch at Game 3 of the World Series between the New York Yankees and the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Oct. 30, 2001 - The U.S. Postal Service temporarily suspended the sale of envelopes pre-printed with postage due to developments in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Oct. 30, 2003 – Late on this Thursday night, vandals trenched an anarchy symbol on the east end of the football field at Sparta Academy, and the vandalism was reported to the Evergreen Police Department the following day, which was Halloween. Estimated damages totaled $1,127, and the vandals turned themselves in the following day. Many at fist thought that the symbol was a satanic symbol.

Oct. 30, 2005 – National Baseball Hall of Fame catcher and manager Al Lopez passed away at the age of 97 in Tampa, Fla. During his career, he played for the Brooklyn Robins/Dodgers, the Boston Bees, the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Cleveland Indians, and he managed the Indians and the Chicago White Sox. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1977.

Oct. 30, 2006 - A television version of Alabama author Anne Rivers Siddons's book “The House Next Door” was broadcast.