Today in History for Dec. 16, 2017

Water Avenue historical marker in Selma, Ala.

Dec. 16, 1497 – Vasco da Gama passed the Great Fish River and rounded the Cape of Good Hope, the point where Bartolomeu Dias had previously turned back to Portugal.

Dec. 16, 1770 - Composer Ludwig Van Beethoven was born in Bonn, Germany.

Dec. 16, 1773 – Members of the Sons of Liberty disguised as Mohawk Indians dumped nearly 350 chests of tea into Boston Harbor off of British ships. Now known as the “Boston Tea Party,” the midnight raid was a protest of the Tea Act of 1773, a bill enacted by the British parliament to save the faltering British East India Company by greatly lowering its tea tax and granting it a virtual monopoly on the American tea trade. Patriot leader Samuel Adams organized the now-famous “tea party” with about 60 members of the Sons of Liberty, and the tea dumped into the harbor was worth more than $700,000 in today’s currency.

Dec. 16, 1775 – Novelist Jane Austen was born in Steventon, Hampshire, England.

Dec. 16, 1777 - Virginia became the first state to ratify the Articles of Confederation.

Dec. 16, 1811 - The town of New Madrid, Missouri was hit by the first of three magnitude-8 earthquakes. Witnesses reported cracks opening in the earth's surface, the ground rolling in visible waves, and landmasses sinking and rising.

Dec. 16, 1811 - Tecumseh angrily had said, “I will stamp my foot on the ground and shake down every house in Tuckhabatchee.” At about the time of his return home to Detroit, the Indian Town of Tuckhabatchee was totally destroyed by the New Madrid earthquake. The first earthquake took place at 2:15 a.m. on this day. The shaking rang church bells in Charleston, S.C., and toppled chimneys as far away as Cincinnati, Ohio. This event heightened the credibility of Tecumseh with other tribes he wanted to join his confederacy in the War of 1812. Many tribes would tell tales of this event for generations. “The Indians were filled with great terror… the trees and wigwams shook exceedingly; the ice which skirted the margin of the Arkansas river was broken into pieces; and most of the Indians thought that the Great Spirit, angry with the human race, was about to destroy the world.” - Roger L. Nichols

Dec. 16, 1862 - Union General Jeremiah Sullivan dispatched Colonel Robert Ingersoll and 200 men from Jackson to Lexington. Ingersoll's forces were routed on Dec. 18 by troops under Conferate calvalry leader General Nathan Bedford Forrest.

Dec. 16, 1862 – During the Civil War, affairs occurred at Goshen Swamp and Mount Olive Station and an engagement occurred at White Hall in North Carolina. A skirmish was also fought at Wardensville, W.Va.

Dec. 16, 1863 – William Harrison “W.H.” Snowden of Brooklyn, Ala., with Co. E (Conecuh Guards) of the 4th Alabama Infantry, was “permanently disabled” during a skirmish at Lenior Station, Tenn. Born on Feb. 5, 1842 at Brooklyn, he was first wounded at Louden, Tenn. in December 1863, after the 4th Ala. Inf. was sent south to re-enforce Bragg during the Chickamauga Campaign. His disabling wound was received at Richmond on Dec. 2, 1864, and he was shipped to Brooklyn in March to recover. The war ended in April 1865 before he was cleared by a surgeon for duty. The records end with his status as a disabled soldier.

Dec. 16, 1863 - Confederate President Jefferson Davis named General Joseph Johnston commander of the Army of Tennessee. Johnston replaced Braxton Bragg, who managed to lose all of Tennessee to the Union during 1863. Bragg was literally maneuvered right out of Tennessee during the summer, although he engineered a victory at Chickamauga before laying siege to Union troops at Chattanooga. When Grant broke the Confederate hold on Chattanooga in November, Bragg resigned his command.

Dec. 16, 1863 – During the Civil War, skirmishes were fought at Fort Gibson in the Indian Territory; near Springfield, Mo.; near Free Bridge, N.C.; and at Upperville and Salem in Virginia. Multiple skirmishes were also fought at and near Blain’s Crossroad, Tenn., and another skirmish was fought at Rutledge, Tenn. Fifteen days of sustained Federal operations also began in the vicinity of Fayetteville, Ark.

Dec. 16, 1864 - The Battle of Nashville concluded as Major General George Thomas’s Union forces defeated Lieutenant General John Bell Hood’s Confederate Army of Tennessee. The battle had started the day before.

Dec. 16, 1864 – During the Civil War, the Federal naval attack continued on Forts Rosedew and Beaulieu on the Vernon River in Georgia.

Dec. 16, 1864 – During the Civil War, skirmishes were fought at Hinesville, Georgia, as Union Major General William T. Sherman recompiled his army from the Federal vessels off the Atlantic coast; and at Marion and Wytheville in Virginia. A three-day Federal expedition from Morganza to the Atchafalaya River in Louisiana began, and operations continued against Fort Fisher, N.C.

Dec. 16, 1879 - Alabama author Rose Bell Knox was born in Talladega, Ala.

Dec. 16, 1897 - An act to ratify the agreement between the Dawes Commission and the Seminole Nation passed Congress on this day. This act would be binding on the United States and on the Seminole people if it was ratified by the general Council of the Seminole Nation.

Dec. 16, 1898 - U.S. President William McKinley visited Tuskegee Institute at the invitation of Booker T. Washington, the school's president. To Washington the visit signified that he had achieved his goal of "build[ing] up a school that would be of so much service to the country that the President of the United States would one day come to see it."

Dec. 16, 1899 – English playwright Sir Noel Coward was born in Teddington, near London.

Dec. 16, 1900 – British author V.S. (Victor Sawdon) Pritchett was born in Ipswich, Suffolk, England.

Dec. 16, 1907 - Eugenia H. Farrar became the first singer to broadcast on radio. She sang from the USS Dolphin docked at Brooklyn Navy Yard.

Dec. 16-17, 1914 – A mass meeting directed by the State Department of Agriculture and U.S. Farm Demonstration agents was held in Evergreen, Ala. in cooperation with local businessmen and farmers for farmers, merchants, bankers and businessment in Conecuh and adjoing counties “for the purpose of ‘reasoning together’ on agricultural and other matters of vital interest to all, and to put forth earnest efforts to effect a common understanding for the betterment of all classes under the changed conditions caused by the invasion of the boll weevil and the effects of the European war.” Many people were expected to attend, but attendance was light due to “bitter cold weather.”

Dec. 16, 1914 – During World War I, Admiral Franz von Hipper commanded a rain on Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby.

Dec. 16, 1914 - At approximately eight o’clock in the morning, German battle cruisers from Franz von Hipper’s Scouting Squadron caught the British navy by surprise as they began heavy bombardment of Hartlepool and Scarborough, English port cities on the North Sea.

Dec. 15, 1915 – The Monroe Journal reported that Mr. and Mrs. John McDuffie were at home after a two-week absence, attending court at Grove Hill, Ala.

Dec. 16, 1916 - Gregory Efimovich Rasputin, the monk who had wielded powerful influence over the Russian court, was murdered by a group of noblemen in St. Petersburg, Russa. He was cremated and his ashes were scattered. (Some sources say he died on Dec. 30.)

Dec. 16, 1916 - A movie version of Alabama author Octavus Roy Cohen's book “The Matrimaniac” was released.

Dec. 16, 1917 – Science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke was born in Minehead, Somerset, England.

Dec. 16, 1922 – Former Confederate soldier Walter Newton Duke died and was buried in Ramah Cemetery at Teneha in Shelby County, Texas. Born on Jan. 13, 1840, he enlisted in Co. D. of the 5th Alabama Regiment (later Co. C after April 27, 1862) on March 16, 1861. He was listed as sick at St. Frances de Sales Hospital between March 1, 1862 and Aug. 31, 1862; taken prisoner at South Mountain, Md. on Sept. 14, 1862, forwarded to Ft. Delaware, Del. on Oct. 2, 1862 and to Aikens Landing for exchange on Nov. 10, 1862. He was a patient at Winder General Hospital No. 4 from Nov. 3, 1862 to Dec. 16, 1862. He was taken prisoner at Gettysburg on July 4, 1863 and forwarded to Ft. Delaware on July 7, 1863 and arrived on July 12, 1863. He arrived at Point Lookout, Md. on Oct. 23, 1863 and was paroled on Feb. 18, 1865.

Dec. 16, 1926 – Most of the buildings on the south side of Monroeville, Alabama’s downtown square were totally lost to a blazing inferno.

Dec. 16, 1927 - Alabama author Sandol Stoddard was born in Birmingham, Ala.

Dec. 16, 1928 – Science fiction writer Philip K. Dick was born in Chicago, Ill.

Dec. 16, 1936 – Civil rights attorney Morris Dees was born in Shorter, Ala.

Dec. 16, 1937 – Theodore Cole and Ralph Roe attempted to escape from the American federal prison on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay. Neither was ever seen again.

Dec. 16, 1937 – The Monroe Journal reported that Dr. W.H. Hines was erecting a small animal hospital on Mt. Pleasant St., south of the Square, in Monroeville, Ala. The building was to be arranged to take care of all kinds of small animals. The building was scheduled to be completed some time in January.

Dec. 16, 1938 – Adolf Hitler instituted the Cross of Honour of the German Mother.

Dec. 16, 1940 – National Baseball Hall of Fame outfielder Billy Hamilton died at the age of 74 in Worcester, Mass. During his career, he played for the Kansas City Cowboys, the Philadelphia Phillies and the Boston Beaneaters. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1961.

Dec. 16, 1942 – During the Holocaust, Schutzstaffel chief Heinrich Himmler ordered that Roma candidates for extermination be deported to Auschwitz.

Dec. 16, 1943 – During a “cold wave” that hit the south, temperatures in Monroeville dropped to 18 degrees. On Dec. 17-18, temperatures dropped to 22 degrees in Monroeville. Dothan had the heaviest snow in 40 years and Pensacola was covered with snow for the first time since 1898.

Dec. 16, 1944 - The Battle of the Bulge, one of the bloodiest battles of WWII, began. Wallace Wade, head football coach at the University of Alabama when the team won the 1926 Rose Bowl, was there. He was a lieutenant colonel and led the 272nd Field Artillery Battalion. Wade volunteered for military service in 1942 at age 49. He would be awarded a Bronze Star and four battle stars, and the French government awarded him the Croix de Guerre (Cross of War) with Palm.

Dec. 16, 1952 – Monroe County High School’s boys basketball team beat Frisco City, 66-41, at the Monroeville coliseum. High point man for the locals was Vincent Tomlinson again with 25 points, while forward Sonny Pritchett led Frisco with 11 points.

Dec. 16, 1955 - A fire of undetermined origin on this night swept through and totally destroyed the house at 214 West Front St. in Evergreen, Ala., occupied by Maggie Thomas Johnson.

Dec. 16, 1957 – This Monday’s sale of livestock at the Conecuh County (Ala.) Cooperative Stockyard “was one of the largest ever held other than on special occasions such as Fat Calf shows and like events.” The sale grossed the amount of $29,418.89. There were approximately 600 head of hogs and 160 head of cattle sold. Twenty-three buyers participated in the spirited bidding and buying.

Dec. 16, 1962 – NFL defensive tackle and fullback William "Refrigerator" Perry was born in Aiken, S.C. He would go on to play for Clemson, the Chicago Bears, the Philadelphia Eagles and the London Monarchs.

Dec. 16, 1963 - Dr. Joseph Bethune Nix, 74, died at Mizell Memorial Hospital on this Monday. Nix was born and reared in Barbour County and came to Opp in 1920. He maintained an office in the Ward Building where he practiced dentistry until his health became impaired. Born on Aug. 25, 1889, he was buried in the Opp City Cemetery in Covington County, Ala.

Dec. 16, 1965 – Marine Sgt. Jesse Frank Morgan, 24, of Camden, Ala. was killed in action in Quang Ngai, Vietnam. Born on Feb. 3, 1941 to Jesse and Louise Dumas Morgan, he was assigned to and served in Vietnam with Co. B, 1st Battalion, 4th Marines,3d MARDIV (Rein) FMF. During the month of December, the Battalion conducted assigned missions within the Chu Lai enclave that occupied the border area of Quang Tin and Quang Ngai Provinces and the South China Sea. On Dec. 16, a Co. B patrol base near the hamlet of Xuan My reported to have received some incoming rocket fire that killed two Marines. Initially suspected as enemy fire, it was actually 40-mm rocket fire from a HU-1E helicopter returning to MAG-36, the pilot had mistaken the Marines for the Viet Cong and opened fire on the men. The tragic error caused the death of Morgan by fragmentation wounds. Morgan was buried in the Johnson-Saint Paul Cemetery in Hampton, S.C.

Dec. 16, 1965 – Evergreen High School’s annual Holiday Invitational Basketball Tournament was scheduled to end at Memorial Gym in Evergreen, Ala.

Dec. 16, 1965 – During the Vietnam War, General William Westmoreland sent U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara a request for 243,000 more men by the end of 1966.

Dec. 16, 1967 - Kathy Brown of Monroeville, Ala., the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Daniel O. Brown, was named Monroe County’s 1968 Junior Miss, being selected from 13 high school seniors who were contestants in on this Saturday night’s Junior Miss pageant, held at Greer Auditorium at Monroeville Elementary School and directed by the Monroeville Jaycees. Runners-up and winners of special awards were Hilda Ryder and Noel Peavy, both of Frisco City and both students at Frisco City High School.

  

Dec. 16, 1972 – Selma, Alabama’s Water Avenue was added to National Register of Historic Places.

Dec. 16, 1972 - The Miami Dolphins became the first NFL team to go unbeaten and untied in a 14-game regular season. The Dolphins went on to defeat the Washington Redskins in Super Bowl VII.

Dec. 16, 1972 - Joseph W. (Dick) Skinner Jr., 81, of Castleberry, Ala. died on this Saturday at a Brewton hospital after a lengthy illness. A World War I veteran, he was a large landowner and farmer. Born on Dec. 29, 1881, he was buried in the Zion Hill Baptist Church Cemetery in Brewton, Ala.

Dec. 16, 1972 – Evergreen High School’s undefeated varsity basketball team, led by Coach Charles Branum, improved to 15-0 on the season by beating Greenville High School, 64-59, in the final round of the Holiday Invational Tournament in Evergreen. Wavie Ausby led Evergreen with 25 points, and David Carroll followed with 21 points. Other outstanding Evergreen players in that game included Cleve Fields, David Thomas and Green.

Dec. 16, 1972 - Henry Kissinger announced at a news conference in Washington that the North Vietnamese had walked out of the ongoing private negotiations in Paris.

Dec. 16, 1973 - O.J. Simpson broke Jim Brown’s single-season rushing record in the NFL. Brown had rushed for 1,863 yards, while Simpson attained 2,003 yards.

Dec. 16, 1976 – Computer scientist and Slate contributor Jen Golbeck was born in Crystal Lake, Ill.

Dec. 16, 1979 - Roger Staubach of the Dallas Cowboys played his last regular season game. The Cowboys came from behind to win the game in the last five minutes.

Dec. 16, 1982 – The Monroe Journal reported that the Monroe County (Ala.) Coaches’ Association basketball players of the week were Frisco City High School’s Charlie Bryant and Monroe County High School’s Charlie McPherson. McPherson was a six-foot-four center at MCHS and was that week’s offensive player. Six-foot-two junior Bryant played wing for Curtis Harris’ run-and-gun Whippets and was that week’s defensive player. Players making honorable mention that week were Excel’s Fred Flories, Frisco City’s Percy Riley, J.U. Blacksher’s Kenny Hill and Jimmy Woods and MCHS’s William Hill.

Dec. 16, 1985 – Weather reporter Earl Windham reported a low temperature of 19 degrees in Evergreen, Ala.

Dec. 16, 1985 - Leon Webb Randolph, 71, retired educator of Evergreen, Ala., died at the age of 71. He was a member of a well-known Evergreen family, born there on Oct. 6, 1914 to the late Mr. and Mrs. Henry Randolph Sr. He taught in the schools of Conecuh County for 45 years and retired from his teaching position at Southside Elementary School.

Dec. 16, 1987 – The U.S. Congress passed Public Law 100-192, which established the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail. This Act amended the National Trails System Act to designate the Trail of Tears as a National Historic Trail and was enacted on this day by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States. The trail consists of water routes and overland routes traveled by the Cherokee Nation during its removal from ancestral lands in the East to Oklahoma during 1838 and 1839.

Dec. 16, 1988 - Sidney Carmichael, a 6-foot-1, 208-pound senior running back at Monroe County High School, announced on this Friday that he would accept a football scholarship to the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. Carmichael, the son of Willie and Betty Carmichael of Monroeville, said he chose Alabama over Auburn, Florida State and the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss). In his three-year career as a starter at MCHS, Carmichael has piled up 3,373 rushing yards.

Dec. 16, 1990 - Warren Moon of the Houston Oilers threw for 527 yards against the Kansas City Chiefs.

Dec. 16, 1993 - MTV aired Nirvana's New York "Unplugged" performance.

Dec. 16, 1998 - U.S. President Bill Clinton ordered a sustained series of airstrikes against Iraq by American and British forces in response to Saddam Hussein's continued defiance of U.N. weapons inspectors.

Dec. 16, 2000 - A tornado killed 12 people in Tuscaloosa, Ala.

Dec. 16, 2001 - The Detroit Lions won their first game of the 2001-2002 season against the Minnesota Vikings. The Lions, after the win, had the record 1-12.

Dec. 16, 2001 - An instant replay decision led to a bottle-throwing melee in a game between the Cleveland Browns and the Jacksonville Jaguars. The decision disallowed a catch by the Browns with 48 seconds left in the game. The Jaguars won the game, 15-10.

Dec. 16, 2010 – Old Carter Hospital in Repton was added to Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage