Today in History for March 28, 2018

Eufaula, Ala. native Katie Couric

March 28, 1515 – St. Teresa of Avila was born in Gotarrendura, Spain. Her books include “The Way of Perfection” (1566) and “The Interior Castle” (1580).

March 28, 1692 – In connection with the Salem witchcraft trials, Elizabeth Proctor was accused of witchcraft.

March 28, 1774 - Upset by the Boston Tea Party and other blatant acts of destruction of British property by American colonists, the British Parliament enacted the Coercive Acts, to the outrage of American Patriots.

March 28, 1776 – Juan Bautista de Anza, one of the great western pathfinders of the 18th century, arrived at the future site of San Francisco with 247 colonists.

March 28, 1782 - The United Netherlands recognized American independence.

March 28, 1814 – During the War of 1812, the Royal Navy of the United Kingdom defeated the United States Navy in the Battle of Valparaíso, Chile.

March 28, 1817 - John Gassaway Rush was born in Orangeburg District, South Carolina. In 1860, he and his wife donated land for a church to the McIntosh community, and the Andrews Chapel was constructed on this property.

March 28, 1818 – The Butler Massacre occurred near Pine Barren Creek. Three were killed by Indians, including Capt. Butler (Butler County, Alabama was later named in his honor.)

March 28, 1862 – During the Civil War, the Battle of Glorieta Pass ended in the New Mexico Territory, two days after its start on March 26. Union forces stopped the Confederate invasion of the New Mexico territory. Confederates, under the command of General Henry Hopkins Sibley, lost 36 men killed, 70 wounded, and 25 captured. The Union army lost 38 killed, 64 wounded, and 20 captured.

March 28, 1862 – During the Civil War, Federal reconnaissance of the mouth of Saint Augustine Creek in Georgia was conducted. Confederate operations began into Scott and Morgan counties, Tenn. A skirmish was fought at Bealton, Rappahannock Station, Va.

March 28, 1863 – During the Civil War, a good portion of Jacksonville, Fla. was burned by the forces of Commander Duncan and the U.S.S. Norwich. This was a part of a campaign to stop Floridians supplying salt, beef and other supplies to Confederate forces.

March 28, 1863 – During the Civil War, skirmishes were fought at the Danville and Hickham Bridge in Kentucky; and in the vicinity of Hurricane Bridge, West Virginia. A Federal operation was also conducted that encompassed La Grande, Moscow, Macon and Belmont, Tenn.

March 28, 1863 – During the Civil War, the Federal steamer, USS Diana, was captured in the vicinity of Pattersonville, La. by Major General Richard Taylor’s Confederate force. Confederates also captured the Federal steamer, Sam Gaty, in Missouri.

March 28, 1864 - A group of Copperheads attacked Federal soldiers in Charleston, Ill. Five were killed and 20 were wounded.

March 28, 1864 – During the Civil War, a federal operation to Caperton’s Ferry, Ala. began.

March 28, 1864 – During the Civil War, skirmishes were fought in the vicinity of Danville and Mount Elba, Ark.; with Indians along the Eel River in California; at New Hope, Ky.; along Obey’s River in Tennessee; and at Bloomery Gap, West Virginia. A 20-day Federal operation also began in eastern Kentucky.

March 28, 1864 – During the Civil War, a Federal operation was conducted between Aldie and Middleburg, Va. A Federal operation was also into Gloucester County, Va.

March 28-April 9, 1865 – 59^TH ALABAMA: The 59^th Alabama served in the Appomattox Campaign.

March 28, 1865 – 59^TH ALABAMA: The 59^th Alabama fought in skirmishes around Hatcher’s Run, Va.

March 28, 1865 - U.S. President Abraham Lincoln met with Ulysses S. Grant, William T. Sherman and Admiral David Dixon Porter at City Point, Va.

March 28, 1865 – During the Civil War, a skirmish was fought at Elyton, Ala. (Jefferson County), with Brig. Gen. James H Wilson‘s Union cavalry force.

March 28, 1865 – During the Civil War, skirmishes were fought along Bull Creek in Christian County, Mo.; in the vicinity of Boone and Snow Hill, N.C.; and in the vicinity of Germantown, Tenn. A three-day Federal operation between Fort Pike, La. and Bay St. Louis, Miss. began. A 15-day Federal operation also began in the Deep Bottom, Va. vicinity.

March 28, 1868 – Norman A. Staples, the owner of the ill-fated steamboat James T. Staples, was born at Bladon Springs in Choctaw County, Ala.

March 28, 1875 – Evergreen, Ala. was officially incorporated. (According to the Ala. League of Municipalities, Evergreen was incorporated on this date in 1873.)

March 28, 1886 – The Rev. E.E. Cowan was scheduled to preach at the Monroeville Methodist Church on this Sunday at 11 a.m. and 7 p.m.

March 28, 1896 - Miss Wills, the teacher at the Manistee community school, was to leave for her home at Pine Hill, Ala. on this Saturday.

March 28, 1904 – Whipple Van Buren Phillips, H.P. Lovecraft’s grandfather, passed away from a stroke at the age of 70 around midnight at his home at 454 Angell St. in Providence, R.I. He was buried in Swan Point Cemetery.

March 28, 1906 - Prof. I.A. Weaver, who had been teaching in Monroeville, Ala. for several months, left for his home at Lineville on this Wednesday.

March 28, 1906 - Misses Katie Scott and Mary Gregg, who had been visiting Mrs. Chas. King, left on the Str. Nettie Quill on this Wednesday to return to their home in Mobile, Ala.

March 28, 1909 - Alabama journalist and author Lael Tucker Wertenbaker was born in Bradford, Pa.

March 28, 1909 – Award-winning author Nelson Algren was born in Detroit, Mich. His books include “A Walk on the Wild Side” (1956).

March 28, 1914 – American explorer, poet and painter Everett Ruess was born in Oakland, Calif. He mysteriously disappeared in November 1934 near Escalante, Utah.

March 28, 1914 – Monroe County High School’s baseball team beat Vredenburgh, 21-0, in Vredenburgh on this Saturday. This was MCHS’s first game of the season.

March 28, 1915 – Confederate veteran Charles Monroe (Mays) Carter passed away at the age of 76 at his home near Mexia, Ala. after an illness of several weeks. Born on Dec. 12, 1838 at Mt. Willing in Lowndes County, he enlisted as a private at Scotland with Co. H, 17th Alabama Regiment. He was discharged after one year when his enlistment ended. He re-enlisted with the 54th Alabama Regiment. He is buried at Mexia Cemetery.

March 28, 1915 – The first American citizen was killed in the eight-month-old European conflict that would become known as the First World War when Leon Thrasher, a 31-year-old mining engineer and native of Massachusetts, drowned when a German submarine, the U-28, torpedoed the cargo-passenger ship Falaba, on its way from Liverpool to West Africa, off the coast of England.

March 28, 1920 – The Palm Sunday tornado outbreak of 1920 affected the Great Lakes region and Deep South states.

March 28, 1921 - U.S. President Warren Harding named William Howard Taft as chief justice of the United States Supreme Court.

March 28, 1923 – The Evergreen Courant reported that the baseball team at the State Secondary Agricultural School had started the season with a victory over Georgiana, “witnessed by a fair crowd in spite of the threatening weather. The game was featured by the pitching of Dave Lewis and three base hits by Amos and Hines.”

March 28, 1923 – The Evergreen Courant reported that J.D. Deming had been catching some very fine trout recently. He’d landed five fish, the aggregate weight of which was 25 pounds. Two of the number weighed 6-3/4 pounds and 6-1/2 pounds, respectively.

March 28, 1923 – This day’s edition of The Evergreen Courant carried an advertisement for the letting of the contract for the construction of the state and federal aid road from Evergreen to Belleville and also the bridge across Murder Creek. This advertisement also indicated that actual work on these projects would begin before July 1.

March 28, 1929 – The Evergreen Courant reported that the first movement of Conecuh County strawberries by express started with a rush that week with the advent of warm weather, the continuation of which would likely mean that cars would begin moving sometime the following week. The first full crates came in to both Evergreen and Castleberry on Mon., March 25. Steve Howard brought and shipped to Birmingham, Evergreen’s first crate while at Castleberry, R.B. Findley started the season off with four crates which were brought by G.T. Young and also shipped to Birmingham.

March 28, 1929 – The Evergreen Courant reported that the northbound and southbound work crews, which were clearing and grading for the Evergreen-Castleberry highway, would meet in about 30 days, according to estimate on Tues., March 26, by W.L. Flaughter, resident engineer of the state highway department.

March 28, 1935 – In Lovecraftian fiction, Miskatonic University’s Peaslee Australian Expedition left Boston Harbor, destined for Australia, where it searched for ancient ruins in the Great Sandy Desert.

March 28, 1936 – Novelist Mario Vargas Llosa was born in Arequipa, in southern Peru.

March 28, 1940 - Poet, novelist and short-story writer Russell Banks was born in Newton, Mass. His books include “Hamilton Stark” (1978), “Continental Drift” (1985) and “Lost Memory of Skin” (2011).

March 28, 1951 – During the First Indochina War, in the Battle of Mạo Khê, French Union forces, led by World War II hero Jean de Lattre de Tassigny, inflicted a defeat on Việt Minh forces commanded by General Võ Nguyên Giáp.

March 28, 1953 – Pro Football Hall of Fame back Jim Thorpe died at the age of 65 in Lomita, Calif. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1963.

March 28, 1958 – Florence, Ala. native W.C. Handy, the “Father of the Blues,” passed away in New York City at the age of 84.

March 28, 1961 - A U.S. national intelligence estimate prepared for President John F. Kennedy declared that South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem and the Republic of Vietnam were facing an extremely critical situation.

March 28-April 3, 1963 – “To Kill A Mockingbird” was shown at the Monroe Theatre in Monroeville, Ala.

March 28, 1963 - Sonny Werblin announced that the New York Titans of the American Football League was changing its name to the New York Jets.

March 28, 1967 - The Phoenix, a private U.S. yacht with eight American pacifists aboard, arrived in Haiphong, North Vietnam, with $10,000 worth of medical supplies for the North Vietnamese.

March 28, 1968 – Author and journalist Iris Chang was born in Princeton, N.J.

March 28, 1968 – The Monroe Journal reported that Coach Robert Hines had announced that Patrick Henry Junior College would field a baseball team for the first time in 1968 with the first game to be played against NAAS Whiting Field of Milton, Fla. A total of 14 players were on PHJC’s first team: Larry Gilbert, Milton, Fla.; Douglas Fergerson, Plantersville; Dan Gilbert, Leroy; Tommy McMillon, Monroeville; Larry Blackwell, Milton, Fla.; Jerry Browder, Milton, Fla.; Bobby Marshall, Jay, Fla.; James Real, Beatrice; Butch Lovinggood, Camden; Charles Sexton, Highland Home; Dwight Wilson, Uriah; James Henderson, Selma; Mike Grindle, Southside (Selma); Marvin Marrow, Selma; Managers, Mike Martin, Camden, and Dan Young, Uniontown.

March 28, 1969 - Dwight D. Eisenhower, the 34th president of the United States and one of the most highly regarded American generals of World War II, died in Washington, D.C., at the age of 78.

March 28, 1969 – Evergreen High School played in a spring football jamboree in Luverne, Ala. that included Evergreen, Luverne, Union Springs and Georgiana. Evergreen played Luverne in the first half (12-minute quarters), and Union Springs played Georgiana in the second half. Wendell Hart was Evergreen’s head football coach, and his assistants included Mike Bledsoe and Charles Branum.

March 28, 1969 – Lyeffion, Repton, Frisco City, Excel and J.U. Blacksher played in a spring football jamboree at J.U. Blacksher High School at Uriah. Lyeffion played Frisco in the first quarter; Excel played Repton in the second; Blacksher played Frisco in the third; Excel played Lyeffion in the fourth; and Repton played Blacksher in the fifth.

March 28-30, 1969 – The movie, “Cool Hand Luke,” played at the Pix Theatre in Evergreen, Ala.

March 28, 1974 – The Evergreen Courant reported that Conecuh County High School was conducting spring football drills in preparation for fielding its first football team for the first time since the late 1930s in the fall of 1974. To wrap up spring drills, the Blue Devils were scheduled to play Repton and Frisco City in a jamboree at the Repton High Bulldog Field at 7 p.m. on Sat., March 30. CCHS players and coaches included Randy Chavers, Eddie Ryals, Chris Anderson, Bobby Brown, Gerald Anderson, J.W. Monk, Bill Baker, Johnny Godwin, Stan Pate, Keith Merritt, Michael Gantt, Eddie Garner, Willie Jones, Angelo Dees, Duncan Smith, Carl Sanders, Michael Sims, Phillip Etheridge, Wendell Kast, Ricky Godwin, William Ryals, Paul Ellis, Donnie Green, Rusty Bethune, Johnny Chavers, Homer Holland, Dennis Darby, Bill Godwin, Steve Pate, Hugh Bradford, Floyd Coleman, Bobby Barnes, Wade Wilcox, Donnie Laster, Royce Baker, Rusty Wilson, Ricky Reeves and Andy Pate.

March 28, 1974 – The Evergreen Courant reported that Olen Brooks, the son of Mrs. Ida Woods, formerly of Evergreen, Ala. was recently saluted by The Southern Star newspaper of Lansing, Mich. Brooks participated in major sports including basketball, football, track and wrestling. During the wrestling season, Olen won three of his matches. He wrestled at 155 pounds. His shortest pin took him 26 seconds and the longest four minutes. Olen came in third in the City Meet.

March 28, 1974 – The Evergreen Courant reported that eighth-grader Phillip Harold Jr., the son of Mr. and Mrs. Phillip Harold of Evergreen, was the winner of the spelling bee held at Marshall Middle School in Evergreen, Ala. Phillip, whose mother was the former Laurice Adams, was scheduled to compete in the state finals in Birmingham on May 4 in a contest sponsored by The Birmingham Post-Herald.

March 28, 1974 – The Evergreen Courant reported that police officer James R. Taylor of the Evergreen Police Department was attending the ninth session of the Southwest Alabama Regional Law Enforcement Training Academy at Faulkner State Community College in Bay Minette, Ala.

March 28, 1977 – Novelist Lauren Weisberger was born in Scranton, Pa. Her books include “The Devil Wears Prada” (2003).

March 28, 1977 – Sri Lankan-English explorer and mountaineer Eric Shipton died in England at the age of 69.

March 28, 1979 - At 4 a.m., the most significant accident in the history of the U.S. nuclear power industry occurred when a pressure valve in the Unit-2 reactor at Three Mile Island failed to close. Cooling water, contaminated with radiation, drained from the open valve into adjoining buildings, and the core began to dangerously overheat.

March 28, 1981 - J.B. (Jr.) Andrews and son, Timmy, did a father-and-son act on a pair of large turkeys on this Saturday morning, according to The Evergreen Courant. Junior’s Tom weighed 18 pounds and had a 9-1/2 inch beard while Timmy’s big bird weighed 13 pounds and had a 3-1/2 inch beard.

March 28, 1983 - Trial of cases on the State Bar Criminal Docket, Conecuh County, Ala., were scheduled for trial this week as Circuit Court was set to begin on this Monday at 9 a.m. in the courtroom of the Conecuh County Courthouse with Judge Robert E.L. Key presiding.

March 28, 1984 - Bob Irsay, owner of the once-mighty Baltimore Colts, moved the team to Indianapolis.

March 28, 1990 – President George H. W. Bush posthumously awarded Oakville, Ala. native Jesse Owens the Congressional Gold Medal.

  

March 28-29, 1997 - Excel High School rebounded from a loss to T.R. Miller High School to stun Monroe County and Opp high schools in varsity baseball games on this Friday and Saturday. Excel’s 6-4 win over MCHS on Friday evening (March 28) in Monroeville coupled with the 3-2 victory over Opp on Saturday morning (March 29) captured first place for the Panthers in the MCHS tournament. Standout Excel players in those games included Jimbo Bishop, Matt Cole, Rob Hill, Lynn Janes, Kevin Luker, Keith McKinley, Jason McLelland, Justin Mixon, Stacey McPhaul and Travis Smith. Larry Burt was Excel’s head coach.

March 28, 1997 - Proclaiming this Friday “a day we’ve waited for a long, long time,” Ruth Underwood, administrator of Public Health Areas VII and IX, and other officials ceremoniously broke ground for Monroe County’s new public health building. State Reps. Jimmy Warren and Thomas Jackson, whose districts include Monroe County, as well as Gary Beers, representing Sen. Pate Lindsey, were on hand for the groundbreaking behind Our Place, which was to the east of the five-acre lot on which the new health building was to be built.

March 28, 1999 - In Cuba, the Orioles beat the Cuban National Team, 3-2. It was the first time since the 1950's that a U.S. team had played in Cuba.

  

March 28, 2002 – The Monroe Journal reported that NBC’s “Today Show” would air a special segment on Harper Lee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, “To Kill a Mockingbird,” in May. The segment was scheduled to air on March 19, but was pre-empted by the announcement of the Andrea Yates murder trial verdict. A crew of freelance cameramen from Atlanta and a producer visited Monroeville on Feb. 28 and filmed footage for the segment to air on national television. According to Museums Director Kathy McCoy, “Today Show” host Katie Couric, a native of Eufaula, and assistant producer Mary Elizabeth Webb, a native of Demopolis, were “big” fans of “To Kill a Mockingbird.”

March 28, 2003 – In a friendly fire incident, two A-10 Thunderbolt II attack aircraft from the United States Idaho Air National Guard's 190th Fighter Squadron attacked British tanks participating in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, killing British soldier Matty Hull.

March 28, 2009 - U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions (R-Alabama) was scheduled to visit Evergreen on this Saturday afternoon as part of the state’s “Year of Alabama History” campaign. Sessions was scheduled to arrive at the Old Train Depot in downtown Evergreen at 2 p.m. and was to be on hand until 4 p.m. His visit was to coincide with a Conecuh County Historical Tour, organizer Sherry Johnston said.

March 28, 2014 – Former U.S. Senator Jeremiah Denton Jr. passed away at the age of 89. Denton was born in Mobile on July 15, 1924, to a family that traced its heritage back to the French Catholic founders of Mobile. In 1964 he was assigned, as a U.S. Navy pilot, to the USS Independence (CVA-62), which was deployed off the coast of North Vietnam. In July 1965, Denton led a bombing mission over North Vietnam and was shot down and captured. He spent 48 of his 91 months of imprisonment in solitary confinement, one of the longest periods of any American POW. His book, “When Hell Was in Session,” which recounted his POW experiences, was made into an NBC television movie in 1979 starring Hal Holbrook.