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| Cynthia Tucker of Monroeville, Ala. |
April 16, 1582 – Spanish conquistador Hernando de Lerma
founded the settlement of Salta, Argentina.
April 16, 1705 - Queen Anne of England knighted Isaac
Newton.
April 16, 1738 - Henry Clinton was born in Newfoundland,
Canada. In 1778, he was promoted to commander in chief of Britain's North
American forces.
April 16, 1787 – Royall Tyler’s “The Contrast,” the “first
America play” opened at the John Street Theater in New York City.
April 16, 1825 – During his tour of the United States, after
stopping briefly at Duncan's Point, eight miles below Baton Rouge, La., the
Marquis de Lafayette was received in Baton Rouge for a reception and banquet,
leaving just before nightfall.
April 16, 1844 – Nobel Prize-winning novelist Anatole France
was born in Paris.
April 16, 1861 – During the Civil
War, Fort Washita, in the Indian Territory, was abandoned by Federal forces.
Fort Caswell, at the mount of the Cape Fear River and Fort Johnston, at
Smithville, N.C., were taken over by North Carolina state troops.
April 16, 1861 - Following
Lincoln’s call to the state governors for the raising of militia, reactions were
mixed. Even within some states, especially border states, there were conflicts.
Tennessee had voted against secession by a margin of 10,000, but Gov. Isham
Harris refused to send troops and asked the Confederacy for admission.
Newspaper editor William Brownlow of Knoxville wrote he would “fight the
Secessionist leaders till Hell froze over, and then fight them on the ice.”
April 16, 1862 – During the Civil War, Tuscumbia in Colbert
County, Ala. was occupied by Federal forces.
April 16, 1862 – During the Civil
War, skirmishes were fought on Whitemarsh Island, Ga.; near Blackwater Creek,
Mo.; at Savannah, Tenn.; and at Columbia Furnace, Lee’s Mill and Liberty Church
in Virginia. Federal reconnaissance to the Rappahannock River, Va. was
conducted. U.S. Navy Flag Officer David Glasgow Farragut positioned his fleet
below Fort Jackson and Fort St. Philip in Louisiana.
April 16, 1862 - The Confederate
government prepared legislation to draft all able-bodied men 18 to 35 years
old. In the wake of Fort Sumter, men on both sides had flocked to the colors.
That initial enthusiasm had worn thin. Jefferson Davis signed a bill
establishing a draft. This covered all able-bodied white men between the ages
of 18 and 35. It allowed for no exemptions based on occupation but did allow for
the hiring of substitutes. Men were to be assigned to units from their home
states, and allowed to elect their officers at the company, battalion and
regimental levels.
April 16, 1862 – During the Civil War, the Battle at Lee's
Mills was fought in York County and Newport News in Virginia.
April 16, 1862 – During the Civil War, the District of
Columbia Compensated Emancipation Act, a bill ending slavery in the District of
Columbia, became law.
April 16, 1863 – During the Civil War Siege of Vicksburg,
Miss. 12 ships led by Union Admiral David Dixon Porter moved through heavy
Confederate artillery fire on approach to Vicksburg, Mississippi. Porter only
lost one ship and two barges, and the operation speeded General Ulysses S.
Grant’s movement against Vicksburg. Within six weeks, Grant had locked up
Vicksburg from the east and the siege began. Vicksburg would surrender on July
4, 1863.
April 16, 1863 – During the Civil
War, skirmishes were fought at Hill’s and Rodman’s Point in North Carolina; at
Eagleville, Tenn.; and near West Point, Va. A six-day Federal operation between
New Berne and Kinston in North Carolina also began.
April 16, 1864 – During the Civil
War, skirmishes were fought at Camden, Liberty Post Office, and on the Osage
Branch of King’s River in Arkansas; in the vicinity of Salyersville, Ky.; at
Rheatown, Tenn.; and at Catlett’s Station, Va.
April 16, 1864 - Although few land
battles took place in Florida, there was naval action going on there for most
of the war. The Army transport General Hunter fell victim to this action on
this day when it struck a floating mine in the St. John’s River and was sunk.
It was the second victim of a number of explosives that had been planted by the
Confederates late in March 1864; the transport Maple Leaf had been destroyed
earlier.
April 16, 1865 – At 10 a.m., Union Col. O.H. LaGrange, with
a large detachment of Wilson’s Raiders, attacked and captured Fort Tyler, a
Confederate fort on the west bank of the Chattahoochee River, just east of
Lanett in Chambers County, Ala.
April 16, 1865 – During the Civil War, skirmishes were
fought at Crawford, Girard and Opelika in Alabama.
April 16, 1865 – During the Civil
War, skirmishes were fought at Columbus and near West Point in Georgia.
April 16, 1866 - A leaking crate of nitroglycerin in San
Francisco exploded, leveling a Wells Fargo office and all surrounding
buildings.
April 16, 1871 – Irish author John Millington Synge was born
in Rathfarnham, Dublin.
April 16, 1874 - John T. Croxton died in La Paz in Bolivia
at the age of 37. A native of Paris, Ky., Croxton’s cavalry brigade burned most
of the University of Alabama's buildings, as well as much of Tuscaloosa's
industry and warehouses on April 3-4, 1865. After the war, Ulysses S. Grant
appointed Croxton as U.S. Minister to Bolivia, where Croxton died. His remains
were shipped home and he was buried in Paris Cemetery in Paris, Ky.
April 16, 1886 – The Monroe Journal reported that “frequent
showers of rain, accompanied by light hail,” had fallen recently.
April 16, 1886 – The Monroe Journal reported that Dr. J.T.
Russell had very nearly completed his new frame dwelling, the erection of which
he began some time before, and when finished, “it will be not only the
handsomest but one of the finest residences in Monroe, and it is surrounded by
one of the finest orchards in South Alabama.”
April 16, 1886 – The Monroe Journal reported that Col. B.L.
Hibbard, formerly of Monroeville, and who recently resigned the Vice Consulship
to Caraccas, Venezuela, had moved with his family to Birmingham to practicing
law.
April 16, 1886 – The Monroe Journal reported that Charlie
Yarbrough had just finished boring a well at the Methodist parsonage and the
well was affording excellent water.
April 16, 1886 – The Monroe Journal reported that Judge
Leslie had “improved his place by running a new plank in place of the old rail
fence.”
April 16, 1886 – The Monroe Journal reported that a “Mr.
Evans, an extensive planter of Fayetteville, N.C.,” had spent several days in
Monroe County during the previous week and returned home on Tues., April 13.
April 16, 1889 – Filmmaker and actor Charlie Chaplin was
born in London, England.
April 16, 1890 – Gertrude Chandler Warner, the creator of
the “Boxcar Children” series, was born in Putnam, Conn.
April 16, 1896 – The Monroe Journal reported that
“considerable anxiety and apprehension” were created in Monroeville during the
previous week by the report of a case of small pox at Tekoa, about seven or
eight miles south of Monroeville. Dr. Wiggins, Monroe County Health Officer,
was notified and went with Dr. Busey, the attending physician, to examine the
patient and their diagnosis was that it was genuine small pox. Dr. McDaniel
also visited the case, and he concurred with this opinion. They were further
convinced that their diagnosis was correct by the fact that a similar case was
reported at Wallace, which had been pronounced small pox by Dr. Parker of
Brewton. The Tekoa case, a negro, had recently been to Wallace and was there
exposed to a “strange negro” from New Orleans. Dr. Wiggins had the case
isolated and the house he formerly occupied burned. He also had quarantine
officers stationed on the various roads leading to Monroeville and adopted
other precautionary measures for the protection of its citizens.
April 16, 1903 – National Baseball Hall of Fame right
fielder Paul Waner was born in Harrah, Okla. He went on to play for the
Pittsburgh Pirates, the Brooklyn Dodgers, the Boston Braves and the New York
Yankees. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1952.
April 16, 1908 – Natural Bridges National Monument was
established in Utah.
April 16, 1915 – In Monroe County’s Weatherford community,
H.M. Godwin and his work crew “laid the last timbers and drove the finishing
bolt” into the new bridge across the “old Joiner ford” on Little River, which
separated Monroe and Baldwin counties. “The material used for the entire
construction was gotten within a mile of the site cut by a six-horsepower Witte
engine and just one month from the day the work began, the bridge was turned
over to the Commissioners.”
April 16, 1916 - John Ingram Deens, “one of the most
widely known citizens of this section of Alabama,” died at his home in Red
Level on this Sunday morning, from a stroke of paralysis which he had on Wed.,
April 12. Born on July 8, 1851, Deens was a retired banker and merchant and was
about 65 years old. He was a prominent member of the Presbyterian church. He
buried in the Mitchell Cemetery in Covington County.
April 16, 1917 - Thirty-six applicants were registered on
this Monday for examination for teachers certificates. Of this number, one was
for first grade, 14 for second and 11 for third grade. The examination was held
under the supervision of County Superintendent J.A. Barnes.
April 16, 1917 - Vladimir Lenin, leader of the revolutionary Bolshevik Party, returned to Petrograd after a decade of exile to take the reins of the Russian Revolution.
April 16, 1917 - The “soldier boys” moved their quarters
on this Monday from the armory in Evergreen to a vacant space near the home of
W.H. Wild. One of the soldiers on duty at Sepulga River was brought in to
Evergreen on April 18 suffering with an attack of appendicitis and was promptly
taken to Montgomery for treatment.
April 16, 1917 - The mass meeting of farmers at the
Conecuh County Courthouse on this Monday morning was the most largely attended
of any held in Evergreen in a long while. In fact, the courthouse was packed.
Strong and forceful speeches were made by Judge Gamble, Dr. Dickinson, Hon.
C.E. Hamilton, Miss Sara E. Luther and Hon. Michael Cody, a leading Montgomery
banker, who came by special invitation. All the speakers strongly urged upon
the farmers the great importance and need of an unusually large food and feed
crop this year. The large audience appeared to be thoroughly impressed with the
idea that a bumper food crop is more important at this time than undertaking to
make cotton and fighting the boll weevil.
April 16, 1918 – During World War I, Army Pvt. David Frank
Wilson of Florala, Ala. was killed in action while serving in the 167th
Infantry, 42nd Division. He is buried at Bethesda Cemetery at Loango
in Covington County.
April 16, 1921 – A fire did slight damage to the home of
G.W. Stuckey on this Sunday afternoon, according to The Evergreen Courant.
April 16, 1922 – English novelist Kingsly Amis was born in
Clapham, South London, England.
April 16, 1927 – Pro Football Hall of Fame cornerback Dick
“Night Train” Lane was born in Austin, Texas. He went on to play for the Los
Angeles Rams, the Chicago Cardinals and the Detroit Lions. He was inducted into
the Hall of Fame in 1974.
April 16, 1930 – Essayist and short-story writer Carol Bly
was born in Duluth, Minn.
April 16, 1935 – Lamar County, Ala. native Terry Moorer made
his Major League debut with the St. Louis Cardinals, taking the field as an
outfielder.
April 16, 1936 – The Evergreen Courant reported that the
South Alabama (Baseball) League had been reorganized during a meeting in
Brewton, Ala. and Esco McCloud of Flomaton, Ala. had been elected league
president. Representatives agreed to begin the 40-game season on April 23 with
games on Thursdays and Sundays, weather permitting. Attending the meeting from
Evergreen were Bill Hanna, R.C. Snowden and L.M. Chapman. L.D. King Jr. was to
serve as Evergreen’s manager with Hanna as his assistant.
April 16, 1936 – The Evergreen Courant reported that Glenn
H. Lawrence, a well-known farmer who lived four miles south of Evergreen, Ala.
had been awarded the Purple Heart “for meritorious service” in World War I with
the 30th Division, 119th Infantry. His division was attached to the British and
while in the line of duty on Aug. 1, 1918, Lawrence’s skull was severely
fractured by a trench mortar shell on the Ypres front in Belgium. Lawrence
received the Purple Heart late because his service records had either been
misplaced or overlooked.
April 16, 1940 – Bob Feller of the Cleveland Indians threw
the only Opening Day no-hitter in the history of Major League Baseball, beating
the Chicago White Sox, 1–0.
April 16, 1942 – Major League Baseball pitcher Jim Lonborg
was born in Santa Maria, Calif. He went on to play for the Boston Red Sox, the
Milwaukee Brewers and the Philadelphia Phillies.
April 16, 1943 - Swiss chemist Albert Hoffman accidentally
discovered the hallucinogenic effects of LSD.
April 16, 1945
– The United States Army liberated the Nazi Sonderlager (high security) prisoner-of-war camp Oflag IV-C
(better known as Colditz).
April 16, 1947
– German SS officer Rudolf Höss was hanged at the age of 45 in Oświęcim,
Poland.
April 16, 1949 – General Welch, 67, retired after 35 years
as the porter at the Louisville & Nashville Depot in Evergreen, Ala.
April 16, 1949 – Open house for both Lustrons houses in
Jackson, Ala. were held. Believed to possibly have been the first two built in
the state, they were later added to the National Register of Historic Places on
Feb. 24, 2000.
April 16, 1949 - Following his speech in the Conecuh County
Courthouse on this Saturday, Gov. James E. Folsom was conducted on a tour of
the State Highway to Brooklyn. Resurfacing operations preparatory to
blacktopping the entire 20 miles to Brooklyn were underway at that time.
Accompanied by County Solicitor Edwin Page and State Senators Broughton
Lambreth of Tallapoosa County and R.G. Kendall Jr. of Conecuh, the governor
also examined the new bridge across Bottle Creek, which has just been completed
at a cost upward of $40,000.
April 16, 1951 - A 725-pound black Angus-Hereford crossbreed
owned and shown by Dennis Bailey Jr. won the Grand Champion of the Sixth Annual
Conecuh County 4H-FFA Fat Calf Show held at the Conecuh Cooperative Stockyard.
The Reserve Champion was owned and shown by Dudley Ellis. An estimated crowd of
1,000 people attended the event.
April 16, 1951 – The Four Point Service Station, which was
owned and operated by J.S. Thornley, was burglarized between 7 p.m. and 8 p.m.
The burglar got inside the building by prying the lock off the front door, blew
open the small iron safe and stole about $400 in cash. The burglary was discovered
around 8 p.m. by Mr. and Mrs. W.A. Fore, who were driving by and noticed that
the station’s door was open.
April 16, 1963 – Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. penned his
“Letter from Birmingham Jail” while incarcerated in Birmingham, Ala. for
protesting against segregation.
April 16, 1964 – The Evergreen Courant reported that Murray
Johnson, former Evergreen resident, and Mrs. Elon Holland were winners of the
high series handicap in the bowling tournament held at Escambia Bowl in Atmore
for the Heart Fund. Betty Bowab and John Guy won high series scratch in the
event, which raised $44 for the Heart Fund. Johnson, son of Mr. and Mrs. J.C.
Johnson Jr. of Evergreen, is a 1956 graduate of Evergreen High School, where he
was a star tackle on the football team. Of his class of 76, he was the first to
get his college degree, finishing at Auburn University. He and his wife, the
former Jean Hanks, and children now make their home in Atmore, where he is
associated with Liberty National Life Insurance Co.
April 16, 1964 - The Evergreen Courant reported that the
ninth grade piled up 30 points to win the intramural track meet for junior high
grades at Lyeffion High School. The meet was under the direction of Coach
Shirley Frazier. Winners by grades in the various events with runners-up listed
second were: 100 yards, Ronnie Booker, eighth, and Stanley Wilson, ninth; mile,
Jimmy Morrison, ninth, and Raymond Mack, seventh; 440, Homer Chavers, ninth,
and George Tolin, eighth; 220, Ronnie Booker, eighth, and Haywood Salter, ninth;
880, Homer Chavers, ninth, and Jerry New, ninth.
April 16, 1964 – The Evergreen Courant announced the
completion of the new Merriewood subdivision, a planned neighborhood that
included restrictive covenants, utilities stubbed to lots, hard surfaced curbed
streets, white-way lights, lots with a minimum of 125 feet of frontage, no
poles on streets, no thru traffic, financing available. Nielsen Bros.
Development Co. developed the new subdivision.
April 16, 1964 – The Evergreen Courant reported that Bill Griffin,
ship’s serviceman third class, U,S. Navy, the son of Mrs. Laura Griffin of
Evergreen, Ala., was serving aboard the attack aircraft carrier USS Shangri-La,
operating out of Mayport, Fla.
April 16, 1964 – The Monroe Journal reported that livestock owners
in the Claiborne-Silver Creek area had moved livestock from the Alabama River
lowlands that week as most of the bottom lands were flooded. Water level was
expected to be 51 feet on Sun., April 19, according to T.L. Haskew of
Claiborne, who has charge of the river gauge for the Weather Bureau.
April 16, 1964 – The Monroe Journal reported that officials
with the Monroe County Medical Society had declared the second “Sabin Oral
Sunday” a success on Sun., April 12, when approximately 15,000 persons took the
second dose of oral vaccine. Immunization against Type I polio, the worst
crippler of then all, was given on Sun., April 12. Type III was given in March
1964, and Type II was to be given Sun., May 10, to complete the program in
Monroe County. Bill Miller was overall chairman of the program.
April 16, 1964 - The 1964 voters list was published in this
day’s issue of The Monroe Journal. It contained approximately 7,100 names, the
largest number in the history of the county and approximately 700 more than in
1962 when it was published last. Probate Judge David M. Nettles said names of
qualified voters that had been left off the published list would be included on
a supplementary list to be published April 30.
April 16, 1967 – Miller Baldwin allegedly shot and killed
Ruth Boykin at her home and also shot John H. Stallworth at the same time.
Baldwin was charged with first-degree murder and assault to murder and went to
trial in Conecuh County, Ala. on Sept. 25, 1967.
April 16, 1968 - Major League Baseball's longest night game
was played when the Houston Astros defeated the New York Mets, 1-0. The
24-inning game took six hours, six minutes to play.
April 16, 1968 - At a series of
meetings in Honolulu, President Johnson discussed recent Allied and enemy troop
deployments with U.S. military leaders and also conferred with South Korean
President Park Chung Hee to reaffirm U.S. military commitments to Seoul,
assuring Park that his country’s interests would not be compromised by any
Vietnamese peace agreement.
April 16, 1971 - Two errors produced three winning runs as
Silas defeated the J.U. Blacksher Bulldogs, 4-1, at Silas on this Friday. In
the sixth, with one out, Ike Hadley tripled for the first Bulldog hit. Then,
with two outs, Jerry Ferrell singled, and Hadley scored. Other Blacksher
players in that game include Larry McKinley and Howard Hilburn.
April 16, 1972 - In an effort to
help blunt the ongoing North Vietnamese Nguyen Hue Offensive, the United States
resumed the bombing of Hanoi and Haiphong after a four-year lull.
April 16, 1979 - Alabama native
Edward O. Wilson won the Pulitzer Prize in the General Non-Fiction category for
his book, “On Human Nature.” Wilson was born in Birmingham, and lived
in Mobile, Brewton, and Decatur, before attending the University of Alabama,
where he studied biology. He earned a Ph.D. from Harvard University and went on
to an internationally recognized career in the sciences, receiving more than
sixty other awards and honors, including another Pulitzer Prize in 1991 for “The
Ants.”
April 16, 1979 - Cook Morrison of Lyeffion exhibited the
Grand Champion at the 34th Annual Conecuh County Fat Calf Show held
on this Monday in the show arena at Conecuh Stockyards. Jerolyn Dean of Burnt
Corn exhibited the Reserve Champion.
April 16, 1985 - Mickey Mantle was
reinstated after being banned from baseball for several years.
April 16, 1985 - Michael Cook killed his first turkey on
this Tuesday morning, according to The Evergreen Courant. Dewan Salter called
up the gobbler for Michael. The Tom weighed 18 pounds, had 1-1/8 inch spurs and
a 10-inch beard.
April 16, 1985 - Jeff Carrier killed his first turkey on
this Tuesday morning, according to The Evergreen Courant. The gobbler weighed
15-1/4 pounds, had 7/8-inch spurs and a 10-1/4 inch beard.
April 16, 1989 – National Baseball
Hall of Fame outfielder and umpire Jocko Conlan passed away at the age of 89 in
Scottsdale, Ariz. He played his entire career for the Chicago White Sox. He was
inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1974.
April 16, 1994 - Alabama author
Ralph Ellison died in New York, N.Y.
April 16, 1994 - A large crowd was on hand on this
Saturday for the Eighth Annual Strawberry Festival, held in downtown
Castleberry.
April 16, 1994 - Hillcrest High School finished in third
place in the 4A-6A division of the Warhawk Invitational Powerlifting Meet at
Dadeville High School. The Hillcrest team finished with 23 points. Individual
team results are as follows: 98-pound Class: Josh Merrills, totaled 450 pounds,
first place; 232-pound Class: Blake Anderson, totaled 1,365 pounds, first
place. Blake Anderson broke his own squat record of 505 pounds and moved it to
a new mark of 515 pounds. He also broke his own bench press record of 270
pounds and moved it to a new mark of 275 pounds. He broke his own dead lift
record of 550 pounds and moved it to a new mark of 575 pounds. He broke his own
total record of 1,300 pounds and moved it to a new mark of 1,365 pounds.
Dorothy Marshall broke the state record in the bench press of 90 pounds held by
Michelle Lovelace and moved it to a new mark of 100 pounds. Other Hillcrest
powerlifters at that meet included Robert Burt, Rod Dennis, James Lee, Lewis
Wright, Willie Campbell.
April 16, 1999 - Hillcrest High School lost its final
baseball game of the season, 8-4, to Opp on this Friday. Alvis Griffin started
and pitched four innings and gave up five runs on six hits (three of these home
runs), three walks and two strikeouts. Keith Kent pitched three innings, gave
up three runs on five hits and zero walks and three strikeouts. Scoring for
Hillcrest were Josh Merrills with one run, one hit and two stolen bases; Kenny
Riley, one run on one hit and two stolen bases; J.R. Watkins, one run on two
hits and one RBI; Josh Salter, two stolen bases, courtesy runner for J.R.
Watkins; Keith Kent, one run on two hits and one RBI; Mario Taylor was the
courtesy runner for Keith Kent; Kelvin Fluker, two hits and one RBI.
April 16, 2003 - Alabama author
John Craig Stewart died in Pisgah Forest, N.C.
April 16, 2007 - Alabama author
Natasha Trethewey was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for her book, “Native
Guard.”
April 16, 2007 - A combined Aruban–Dutch team began pursuing
the investigation of the disappearance of Mountain Brook, Alabama’s Natalee
Holloway in Aruba.
April 16, 2007 – Cynthia Tucker of Monroeville, Ala.
received Pulitzer Prize for Commentary for her work at The Atlanta
Journal-Constitution. Received for “her courageous, clear-headed columns that
evince a strong sense of morality and persuasive knowledge of the community.”
April 16, 2007 - Alabama journalist Brett Blackledge of The
Birmingham News was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting
for exposure of corruption in the state’s two-year college system.
April 16, 2009 - Opening Day took place at the new Yankee
Stadium.
April 16, 2012 – The Pulitzer Prize committee announced that
it would award no fiction prize.
April 16, 2016 – A UFO was reported around midnight on this
Saturday in Sheffield, in Colbert County, in Northwest Alabama. The witness in
this case was talking with his wife in their front yard when they looked up and
saw seven red “spherical lights come over the top of some trees down the
street.” The lights moved silently, and the witness said that at first he
thought they were helicopters. Witnesses watched as the lights traveled
northwest and vanished one at a time in the same part of the sky.
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