Today in History for April 25, 2018

Alabama Gov. Chauncey Sparks

April 25, 1599 – English military and political leader Oliver Cromwell was born in Huntingdonshire, England.

April 25, 1777 – Nicholas Stallworth Sr., one of the original settlers of Conecuh County, Ala., was born in Edgefield District, South Carolina. He died at the age of 59 on Dec. 6, 1836 and is buried in the Old Evergreen Cemetery.

April 25, 1781 - British General Lord Charles Cornwallis retreated to Wilmington, North Carolina from Guilford Courthouse after having been defeated by a militia under the command of American Major General Nathanael Greene.

April 25, 1792 - The guillotine was first used to execute highwayman Nicolas J. Pelletier.

April 25, 1831 – The New York and Harlem Railroad Co. was incorporated as one of the first railroads in the country and was the first streetcar railway in the world.

April 25, 1831 - The play “The Lion of the West” opened in New York City, becoming the first of many plays, books and movies celebrating Davy Crockett.

April 25, 1846 - The Mexican-American War ignited as a result of disputes over claims to Texas boundaries. The outcome of the war fixed Texas' southern boundary at the Rio Grande River.

April 25, 1861 – Store clerk Alfred Christian of Evergreen, Ala., a native of Virginia, enlisted in the Confederate army at Sparta in Conecuh County, Ala. Christian was elected Brevet 2nd Lt., and his commission expired on Oct. 9, 1862 at Raccoon Ford, Va. He was appointed second lieutenant, and his commission expired on July 3, 1863 at Gettysburg. He was named orderly sergeant and was appointed first lieutenant on Feb. 6, 1864. Christian survived the war and moved to Texas. At the time of his enlistment, Alfred lived with his brother, George Christian, who briefly served as Evergreen’s postmaster in 1856-57. When the Civil War began, George was exempted from service because he was a Justice of the Peace. George Christian is buried in the Burford Cemetery but has no grave marker.

April 25, 1861 – During the Civil War, 12,500 muskets from the St. Louis Arsenal were removed to keep them out of Confederate hands. Missouri was on the verge of secession, and St. Louis held one of the largest Federal arsenals west of the Appalachians. The Union needed those guns to equip the troops who would soon be flooding into Cairo. Captain Stokes, with a few soldiers, were given orders and a steamship and set forth. The party landed in the middle of the night and started hauling guns.

April 25, 1861 – During the Civil War, Fort Stockton, Texas was abandoned by Federal forces, and Federal troops were captured in Saluria, Texas.

April 25, 1861 – During the Civil War, the 7th New York Infantry arrived in Washington, D.C. for its defense.

April 25, 1862 – During the Civil War, forces under Union Admiral David Farragut demanded the surrender of the Confederate city of New Orleans, Louisiana. Union troops officially took possession on April 29.

April 25, 1862 – During the Civil War, skirmishes were fought along the Corinth Road in Mississippi; near Monagan Springs, Mo.; and at Socorro in the New Mexico Territory. Federal forces captured Fort Macon, N.C.

April 25, 1863 – During the Civil War, skirmishes were fought near Fort Bowie with Apache Indians in the Arizona Territory; at Webber’s Fall in the Indian Territory with the Pro-South Cherokee Indians under Colonel Stand Watie; with Apache Indians at Apache Pass in the New Mexico Territory; at Greenland Gap, West Virginia. Major General Grants’ forces began a movement through Louisiana to Hard Times. Skirmishes also occur at Phelp’s Bayou, Clark’s Bayou and Lake Bruin in Louisiana.

April 25, 1863 – HILLIARD’S LEGION: Hilliard’s Legion was consolidated again. The 59^th Alabama was attached to Third Brigade, Department of East Tennessee.

April 25, 1864 – During the Civil War, the Battle of Marks' Mills took place in Cleveland County, Ark. During the battle, Confederate forces under General James Fagan captured a Union wagon train attempting to supply Federal forces at Camden, Ark. Union General Frederick Steele was forced to withdraw back to Little Rock.

April 25, 1864 - After facing defeat in the Red River Campaign, Union General Nathaniel Banks returned to Alexandria, La.

April 25, 1864 – During the Civil War, skirmishes were fought at Moro Bottom, Ark.; at Cotile Landing, La.; and out from Natchez, Miss. A three-day Federal operation between Bull’s Cap and the Watauga River in Tennessee also began.

April 25, 1865 – Having departed the battlefield at Blakely near Mobile, Ala. on April 14, the Federal 16th Corps under Major General A.J. Smith arrived in Montgomery, formally beginning the Union occupation of the city of Montgomery.

April 25, 1865 – During the Civil War, Federal reconnaissance was conducted from Pine Bluff to Rodger’s Plantation, Ark. Skirmishes were fought at Linn Creek, Mo. and in Fairfax County, Va. in the vicinity of Hunter’s Mills.

April 25, 1873 – Writer Howard R. Garis was born in Binghamton, N.Y.

April 25, 1882 – During the Tonkin Campaign, French and Vietnamese troops clashed in Tonkin, when Commandant Henri Rivière seized the citadel of Hanoi with a small force of marine infantry.

April 25, 1884 – At the Calhoun House in downtown Huntsville, Ala., which was used as a federal courthouse, desperado Frank James was tried and found not guilty for the robbery of a government payroll near Muscle Shoals, Ala. on May 11, 1881. One of his defense attorneys was Huntsville’s LeRoy Pope Walker, first secretary of war of the Confederate States of America.

April 25, 1886 - Miss Ella Tucker, who had been visiting relatives in Mobile, returned home on this Sunday, according to The Monroe Journal.

April 25, 1891 – Army Pvt. Louis Hayles of Eliska, Ala. was born. Hayles was killed in action at the age of 27 during World War I on Nov. 11, 1918 - one day before the war ended. He was a member of the 321^st Infantry S.F. Division at the time of his death. He is buried in the Mount Pleasant Methodist Church Cemetery in Monroe County.

April, 25, 1892 – French explorer of the Sahara, Henri Duveyrier, passed away at the age of 52 in Sevres, a suburb of Paris.

April 25, 1892 – Estonian-German geologist and explorer Karl von Ditmar passed away at the age of 69 in Tartu, Livonia.

April 25, 1895 – The Monroe Journal reported that “the white cap fever is not raging quite so high as for some time past (in the Jones Mill community). We have heard of several parties receiving written notice to leave the community. We presume, the grand jury will put a quietus on this kind of business.”

April 25, 1898 - The United States declared war on Spain one day after Spain had declared war on the U.S., marking the start of the Spanish-American War.

April 25, 1901 - The American League debuted at the Chicago Cricket Club. Chicago defeated Cleveland, 8-2.

April 25, 1905 - Dr. R.A. Smith of Monroeville, Ala. left for New York to accompany a patient who was to be operated upon.

April 25, 1907 - Alabama author Sara Elizabeth Mason was born.

April 25, 1909 – National Baseball Hall of Fame third baseman John Franklin "Home Run" Baker hit his first and only grand slam.

April 25, 1915 – During World War I, the Battle of Gallipoli began. The invasion of the Turkish Gallipoli Peninsula by British, French, Indian, Newfoundland, Australian and New Zealand troops, began with landings at Anzac Cove and Cape Helles.

April 25, 1917 – Ella Fitzgerald, the “First Lady of Song,” was born in Newport News, Va.

April 25, 1917 - Dr. R.I. Kearley and Dr. G.H. Bruns, Veterinary Inspector of the Bureau of Animal Industry, were in Monroeville from Andalusia on this Wednesday.

April 25, 1917 – The Evergreen Courant reported that merchants and businessmen of Evergreen had signed the usual agreement to close their places at 6 p.m., Saturdays excepted, from May 1 to Sept. 1.

April 25, 1918 – The Wilcox Progressive Era reported that the Hon. S. McConnico of Allenton visited Camden during the previous week.

April 25, 1918 – The Wilcox Progressive Era reported, under the headline “First Wilcox Boy to Suffer from Gas,” that 1^st Lt. William P. Bledsoe, the son of the Rev. J.O. Bledsoe, the pastor of the Baptist church at Pine Hill, had been wounded on the battlefield in France on March 11, but was recovering. “Lt. Bledsoe was not injured by shot or shell but was ‘gassed,’ which is considered just as serious if not more so and is entitled to a stripe of distinction but states that he does not care for any more stripes as a result of wounds.”

April 25, 1920 – At the San Remo conference, the principal Allied Powers of World War I adopted a resolution to determine the allocation of Class "A" League of Nations mandates for administration of the former Ottoman-ruled lands of the Middle East.

April 25, 1928 – Buddy, the first Seeing Eye dog, was presented to Morris S. Frank.

April 25, 1933 – The organizational meeting of the Central Alabama Baseball League was held in Greenville, Ala. on this Tuesday with four clubs as members – Evergreen, Greenville, Ft. Deposit and Luverne. League officers included Lucian Glass of Ft. Deposit, president, and Loyce Hyde of Evergreen, Merrit McLendon of Luverne, Carl Golson of Ft. Deposit and Floyd Ziegler of Greenville, league directors.

April 25, 1939 – Former U.S. Poet Laureate Ted Kooser was born in Ames, Iowa.

April 25, 1940 – The Evergreen Courant reported that Tallassee won the opening baseball game of the season in Brewton by a score of 4-3 over the Millers. Knatzer pitched a steady game and the Brewton club rallied in the ninth inning to score one run and put the tying run on base.

April 25, 1942 – Judge Chauncey Sparks, who was running for Alabama governor, was scheduled to speak from a band stand in Evergreen’s business section on this Saturday at 4 p.m. Sparks went on to serve as governor form Jan. 19, 1943 to Jan. 20, 1947.

April 25, 1944 - The United Negro College Fund was established by Tuskegee president F. D. Patterson after convincing 26 other black colleges to "pool their small monies and make a united appeal to the national conscience."

April 25, 1945 - Albert B. "Happy" Chandler was unanimously elected Major League Baseball’s commissioner.

April 25, 1945 – On what is now known as Elbe Day, United States and Soviet troops met in Torgau along the River Elbe, cutting the Wehrmacht of Nazi Germany in two, a milestone in the approaching end of World War II in Europe.

April 25, 1945 – The Nazi occupation army surrendered and left Northern Italy after a general partisan insurrection by the Italian resistance movement; the puppet fascist regime dissolved and Benito Mussolini was captured after trying to escape. This day was set as a public holiday to celebrate the Liberation of Italy.

April 25, 1949 – Poet and journalist James Fenton was born in Lincoln, England.

April 25, 1950 – On this Tuesday, Evergreen High School’s baseball team ran into some torrid pitching and lost to Greenville 12-1. Ernest Moseley hurled a two-hitter for Greenville. John Greel Ralls counted Evergreen’s only run. Ralls hit a triple to put himself in scoring position.

April 25, 1951 – Army Cpl. Terry Stiggins McCall, 19, of Escambia County, Ala. was killed in action in Korea. He was awarded the Bronze Star Medal and Purple Heart. He was a member of Co. H, 7^th Infantry, 3^rd Armored Division. Born on April 24, 1932, he is buried in Barrancas National Cemetery in Pensacola, Fla.

April 25, 1951 – A large stone marker was erected by the United Daughters of the Confederacy at the grave of Gen. John Herbert Kelly of Wilcox County in Magnolia Cemetery in Mobile.

April 25, 1952 – Novelist Padgett Powell was born in Gainesville, Fla.

April 25, 1954 - A television version of Alabama author Ambrose Bierce's story "Vengeance" was broadcast as part of the “Your Favorite Story” series.

April 25, 1955 - The City of Monroeville began the task on this Monday of putting up new street markers at all intersections within the corporate limits of the town. Chief of Police Alex Stevens supervised the job which was expected to take about two weeks. The marking of the streets was one of the steps necessary before Monroeville could obtain city mail delivery.

April 25-26, 1955 – The first series of Polio shots to first and second-grade students in Monroe County were to be given out on this Monday and Tuesday, according to H.G. Greer, Superintendent of Education. Vaccinations were to be administered by nurses from the county health department, and Mrs. Virginia Owens was in charge. The vaccine was being furnished by the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, free of charge.

April 25-27, 1955 - Approximately 80 percent of Monroe County, Alabama’s first and second graders took the Salk Polio vaccinations on this Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, according to the County Health Department. County health nurses Mrs. Virginia Owens and Mrs. Louise Kimbrell administered the vaccine, which was furnished by the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, free of charge. There are 540 white and 1,043 colored first and second graders in Monroe County.

April 25, 1957 – The Evergreen Courant reported that, just as they were going to press, they learned that a woman had been killed and a man and child were injured in a one-car accident two miles north of the Ray Brothers Store on Highway 31 North of Evergreen, Ala. An ID card on the man identified him as James Cannon of 809 North M St., Pensacola, Fla. The woman and child were not identified in the story.

April 25, 1959 – The Saint Lawrence Seaway, a waterway system of locks, canals and channels that connects the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean, opened. The first ship to navigate the seaway was an icebreaker, the D'Iberville.

April 25, 1960 – The United States Navy submarine USS Triton completed the first submerged circumnavigation of the globe.

April 25, 1961 - A television version of Alabama author Mary Elizabeth Counselman's story "Parasite Mansion" was broadcast as part of the “Thriller” series.

April 25, 1963 – The Evergreen Courant reported that an article titled “County Organized for Farm-to-Market Roadwork,” written by Conecuh County Engineer Marion Wilkins, had been published in the April 1963 issue of “Rural Roads,” a nationally circulated magazine concerned with the building of federal, state, county and township roads.

April 25, 1964 - President Lyndon B. Johnson announced that General William Westmoreland, one of the war’s most controversial figures, would replace General Paul Harkins as head of U.S. Military Assistance Command Vietnam (MACV) as of June 20, effectively putting Westmoreland in charge of all American military forces in Vietnam.

April 25, 1966 – Monroe County High School’s baseball team beat Frisco City, 5-1. Gary Downs at the winning pitcher for MCHS, allowing five hits with Frisco getting its only run in the sixth inning. Jim Kelly was the losing pitcher for Frisco City. The loss dropped FCHS to 3-4 on the season.

April 25, 1969 – Zilda Lee Kendall, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Bob Kendall Jr. of Evergreen, Ala., married Carl Joseph Christopher in Ankara, Turkey. The couple had been employed with the Overseas Dependent School of the United States Department of Defense for the past three years.

April 25, 1972 - Hanoi’s 320th Division drove 5,000 South Vietnamese troops into retreat and trapped about 2,500 others in a border outpost northwest of Kontum in the Central Highlands as part of the ongoing North Vietnamese Nguyen Hue Offensive, also known as the “Easter Offensive,” which included an invasion by 120,000 North Vietnamese troops.

April 25, 1974 - Pam Morrison, Jim Morrison's widow, died of a heroin overdose at the age of 27.

April 25, 1974 - Tampa Bay was awarded the NFL's 27th franchise.

April 25, 1975 – As North Vietnamese forces closed in on the South Vietnamese capital Saigon, the Australian Embassy was closed and evacuated, almost 10 years to the day since the first Australian troop commitment to South Vietnam.

April 25-26, 1975 - The softball season was scheduled to get underway in Evergreen on this Friday and Saturday as Evergreen City League planned to hosts a pre-season tournament. The first two games were to be played on Friday starting at 7 p.m. with the remainder of the double elimination tournament to be played on Saturday beginning at 8 a.m. Trophies for the first three places in this tournament were to sponsored by the following businesses: first place, Cope Funeral Home; second place, Carter Hardware & Supply Co.; third place, Miller Trading Co. On Tuesday, April 29, the Evergreen City League of Men’s Softball was scheduled to open regular season play with a 24-game schedule. Games were to be played on Tuesday and Thursday nights with starting times of 7:00 and 8:30 p.m.

April 25, 1976 – NBA power forward and center Tim Duncan was born in Christiansted, U.S. Virgin Islands. He went on to play for Wake Forest and the San Antonio Spurs.

April 25, 1981 – NFL running back Dwone Hicks was born in Huntsville, Ala. He went on to play for Lee High School in Huntsville, Middle Tennessee State and the Tennessee Titans.

April 25, 1985 – The Evergreen Courant reported that Darrin Bradley of Evergreen High School had signed an athletic grant-in-aid basketball scholarship with Alcorn State University in Lorman, Miss. Coach Dero Wise played a big role in getting the college scouts to come to Evergreen and look at Darrin. He was the son of Miss Jeanette Bradley of Evergreen. Darrin, a six-foot, three-inch senior guard, led the EHS basketball team to a 22-5 record during the 1984-85 season.

April 25, 1985 – The Evergreen Courant reported that a delegation of the Alabama Farm Bureau Federation recently visited Washington, D.C. and Congressman Bill Dickinson. The delegation included John Cook and James Cook of Conecuh County, Ala. Dickinson talked to the members of the Bureau about the 1985 Farm Bill, which was up for renewal that year, and major agriculture concerns in the Second Congressional District.

April 25, 1985 – In this day’s edition of The Evergreen Courant, Paul M. Harden, Attorney at Law, announced the opening of a branch office in Evergreen on Tuesday and Thursday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Court Square.

April 25, 1985 – The Monroe Journal reported that Monroe Academy’s baseball team had won four of its last five games with help from excellent pitching by Steve Lambert to post an 11-4 overall mark as of Tues., April 23. Lambert, a senior right-handed hurler, captured decisions over South Choctaw, Jackson Academy and Sparta Academy during this stretch to bring his pitching record to 6-1 on the season. Junior Patrick Brown picked up the Volunteers’ other win during that week with a decision over Glenwood Academy. Other players on MA’s team that year included Rob Carter, Donald Foster, Ricky Horton, Michael McCrory, Sean Sawyer, Shane Sawyer, Stephen Simmons and Robert Thames. MA’s head coach was Jeff Myers.

April 25, 1990 - The crew of space shuttle Discovery placed the Hubble Space Telescope into a Low Earth Orbit. Initially, Hubble's operators suffered a setback when a lens aberration was discovered, but a repair mission by space-walking astronauts in December 1993 successfully fixed the problem, and Hubble began sending back its first breathtaking images of the universe.

April 25, 1994 - The spring term of Conecuh County Civil Jury Docket was scheduled to open on this Monday at 9 a.m. with Circuit Judge Sam Welch presiding. Judge Welch had four cases set for trial next week.

April 25, 1995 - Darryl Strawberry was sentenced to three years probation, six months of house confinement and a $350,000 fine. Strawberry had avoided prison for tax evasion.

April 25, 1996 - The Minnesota Twins and the Detroit Tigers combined for the most runs in 26 years. The Twins won with a final score of 24-11.

April 25, 1997 – Walter Eugene “Gene” Garrett of Uriah, Ala. passed away at the age of 68 in a Mobile hospital. He was a 1947 graduate of Marion Institute and a 1953 graduate of the University of Alabama. He received his law degree from Alabama in 1953 and went on to serve as a state legislator, special judge and member of the Alabama Constitution Revision Committee. In 1963, he purchased the historic King Plantation House at Packer’s Bend and moved it board by board to Uriah.

April 25, 2011 – Sweetwater Mansion in Florence, Ala. was featured on an episode of A&E’s “Paranormal State.”

April 25-28, 2011 – The April 25–28, 2011 tornado outbreak devastated parts of the Southeastern United States, especially the states of Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia and Tennessee. Two hundred and five tornadoes touched down on April 27 alone, killing more than 300 and injuring hundreds more.