 |
| Richmond P. Hobson |
May 13, 1607 - Jamestown, Virginia was settled as a colony
of England.
May 13, 1637 - Cardinal Richelieu of France invented the table
knife. Distinguished by its rounded tip the Cardinal ordered
his kitchen staff to file off the sharp points on all the knives to improve his
guests' table manners. It was common at the time to stab meat, eating it off
the knife, and to pick one’s teeth with the instrument after the meal.
May 13, 1648 - Margaret Jones of Plymouth was found guilty
of witchcraft and was sentenced to be hanged by the neck.
May 13, 1778 - In Pennsylvania, Oneida Indians arrived to
aid Marquis de Lafayette.
May 13, 1787 - Captain Arthur Phillip left Britain for
Australia. He successfully landed 11 ships full of convicts on Jan. 18, 1788 at
Botany Bay. The group moved north eight days later and settled at Port Jackson.
May 13, 1807 - Connecticut Patriot Eliphalet Dyer passed
away at the age of 85 at his home in Windham, Conn. He had won many elections
to the colonial assembly between 1747 to 1784 and served in the Stamp Act
Congress.
May 13, 1821 - The first practical printing press was
patented in the U.S. by Samuel Rust.
May 13, 1842 – Arthur Sullivan, of Gilbert and Sullivan fame
was born in London. He wrote the music for their 14 comic operas, which
included H.M.S. Pinafore (1878), The Pirates of Penzance (1879),
and The Mikado (1885).
May 13, 1846 – The United States declared war on Mexico,
leading to the Mexican-American War.
May 13, 1861 – The Great Comet of 1861 was discovered by
John Tebbutt of Windsor, New South Wales, Australia. It was visible to the
naked eye for approximately three months.
May 13, 1861 – During the Civil War, Queen Victoria of the
United Kingdom issued a "proclamation of neutrality" which recognized
the breakaway states as having belligerent rights and declared Britain’s
neutrality in the war.
May 13, 1861 – George McClellan was
appointed commander of the Department of Ohio. The following day he was
promoted to major general, his rank in the Ohio militia. Only General-in-Chief
Winfield Scott held a higher rank.
May 13, 1861 - North Carolina
elected delegates to the Secession Convention.
May 13, 1861 - Acting completely
without orders or authorization of any sort, Union General Benjamin Butler
occupied the city of Baltimore. He moved troops from outlying Relay Station,
Md., into town and seized Federal Hill. His first justification was the claim
that he had heard that there was a riot going on. As there was in fact no civil
disturbance, he searched around until he found weapons stores, munitions and
other supplies he claimed were intended for distribution to the “rebels.”
May 13, 1862 – The USS Planter, a steamer and gunship, stole through Confederate lines
and was passed to the Union by a southern slave, Robert Smalls, who later was
officially appointed as captain, becoming the first black man to command a
United States ship.
May 13, 1862 – Third Sgt. Joseph G. Sanders, aka “The
Turncoat of Dale County,” was elected to be the captain and commander of his
company. He participated with his regiment in the Seven Days Battle, the Second
Battle of Bull Run and the Battle of Antietam, where he was wounded and
was subsequently absent sick for 31 days in December 1862. Returning to his
unit in January 1863, he accompanied them to Port Royal, Va., where he
continued to serve until July 20, 1863 (just after the Battle of Gettysburg),
when his health allegedly began to fail. Accordingly, he requested and obtained
a medical furlough to return to his home in Dale County, which was granted on
Oct. 9, 1863.
May 13, 1862 – During the Civil
War, a skirmish was fought on the Rappahannock River in Virginia.
May 13, 1863 - Union General Ulysses S. Grant advanced
toward the Mississippi capital of Jackson during his bold and daring drive to
take Vicksburg, the last Confederate stronghold on the Mississippi River.
May 13, 1863 - Gov. Zebulon B.
Vance of North Carolina added to the pressures preying on the mind of President
Jefferson Davis on this day. Vance was concerned about the rate of desertion
among Confederate troops. He studied the subject and wrote to Davis that the
causes he had found for desertion included homesickness, fatigue, inability to
enter their preferred regiment, refusal of officers to grant furloughs, and
“hard fare,” presumably referring to the food.
May 13, 1863 – During the Civil
War, skirmishes were fought at Upperville, Virginia and near South Union and
Woodburn, Kentucky.
May 13, 1864 - Twenty hours of fighting ceased at the
“Bloody Angle,” just before dawn at Spotsylvania. The battle continued until
May 19.
May 13, 1864 – During the Civil War, the Battle of Resaca
began with Union General Sherman fighting toward Atlanta.
May 13, 1864 – The first soldier
was interred at Arlington National Cemetery, in what was formerly Robert E.
Lee's rose garden.
May 13, 1864 – During the Civil
War, skirmishes were fought at Dalton and Resaca in Georgia; at Luce's
Plantation; at Spavinaw, Ark.; at Cuba, Mo.; and at Pulaski, Tenn.
May 13, 1864 - The naval component
of the Red River expedition had been stranded by low water above the rapids
near Alexandria. In a brilliant and desperate feat of engineering, a dam had
been constructed to raise the water level. On this day, the dam was blown up
and the last three ships rode the wave downstream to freedom. The last of
Banks’ troops boarded the ships and steamed home as quickly as possible.
May 13, 1865 – During the Civil War, at the Battle of
Palmito Ranch, in far south Texas, more than a month after Confederate General
Robert E. Lee's surrender, the last land battle of the Civil War ended with a
Confederate victory.
May 13, 1867 - Confederate President Jefferson Davis became
a free man after spending two years in prison for his role in the American
Civil War.
May 13, 1874 - Author Maude McKnight Lindsay was born in
Tuscumbia, Ala.
May 13, 1887 – Conecuh County, Ala. claimed the Burnt Corn
post office rather than Monroe County. Hugh T. Fountain was postmaster at the
time. Three years later, it was again in Monroe County when Fountain was
appointed again as postmaster on June 6, 1890.
May 13, 1888
– With the passage of the Lei Áurea ("Golden Law"), Brazil
abolished slavery.
May 13, 1890 – Monroe County Probate Judge and State Senator
E.T. “Short” Millsap born in Evergreen, Ala.
May 13, 1894 - Author Emma Gelders Sterne was born in
Birmingham, Ala.
May 13, 1898 – The Evergreen Courant announced that Greening
Lodge No. 53, A.F.&A.M., meets on the third Friday night in each month.
Visiting members welcomed. H.A. Shields was Worshipful Master, and Wm. H.
Hawkins was Secretary.
May 13, 1898 – The Evergreen Courant reported that a large
fire and burglar proof iron safe had just been purchased for the county
treasurer and “he is now fitted up with an office in the courthouse, which is
decidedly more convenient for him and the public than formerly.”
May 13, 1898 – The Evergreen Courant reported that flour
“has taken a sudden advance in price and is now selling in Evergreen at $8.50
per barrel and is going up every day. This is due to some extent to the war but
more largely to the corner recently made on wheat, which is now fast approaching
the $2 per bushel mark.”
May 13, 1898 – The Evergreen Courant reported that Willie
Ellis had been appointed night marshal of Evergreen.
May 13, 1898 – The Evergreen Courant reported that stores
and business houses in Evergreen “now close their doors at six o’clock in the
afternoon except Saturdays, thus affording clerks and employees an opportunity
for recreation. This is a custom that has been observed for several years from
May till September of each year.”
May 13, 1898 – The Evergreen Courant reported that Capt.
M.A. Gantt left during the previous week for an extended trip to Washington,
New York and other points.
May 13, 1905 - U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt opened the
White House Conservation Conference in Washington, DC.
May 13, 1905 – D.L. Neville in Monroe County, Ala. sustained
“painful burns” on this Saturday evening. He was attempting to light a
cigarette and accidentally set his clothing on fire. Before anyone could help
him, the upper portion of his body was “seriously burned.”
May 13, 1906 - Children’s day exercises in the Drewry Sunday
school were to be held on this Sunday at 10 a.m. in the church.
May 13, 1906 - Dr. Busey and Miss Mary Shivers were married
on this Sunday afternoon at Manistee by Mr. Galloway, the Justice of the Peace,
and “the Dr.’s many friends were quite surprised,” The Monroe Journal reported.
May 13, 1907 – Novelist Daphne du Maurier was born in
London, England.
May 13, 1911 - The New York Giants set a Major League
Baseball record. Ten runners crossed home plate before the first out of the
game against St. Louis. Fred Merkle of the New York Giants also recorded six
RBI in one inning.
May 13, 1914 – The large, stone Confederate monument on The
Quad at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa was erected by the Alabama
Division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy.
May 13, 1914 - Joe Louis, "The Brown Bomber," was
born near LaFayette, Ala. In 1926 the family moved to Detroit and Louis began
boxing. Louis held the world heavyweight boxing title from 1937 to 1948 and
made a division record 25 successful title defenses. His matches in 1936 and
1938 against Max Schmeling of Germany were seen by many as heroic fights
between the democratic free world and the Nazi forces. Louis died in 1981.
May 13, 1915 – The Monroe Journal in Monroeville, Ala.
reported that Prof. G.A. Harris had been re-elected to another term as Monroe
County High School’s principal.
May 13, 1915 – “Since leaving Paris
yesterday we have passed through streets and streets of such murdered houses,
through town after town spread out in its last writhings,” the celebrated
novelist Edith Wharton wrote on May 13, 1915, from the town of Nancy, in the
Argonnes region of France. “And before the black holes that were homes, along
the edge of the chasms that were streets, everywhere we have seen flowers and
vegetables springing up in freshly raked and watered gardens.”
May 13, 1917 – Three peasant
children reported the first apparition of Our Lady of Fátima (the Virgin Mary)
in Fátima, Portugal.
May 13, 1917 – David Gross, son of Tillman Gross, a
well-known Evergreen man, was instantly killed at Century, where he was
employed, on this Sunday. He was at the station awaiting the arrival of the
train to come home, when in some way the train struck him with the result as
stated. His body was brought to Evergreen for interment the next day.
May 13, 1919 - Capt. Richmond P. Hobson was scheduled to deliver an
address at the Conecuh County Courthouse on this Tuesday evening on the subject
of World Prohibition.
May 13, 1928 - Author Thomas McAfee was born in Haleyville,
Ala.
May 13, 1930 – Norwegian scientist, explorer, academic and
Nobel Prize laureate Fridtjof Nansen died of a heart attack at the age of 68 in
Polhøgda, Lysaker, Norway.
May 13, 1937 – The Evergreen Courant announced that J.C.
(Cary) Murphy had purchased the City Café, a popular restaurant, which was
formerly operated by J. Arthur Lewis.
May 13, 1937 – Evergreen’s baseball team was scheduled to
play Century in Evergreen, Ala.
May 13, 1937 - A “Spring Dance” was scheduled to be held on
this night at the National Guard Armory in Evergreen, Ala. The dance was
sponsored by the Evergreen Baseball Club, proceeds from which were to be placed
in the fund for enclosing Gantt Field.
May 13, 1939 – The first commercial FM radio station in the
United States was launched in Bloomfield, Connecticut. The station later
becomes WDRC-FM.
May 13, 1941 – Singer and songwriter Richard Steven
Valenzuela, better known as Ritchie Valens, was born in Pacoima, a neighborhood
in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles.
May 13, 1944 – Scottish judge and explorer Sir Crispin
Agnew, 11th Baronet, was born. As an active climber and mountaineer and member
of the Alpine Club, he was involved with the army's policy of developing
adventurous training for soldiers of all ranks. He took part in or led a number
of expeditions, including expeditions to Api Himal in 1980, Everest in 1976,
Nuptse Himal in 1975, the Northern Ice-cap, Chilean Patagonia in 1972/73,
Elephant Island, Antarctica in 1970/71 and Greenland in 1968 and 1966.
May 13, 1948 – The Evergreen Courant reported that the
Panthers of Castleberry High School opened the baseball season in Repton losing
a 14-9 decision to the Bulldogs. Repton used a base hit barrage to put the
skids under the Castleberry squad. Returning to Castleberry for their second
game, the Panthers evened the score by defeating Repton 6-5 in an exciting
game. “Pill” Dees hurled the Panthers to this victory. Herbert Smith pitched
the Panthers to their second victory of the season defeating Evergreen in a
close battle 3-2. Smith spotted the Evergreen squad two runs in the first
inning and held them scoreless the remainder of the game. The fourth game of
the season for the Panthers was brought to a halt by rain. Lyeffion was
furnishing the opposition, but less than half the game was finished before it
was called.
May 13, 1948 – The Monroe Journal reported that officials of
the W.D. Owens Construction Co. of Clearwater, Fla., which was awarded a
contract to extend the municipal water system in Monroeville a distance of some
eight miles, had indicated they would begin work on the project about May 25,
members of the Monroeville Water Board said on Wed., May 12. L.L. Dees,
secretary of the board, said the company had declared it would start the work
as soon as a contract now being fulfilled at Jackson was completed. He said the
Chicago Bridge & Iron Co., which had the contract to construct a
150,000-gallon water tank in Monroeville, would begin its work later but in sufficient
time to have the job completed when the additional water mains were installed.
May 13, 1953 - Willie Mays and Darryl Spencer, both on the
New York Giants, each hit two homeruns and a triple in the same game.
May 13, 1955 - Mickey Mantle hit three consecutive home
runs.
May 13, 1958 - Stan Musial became the eighth player in Major
League history to get 3,000 hits.
May 13, 1958 – Ben Carlin became the first (and only) person
to circumnavigate the world by amphibious vehicle, having travelled over
11,000 miles by sea and 39,000 miles by land during a 10-year
journey.
May 13, 1958 - Evergreen (Ala.) Little League began official
play on this Tuesday night with games between the Chicks and Orioles and the
Yankees and the Dodgers. In the American League, the Chicks dropped the Orioles
by a score of 9-1. Glass was the winning pitcher for the Chicks and Engle was
credited with the loss for the Orioles. The Chicks were credited with two hits,
both collected by second sacker Kelly. Kelly tagged a single in the third
inning and a double in the fourth. The Orioles failed to touch Glass for a
single hit. Losing pitcher Engle fanned 10 men and walked 10. Glass struck out
six men and walked four. In the National League, the Dodgers continued their
winning ways from previous seasons by dropping the Yankees by a score of 13-7.
Briggs was credited with the win for the Dodgers and Cloud was the losing
pitcher for the Yanks. Lambert led the Dodger hitters at the plate with two
doubles for three trips. He was followed by Tolbert and Jackson with singles,
and Briggs who connected with a three-bagger. The losing Yanks were led at the
plate by Scott Cook who tagged two doubles and Salter, Warren and Hayes who
singled. Although both teams were even on hits, superior fielding by the
Dodgers spelled defeat for the Yanks.
May 13, 1962 – Scottish poet Kathleen Jamie was born in
Renfrewshire, Scotland.
May 13, 1964 – Satirist and TV host Stephen Colbert was born
in Washington, D.C.
May 13, 1967 - Mickey Mantle hit his 500th home run.
May 13, 1969 - Army SPC5 James Rayford Gohagin, 21, of
Atmore, Ala. was killed in action in Vietnam. Gohagin was killed at Firebase
Airborne, during a Sapper attack on top of Dong Ngai Mountain at 3:10 a.m.
Gohagin was reported to be one of two Men inside a Conex container used as a
fire control center. He was a member of the 319th Artillery, 101st
Airborne Division. Born on Oct. 31, 1947, he was buried in the McCullough
Community Cemetery in McCullough.
May 13, 1971 - Still deadlocked,
the Vietnam peace talks in Paris entered their fourth year.
May 13, 1972 - The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Minnesota
Twins, 4-3, in 22 innings. The game was actually started on May 12.
May 13, 1972 - Seventeen U.S.
helicopters landed 1,000 South Vietnamese marines and their six U.S. advisors behind
North Vietnamese lines southeast of Quang Tri City in the first South
Vietnamese counterattack since the beginning of the communist Nguyen Hue
Offensive.
May 13, 1974 – During a special meeting on this Monday
afternoon, Evergreen (Ala.) Mayor Henry Sessions tendered his resignation to
the Evergreen City Council. Sessions said that he was resigning “due to the new
Ethics Law passed by the legislature last year. He said that he just did not
feel that he could involve his entire family in the financial disclosure
required by law.” Mayor Pro-Tem Clarence E. (Buddy) Evers took Sessions’ place.
May 13, 1975 - Bob Wills, one of the most influential
musicians in the history of country-western music, was born on a small farm
near Kosse, Texas.
May 13, 1976 – NBA shooting guard Trajan Langdon was born in
Palo Alto, Calif. He would go on to play for Duke University and the Cleveland
Cavaliers.
May 13, 1980 – A five-run rally in the bottom of the second
inning gave the Monroe Academy Volunteers a 5-2 victory over Ashford Academy,
sending the Vols into the state private school semifinals. This third and
deciding game at Volunteer Park on this Tuesday was made necessary when the two
teams split a doubleheader the day before in the opening day of the
best-two-of-three series. Top players on MA’s baseball team that year included
Boyd Bradley, David Carpenter, Sammie Carter, Tim Chunn, Trip Hendrix, Joey
Langham, Doug Smith, Greg Tatum, Jeff Tatum, Rick Williams and John Wilman.
Eddie Tyler was MA’s head baseball coach.
May 13, 1981
– Mehmet Ali Ağca attempted to assassinate Pope John Paul II in St. Peter's
Square in Rome. The Pope was rushed to the Agostino Gemelli University
Polyclinic to undergo emergency surgery and survived.
May 13, 1982 - The Chicago Cubs became the first Major
League Baseball team to win 8,000 games.
May 13, 1982 – The Evergreen Courant reported that Eddie
Salter had won both the total beard length and total weight divisions of the
turkey hunting contest at Carter’s Hardware & Supply Co. that season. Eddie’s
five Toms had beards that measured 53-1/4 inches and weighed 95 and 7/8 pounds.
May 13, 1983 - Reggie Jackson became the first Major League
player to strike out 2,000 times.
May 13, 1985 - Carlton Fisk became the fifth catcher in
Major League history to steal 100 bases.
May 13, 1985 - Tony Perez became the oldest Major League
Baseball player to hit a grand slam home run at the age of 42 and 11 months.
May 13, 1986 – Actress Lena Dunham was born in New York
City.
May 13, 1991 - At Yankee Stadium fans sang Madonna's song
"Like a Virgin" to Jose Canseco.
May 13, 1994 – Episode No. 24 of “The X-Files” – entitled
“The Erlenmeyer Flask” – aired for the first time.
May 13, 1994 - The Cleveland Indians began an 18-game win
streak.
May 13, 1995 – Alison Hargreaves, a 33-year-old British
mother, became the first woman to conquer Everest without oxygen or the help of
sherpas.
May 13, 1999 – The Furman Historic
District in Furman in Wilcox County, Ala. was added to the National Register of
Historic Places. The district’s boundaries are roughly Old Snow Hill Road,
Wilcox County Road 59, Burson Road, and AL 21. It contains 1,030 acres, 73
buildings, and 14 structures.
May 13, 2000 - Alabama author Fred Bonnie died in
Spartanburg, S.C.
May 13, 2005 - Frisco City High School’s football team
rolled up 382 yards of total offense on their way to a 32-0 stomping of John
Essex in spring football action on this Friday night in Frisco City. Junior
Jeffery Williams, who missed the entire 2004 season due to injury and who
hadn’t played a down of football since spring drills in 2004, led the Whippets
defensively and was one of the team’s top ground-gainers. Other top FCHS
players in that game included Donald Dees, Scotty English, DeAngelo Hill,
Leonard Hollings, Chris Mason and Carlos Powe. Troy Quinn was FCHS’s head
football coach.
May 13, 2006 – Right-handed pitcher Christopher Scottie
Booker of Monroeville, Ala. made his first and only appearance for the Kansas
City Royals.
May 13, 2013 - Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield departed the
International Space Station to return to Earth after almost a year in space.
May 13, 2016 – J.U. Blacksher’s varsity baseball team
advanced to the Class 1A state baseball finals for the first time in school
history by beating Brantley, 10-9, at Uriah in Game 3 of a best-of-three
series.
May 13, 2017 – A UFO incident took place around 8 p.m. on
this Saturday near Huntsville. The witness in this case described seeing a
bright flash of light that lasted one to two seconds and was seen in the
East-Northeast part of the sky. The witness said that he’d seen the bright
flash frequently over the past several years, and he’d seen it multiple times
during the week of May 13. The witness said he’d been stargazing for over 50
years, and he also served six years in the U.S. Navy as a radar
operator-technician on a track guidance air defense system. The witness, who
currently maintains electronic and computer systems (including weather radar),
said he knows what aircraft, tumbling spent boosters, iridium flares, older
satellites and meteors look like. “What I am seeing does not fit the norm,” the
witness said. The witness said that he usually sees this flash between 7 p.m.
and 10 p.m., according to the season, and it usually appears in the
East-Northeastern sky, about 45 to 70 degrees over the horizon. “It reminds me
of an old Kodak flashcube,” the witness said. “Usually there is just the one
flash and that is it.” On a few occasions, the witness has seen a dim flash and
several seconds later, the intense flash will follow. “The only description I
can use for an analogy is the Sci-Fi show that shows someone standing on a
planet, and the ship warps and you have the flash,” the witness said.
No comments:
Post a Comment