Today in History for May 2, 2018

"Circumstantial Evidence" author Pete Earley

May 2, 1536 – Anne Boleyn, Queen of England, was arrested and imprisoned on charges of adultery, incest, treason and witchcraft.

May 2, 1611 – The King James Bible was published for the first time in London, England, by printer Robert Barker.

May 2, 1670 – King Charles II of England granted a permanent charter to the Hudson's Bay Company to open up the fur trade in North America.

May 2, 1692 – In connection with the Salem witchcraft trials, John Hathorne and Jonathan Corwin examined Sarah Morey, Lyndia Dustin, Susannah Martin and Dorcas Hoar.

May 2, 1740 - Elias Boudinot was born in Philadelphia, Pa. He served as the president of the Continental Congress from 1782 to 1783 and signed the Treaty of Paris.

May 2, 1776 - France and Spain agreed to donate arms to American rebels fighting the British.

May 2, 1777 - General David Wooster died from an injury from a musket ball he had received.

May 2, 1792 - The First Militia Act was passed by Congress, providing for the President of the United States to take command of the state militias in times of imminent invasion or insurrection.

May 2, 1829 – After anchoring nearby, Captain Charles Fremantle of the HMS Challenger, declared the Swan River Colony in Australia.

May 2, 1859 – Playwright and author Jerome K. Jerome was born in Walsall, England.

May 2, 1861 – Conecuh County, Alabama’s Pinckney D. Bowles, while stationed in Yorktown, Va., was re-elected as a captain in the 4th Alabama Infantry Regiment.

May 2, 1861 – While stationed in Washington, D.C., George Washington Custis Lee, the son of Robert E. Lee, resigned his U.S. Army commission, about two weeks after his father resigned from the U.S. Army, and became a captain in the Confederate Army, assisting in the construction of fortifications for Richmond, Virginia.

May 2, 1861 - Despite the vote by the Maryland House of Delegates to remain in the Union, the safety of Washington, D.C. was by no means assured. Troops from various states continued to be raised and sent to the defense of the capital. Arriving on this day were the Fire Zouaves from New York. Their “Turkish” looking costumes of baggy red pants and short blue jackets were distinctive. Their commander, E. Elmer Ellsworth, would be one of war’s first casualties.

May 2, 1862 - Confederate forces evacuated Yorktown.

May 2, 1862 – During the Civil War, skirmishes were fought in Litchfield, Ark.; near Deep Gully, N.C.; at Lockridge’s Mill, Tenn.; and at Trevillan’s Deport and Louisa Courthouse in Virginia. A seven-day Federal operation between Trenton and Dresden in Tennessee began.

May 2, 1862 - A constant theme of communications between President Lincoln and his generals in the field indicated impatience on the part of Lincoln. Few letters were written than did not request movement, action, or battle, or at least information on when such activities might get underway. On this day George McClellan received a note from the President stating that his request for heavy guns “alarms me--chiefly because it argues indefinite procrastination. Is anything to be done?”

May 2, 1863 - Union Colonel Benjamin Grierson ended his raid when he and his men rode into Union occupied Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The raid had begun on April 17.

May 2, 1863 – In one of the most stunning upsets of the war, the Army of Northern Virginia, under Confederate generals Robert E. Lee and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, administered a devastating defeat to the numerically superior Army of the Potomac under General Joseph Hooker at the Battle of Chancellorsville, Va. Jackson was also accidentally shot by his own men while returning to camp after reconnoitering during the battle and later died from pneumonia eight days later.

May 2, 1863 - Sixteen-year-old Emma Sansom became a Confederate heroine when she helped General Nathan Bedford Forrest cross Black Creek near Gadsden, Ala. as he pursued Union forces led by Col. A.D. Streight.

May 2, 1863 – During the Civil War, skirmishes were fought at Black Creek, near Gadsden, Ala. There were also skirmishes fought at Blount’s Plantation and Centre, Ala., both part of the Streight raid.

May 2, 1863 – During the Civil War, skirmishes were fought at Robert’s Ford on the Comite River in Louisiana, as the Grierson raid drew to an end; on the South Fork of Bayou Pierre in Mississippi; near Thompson’s Station, Tenn.; near Lewisburg, West Virginia; at Ely’s Ford, near Fredericksburg, Va.; and near Louisa Courthouse, Va. A four-day Federal operation from Bowling Green, Ky. to the Tennessee state line began. Federal troops returned to Alexandria, La.

May 2, 1864 – During the Civil War, skirmishes were fought with Indians at Kneeland’s Prairie, Calif.; near Tunnel Hill and another near Ringgold Gap in Georgia; at Bayou Pierre, Well’s Plantation and Wilson’s Landing in Louisiana; on Bee Creek, Mo.; and at Bolivar, Tenn. Federal reconnaissance in Hickman and Maury Counties in Tennessee began. A 17-day Federal operation in southwestern Virginia began.

May 2, 1864 - Under the Confederate Constitution, the Congress was to meet for a new session every second year. Thus it was that on this day the Second Congress opened for the conduct of business. The first item was a report from the President. Jefferson Davis reported that it was beginning to seem unlikely that the nation would receive official recognition by any European government, but that military efforts were going well and should lead soon to victory.

May 2, 1865 - U.S. President Andrew Johnson offered a $100,000 reward for the capture of Confederate President Jefferson Davis.

May 2, 1874 – Confederate veteran John B. Jones began his adventurous career as a lawman with an appointment as a major in the Texas Rangers.

May 2, 1876 - Ross Barnes hit the first home run in the National League.

May 2, 1879 - A meeting of the members of the Evergreen Base Ball Club were scheduled to hold a meeting at the Conecuh County Court House on this Friday at 8 p.m. A full attendance was desired.

May 2, 1879 - Col. J.F. Tate, the talented Principal of the Evergreen Academy, planned to “have a review” on this Friday evening. The public was cordially invited to attend.

May 2, 1885 – Good Housekeeping magazine went on sale for the first time, offering housekeeping tips, parenting advice, product reviews and fiction.

May 2, 1887 – National Baseball Hall of Fame second baseman Eddie Collins was born in Millerton, N.Y. He went on to play for the Philadelphia Athletics and the Chicago White Sox. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1939.

May 2, 1890 - The Oklahoma Territory was organized.

May 2, 1895 – The Monroe Journal reported that news had been received of the “lynching of another negro implicated in the murder of Watt Murphy at Butler Springs.”

May 2, 1903 – Dr. Benjamin Spock was born in New Haven, Conn. He wrote “The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care” (1946).

May 2, 1905 - Author Annie Vaughan Weaver was born in Selma, Ala.

May 2, 1916 - C.H. Mann of Pensacola, district passenger agent of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad, was a business visitor to Monroeville, Ala. on this Tuesday.

May 2, 1917 – The Evergreen Courant reported, in news from the Owassa community, that Postmaster Beasley was on the sick list that week.

May 2, 1917 – The Evergreen Courant reprinted an item from the Brewton News that reported that Miss Sarah E. Luther had been re-elected as principal of Conecuh County High School at Castleberry for one year, commencing July 1, 1917, by the Conecuh County board of education. Luther had been principal of the high school since its establishment. She was the only woman high school principal in the state, and had “an enviable record as an educator.”

May 2, 1918 - In a conference of Allied military leaders at Abbeville, France, the U.S., Britain and France argued over the entrance of American troops into World War I.

May 2, 1918 - General Motors acquired the Chevrolet Motor Co.

May 2, 1918 – The Wilcox Progressive Era reported that Peyton Burford of Camp Wheeler was home during the previous week to assist in putting Wilcox County over the top in the Third Liberty Lone.

May 2, 1918 – The Wilcox Progressive Era reported that the “many friends of Miss Lois Grier, eldest daughter of the Rev. B.H. Grier, will be pleased to know that she has been awarded a fellowship in mathematics at Agnes Scott College. The fellowship is worth $500. The money must be spent in further work in the institution. Miss Lois will graduate this month and will spend the next year assisting in mathematics and studying music.”

May 2, 1919 - James R. Myers, a prominent citizen of Conecuh County and former Confederate soldier, died at his home in Owassa on this Friday. The funeral occurred on the following Saturday morning from his late residence, conducted by the local Masonic lodge of which he had been a member for many years. His widow, one daughter and two sons survived him. Myers was well known throughout Conecuh County and had many friends, according to The Evergreen Courant.

May 2, 1920 - The first game of the National Negro Baseball League was played in Indianapolis.

May 2, 1923 - Walter Johnson pitched his 100th shutout.

May 2, 1925 - Alabama author Nancy Huddleston Packer was born in Washington, D.C.

  

May 2, 1930 - The first-ever night game in professional baseball took place on this day when a Des Moines, Iowa team hosted Wichita for a Western League game.

May 2, 1933 - Although accounts of an aquatic beast living in Scotland’s Loch Ness date back 1,500 years, the modern legend of the Loch Ness Monster was born when a sighting made local news on this day. The newspaper Inverness Courier related an account of a local couple who claimed to have seen “an enormous animal rolling and plunging on the surface.” The story of the “monster” (a moniker chosen by the Courier editor) became a media phenomenon, with London newspapers sending correspondents to Scotland and a circus offering a 20,000-pound sterling reward for capture of the beast.

May 22, 1933 - Hitler banned trade unions in Germany.

May 2, 1936 – Sam G. Lowrey became Burnt Corn, Alabama’s postmaster, receiving the job after the post office there was reestablished after being discontinued for 10 years.

May 2, 1939 - Lou Gehrig set a new Major League Baseball record when he played in his 2,130th game. The streak began on June 1, 1925.

May 2, 1941 – Major League Baseball pitcher Clay Carroll was born in Clanton, Ala. He went on to play for the Milwaukee/Atlanta Braves, the Cincinnati Reds, the Chicago White Sox, the St. Louis Cardinals and the Pittsburgh Pirates.

May 2, 1941 – Following the coup d'état against Iraq Crown Prince 'Abd al-Ilah earlier that year, the United Kingdom launched the Anglo-Iraqi War to restore him to power.

May 2, 1944 - For a regular weekly meeting, Evergreen’s Boy Scout troop met on this Tuesday afternoon at 4:15 p.m. at the City School and chose sides for a baseball game. At 5:30, they had their business and patrol meetings.

May 2, 1946 – The Evergreen Courant reported that Mr. and Mrs. J.H. Newman attended a golf tournament in Dothan, Ala. over the previous weekend.

May 2, 1947 – German SS officer Dorothea Binz, 27, was hanged for war crimes on the gallows at Hamelin prison.

May 2, 1952 – Alfred Robert “Son” Boulware Jr., believed by many to be the inspiration for Harper Lee’s Boo Radley, passed away from tuberculosis at the age of 41. He is buried in Monroeville, Alabama’s Pineville Cemetery.

May 2, 1954 - Stan Musial of the St. Louis Cardinals set a new Major League Baseball record when he hit five home runs against the New York Giants.

May 2, 1955 – Tennessee Williams won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.”

May 2, 1958 - The New York Yankees threatened to broadcast their games nationwide if the National League went ahead with plans to broadcast their games into New York.

May 2, 1961 - Lyeffion High School made three first-placements in a dual track meet with Flomaton in Flomaton on this Tuesday, according to Lyeffion’s Coach Dale Brown. In the 440-yard dash, 880-yard dash and 440-yard relay, Lyeffion took firsts. Danny Covin ran the 440-yard dash in 57.9 seconds. Thomas Frazier took first in the 880 for Lyeffion in two minutes 24 seconds. The 440-yard relay was made in 51.7 seconds by Danny Covin, Thomas Frazier, William Cater and Charles Salter. Lyeffion’s Floyd Fields placed third in the 100-yard dash. In the mile run, Patton Brown came in second and William Cater third. Floyd Fields won second in the 220-yard dash, Bobby Salter was third in the 440, Wendell Brown second in 880 and Danny Covin placed second in the broad jump.

May 2, 1964 – During the Vietnam War, an explosion sank the USS Card while it is docked at Saigon, and Viet Cong forces were suspected of placing a bomb on the ship.

May 2, 1964 – First ascent of Shishapangma, the fourteenth highest mountain in the world and the lowest of the Eight-thousanders.

May 2, 1970 - American and South Vietnamese forces continued the attack into Cambodia that began on April 29.

May 2, 1974 - The filming of "Jaws" began in Martha's Vineyard, Mass.

May 2, 1976 – Empire, Ala. native Daniel Robert “Dan” Bankhead, the first black pitcher in Major League Baseball, passed away from cancer at the age of 55 at the Veterans Administration hospital in Houston, Texas.

May 2, 1981 – The Evergreen Junior Baseball League held player tryouts at Evergreen Recreational Park in Evergreen, Ala.

May 2, 1981 - A dramatic win, riding on the strength of two Burke Chance home runs, put the Monroe County High School Tigers in the semi-finals for the Alabama High School Athletic Association’s 3A baseball crown. Chance’s second home run of the game on this Saturday, a solo shot to left field with one out in the top of the ninth inning, gave the Tigers a heart-stopping comeback win over the Charles Henderson High School Trojans in Troy. Chance had tied the game at 5-5 in the top of the seventh inning with a lead off home run for the Tigers. Other standout MCHS players in that game included Billy Bowen, Tony Feaster, Von Ham, Toddy Hamilton, Kelvin Lett, John McCarthy and Keith Nettles. Howard Busby was MCHS’s head baseball coach.

May 2, 1983 – Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback Norm Van Brocklin died at the age of 57 in Social Circle, Ga. During his career, he played for the University of Oregon, the Los Angeles Rams and the Philadelphia Eagles, and he coached the Minnesota Vikings and the Atlanta Falcons. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1971.

May 2, 1987 – The first ever Castleberry Strawberry Festival was held in downtown Castleberry, Ala.

May 2, 1988 - The Baltimore Orioles signed a 15-year lease to remain in Baltimore and get a new park.

May 2, 1988 - Pete Rose of the Cincinnati Reds was suspended for 30 games for pushing an umpire.

May 2, 1991 – The Evergreen Courant reported that Richard Brown, professional speaker and women’s basketball coach at Patrick Henry State Junior College, was the guest speaker at a recent meeting of the Alpha Epsilon Chapter of Alpha Delta Kappa. Brown, a successful coach and after-dinner speaker for numerous groups in the Southeast, talked to the honorary sorority for women educators about winning in all of life’s situations.

May 2, 1991 – The Evergreen Courant reported that Lance Cpl. Craig Palmer and his wife, Joy, had personally removed his yellow ribbon from the fence in downtown Evergreen, Ala. during the previous week. Joy had placed the yellow ribbon on the fence when Craig was sent to Saudi Arabia and was thankful that Craig was able to remove the ribbon himself.

May 2, 1993 - Authorities said that they had recovered the remains of David Koresh from the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas.

May 2, 1996 - “Circumstantial Evidence,” a book about a Monroeville murder case published in 1995, was chosen as the 16^th annual Robert F. Kennedy Book Award Winner. Its author, Pete Earley, was to receive the award from Mrs. Robert F. Kennedy on this Thursday at a ceremony held by the Freedom Forum in Washington, D.C. The book detailed events surrounding the 1986 murder of Monroeville co-ed Ronda Morrison and the subsequent arrest, trial, conviction, sentencing and release of her accused killer, Walter “Johnny D” McMillan, who was released from Alabama’s death row in 1993.

May 2, 2000 – President Bill Clinton announced that accurate GPS access would no longer be restricted to the United States military.

May 2, 2002 - Mike Cameron of the Seattle Mariners hit four home runs against the Chicago White Sox.

May 2, 2003 - The Harper Lee Award for Alabama's Distinguished Writer was given to Alabama author Rodney Jones at the Alabama Writers Symposium in Monroeville, Ala.

May 2, 2007 - Evergreen Medical Center held its annual Health Fair in the parking lot of the hospital in Evergreen, Ala.

May 2, 2008 - The Harper Lee Award for Alabama's Distinguished Writer was given to Alabama author Rebecca Gilman at the Alabama Writers Symposium in Monroeville, Ala.

May 2, 2009 - The Dallas Cowboys practice bubble collapsed during a storm during a practice. At the time, 27 players were working out. Almost all were drafted last weekend or signed as undrafted rookies. Twelve people were injured.

May 2, 2011 – Osama bin Laden, the suspected mastermind behind the September 11 attacks and the FBI's most wanted man, was killed by the United States special forces in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

May 2, 2012 – Pro Football Hall of Fame linebacker Junior Seau committed suicide at the age of 43 in Oceanside, Calif. During his career, he played for USC, the San Diego Chargers, the Miami Dolphins and the New England Patriots. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2015.