Today in History for Aug. 5, 2018

Grave of Lawrence Rikard in Monroeville, Ala.

Aug. 5, 1305 – William Wallace, who led the Scottish resistance against England, was captured by the English near Glasgow and transported to London where he was put on trial and executed.

Aug. 5, 1583 – Sir Humphrey Gilbert established the first English colony in North America, at what is now St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador.

Aug. 5, 1620 – The Mayflower departed from Southampton, England on its first attempt to reach North America.

Aug. 5, 1692 – In connection with the Salem witchcraft trials, George Jacobs Sr., Martha Carrier, George Burroughs, John Willard and John and Elizabeth Proctor were pronounced guilty and sentenced to hang.

Aug. 5, 1735 – New York Weekly Journal writer John Peter Zenger was acquitted of seditious libel against the royal governor of New York, on the basis that what he had published was true.

Aug. 5, 1779 - Lieutenant Colonel James DeLancey’s New York Loyalists and Patriot William Hull’s Connecticut Brigade engaged in a civil war for the Bronx in New York.

Aug. 5, 1811 – With 20 warriors, Tecumseh left Vincennes and went down the Wabash River, headed south to visit the Southern Indians after being unable to come to an agreement with Governor Harrison over disputed Indian treaties.

Aug. 5, 1815 – English explorer Edward John Eyre was born in Whipsnade, England.

Aug. 5, 1829 – James Calloway Travis, the brother of William Barrett Travis, was born in Evergreen, Ala. He entered the Confederate service as a private on Oct. 1, 1861 in Co. E of the 4th Alabama Infantry and continued until the end of the month before being discharged on account of being a cripple (His right hip was three inches shorter than his left hip). He served as a 2nd Lt. in the home guards at Stallington, Ala. under Capt. Nathan Wright from April 1, 1861 to Oct. 1, 1861. He was conscripted in the summer of 1862 and was held at Camp Watts for 60 days, examined and discharged not able to serve.

Aug. 5, 1850 – Herman Melville and Nathaniel Hawthorne met at a picnic with friends at Monument Mountain near Stockbridge, Mass. In the fall of 1851, Melville dedicated his novel “Moby-Dick” to Hawthorne.

Aug. 5, 1850 – French short story writer Guy de Maupassant was born in Normandy.

Aug. 5, 1861 – During the Civil War, in order to help pay for the war effort, the United States government levied the first income tax as part of the Revenue Act of 1861 (3 percent of all incomes over $800). The tax was rescinded in 1872.

Aug. 5, 1861 – During the Civil War, a skirmish was fought at Athens, Mo.

Aug. 5, 1861 – During the Civil War, a skirmish was fought in Virginia, opposite Point of Rocks, Md.

Aug. 5, 1861 – The United States Army abolished flogging.

Aug. 5, 1862 – During the Civil War, a skirmish occurred near New Market, Ala.

Aug. 5, 1862 – During the Civil War’s Battle of Baton Rouge, along the Mississippi River near Baton Rouge, La., Confederate troops attempted to take the city, but were driven back by fire from Union gunboats.

Aug. 5, 1862 – During the Civil War, a four-day Federal expedition began from Helena to the mouth of the White River, Ark. A four-day Federal operation also began between Fredericksburg and Frederick’s Hall Station in Virginia.

Aug. 5, 1862 – During the Civil War, skirmishes were fought near Cravensville and Montevallo in Missouri; at Sparta, Tenn.; at Malvern Hill, Thornburg (or Massaponax Church) and White Oak Swamp Bridge in Virginia; and at Wyoming Courthouse, W.Va.

Aug. 5, 1863 – During the Civil War, skirmishes were fought at Mount Pleasant, Miss.; at Little Washington, Rixeyville Ford, and in the vicinity of Culpepper in Virginia; and at Cold Spring Gap, W.Va.

Aug. 5, 1863 – During the Civil War, an eight-day Federal operation began from Kempsville, Va., into Currituck and Camden Counties of North Carolina. A Naval engagement also took place at Dutch Gap, on the James River in Virginia; and a 26-day Federal cavalry raid into West Virginia began.

Aug. 5, 1864 – The Battle of Mobile Bay, the last major naval engagement of the Civil War, began on this day as U.S. Admiral David Farragut, with a force of 14 wooden ships, four ironclads, 2,700 men, and 197 guns, overpowered outnumbered Confederate defenses guarding the approach to Mobile Bay. The fall of Mobile Bay was a huge blow to the Confederacy, and the victory was the first in a series of Yankee successes that helped secure the re-election of Abraham Lincoln later that year. Farragut's victory removed Mobile as a center of blockade-running and freed Union troops for service in Virginia.

Aug. 5, 1864 - Union General William T. Sherman declared that John Schofield was senior to John Palmer. An issue had arisen the day before and Palmer had not carried out orders at Utoy Creek. Palmer resigned and returned to Illinois.

Aug. 5, 1864 – During the Civil War, skirmishes were fought at Remount Camp, Ark.; at Concordia Bayou, Doyal’s Plantation and Olive Branch in Louisiana; at Keedysville, Williamsport and Hagerstown in Maryland; and at Cabin Point, Va.

Aug. 5, 1867 – The Burnt Corn, Ala. post office was reestablished, after being discontinued on July 25, 1866, with E.P. Clingman as postmaster.

Aug. 5, 1879 – Lawrence Rikard was buried at the Methodist Church burying ground in Monroeville, Ala. Around 70 years old, he passed away “after a long and lingering illness” at his residence at few miles from Monroeville.

Aug. 5, 1884 – The cornerstone for the Statue of Liberty was laid on Bedloe's Island (now Liberty Island) in New York Harbor.

Aug. 5, 1895 – Monroe County Court was in session on this Monday with Judge N.J. Stallworth presiding and with Solicitor W.G. McCorvey representing the state. “Only a few unimportant cases were tried,” according to The Monroe Journal.

Aug. 5, 1896 - C.W. Zimmerman and J.D. Shiver of Manistee were registered at the Watson House on this Wednesday, according to The Monroe Journal.

Aug. 5, 1905 – Ely Mathews, a train flagman, was killed when a freight train on the Pensacola Division of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad wrecked between Nadawah and Beatrice on this Saturday morning. The train was bound for Pensacola when three miles from Nadawah it struck an obstruction, which caused the rails to spread and tear up from the bed. As the train traveled over a trestle over a creek, seven cars derailed and Mathews was caught beneath one of the falling cars, causing a fatal head injury. The passenger train was delayed there all day and wrecking trains from Pensacola and Selma were sent to the scene to clear the tracks.

Aug. 5, 1908 – L. Jackson sold the City Grocery in Evergreen, Ala. to A.A. Williams and Coley Millsap.

Aug. 5, 1914 – In Cleveland, Ohio, the first electric traffic light was installed.

Aug. 5, 1914 - The German army launched its assault on the city of Liege in Belgium, violating the latter country’s neutrality and beginning the first battle of World War I.

Aug. 5, 1914 – During World War I, the German minelayer SS Königin Luise laid a minefield about 40 miles (64 km) off the Thames Estuary (Lowestoft). She was intercepted and sunk by the British light-cruiser HMS Amphion.

Aug. 5, 1914 – During World War I, the guns of Point Nepean fort at Port Phillip Heads in Victoria (Australia) fired across the bows of the Norddeutscher Lloyd steamer SS Pfalz which was attempting to leave the Port of Melbourne in ignorance of the declaration of war and she was detained; this was said to be the first Allied shot of the War.

Aug. 5, 1916 – During World War I, at the Battle of Romani, Allied forces, under the command of Archibald Murray, defeated an attacking Ottoman army under the command of Friedrich Freiherr Kress von Kressenstein, securing the Suez Canal and beginning the Ottoman retreat from the Sinai Peninsula.

Aug. 5, 1917 - Members of the Alabama National Guard Brigade, which had been federalized in 1916, were discharged from guard service, so that they can be drafted into the regular army. Once drafted, the guardsmen were assigned to their former units, and one of these, the 4th Alabama, would become the 167th U.S. Infantry Regiment and serve with distinction in France during World War I as a part of the famed 42nd "Rainbow" Division.

Aug. 5, 1917 - Rev. Ransom delivered an interesting address on missionary work in India at the A.R.P. Church on this Sunday night, according to the Wilcox Progressive Era.

Aug. 5, 1921 - The first play-by-play broadcast of a baseball game was done by Harold Arlin. KDKA Radio in Pittsburgh, Pa. described the action between the Pirates and Philadelphia.

Aug. 5, 1926 – Harry Houdini performed his greatest feat, spending 91 minutes underwater in a sealed tank before escaping.

Aug. 5, 1931 - J.H. Dickerson, well known farmer living about five miles north of Evergreen, informed a representative of The Courant that a phenomenal incident occurred at his home on this Wednesday afternoon. While seated on his back porch, watching a heavy downpour of rain, he suddenly was attracted to a small object about the size of a man’s fist which had fallen, apparently out of the clouds with the heavy rains. Closer observation disclosed that it was a terrapin. Dickerson said that the fall stunned the creature to such extent that it did not seem to have much life and later was able to make his or her departure down through the field nearby. Dickerson said that he saw the terrapin when it hit the ground and he was positive that it fell out of the clouds just as did the rain. In his mind, there was no doubt about it. It was his opinion that the little animal was picked up somewhere by a storm and brought that far before being dropped.

Aug. 5, 1934 – Writer and poet Wendell Berry was born near Port Royal in Henry County, Ky.

Aug. 5, 1940 – Monroeville Mayor B.L. Hendrix announced at a regular meeting of the Monroeville Chamber of Commerce that negotiations had been completed for the installation of a “Whiteway” in Monroeville. The “Whiteway” of lights was to be installed on the south and east side of the public square and for some distance down the street toward Frisco City and the street by the Monroe Theatre. The “Whiteway” was to convert Monroeville from a “dimly lighted town to one of the best lighted in South Alabama.”

Aug. 5, 1943 – During World War II, Anti-Nazi resistance fighter Eva-Maria Buch was guillotined at Plötzensee Prison in Berlin.

Aug. 5, 1944 – Charles Young Henderson, 23, of Conecuh County, Ala. lost his life in an airplane accident over Italy during World War II. He was a turret gunner on a B-24. He was buried at the Sicily-Rome American Cemetery and Memorial, Nettuno, Città Metropolitana di Roma Capitale
Lazio, Italy, Plot C, Row 9, Grave 46.

Aug. 5, 1944 – During World War II, the Nazis began a week-long massacre of anywhere between 40,000 and 100,000 civilians and prisoners of war in Wola, Poland.

Aug. 5, 1953 – The installation of 216 parking meters in downtown Evergreen, Ala. began on East and West Front Streets, Rural Street and Court Street.

Aug. 5, 1953 – Texas Ranger Ira Aten, one of the last survivors of the days of the Wild West, died at his home in Burlingame, California at the age of 89.

Aug. 5, 1954 – A meeting of the board of directors and committee chairmen of the Evergreen (Ala.) Chamber of Commerce was scheduled to be held at Evergreen City Hall. They planned to discuss plans for auctioning off the first bale of cotton of the 1954 season and plans for “opposing the construction of the proposed new Highway 31, which was said would bypass Evergreen by following a survey located about a mile west of the city.” They also planned to discuss helping the Evergreen Quarterback Club put a fence around Brooks Stadium before the start of the football season in September. C.C. Miller was Chamber president.

Aug. 5, 1954 – The Evergreen Courant reported the “passing of another old Evergreen (Ala.) landmark,” when during the previous week the Farnham sisters, Augusta and Aline, sold an old 1917 Hanson automobile that had sat beside their home in the Farnham garage for over 20 years, continuously since about 1928. “Many teenagers and young adults hold fond memories of this vintage model automobile. It was almost like a shrine, with children coming from all over the city to gape at it and play in it.” The car was sold to E.R. Stephens, who lived near Ponce de Leon, Fla., who had it towed to Florida for renovation.

Aug. 5, 1954 – The Evergreen Courant reported that the Rev. Robert Miller, pastor of the Evergreen (Ala.) Presbyterian Church, won the Annual Handicap Golf Tournament at the Evergreen Country Club. In the last match, Bill Ivey, who was only 14, led Miller up to the seventh hole by one stroke. Miller, won the eighth hole and went on to take the ninth, winning the match and tournament.

Aug. 5, 1957 - American Bandstand, a show dedicated to the teenage "baby-boomers" by playing the songs and showing popular dances of the time, debuted on the ABC television network. Hosted by baby-faced Dick Clark, the show opened its first national broadcast with Jerry Lee Lewis’s song “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On.”

Aug. 5, 1960 - For the first time two Major League Baseball clubs traded managers. Detroit traded Jimmy Dykes for Cleveland's Joe Gordon.

Aug. 5, 1962 - At the age of 36, Marilyn Monroe was found dead in her Los Angeles home. While her death was ruled to be "acute barbiturate poisoning," subsequent investigations and theories have suggested she may have been murdered.

Aug. 5, 1964 – During the Vietnam War’s Operation Pierce Arrow, American aircraft from carriers USS Ticonderoga and USS Constellation bombed North Vietnam in retaliation for strikes against U.S. destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin.

Aug. 5, 1965 – The Monroe Journal reported that Mary Aline Culpepper, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. A.V. Culpepper of Monroeville, Ala., had been named one of the 26 finalists for the second consecutive year in the Miss Alabama Contest.

Aug. 5, 1966 - In New York, groundbreaking for the construction of the original World Trade Center began.

Aug. 5, 1974 - U.S. President Nixon said that he expected to be impeached. Nixon had ordered the investigation into the Watergate break-in to halt.

Aug. 5, 1974 - Sparta Academy’s football team, rated a Class C club according to enrollment, was scheduled to open practice on this Monday morning at 6 a.m., their sights set on the Class B championship of the Alabama Private School Association. Headmaster and head coach Richard Brown said the Warriors would practice at 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. in shorts. They were to pull out the pads for their first contact work on Aug. 12. Although rated Class C, Sparta was going to try for the Class B championship as it was impossible to schedule enough Class C teams. Also, many of the Warriors’ natural rivals were Class A and Class B schools. With a number of returning starters and lettermen, the Warriors hoped to improve on the previous year’s most successful season that saw them win eight and lose two and then wallop Abbeville in the Academy Bowl to make it 9-2 for the year.

Aug. 5, 1974 – During the Vietnam War, the U.S. Congress placed a $1 billion limit on military aid to South Vietnam.

Aug. 5, 1975 – Evergreen weather reporter Earl Windham reported 1.1 inches of rain in Evergreen.

  

Aug. 5, 1978 – National Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Jesse Haines passed away at the age of 85 in Dayton, Ohio. During his career, he played for the Cincinnati Reds and the St. Louis Cardinals. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1970.

Aug. 5, 1984 - Toronto’s Cliff Johnson set a Major League Baseball record by hitting the 19th pinch-hit home run in his career.

Aug. 5, 1989 - The largest game of Musical Chairs took place in China with a whopping 8,238 participants.

Aug. 5, 1990 - U.S. President George H.W. Bush angrily denounced the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.

Aug. 5, 1991 - Iraq admitted to misleading U.N. inspectors about secret biological weapons.

Aug. 5, 1991 – Pro Football Hall of Fame head coach Paul Brown died at the age of 82 in Cincinnati, Ohio. During his career, he coached at Ohio State, the Cleveland Browns and the Cincinnati Bengals. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1967.

Aug. 5, 1995 – Local weather observer Harry Ellis reported 1.72 inches of rain in Evergreen, Ala.

Aug. 5, 1995 - Edward Robinson, lead singer for The Village People, was a big hit on this Saturday night during the Evergreen Chamber of Commerce’s Community Extravaganza at Reid State Auditorium. Edward, an employee of Knud Nielsen Co., “put on a great show, and we can’t wait to see what he will do next year,” The Evergreen Courant reported.

Aug. 5, 1998 - Iraqi President Saddam Hussein began not cooperating with U.N. weapons inspectors.

Aug. 5, 1999 - Mark McGwire of the St. Louis Cardinals hit his 500th career homerun. He also set a record for the fewest at-bats to hit the 500 homerun mark.

Aug. 5, 1999 – The Sons of Confederate Veterans were scheduled to meet at 7 p.m. at the David Burt Building in Evergreen, Ala., and Nell Stuart was scheduled to give the program.

Aug. 5, 1999 – The Evergreen Courant reported that a new head coach, Arlton Hudson, would be leading Hillcrest High School’s football team during the 1999 season. His assistant coaches included David Godwin, secondary coach; Joseph Dean, defensive coordinator; Danny Covin, offensive line; Dewan Salter, offensive backs; Louis Berry, junior high head coach. Hudson was expecting 60 players, including Frederick Rudolph, Sedrick Rudolph, Sam Fountain and Jason Watkins.

Aug. 5, 1999 – The Evergreen Courant reported that Sparta Academy head football coach Jack Akins was expecting 25 players to report for the first day of fall practice. Key players included Kyle Johnston, David Bush, Jeremy McClain, Derek Faulkner, John Anderson, Michael Henry, Jared Brogden and Derek Williams.

Aug. 5, 2002 – Divers recovered the USS Monitor’s rusty iron turret, 140 years after it sank in a storm off Cape Hatteras, N.C. during the Civil War. Many of the ironclad’s artifacts are now on display at the Mariners’ Museum in Newport News, Virginia

Aug. 5, 2002 - U.S. General Tommy Franks presented President George W. Bush and his key advisors the latest Pentagon scenario for a U.S. attack on Iraq.

Aug. 5, 2012 – State Rep. Harry Shiver of Bay Minette, Ala., who represented Conecuh, Monroe, Baldwin and Escambia counties in the legislature, was among seven sports officials recognized for over 30 years of officiating AHSAA events during the AHSAA’s annual Officials Luncheon at the Renaissance Hotel and Convention Center in Montgomery.

Aug. 5, 2013 - It was announced that 13 players had accepted 50-game suspensions for violation of MLB drug policies.

Aug. 5, 2014 – At 10:24 a.m. on this Tuesday, 12 Evergreen firefighters, Evergreen police and local ambulance workers responded to a house fire at 501 Roland Dees Road in Evergreen, Ala. Firefighters took two engines and a service truck to the scene, where they found flames coming from a kitchen window and the home’s attic.