TODAY IN KENTUCKY HISTORY

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January 18, 1810, Butler County was created from Logan County and Ohio County and was named in honor of Richard Butler, Revolutionary War General. Morgantown is the county seat. Other cities and towns include: Rochester, Woodbury, Aberdeen, Dunbar, Huntsville, Jetson, Logansport, Monford, Provo, Quality, Reedyville, Roundhill, Welch’s (or Welchs) Creek and Youngtown. Butler County was the 54th county created and covers 431 square miles.

KY 1810

January 18, 1924, Deputy Sheriff Absolom “App” Perry, Rowan County Sheriff’s Office, was shot and killed from ambush as he and another deputy searched for stills in the area of Dry Creek. They observed a man run from a house into the hills and followed up as they continued to search for him; a shot from the mountainside struck Deputy Perry in the neck.

January 18, 1968, Navy HN Jeffrey S. Aker from Covington died in the Vietnam War.

January 18, 1969, Army CPL Orman Stone from Barlow in Ballard County died in the Vietnam.

January 18, 1969, after defeating Tennessee on the road, the Kentucky basketball players came home on the same day to Memorial Coliseum to blow out 1,000 candles on a large cake celebrating the first program in NCAA history to win 1000 games. The Wildcats beat the Volunteers 69-66.

Jan 18 UK

January 18, 1971, the Jessamine County grand jury indicted Lexington, its mayor and commissioners, on two counts of pollution, which it claims is endangering its residents’ health and aquatic life.

January 18, 1975, Álvaro Pineda, 29, while riding at Santa Anita Park, was killed in a freak accident. He died from a blow to his head when his horse, Austin Mittler, reared in the starting gate and flipped over, crushing his head against the gate’s steel frame. His family would suffer a similar loss three years later when his younger brother Roberto, at Pimlico, was killed due to an accident during a race. He made one appearance in the Kentucky Derby, finishing 13th in 1967. Pineda’s best mount may have been the Argentina-bred colt Figonero which he rode to victory in the Hollywood Gold Cup and to a new world record for nine furlongs in the Del Mar Handicap. In 1974, Álvaro Pineda’s peers voted him the prestigious George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award. The annual award is given to a jockey in American racing who demonstrates high personal and professional standards on and off the track.

January 18, 1980, the vice-president of a company that makes radar devices testified in a Kentucky courtroom that radar is not infallible, but the errors are so rare that a device may clock a million cars before making a mistake. He was the only witness in a packed courtroom for a speeding ticket trial in Boone County.

January 18, 1980, Governor John Y. Brown, Jr. was commended by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People for appointing two African-Americans to high-level positions in state government. The governor appointed Jefferson District Judge William E. McAnulty, secretary to the Department of Justice and George W. Wilson, commissioner of the Bureau of Corrections.

January 18, 1987, a historical horror descends on UK as LSU wins 76-41 in Rupp Arena. 23,285 fans melt to 15,000 with six minutes left, leaving Coach Sutton begging for forgiveness and stating it was the most embarrassing moment in his 30-year career. Rex Chapman, I didn’t think we could get beat that way!”

January 18, 1988, with more than 100 people gathered in the Capitol rotunda, Governor Wilkinson remembered the work of Martin Luther King Junior and his life stating, “that he touched all our lives making the world and Kentucky a better place.”

January 18, 1990, Paula Freeman was named Kentucky’s first leader of Mothers Against Drunk Drivers (MADD).

January 18, 1990, a Franklin Circuit Judge denied a motion to set aside the conviction of former Rep. Jerry Lundergan. Lundergan was convicted last month of unlawful use of influence by a legislator after his family’s catering company took money from the state unlawfully.

January 18, 1993, Martin Luther King, Jr. is remembered and celebrated in Kentucky.

February 18, 1995, three-time heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali sat on the Kentucky bench during the Cats’ 87-77 win over Florida. Ali attended the game as part of a one-day promotional visit to Lexington for a play, Ali, that ran later that month at the Opera House.

Jan 18 Ali

January 18, 1999, Martin Luther King, Jr. is remembered and celebrated in Kentucky.

Kentucky Trivia: Downtown Middlesboro, looking west down Cumberland Avenue at 19th Street. The town is in Bell County, near Cumberland Gap in the southeastern part of Kentucky, near Tennessee, Kentucky, and Virginia. It is the only town in America built in an asteroid crater.

January 18, 2001, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife stated their intentions of turning 23,000 acres in Western Kentucky into a wildlife refuge. Locals know the flood-prone-land along the Ohio River as Henderson County’s Scuffletown’s bottom area.

January 18, 2003, thousands march on Washington, D.C. to protest the Iraqi War.

Jan 18 War

January 18, 2005, in their second try at passing a state budget, lawmakers will get an additional $622 million to spend than was forecast because the actual tax collection for corporations and coal production exceeded expectations.

Jan 18 Revenue

January 18, 2005, fifty mourners gathered to honor a Vietnam Veteran who froze to death beneath a railroad bridge on Christmas Eve. Joe Young, 57, died alone in single digit weather.

January 18, 2008, UK announced that Joker Phillips would be the next Wildcat Football Coach after Coach Rich Brooks retired. The announcement also spoke of Coach Brook’s pay raise to $1.6 million a year.

January 18, 2010, the Kentucky State Police reported that Kentucky Highway fatalities declined for a fifth straight year in 2009 with 782 deaths. There were 826 deaths in 2008 and in 2005 there were 985.

January 18, 2010, Martin Luther King, Jr. is remembered and celebrated in Kentucky.

Horse Racing Trivia: January 18, 2010, the 39th annual Eclipse Awards were held in Beverly Hills. Rachel Alexandra was named the 2009 Horse of the Year as well as the Champion 3-year-old filly. She is only the fourth female named, the others being Azeri in 2002, Lady’s Secret in 1986, and All Along in 1983. Julien Leparoux, who lives in Louisville, takes the jockey category.

January 18, 2014, the U.S. General released the 50th-anniversary report on smoking and health. Since 1965 the report says the number of U.S. smokers has dropped from 42% to 18%. But state-to-state stats from 1995 onward show Kentucky has increased the number of smokers by .5% while the nation decreased by 5%.

January 18, 2016, braving single digit temperatures and subzero wind chills, hundreds march through downtown Lexington to celebrate the Martin Luther King Junior’s legacy.

Jan 18 2016 MLK

On January 18, 2019, three groups that met in the Lincoln Memorial’s cold shadow could hardly have been more different. They were indigenous rights activists from Michigan, Catholic schoolboys from Kentucky, some wearing Make America Great Again hats and Hebrew Israelites from the nation’s capital. They were Native American, Caucasian and African American; old, young and middle-aged.

Jan 18 Sandman

January 18, 2020, the Sunshine Million at Gulfstream Park.

Historical Kentucky Headlines

January 18, 1921

Tobacco More Dangerous Than Alcohol Says President Of Kentucky’s Women’s Christian Temperance Union

Louisville Society Women Only Wear Four Garments Declared The Rev Welch

John K. Baughman 68 Years Old Dies; Prominent Farmer And Stockman

Cardinals Eager For Another Crack At Centre Colonels

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January 18, 1971

U.S. Involvement In Cambodia Escalates

Mrs. Nunn Tells Plans For Restoring Mary Todd Lincoln Home

Miss Kentucky County Fair Held At Phoenix Hotel; Lexington

Late FG Gives Colts Super Bowl Victory Over Cowboys; Miami

Jan 18

January 18, 1996

Phil Donahue, Dick Cavett Ends Talk Show

Patton Signs Health-Care Review Panel

McConnell Says His Clout Has Helped Kentucky

Apolda Wins $75,000 Joe Namath Handicap At Gulfstream

donahue — Daytime TV talk show host Phil Donahue appears perplexed by a comment from author Gore Vidal during a 1978 taping of the “Phil Donahue Show.” (Chicago Tribune historical photo 1978)

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August 1, 2020