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TODAY IN KENTUCKY HISTORY
Kentucky Trivia

October 22, 1807, Kentucky 1st Lady Mary Catherine Pope Greenup died in the old Kentucky governor’s mansion.  According to later occupants, her image appears in clock faces and mirrors.

On October 22, 1813, Charles Scott, Kentucky’s 4th governor, passed away.  At the time of his death, he was one of the last surviving generals of the Revolutionary War.  Buried initially on his Canewood Estate in Bourbon and Clark Counties, his remains were re-interred at Frankfort Cemetery in 1854.  Scott County, Scottsville, Kentucky, Scott County, Indiana, and Scottsville, Virginia, are all named in his honor.

October 22, 1831, General Leslie Combs and other dignitaries laid the 1st sill of the 1st railroad in the Western Country, the Lexington & Ohio Railroad.  A grand parade marked the milestone that started at Transylvania University and ended at Water Street near Mill Street.  Here, Governor Metcalf laid a cornerstone of the rail and drove the 1st spike.  The 1st car left the station ten months later with 40 passengers, Governor Metcalfe, and horses pulling the cars.  They planned for the track to extend westward from Lexington to “some point on the Ohio River.”  The Squire’s Sketches of Lexington, by J. Winston Coleman, Jr., pg 36.

October 22, 1880, Town Marshal John R. Simpson, Danville Police Department, died from a gunshot while arresting three men firing weapons on Second Street.  Marshal Simpson told the men they could have fun but could not fire the guns in town.  The group moved further down the street and began firing again.  When Marshal Simpson and another officer attempted to arrest them, they shot them both.

October 22, 1893, Night Policeman George William James, Georgetown Police Department, died from a gunshot on Main Street in front of the county courthouse.

Localtonians wish a Happy Birthday to Morganfield native Earle Chester Clements, born in 1896.  Our 47th governor in 1947, he resigned in 1950 to become our 33rd Class III U.S. Senator.  His father was a popular county judge and sheriff in Union County and the governor graduated from Morganfield High School in 1915.  In 1916, he played center on the UK football team and was named to the “All-Southern Team.” 

October 22, 1897, Cornelius “Con” Enright sold Elmendorf Farm to James Ben Ali Haggin at an auction held at Morris Park Racecourse in Morris Park, New York.

Thursday night, October 22, 1902, Mr. and Mrs. James B. A. Haggin held their 1st party at Green Hills to dedicate the completed mansion.  Over 250 guests dined and danced well into the night.  Guest arrived at Elmendorf Farm entrance, off Paris Pike, in Lexington, where oil lanterns lighted the roadway.  They entered the mansion from the west entrance (carriage porch) and took the elevator to the 2nd floor.  Then, they descended the main stairway into the main entrance hall, where the Haggins welcomed their guests.

On October 22, 1907, President Theodore Roosevelt requested a 2nd cup of coffee while dining at Nashville’s Maxwell House Hotel, commenting that it was “good to the last drop.”  Joel Cheek from Burkesville and Christopher Cheek from Glasgow seized on the quip, who had turned their family grocery firm into a business focusing on blended coffee, which came to be known as Maxwell House Coffee.  The Kentucky cousins sold out in 1928 for $42 million.

On October 22, 1921, UK welcomed Georgetown on the gridiron for the 3rd time.  The Cats won 33-0.  The two teams would meet three more times, and the series would end in 1924.

October 22, 1960, a Louisville hotel and cafeteria denied service to African American delegates to the International Convention of Christian Churches.  Convention leaders acknowledged the “embarrassing incidents” and discussed the issue during the convention.

October 22, 1968, Transylvania’s Haggin Auditorium hosted Queen of the Cascades, the 1st Audubon Wildlife film of the 1968-69 season.  The Audubon Society of Kentucky sponsored the color film made by naturalist Charles T. Hotchkiss.

October 22, 1970, Governor L. Nunn’s racehorse he gifted to the 30 sitting republican governors at the 1969 republican governors conference ran 5th, by six lengths, in the colt’s 1st race.  Eleven entered the $12,500 claiming race at Keeneland.  No one claimed him.  All winnings would have been gifted to the Grayson Foundation for Equine Research.

October 22, 1975, Lexingtonian Doug Flynn, 24 years old, won his 1st of two World Series as a member of the Cincinnati Reds.  The National League Champs beat Boston four games to three.

October 22, 1977, click for a picture of Pete Rose attending Keeneland during the Fall Meet.  Rose, the all-time Major League Baseball leader in hits, visited the track with Reds manager Sparky Anderson, Doug Flynn, and Tom Hammond.

October 22, 1977, the Kentucky Wildcats gave Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales, his 1st taste of American football when he visited the locker room during halftime of the Georgia game in Athens.  HRH met Coach Curci and Art Still.  The Cats blanked the Bulldogs, 33-0.

October 22, 1988, Jerry Claiborne coached the Kentucky Wildcats to a victory over the 11th ranked Georgia Bulldogs 16-10.  It was their big win in a losing season.

October 22, 1993, Salyersville onlookers could not conceal their lack of faith as Kentucky’s Attorney General (AG) stood on the Magoffin County Courthouse steps and promised to clean up the dirtiest local election in Kentucky that had just occurred.  AG Chris Gorman decried votes being “bought and sold like a common commodity” and said vote-buying “will not be tolerated.”

October 22, 1997, Kentucky AG Ben Chandler sued Anthem Insurance Companies to force them to turn over $230 million.  The suit claimed that Anthem had illegally converted “Kentucky’s assets to their own for-profit.”

October 22, 2001, as Lexmark announced they would eliminate 1,600 jobs on its Lexington campus, the old IMB site, college students around the states crammed for tests with the pharmaceutical drug Ritalin that doctors prescribed loosely.

On October 22, 2004, the feds fined an Eastern Kentucky coal company $536,050, the largest federal penalty for the Commonwealth.  The 3rd largest fine in the nation stemmed from a 2003 June explosion in Floyd County that killed 21-year-old Paintsville native Paul Blair and injured two others.

On October 22, 2007, Eastern Kentucky University (EKU) reached into its backyard and named a homegrown boy, Doug Whitlock, the University’s 11th president.  Whitlock, 64, a retired administrator, held the position for a year while EKU conducted a nationwide search.

October 22, 2010, Wikileaks detailed America’s dirty little Iraqi War secrets by publishing a vast trove of government reports from the battleground, which shed light on civilian deaths, detainee abuse, and the involvement of Iran.  President B. Obama started the 14-year prosecution of the publisher, a non-American, Julian Assange.

October 22, 2017, Louisville native Justin Thomas won the 1st PGA Tour event held in South Korea.  Thomas won the inaugural CJ Cup @ Nine Bridges on Jeju Island thanks to a birdie on the 2nd play-off hole against Marc Leishman.  The reigning PGA Tour Player of the Year and money winner won his 7th PGA victory and the 1st one in a play-off.

October 22, 2019, Celine Dion gave a titanic performance in the Yum Center!  It was her 1st performance in Louisville during her 30-year career and one of the 1st U.S. stops in her “Courage World Tour.”

On October 22, 2019, officials announced Louisville won the 10th National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) franchise.  The league expected to announce two more cities.

On Thursday, October 22, 2020, Bob Baffert’s attorney explained how a filly tested positive for a second time this year, making it the third time one of Bob’s horses peed dirty within six months.  Gamine finished 3rd in the Kentucky Oaks as the 7-10 favorite, even on anti-inflammatory medication.

On October 22, 2020, the governor announced 1,330 new cases and 17 deaths: “We can’t be having more than 1,000 cases every day.  The difference between now and March is we know how to stop the virus.  The question is how we increase our compliance.”  The governor promised that if the numbers did not improve, there would be additional “precautions” to slow the spread of the virus.

On October 22, 2021, U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie asked AG Merrick Garland about federal agents present and agitating people before and during the January 6 riots.  Before the question, he showed a video of Ray Epps, a Marine, telling people on January 5 that they needed to go into the U.S. Capitol.  Another video showed him directing the crowd toward the Capitol.  Many say Epps was a scapegoat for the rebels who wanted to take over the U.S. Government.

On October 22, 2022, Mélisse Brunet conducted the Lexington Philharmonic, the 1st time a woman held that position and the 5th music director in the organization’s 61-year history.  She succeeded Scott Terrell, who conducted from 2009 to 2019.

On October 22, 2023, Thomas Massie beats the Peace Drum, but very few of his colleagues join in.

Burl

Kentucky Headlines

October 22, 1924

Gasoline Prices To Be Regulated by the Cost of Coal

Harlan Deputy Sherriff Arrested With Pint of Liquor

October 22, 1974

James Earl Ray Goes back To Court; Says He Was Coerced To Plead Guilty

State Employees May Be Allowed For Greater Political Participation

October 22, 1999

Saunders Does An About Face; Resigns As Head of Kentucky Senate; GOP Takes Control

Kentucky School Bus drivers Told Not To Smoke on Buses!

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