TODAY IN KENTUCKY HISTORY

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January 12, 1825, Edmonson County was created from Grayson County, Hart County and Warren County and was named in honor of John Edmonson, military captain killed at the Battle of Frenchtown.  Brownsville is the county seat.  Other localities include: Asphalt, Bee Spring, Big Reedy, Cedar Spring, Chalybeate Springs, Huff, Lincoln, Lindseyville, Mammoth Cave, Pig, Rhoda, Rocky Hill, Roundhill, (partly in Butler County) Sunfish, Sweeden, and Windyville.  Edmonson County was the 79th county created and covers 302 square miles.

KY 1825

January 12, 1825, in order to alleviate the obstruction to river traffic at Louisville, the General Assembly approved “an act to incorporate the Louisville and Portland Canal Company.”  Sixteen prominent Kentuckians, including Robert Breckinridge, Samuel Churchill, and James Guthrie, formed the corporation “for the purpose of opening and constructing a canal navigation with suitable locks, docks, and basins around the falls of the River Ohio within the State of Kentucky.”

January 12, 1858, Lexington native William Alexander Richardson became the 5th Governor of the Nebraska Territory.  Richardson County, Nebraska is named after him.

January 12, 1875, Thomas Elliott Bramlette, the 23rd Governor of Kentucky passed away.  He was elected in 1863 and guided the state through the latter part of the Civil War and the beginning of Reconstruction.

January 12, 1875, Trimble County native Charles Henry Hardin became the 22nd Governor of Missouri.

Localtonians wishes a Happy Birthday Brandon’s Chapel native Keen Johnson, Kentucky’s 45th Governor, born in 1896.  Brandon’s Chapel is now part of “The Land Between the Lakes.”  He bought and revived the struggling Elizabethtown Mirror newspaper and later sold it to obtain his journalism degree from the University of Kentucky in 1922.  Johnson was the only journalist to be a Kentucky governor.

January 12, 1911, Ellen Broady was a victim of apparent Spontaneous Human Combustion, burning up to a crisp in the house but not burning the house itself at all in Metcalfe County.

January 12, 1912, State College (UK) basketball team played their last game in Boyle Humphrey stadium in Danville against Central University.

January 12, 1951, Army PFC Clifford V. Coffey from Morgan County died in the Korean War.

January 12, 1952, Army PVT Donald R. Maynard from Boyd County died in the Korean War.

January 12, 1965, the Dr. Ephraim McDowell House, the site of first successful ovariotomy, was declared a national historic Landmark.

January 12, 1967, Muhammad Ali received word that not only had Local Board No. 47 reviewed his file and declined to reopen his classification, but the board agreed unanimously that he was not exempt from the draft via the ministerial exemption.  Two days before, the Kentucky Appeal Board had notified Ali that it had denied his conscientious objector claim, and he would be classified as 1-A.

January 12, 1967, Army SP4 Kenneth L. Shuffitt from Pleasure Ridge in Jefferson County died in the Vietnam War.

January 12, 1968, Army CPL William B. Hubble from Waynesburg in Lincoln County and Army PFC Johnnie K. Perkins from Louisville, died in the Vietnam War.

January 12, 1969, Louisville native Robert Guy “Bob” Talamini won his super Bowl ring when the New York Jets stunned the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III.  Bob played college for UK and was inducted in the Kentucky Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2011.

January 12, 1969, Vito “Babe” Parilli, UK’s quarterback under head coach Paul “Bear” Bryant, won a Super Bowl ring as a backup to Joe Namath.  Babe finished fourth in the Heisman Trophy and led the Wildcats to victories in consecutive New Year’s Day bowl games in the 1951 Sugar Bowl and 1952 Cotton Bowl.

January 12, 1971, approximately 200 employees of Ashland Petroleum Company in Catlettsburg maintained a picket line at plant #1 to emphasize demands for a new contract.  

January 12, 1985, General Butler State Resort Park ski slopes conduct their opening day.  The park, in Carroll County once operated as Kentucky’s first and only ski resort but was forced to shut down in the mid-’90s because of difficulty maintaining snow and other problems.

Jan 12 Ski

Localtonians wishes a Happy Birthday to McCreary County native Allie Leggett born in 1994.  Today she is a model and social media star who rose to fame after she won the title of Miss Kentucky USA in 2013.  Before her title, she was working as a restaurant hostess and studying at Somerset Community College.

Jan 12 Beauty

January 12, 1996, two black teenagers from Kentucky were found guilty for killing a white man who flew a Confederate Flag in the back of his pick-up truck.  The teenagers who went to Todd County Central High saw the truck at Guthrie convenience store and followed the truck to Tennessee.  They were found guilty in Nashville.

January 12, 1996, Kentucky’s top two lawmakers, House Speaker Jody Richards and Senate president John “Eck” Rose, stated complaints about skyrocketing health insurance rates will prompt them to change Kentucky’s fledging health-care reform law.

Kentucky Trivia:  For $75,000, William T. Young erected this factory in August 1946 at 767 East Third Street to manufacture Big Top peanut butter.  In 1955, he sold the brand to Procter & Gamble, which renamed it Jif.  In 1974 Jif introduced the creamy version.  Jif’s name was chosen as the product name because it is easy to say, spell and remember.  The Lexington Jif plant is the largest peanut butter producing facility in the world.

Jan 12 Jif

Horse Racing Trivia: January 12, 2001, Affirmed passed away.  His great duels with Alydar in the Triple Crown series may be the best Triple Crown races of all-time.  Affirmed was trained by Lazaro S. Barrera and was owned and breed by Lou and Patrice Wolfson’s Harbor View Farm.

January 12, 2003, the University of Kentucky retired Valerie Still’s jersey, who played from 1979-83 and became the first female letter winner in any UK sport to have her jersey retired.  Still is the leader among all Wildcats (men or women) for career scoring (2,763) and rebounding (1,525).  She was a three-time consensus All-American and led the program in scoring four-straight seasons with a career average of 23.2 points.

January 12, 2004, William T. Young passed away.

January 12, 2011, Bill Samuels Jr., President of bourbon distiller Maker’s Mark announced his retirement to begin in April, ending 35 years at the helm.  His son Rob Samuels will replace him.