October 4, 1862, Confederate artillery fired a salute as Southern troops escorted Confederate Governor Richard Hawes through Frankfort . Upon reaching the Old State Capitol, Hawes’s inauguration began in the House of Representatives chamber, where Bragg, Hawes, and others gave speeches. Union Troops quickly interrupted the ceremony. Confederate Colonel David Urquhart wrote, “the inaugural was being read when the booming of cannon announced the near presence of the enemy.” With Union troops approaching, Hawes “cut short his inaugural address.” The rebels canceled the evening ball.
On October 4, 1886, two soldiers in the 1st Regiment Kentucky Mounted Volunteers fought a duel in Port Lavacca, TX. They exchanged two shots, and both officers escaped unhurt. The cause of the duel was unknown, but Lt. Jackson of Cassius M. Clay’s Regiment resigned four days later. Famous Kentucky Duels by J. Winston Coleman, Jr. pg: 145
Localtonians wish a Happy Birthday to Louisville native James Bennett Pritchard , born in 1909. The Asbury College graduate received the Gold Medal Award for Distinguished Archaeological Achievement in 1983.
On October 4, 1919, Kentucky hosted Georgetown to open its football season, winning 12-0. The Wildcats played seven more games, and in each game, Kentucky or their opponent scored zero points. They ended with a 3-4-1 record; the Vandy game ended 0-0.
October 4, 1922, the Kentucky Theatre opened with great fanfare and an impressive grand opening production . The festivities began with a musical overture played on the expensive Wurlitzer Unit Orchestra organ. Next, the audience sang “My Old Kentucky Home,” followed by a dedication speech by Governor E. Morrow. Finally, the movie program started. A short comedic parody of Valentino’s The Sheik , followed by a newsreel, and then the feature, a historical romance entitled The Eternal Flame .
On October 4, 1930, Coach Harry Gammage and his Wildcats opened their season with a win, defeating Sewanee 37-0. Kentucky played eight games. In six games, Kentucky or their opponent would score zero points.
October 4, 1944, U.S. Marine Wesley Phelps, from Neaufus in Butler County, died heroically in WWII fighting Japanese forces. He posthumously received the Congressional Medal of Honor for his heroic actions and sacrifice of life during the Battle of Peleliu.
October 4, 1947, Keeneland Race Course , just before the beginning of the fall meet. The track had been opened 11.5 years.
October 4, 1969, a workout on the backside of Keeneland on the morning of the 1st day of the Fall Meet. The opening day crowd of 12,020 wagered $661,968.
On October 4, 1974, Governor W. Ford broke ground for constructing the Kentucky State Horse Park using a mule pulling a breaking plow. Kentucky’s largest state-owned tourist attraction, a working horse farm, and an educational theme park opened in 1978.
On October 4, 1975, Keeneland ran their 1st $100,000 stakes race , the $130,725 Breeders’ Futurity, won by Louis Lee Haggin II’s Harbor Springs.
October 4, 1989, at 11:45 a.m., Secretariat, affectionately known as “Big Red,” received a lethal injection at Claiborne Farm in Paris . The 19-year-old TC winner suffered from laminitis, a painful and usually incurable degenerative disease of the hoofs’ sensitive inner tissues. Dr. Thomas Swerczek, a professor of veterinary science at the UK performed the necropsy. “All of the horse’s vital organs were normal in size except for the heart, we were all shocked,” Swerczek said. “I’ve seen and done thousands of autopsies on horses, and nothing I’d ever seen compared to it. The heart of the average horse weighs about nine pounds. Secretariat’s heart was almost twice the average size, and a third larger than any equine heart I’d ever seen. It wasn’t pathologically enlarged, all the chambers and the valves were normal, it was just larger. I think it told us why he was able to do what he did.”
October 4, 1994, Jim and Rachel Daniels of Frankfort got some help from Noah Cyboron while shopping for a new computer. The desk top cost $1,296, plus $228 for the monitor.
October 4, 1996, Rupp Arena entered the Ice Age when the Thoroughblades debuted .
October 4, 2007, Kentucky filed a lawsuit in Pike County against Connecticut’s Purdue Pharma, the oxycontin maker. Kentucky AG Greg Stumbo claimed that Purdue knew people abused the powerful pain-killer but did nothing to stop it. Kentucky contended that Purdue misled pharmacies, physicians, and patients about their product’s addictive and dangerous nature. The state and nation went after the head drug dealer Dr. Richard Sackler.
October 4, 2012, the Louisville Metro Government paid $8 million to Edwin Chandler for spending nine years in prison for a murder he did not commit . Mr. Chandler’s lead council stated, “We are pleased that settlement recognizes that this was not just an innocent mistake but was the result of a very serious misconduct.” The city had already settled a similar $4 million lawsuit in 2001.
October 4, 2018, the KFC Yum Center! hosted their 1st NBA game when the 2013 NBA Champion Miami Heat faced off against the New Orleans Pelicans in a preseason contest.
October, 4, 2019, the most baseball pitches thrown in 8 hours (individual) is 2,633 , achieved by Matthew Graf in Louisville. Matthew set out on this record breaking attempt to raise money through a live stream for the adoption him and his wife were pursuing.
October 4, 2021, Rand Paul and Thomas Massie captured national attention when they delayed fast-track funding to give Israel $1 billion toward a $6 billion Iron Drome. Senator R. Paul, “I support Israel; I’ve voted for hundreds of millions of dollars to support Iron Dome. I’m glad the U.S. has a strong bond with Israel, but the U.S. cannot give money it does not have no matter how strong our relationship is. America is approaching $30 trillion in debt. Our out-of-control spending added $3 trillion to the debt just in this fiscal year.” The dome deployed in 2011 near Beersheba.
On October 4, 2022, The New York Times (NYT) tweeted a feel-good story about the Azov CommanderNYT referred to the Azov as “openly neo-Nazi,” in this tweet, they are “celebrated.”
On October 4, 2023, U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers and Governor A. Beshear, two politicians who have built a career handing out money to their constituents, struck again to the tune of $26 million. They shared the good news in Corbin at the Shaping Our Appalachian Region (SOAR) conference. Recipients include $3 million to Pikeville College, $2.76 million to Pikeville Medical Center, and $2.5 million to the Baptist Health Corbin Foundation in Whitley County.