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TODAY IN KENTUCKY HISTORY

January 22, 1813, British and Native American forces attacked a pioneer militia retreating south from Detroit.  The “Battle of Frenchtown,” also known as the “Battle of River Raisin,” killed over 400 Kentucky frontiersmen.  Only 33 men of some 700 men escaped the War of 1812 battle.

Localtonians wish a Happy Birthday to Henry County native Reuben Thomas Durrett, born in 1824.  The lawyer, editor, historian, and book collector founded and became the 1st president of the Filson Club.     

January 22, 1856, Bardstown native Robert Charles Wickliffe became Louisiana’s 15th governor.  Charles owned more enslaved people than any Kentuckian and likely more than any U.S. citizen.

Localtonians wish a Happy Birthday to Oldham County native David Wark Griffith, born in 1875. “Lights, Camera, Action!” is accredited to the Kentuckian when he said it 1st in the 1910 film, In Old California.

Localtonians wish a Happy Birthday to Louisa native Frederick Vinson, born in 1890 in a jail cell where his father worked.  After graduating from Centre College in 1911, Vinson returned to Louisa, where he opened his law practice at 21.  In 1937, he became the 13th Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Localtonians wish a Happy Birthday to Glasgow native Willa Beatrice Brown, born in 1906.  In 1937, she became the 1st African American woman to earn a commercial pilot’s license.

On January 22, 1910, State University, Lexington (UK), played its 1st basketball game in Buell Armory Gymnasium.  UK defeated Georgetown 31-11.  Walter Fox from Newport scored a game-high 12 points.  Edwin R. Sweetland coached the Cats.

Buell Armory Gymnasium 1910-1924

On January 22, 1930, Lexington’s U.S. District Court handed out sentences totaling 231 years against 106 violators.  The individuals who broke the prohibition laws received sentences from three months to five years.  Prohibition ended in December 1933.

January 22, 1941, acting Governor Rodes K. Myers granted two pardons and commuted three individual sentences when Governor Keen Johnson traveled to Washington D.C. to attend President Roosevelt’s inauguration.  Myers, in effect, wiped the famous Battle of Evarts cases off the books.

January 22, 1947, Patrolman John Harlan Hawthorne, Louisville Police Department, died in an automobile accident while responding to a three-alarm fire at St. Martin’s School.

On January 22, 1953, Bill Spivey, fighting to clear himself of a perjury charge that sullied his reputation as an All-American basketball star, testified in court that he never helped fix a game.  The 23-year-old former UK player contradicted two former teammates’ testimony.

On January 22, 1960, “Kentucky should burn all its present voter registration books and require every state voter to register anew.”  This, according to one Democrat and one Republican heading the Logan County Purgation Board.

January 22, 1966, 9.4 inches of snow fell in Lexington, the 10th highest accumulation in the city’s history.

January 22, 1967, Army SSG Clifton Frederick Jr from Cynthiana died in the Vietnam War.

January 22, 1972, known as the “King of the Mountains,” Perry County native Dewey Daniel, a man who devoted a lifetime to the cause of promoting Eastern Kentucky, died.

January 22, 1978, HB 98 in Kentucky’s House spelled out, for the 1st time in the state’s history, the circuit court’s obligation to end a parent’s right if a child is abandoned, abused, or neglected.

January 22, 1989, despite the efforts of Calvert City’s B.F. Goodrich Plant, the corporation continued to pollute the community.  Test results released on this day showed the chemical ethylene dichloride appeared in more than 90% of the 229 samples tested in Kentucky’s western region.

January 22, 1995, Cigar stretched out to 1 1/16M at a Gulfstream Park allowance and won his 3rd race of a 16 win streak.

January 22, 1998, Space Shuttle Endeavor Flight STS-89, commanded by Terrence Wade Wilcutt from Russellville, launched from Kennedy Space Center.  The mission transferred more than 9,000 pounds of scientific equipment and water.  Wilcutt graduated from Southern High School, Louisville, in 1967 and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in math from WKU in 1974.  A veteran of four space flights, Wilcutt has logged over 1,007 hours in space.

January 22, 2007, the 36th annual Eclipse Awards ceremony occurred in Beverly Hills.  Invasor won the 2006 Horse of the Year and the Champion Older Male, capping off an outstanding season.

January 22, 2007, the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers began lowering Lake Cumberland’s water level, fearing a possible leak in Wolf Creek Dam.  Water seepage had eroded the limestone under the dam.  The caverns beneath the structure complicated plans for repairs, but workers completed the $594 million new wall inside the barrier in early 2013.

January 22, 2013, Trooper Anson Blake Tribby, Kentucky State Police, died when a tow truck plowed into the back of his cruiser while assisting a burning vehicle on I-64 near Winchester.

January 22, 2015, Owensboro native Wendell Hampton Ford died after serving for twenty-four years in the U.S. Senate and four as Kentucky’s 53rd governor.  He has the distinction of being the 1st person to be successively elected lieutenant governor, governor, and U.S. senator for Kentucky.

January 22, 2018, Kentucky launched an effort to boost the state’s cigarette tax by at least $1.00 a pack, a move they say would reduce smoking.  At the time, the Commonwealth led the nation in smoking, cancer rates, and tobacco-related deaths.

January 22, 2018, Kentucky Attorney General A. Beshear sued McKesson Corporation of San Francisco.  Floyd County had 38,000 citizens.  Yet, between 2010 and 2016, the pharmaceutical distributor shipped more than 18 million opioid pills to the community, enough for each person to have 477 pills.

January 22, 2019, Ben Chandler, chairman of Coalition for a Smoke-Free Tomorrow, spoke in the Capitol Rotunda to rally legislators to pass HB 11.  He addressed the record rates of teen vaping.  The bill passed months later, allowing school districts to pass tobacco-free policies.  The bill prohibits tobacco use by students, staff, and visitors on all school property.

January 22, 2020, a Kentucky legislator pulled Senate Bill 89, that enabled police officers to stop an individual in a public place if they think they would commit a crime.  The bill allowed the officer to demand identification and explain why they are where they are “to the satisfaction of the officer.”

January 22, 2020, U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) sued Hillary Clinton for defamation.  Clinton claimed, during the 2016 presidential primary, that her opponent, an Iraqi War Veteran and sitting U.S. representative, was a “favorite Russian asset.”  The Mueller investigation ended ten months earlier, but the Russian xenophobia continued to build support for America’s next war in Ukraine.

January 22, 2020: China closed off the city of Wuhan.  President Trump stated the U.S. had the pandemic “totally under control” and trusted China to do its part.  Meanwhile, the CDC confirmed the 1st U.S. coronavirus case in Washington State.

January 22, 2021, Governor A. Beshear walked along the small flags placed on Capitol grounds for each Kentuckian who died from coronavirus, over 3,000.  Later, he gave his daily brief and acknowledged cases and deaths were declining after six of the state’s deadliest days in January 2021.  Meanwhile, President Biden signed two executive orders for more food stamps and higher wages as people struggled financially after the lockdowns.  Finally, conservative sects warned Mitch not to make it easy to convict Trump as the 2nd impeachment continued.

January 22, 2021, three unnamed grand jurors and other “concerned citizens” filed an impeachment petition against AG Daniel Cameron over the Breonna Taylor case.  This latest petition came after the Kentucky House created a committee to make it easier to file an impeachment charge.

The January 22, 2022, edition of the Lexington Herald-Leader contained numerous articles focused on Eastern Kentucky’s floods.  The top headline on the front page in bold read “Waiting For The Creeks To Rise.”  The articles discussed the causes, the financial toll, and the everyday heartbreak of starting over.  Unfortunately, historic floods would hit the region six months later.

January 22, 2022, a Kentucky bred won Turfway Park’s 32nd Leonatus Stakes.  The one mile black type for three-year-olds had a $100,000 purse.

On January 22, 2023, Thomas Massie tweeted, “Possibly the most depraved of the COVID-19 shot mandates are the college mandates.  Young adults are LEAST at risk for COVID and MOST at risk for myocarditis from the shots.  Young adults also have half a century of life before them, while long term effects of shots are unknown.”