TODAY IN KENTUCKY HISTORY

Kentucky Trivia ● Kentucky Tweets

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,” was a tremendous loss of lives for the new settlers, especially Kentuckians.  Only 33 men of some 700 men escaped the battle.  Over 400 Kentucky frontiersmen died in this War of 1812 battle.

Localtonians wish a Happy Birthday to Henry County native Reuben Thomas Durrett, born in 1824.  Mr. Durrett was a lawyer, editor, historian, book collector, and founder and first president of the Filson Club.

January 22, 1856, Bardstown native Robert Charles Wickliffe became Louisiana’s 15th governor.

Localtonians wish a Happy Birthday to Oldham County native David Wark Griffith, born in 1875.

Localtonians wish a Happy Birthday to Louisa native Frederick Vinson, born in 1890, in a jail cell where his father was the jailer.  After graduating from Centre College in 1911, Vinson returned to Louisa, where he opened his law practice at 21. He later 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.  Willa is the first African American woman to earn a commercial pilot’s license.  She did so in 1937.

January 22, 1930, sentences totaling 231 years were handed out against 106 violators in a U.S. District Court in Lexington.  The persons broke prohibition laws and the sentences ranged 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, was killed in an automobile accident while responding to a three-alarm fire at St. Martin’s School.  During the response his patrol vehicle collided with a truck and burst into flames.

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.

January 22, 1960, Kentucky should burn all of its present voter-registration books and require and require every voter in the state to register anew.  This was 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, Perry County native Dewey Daniel, a man who devoted a lifetime to the cause of promoting Eastern Kentucky, died.  He was known as the “King of the Mountains.”

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

January 22, 1981, inflation hit 12.4% for 1980; marking the second year in a row, it hit double digits.  In 2020 inflation was 1.4%; in 2021, it was 7%.

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 stretches out to 1 1/16M at a Gulfstream Park allowance and wins his third 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 U. S. Army Corps of Engineers began lowering the water level in Lake Cumberland, 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.  Workers completed the $594 million new wall inside the dam in early 2013.

January 22, 2007, the 36th annual Eclipse Awards ceremony took place at the Beverly Wilshire Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills.  Invasor became the 2006 Horse of the Year as well as the Champion Older Male, capping off an outstanding season.

January 22, 2011, a Kentucky bred takes the $150,000 GII Palos Verdes Stakes at Santa Anita for four-year-olds and upward.  The winner paid $20.00 to win on a $2.00 win ticket.

January 22, 2013, Trooper Anson Blake Tribby, Kentucky State Police, was killed in a vehicle crash while attempting to assist at the scene of a motor vehicle fire on I-64 near Winchester. He contacted the Kentucky State Police dispatch and advised them of the situation when his vehicle struck the back of a tow truck.

January 22, 2015, Owensboro native Wendell Hampton Ford died.  Wendell served for twenty-four years in the U.S. Senate and was Kentucky’s 53rd governor.  He was the first person to be successively elected Lieutenant Governor, Governor and United States Senator for Kentucky.

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

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 is proven to reduce smoking.  Kentucky, on this date, led the nation in smoking, cancer rates, and tobacco-related deaths.

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.  In addition, adults may not smoke in the presence of students on school-sponsored trips.

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

January 22, 2021, three unnamed grand jurors and other “concerned citizens” filed an impeachment petition against AG Daniel Cameron, the latest petition filed after the Kentucky House of Representatives created an impeachment committee.