TODAY IN KENTUCKY HISTORY

Kentucky Trivia ● Kentucky Tweets

January 27, 1808, Estill County was created from Clark County and Madison County and was named in honor of James Estill, military captain killed at the Battle of Little Mountain.  Irvine is the county seat.  Other localities include: Ravenna, Barnes Mountain, Cobhill, Cressy, Crystal, Drip Rock, Fox, Furnace, Hargett, Leighton, Palmer, Patsey, Pryse, Red Lick, South Irvine, Spout Springs, Tipton Ridge, Wisemantown and Winston.  Estill County was the 50th county created in Kentucky and covers 256 square miles.

1280px Map of Kentucky highlighting Estill County.svg
By David Benbennick

January 27, 1820, Trigg County was created from Christian County and Caldwell County and was named in honor of Stephen Trigg, military colonel killed at the Battle of Blue Licks.  Cadiz is the county seat.  Other cities and towns include: Cerulean, Caledonia, Canton, Linton, Roaring Spring, Rockcastle and Wallonia.  Trigg County was the 66th county created and covers 481 square miles.

1280px Map of Kentucky highlighting Trigg County.svg
By David Benbennick

January 27, 1856, on the coldest winter in 60 years, Margaret Garner, pregnant with her fifth child and her husband, decided to gather their children and escape enslavement to Cincinnati from Kentucky.  Several other slave families joined them.  According to The Cincinnati Enquirer, the family had stolen horses and a sleigh from their owner, Mr. Marshall, and crossed the frozen river on the night of January 27.  Once in Ohio, they sought refuge at a former slave’s home.  The 1850 Fugitive Slave Act enabled the owners to ask for a warrant for their return to Kentucky.  When the U.S. Marshals entered the hideout, Mrs. Garner killed her daughter instead of returning to slavery.  She did not want any of her children to return to slavery.

On January 27, 1897, a mob of 25 armed white men came to newly emancipated ex-slave George Dinning’s farm in Simpson County, accused him of stealing hogs and chickens, and demanded he leaves the county within ten days.  Mr. Dining denied being a thief and insisted several people in the county would vouch for his good character.  The mob, enraged by Dinning’s resistance, began firing on his house and wounded him twice.  Dining retrieved a gun from his home and fired into the mob, killing one man.  The mob fled, and the next day, Dining turned himself into local officials.  While he was in their custody, the mob returned to his farm, drove his family from their house, looted it, and razed it to the ground.  Governor Bradley had many of these instances in his four years of leading Kentucky.

January 27, 1921, Man o’ War arrived by train at the Lexington Association Track for retirement.  His trainer Louis Feustel, his groom Frank Loftus, exercise rider Clyde Gordon, and his faithful companion Major Treat accompanied him.  The next day he rode under his silks before a vast crowd.  He retired to Hinata Farm in Lexington but soon moved to Faraway Farm.  While it is true that the most remarkable horse never raced in Kentucky, he did set foot on a Kentucky racetrack.

January 27, 1930, Patrolman John Gruber, Louisville Police Department, died due to injuries sustained the previous day when he was struck by a drunk driver near the intersection of 41st Street and Market Street.  He was investigating an automobile accident when he was struck by a vehicle while standing near his patrol car.

Wednesday, January 27, 1937, the Ohio River reached its crest at 57.1 feet, 460 feet above sea level, or 40 feet above its average level.  It was the worst Ohio River flood in history and covered 60% of Louisville and 65 square miles of Jefferson County outside the old city.  About 23,000 people had to leave their homes.  Damages totaled more than $1 billion in today’s dollars.

January 27, 1938, Congress confirmed Minerva native Stanley Forman Reed as an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.  President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed the gentleman from Mason County.

January 27, 1940, legislators in Frankfort introduced three bills to tax slot machines.  The estimated income to the state was $900,000 annually.

January 27, 1954, with no bills to discuss in the Kentucky Senate, the assembly indulged in horse-play.  Senator Maloney called for a vote to expel Senator McCann, stating, “I observed the gentleman at breakfast, and he does not know how to eat sorghum molasses.”  Lt. Gov. Beauchamp then chimed in, “I do observed the gentleman.  I must say in his defense, he did not have a limber knife, and if there is one thing you can’t eat without a limber knife, it is sorghum.”

January 27, 1966, Governor Edward T. Breathitt signed the Kentucky Civil Rights Act into law two years after the U.S. Civil Rights Act of 1964.  As a result, the Commonwealth became the first state south of the Mason-Dixon Line to pass a state-level civil rights act.  M.L. King Jr. called the Kentucky law “the strongest and most comprehensive civil rights bill passed by a southern state.”

January 27, 1966, Army PFC Charles D. Senters from Ashland in Boyd County died in the Vietnam War.

January 27, 1968, Army SGT Rube A. Cox from Strunk in McCreary County and Army SP4 William H. Scheiber, Jr. from Louisville, died in the Vietnam War.

January 27, 1968, at the time, it was believed that Adolph Rupp became college basketball’s all-time winningest coach when the Wildcats overcame a record-setting 52-point performance by LSU’s Pete Maravich to defeat the Tigers, 121-95.  Years later, it was discovered that he had achieved that feat on February 18, 1967, with a 103-74 win over Mississippi State.

January 27, 1971, two McCreary County men driving a U-Haul truck loaded with more than $20,000 got caught in Dry Ridge less than an hour after they robbed a bank in Lexington.

January 27, 1975, about 250 antique collectors crowded into the Thompson & Riley Auction House to attend the estate sale of Mrs. Lucretia Johnson.  Mrs. Johnson owned an insurance agency and had filled every square inch of two large homes with valuable antiques.  Only two rooms in one house were livable.

January 27, 1981, Detective Ronnie Earl Seelye, Louisville Police Department, died when his unmarked police vehicle was struck by another vehicle on Terry Road near Morning Glory Lane.

January 27, 1985, according to the state Department of Fish and Wildlife, 4,262 licensed trappers caught more than 144,000 animals during the 11-week 1983-84 season.  Fur buyers in Kentucky bought 170,831 pelts worth $1.8 million in 1984.

January 27, 1990, Coach Pitino and Cawood Ledford held their popular post game show in Rupp Arena.

January 27, 1996, Martin Luther King III visited Centre College.  Even after losing his father and grandfather to fatal shootings, he spoke that he never succumbed to hatred and bitterness.

January 27, 2004, Army SGT James T. Hoffman, 41, of Whitesburg, died from an explosive device attack in Iraq fighting in Operation Iraqi Freedom.

January 27, 2009, in a 2-1 ruling, the Kentucky Court of Appeals ruled Governor S. Beshear did not have the jurisdiction to seize online casinos’ domain names.  Beshear wanted to capture 141 domains to stop them from operating in Kentucky.  Some of the sites included: two bingo sites, the hugely popular Poker Room, Poker Stars, and other major sports betting sites.

January 27, 2010, Apple unveiled their “tablet” device for surfing the web and playing movies and music.

On January 27, 2012, Kentucky officials scrambled to determine if and when they would repair the 80-year-old Eggner Ferry Bridge over Kentucky Lake that connects Trigg and Marshall Counties.  A cargo vessel struck the bridge carrying rocket components to Alabama.  The bridge reopened to traffic on May 25.

January 27, 2018, a Kentucky bred wins Gulfstream Park’s GI $16,300,000 Pegasus World Cup for four-year-olds and upward.  The winner received $7 million, 2nd place $1.6 million, and 3rd place $1.3 million.  Every entry received prize money, including the last-placed horse (12th), who took home $650,000.

On January 27, 2020, Senator Robby Mills, Henderson, introduced Senate Bill 114, allowing high school and university athletes to compete in sports that align with their biological sex and not their preferred gender identity.

January 27, 2021, Kentucky’s new House Impeachment Committee began conversations to remove Governor A. Beshear for his efforts to slow the spread of the coronavirus.  On this day, they opted to ask the Beshear administration for more information before proceeding further.