February 14, 1815, William Henry and Lieut. James Haydon met on the big hill in the back of the State House in Frankfort . There were three rounds of shots with no injuries. Having expended all their ammunition, the parties returned to town but returned hours later to finish their business. Friends on both sides brought about “an amicable and honorable compromise.” Famous Kentucky Duels by J. Winston Coleman, Jr.; pg: 138
February 14, 1849, Zachary Taylor visited Kentucky for the last time on his way to Washington, D.C., for his presidential inauguration . He died in office in July 1950 and was laid to rest in Springfield near Louisville. It Happened In Kentucky History by Robert A. Powell pg: 17
February 14, 1862, Confederates fled to Mississippi from Blowing Green, their “Kentucky Capitol,” when General Buell captured the city . Federal troops controlled Bowling Green and Kentucky for the rest of the war.
On February 14, 1885, the Harlan County Sherriff issued a warrant to Gilbert Hensley’s heavily armed home, and a massive gun battle ensued . Beginning in 1878, the Hensley brothers terrorized the county. Over the years, the gang received multiple indictments. Still, they always seem to escape, killing good men along the way.
On February 14, 1890, the General Assembly approved an act prohibiting any person from giving, selling, or bartering cigarettes for any child under 18 . Penalties included a fine of up to $25.00 or imprisonment for up to 30 days or both.
On February 14, 1910, the USS Hopkins experienced a serious boiler accident. Foxport (Fleming County) native Edward A. Clary served as a water tender. For his actions during the incident, he received the Medal of Honor.
February 14, 1912, Patrolman Lee Barker, Owensboro Police Department , suffered a fatal heart attack while investigating a burglary in progress.
February 14, 1929, the Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre occurred. Gang banging in 1929.
February 14, 1931, Louisville native Tod Browning’s Dracula opened in America . The successful film starred Bela Lugosi as Count Dracula, a vampire who emigrated from Transylvania to England.
February 14, 1938, Joe Hagan’s 48-foot shot with 12 seconds left lifted the Wildcats over the Marquette Warriors . After the game, Governor Happy Chandler pounded a nail into the floor to mark the spot.
February 14, 1941, seventy-five delegates from many localities in Kentucky formed the Kentucky Council on Interracial Cooperation at a meeting in the Y.M.C.A. The 1st vote approved a program to improve African Americans’ educational and economic conditions in the Commonwealth.
February 14, 1943, Cloverport, Breckinridge County native Wiley Blount Rutledge became a U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice . President Roosevelt’s 8th and last appointment, Justice Blount became one of the court’s leading liberal activists supporting racial equality, free speech, and church-state separation. He died as a Justice, of a stroke, at age 55, lasting six years, six months, and 23 days.
February 14, 1952, the Senate passed a bill 33-0 to tax the 300,000 Kentucky automobiles whose owners dodged the tax rolls . The revenue brought in $3,500,000 to $4,000,000, and half went to local schools.
On February 14, 1951, Trooper Robert Renaker Miller, 24, died in a two-vehicle crash on US 25 near the Cabindale community of Boone County. In honor of his service and sacrifice, Kentucky designated US 25 (Dixie Highway) from the Boone County line to I-275 the “Trooper Robert Renaker Miller Memorial Highway.”
February 14, 1964, the federal Soil-Bank Program released 164,000 acres of Kentucky farmland. This left about 195,000 acres remaining with expiration dates until 1969. The program of the late 1950s and 60s paid farmers to retire land, from production, for ten years. It was the predecessor to today’s Conservation Reserve Program (CRP).
February 14, 1968, Army SP4 Dohn W. Johnson from Louisville died in the Vietnam War.
February 14, 1969, Army WO1 Charles S. Jones from Louisa in Lawrence County died in the Vietnam War.
On February 14, 1970, four and a half inches of sleet and snow swept across a large section of Northern Kentucky from Louisville to Ashland. Meanwhile, Kentucky teachers threatened to strike, and GE workers told stories of their 104-day strike that had just ended.
February 14, 1973, Muhammad Ali (41-4) fought Joe Bugner (43-4-1) in the Las Vegas Convention Center. Bugner, the British champion, was big, strong and a skilled technician in the ring. He and Ali fought 12 slow rounds, and Ali never was able to put him away before winning a unanimous decision. The flashiest thing in the ring that night was Ali’s robe, which was given to him by Elvis Presley.
Localtonians wish a Happy Birthday to Covington native Jared Raymond Lorenzen, born in 1981.
On February 14, 1987, The Louisville Times printed their last edition of the afternoon counterpart to The Courier-Journal
On February 14, 1988, with the Judds in attendance, The Comeback Cats lost their last game of the season. The Cats hosted Mississippi and lost the 3rd home game of four losses in the season. Rick Pitino had taken the team to the Final Fours two years in a row, and Tubby’s players were trying to find themselves, and they did.
February 14, 1994, Mt. Victory native Vermont Garrison passed over. The U.S. Air Force flying ACE won 17.33 victories in aerial combat and was one of only seven Americans to achieve ACE status during World War II. Mt. Victory is in Pulaski County.
February 14, 2002, in a very unexpected move, Governor Paul Patton fired Ched Jennings , weeks before his confirmation hearings, as the head of the state workers’ compensation program. The governor had done several people this way, but this is the nature of politics.
February 14, 2010, the Army announced that more than 200 pieces of armor from Fort Knox’s Patton Museum of Cavalry and Armor , including tanks, big guns, and other vehicles dating from WWI, would be moved to Fort Benning, Georgia.
February 14, 2011, Wendell Berry and 13 other environmentalists emerged from the state capitol to roars of approval and applause, ending their four-day occupation of Governor Steve L. Beshear’s office . They crashed his workplace after the governor joined the national coal association’s lawsuit against the EPA to stop Kentucky’s water pollution restrictions.
February 14, 2018, The Washington Post claimed that Russia would likely meddle in mid-term elections
February 14, 2019, the Kentucky Senate (29-8) approved a bill to allow people to carry a gun without a permit or training on the 1st anniversary of America’s deadliest High School shooting in Parkland, FL, where 17 students died.
February 14, 2020, Turfway Park ran the $100,000 John Battaglia Memorial for three-year-olds. The winner, a Kentucky bred and Keeneland graduate, received points towards starting in the Kentucky Derby.
On Sunday, February 14, 2021, the National Weather Service told Kentucky to get ready for 3 to 7 inches of snow and an ice storm. As a result, over 131,000 Kentuckians lost their power. Meanwhile, as Kentucky students prepared to go back to the classroom, scientists around the globe agreed that the virus would never go away after discovering seven new variants in the U.S. The CDC, Dr. Fauci, and Andy still wanted to “defeat it,” until 2022 when all three finally admitted the virus was endemic.
February 14, 2022, as Frankfort proposed a bill to help the wealthy pay no state and local property taxes on their private planes , the Kremlin requested talks with the U.S. to de-escalate Ukrainian tensions. The U.S. Military Industrial Complex, in partnership with NATO, the corporate media, and Washington D.C., carried on the propaganda campaign to go to war on Russia’s border. Amazingly, some Americans mongered for war by placing Ukrainian signs in their yard. Vogue Magazine even placed the Ukrainian president on its cover, where the ex-comedienne pleaded for more money and weapons.
On February 14, 2023, Governor A. Beshear’s administration asked lawmakers for over $40 million and to change state laws to fix Kentucky’s troubled Department of Juvenile Justice. State officials requested Frankfort ban the detention of youths charged with minor status offenses—such as habitual truancy and habitual runaway—and other Class B misdemeanors.