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TODAY IN KENTUCKY HISTORY

March 1, 1769, Judge Richard Henderson became one of two judges appointed to the Superior Court of North Carolina by their governor.  Many historians believe the judge employed Daniel Boone as early as 1764.

March 1, 1782, a party of 25 Wyandots surprised Strode’s Station, located between Bryan Station and Fort Boonesborough.  The Natives held a 36-hour siege, killed two settlers, and destroyed all the sheep and cattle.

On March 1, 1797, legislatures authorized a new road to replace Boone Trace.  Joseph Crockett headed the project from Milford, the county seat of Madison County at that time, south through the wilderness to intersect the new Wilderness Road at the site of the present village of Pittsburg in Laurel County.  Simultaneously, Congress introduced a bill to place Boone Trace on the National Trail System.

Boone Trace:  Valid fears of unseen danger in the wilderness hindered travel into the West.  However, with the trail’s opening, thousands of settlers flowed along Boone Trace to claim their land and begin a new life.  No other trail is of greater historical significance to Kentucky’s founding and the West’s opening than Boone Trace.

March 1, 1822, Jack Jouett, the “Paul Revere of the South,” passed over.  The farmer and politician made the heroic 40-mile ride during the American Revolution.  He rode to warn Thomas Jefferson, then the outgoing governor of Virginia, that British cavalry wanted to capture him.  After the war, Jouett moved across the Appalachian Mountains to what was then called Kentucky County.

Localtonians wish a Happy Birthday to Greensburg native Robert Ball Anderson, born into slavery in Green County in 1843.  Mr. Anderson became one of Nebraska’s most prominent landowners by capitalizing on the 1873 Timber Act.

March 1, 1847, the state legislature formally passed an act to declare Georgetown as the city’s new name.  It was 1st known as Royal Spring, then Lebanon, and then renamed George Town in 1790 in honor of Gen. George Washington.

On March 1, 1854, the General Assembly approved an act to provide $10,000 for a monument over Henry Clay’s grave two years after his death.

March 1, 1862, all personnel evacuated Camp Beauregard when over 1,000 men died due to severe weather and poor diet.  A large boulder monument erected in 1920 by the United Daughters of the Confederacy memorializes the men buried in the mass graves.  The Graves County camp at its height housed 5,000 troops from seven states.

March 1, 1912, State University, Lexington (UK), defeated Georgetown College, 19-18, to complete the season with a perfect 9-0 record and earn its 1st title as Southern Champions.

March 1, 1914, John Caldwell Calhoun Mayo took a special train to the Jewish Hospital in Cincinnati, where he and his entourage occupied an entire floor.  The Gulnare native of Johnson County ranks as one of Kentucky’s great entrepreneurs.  Mayo suffered from Bright’s disease.

March 1, 1915, Hollywood released Barnaby Rudge, starring Owensboro native Tom Powers.  Mr. Powers had his way in Tinsel town.

March 1, 1921, Kentucky upset Tulane, Mercer, Mississippi A&M, and Georgia to win the 1st Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association (SIAA) basketball championship, one of college basketball’s 1st tournaments.  Bill King’s free throw with no time left on the clock lifted the Wildcats to the win in Atlanta 20-19.  Hundreds of Wildcats fans awaited “play-by-play” via telegraph and greeted the team’s train with a celebration and parade in downtown Lexington.

March 1, 1924, Transylvania College announced the body of Constantine Samuel Rafinesque had arrived from a Philadelphia cemetery and rested in a vault in Morrison Chapel.  The school soon provided the famous professor’s final resting place under a new library and museum.

March 1, 1943, Keeneland became a “suburban” plant and told not to operate during World War II because of rubber shortages.   The Keeneland Association leased the Churchill Downs facilities and held three Spring Meets from 1943 to 1945.  No Fall Meets occurred.

On March 1, 1954, the U.S. tested an H-bomb design on Bikini Atoll that unexpectedly turned out to be the largest U.S. nuclear test ever exploded.  By missing a critical fusion reaction, the Los Alamos scientists had grossly underestimated the size of the explosion.  They thought it would yield the equivalent of 5 million tons of TNT, but, “Bravo” yielded 15 megatons — making it more than a thousand times bigger than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

March 1, 1960, a self-described “Kentucky Hillbilly,” Corbin native Henry Alvin Sharpe’s doubledoons were thrown from Madras Gras floats for the 1st time.

Localtonians wish a Happy Anniversary to Johnny Cash (36) and June Carter (38), who married in Franklin’s 1st Methodist Church in 1968.  The night before, the two received a Grammy for their recording of Jackson.  It was the 2nd marriage for Cash and the 3rd for Carter.

March 1, 1969, Army SGT Rodney M. Goode and Army SP5 Ben H. Wilkins, Jr. both from Louisville, died in the Vietnam War.

March 1, 1971, Loretta Lynn headlined a concert in Louisville Fairgrounds to raise money for the 39 families who had lost their loved ones in the December Hyden Mine explosion.  Loretta recently released Coal Miner’s Daughter, and Col. Harlan Sanders reportedly provided free dinners.

March 1, 1973, Robyn Smith became the 1st female jockey to win a stakes race.  Ms. Smith guided North Sea, in Aqueduct’s Paumonok Handicap, to the winner’s circle.

On March 1, 1974, after the Speed Museum snubbed its nose at John Hundley, Jr.’s collection of model trains and miniature circus wagons, the Kentucky Court of Appeals ruled that the life work be transferred to the Kentucky Railway Museum.  Hundley left his collection to Speed, and the Directors wanted to throw it away after three months of display.

March 1, 1978, Governor J. Carroll bailed out General Hospital of Louisville and asked for millions more for the University of Louisville to operate in the future.  The hospital was known for treating Louisville’s poor.

March 1, 1980, John Jacob Niles, a composer, singer, and collector of traditional ballads, passed over.  The Dean of American Balladeers greatly influenced the folk music revival of the 1950s and 1960s.  Odetta, Joan Baez, Burl Ives, Bob Dylan, Peter, Paul, and Mary recorded his songs. 

March 1, 1981, Sam Bowie blocked the game’s final shot by LSU’s Howard Carter as the #9 Wildcats knocked off the #2 Tigers in Rupp Arena.  The UK win prevented LSU from completing an undefeated SEC season. Click for pic.

March 1, 1984, Corrections Employee Patricia Ross, Kentucky Department of Corrections, died at the hands of an inmate in a dining facility at the Kentucky State Penitentiary.

On March 1, 1990, Kentucky’s House Health &Welfare Committee defeated a bill that made hospitals charge the same price to all customers, regardless of their insurance coverage.  They approved a bill to collect and publish pricing information for Jefferson County Hospitals.

March 1, 1992, Carey Spicer #17, Jack Givens #21, both from Lexington, and Louie Dampier #10, had their jerseys retired during the half-time of the 80-56 win over Vandy.

March 1, 2000, the Louisville Police awards ceremony intended to honor its officers instead ripped open community wounds over the 1999 shooting of Desmond Rudolph.  Mayor Dave Armstrong boycotted the ceremony that many community activists picketed.

On March 1, 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court abolished capital punishment for juveniles 5-4.  A Kentucky case the Justices ruled on in 1989 guided their decision.  Stanford vs Kentucky debated the execution of an individual when he committed a horrendous crime at 17.

March 1, 2014, a neck decided the GIII $500,000 Gotham Stakes at Aqueduct.

On March 1, 2018, President Trump gave a closed-door speech at Mar-a-Lago, saying of Chinese President Xi Jinping: “He’s now president for life……I think it’s great.  Maybe we’ll have to give that a shot someday.”  A week later, referencing the criticism he’d received for those comments, he told lawmakers that the last time I jokingly said that, the papers started saying, “He’s got despotic tendencies.”  Trump continued, “No, I’m not looking to do it.  Unless you want to do it. That’s OK.”

On March 1, 2018, a heckler asked, “Nancy Pelosi, What is Your Net Worth?”  The question came during the speaker’s speech on income inequality.  In 2018, she ranked 6th in the House with an estimated net worth of $114,662,521, according to Open Secrets.

March 1, 2019, Kentucky bureaucrats held a news conference to fight back on The Courier-Journal stories about Kentucky’s Hepatitis A outbreak.  The newspaper reported Kentucky did not aggressively address the outbreak in rural areas.  Hepatitis A killed 43 Kentuckians and sickened more than 4,200, creating the deadliest outbreak in the nation in 2019.

On March 1, 2020, the Speed Art Museum, Kentucky’s largest art gallery, concluded its tribute to the Kentucky horse for the first time in its 92-year history.  Located on the UofL campus, it presented an exclusive equine exhibit featuring Kentucky Thoroughbreds, Standardbreds, and American Saddlebreds. Meanwhile, the coronavirus shut down the Louvre as the flu strain appeared around the globe.

March 1, 2021, Kentucky lawmakers were “strongly encouraged” to wear masks during the 2021 General Assembly, which started two days later than expected.  The Senate President and House Speaker set guidelines that fell just short of a mandate.  Governor A. Beshear, in his daily briefing, said, “We need to move faster in the vaccination effort.”  In 2.5 months, over 60,400 Kentuckians received the experimental vaccine.

Tuesday, March 1, 2022, legacy media hyped America’s proxy war in Ukraine on day seven of the Russian invasion!  Some religions fasted for Ukraine on Ash Wednesday, and cities from coast to coast held vigils.  Americans placed Ukraine flags in their front yards.  In 50 years, Americans went from protesting wars to promoting them.

By March 1, 2022, America had sent $113 billion to Ukraine.  Days earlier Mitch M. spoke on the Senate floor to send more money.  Rand Paul called for an immediate stop to all Ukrainian funds and to spend the money at home.  Finally, Rep. J. Comer wanted a detailed account of the $113 billion as head of the House Oversight Committee. He never got it.

On March 1, 2023, violence and neglect described Kentucky’s broken juvenile justice system.  Therefore, lawmakers threw $50 million at it and called for the commissioner to resign.  The governor hired and supported Vicki Reed.  She resigned nine months later, meaning the state had hired one commissioner a year for the last six years.  A tough job indeed.

Leap Year made its impact on Kentucky when, on March 1, 2024, less than 24 hours after McConnell’s announcement, the Kentucky legislators got busy passing a bill they wanted.  They didn’t want the traditional way of Kentucky governors appointing vacant U.S. Senate seats.

Friday, March 1, 2024, Louisville firefighter crews made a daring rescue of a semi-driver after her truck went over the edge of Clark Memorial Bridge, leaving the semi dangling high above the Ohio River.