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TODAY IN KENTUCKY HISTORY

On March 5, 1789, James Bray, Lexington’s 1st tavern keeper, announced his retirement and asked, “Will all those who owe me please settle with Mr. Andrew Holmes.”  History of Pioneer Lexington 1779-1806 by Charles Staples

March 5, 1841, John J. Crittenden began his 1st of two terms as U.S. Attorney General.  William Henry Harrison appointed Crittenden as Attorney General.  However, Harrison died in office, and Crittenden resigned rather than continue his service under Harrison’s successor, John Tyler. 

Monday, March 5, 1849, Zachary Taylor’s public inauguration as the 12th U.S. President occurred in the East Portico of the D.C. Capitol.  The March 4 presidential inauguration fell on a Sunday for a 2nd time, forcing a public ceremony on Monday.

On March 5, 1850, the General Assembly chartered the Louisville and Nashville Railroad (L&N), the 1st train to connect the two cities.  They laid the 1st track and operated it in 1855 in downtown Louisville, and in 1858, the 1st passenger station became operational.  During the Civil War, the L&N was the West’s only North-South rail link, a vital part of the Union’s supply route.

On March 5, 1850, businessmen formed the Lexington & Danville Railroad Company to build a very high bridge over the Kentucky River Gorge between Jessamine and Mercer Counties.  John Roebling finished the landmark in 1877.  The Kentucky River by William E. Ellis, pg: 91

March 5, 1860, Kentucky created Wolfe County from Owsley County, Breathitt County, Powell County and Morgan County and named it in honor of Nathaniel Wolfe, member of the Kentucky General Assembly.  Campton is the county seat.  Other localities include Hazel Green, Baptist, Bear Pen, Bethany, Lee City, Olivia, Pence, Pine Ridge, and Trent.  The 110th county created, Wolfe County, covers 223 square miles.

By David Benbennick

March 5, 1872, the Kentucky General Assembly resolved to erect a monument over John Breathitt’s grave in Russellville.  In 1834, Kentucky’s 11th governor became the 2nd governor to die in office.

March 5, 1921, Frankfort native Albert Bacon Fall became the 28th U.S. Secretary of the Interior.

March 5, 1921, a Louisville Patrolman found a mail sack and several opened registered letters by a trashcan.  Proof that whoever had dynamited two safes in the Paris County Post Office, three days earlier, had escaped with $15,000-$20,000.  They possibly came to Louisville to riffle through the mail.  Today the Post Office is the Hopewell Museum.

On Thursday, March 5, 1925, Desha Breckinridge, the Editor of the Lexington Herald, defended the current status of mutual betting for Kentucky horse racing.  His speech, “The Other Side of the Pari-Mutuel Question,” illustrated the potential consequences if Kentucky reverted back to bookmakers.  He also discussed Kentucky’s horse racing history and explained how pari-mutuel came to be.

March 5, 1942, Kentucky’s General Assembly “declared an emergency” and approved daylight saving time throughout the Commonwealth.  Many Kentuckians vehemently resisted the change.

March 5, 1948, jockey Al Snider and two friends set off to fish near Sandy Key, FL.  One minute, Snider and his friends were fishing while sitting.  The next minute, under gusting winds and rolling waters, they were gone forever.

By Daily Telegraph

“A total mystery because there was never a trace of them found, not even a piece of clothing,” said Tommy Trotter, a Gulfstream Park and Keeneland steward whose father, Tobe, also disappeared on the boat.  Al Snider was going to be king of the racing world.  Just days earlier, the 28-year-old rider had won the Flamingo Stakes at Hialeah Park aboard Calumet Farm’s Citation.  Snider was the colt’s regular rider, and the day before he set off to go fishing, he had a contract to ride full time for the prestigious Calumet Farm.  Citation went on to win the Triple Crown.

March 5, 1953, Army CPL Marvin Temple from Jefferson County died in the Korean War.

March 5, 1964, Dr. Martin Luther King and former baseballer Jackie Robinson led a march of 10,000 people to the Kentucky Capitol steps.  The men and women called for an end to legal segregation and enforced equal access and treatment in stores, restaurants, hotels, theaters, other businesses and public places.

Kentucky Trivia:  The march worked.  In 1966, Kentucky became the first state in the South to pass legal segregation laws.  M.L. King called the Kentucky Civil Rights Act “the strongest and most comprehensive civil rights bill passed by a southern state.”   

March 5, 1968, Marine Corps PFC Gary W. Litton from Ft. Mitchell in Kenton County died in the Vietnam War.

March 5, 1969, Marine Corps LCPL Boyd Lawrence Brake from Adairville in Logan County died in the Vietnam War.

March 5, 1971, Army SP4 Larry Patrick Johnson from Louisville died in the Vietnam War.

In March 1974, the Louisville police department announced they would change to all-blue “uniforms.”  The change ended light blue shirts for officers and white shirts for sergeants and above.  The police chief also wore the same blue.”

March 5, 1980, a Mercer County man, a Fayette County man, and a Jessamine County man received indictments on firearm violations in federal court.  The charges stemmed from a Lexington storage unit that contained stolen military weapons from California.  The book, The Bluegrass Conspiracy, provides further details.

March 5, 1980, Louisville hosted a celebrity bash for the release of Coal Miner’s Daughter with Kentucky First Lady Phyllis George Brown, Oliver “Mooney” Lynn, Loretta Lynn, Sissy Spacek, and others.

On the March 5, 1982, Password Plus episode, Louisville brothers Jack Narz and Tom Kennedy appeared together, Tom the regular host, and Jack, a celebrity guest.  During the show, Tom and Jack talked about how hard it is to play under pressure.  Unscripted, Jack offered to switch places with his brother and with the contestants’ permission, they did.

March 5, 1984, Folklife Archives interviewed Jim, Dwight, Virginia, Bill, and Geneva Spradlin about growing up in Floyd County in the 1930s.  Folklife Archives is an oral history project by Western Kentucky University’s Department of Library Special Collections.

March 5, 1996, Governor Paul Edward Patton established the Kentucky Native American Heritage Commission (KNAHC) as an advisory board attached to the Education, Arts, and Humanities Cabinet (EAHC).  Kentucky First Lady, Judi Conway Patton, a person of native heritage, felt strongly Native Americans have a voice in state government.

March 5, 1999, over 1,800 Louisville-area doctors announced they would stop treating patients insured by Aetna in July.  Aetna tried to corner the market on many procedures, and the doctors balked.  Health insurance corporations are wicked.

On March 5, 2001, a Federal judge sentenced Daniel Schwarberg, the average Joe bandit, to 63 months in prison.  The 43-year-old father of three apologized for robbing the 11 banks, with no deaths or injuries, which he did out of frustration and desperation to pay the bills.

On March 5, 2001, George W. Bush, The Decider, nominated William S. Farrish III as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to Great Britain and Northern Ireland.  William then owned Lane’s End Farm as Chairman of Churchill Downs Inc.

On March 5, 2002, Athletic Director Larry Ivy retired after President Todd and the NCAA gave scathing reports on UK sports.  Todd reigned in basketball tickets sales, his top priority.  People paid as much as $300,000 to sit courtside.  Meanwhile, America bombed a cave complex in Afghanistan, looking for the boogeyman.  The strongest military in the world finally found Osama bin Laden nine years later.

March 5, 2006, corporate America’s monopolies continued to have their way when the government allowed AT&T to buy BellSouth for $67 billion.

On March 5, 2009, the Dow Jones closed at 6,926, a drop of more than 50% from its pre-recession high.  From their peaks in October 2007 until their closing lows of March 2009, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, Nasdaq Composite, and S&P 500 all suffered declines of over 50%, marking the worst stock market crash since the Great Depression era.

On March 5, 2010, police arrested two people for bringing pills into Kentucky.  The arrests continued an investigation into one of the first known large drug rings organized to get pills into Kentucky from out of state.  The drug rings would recruit people, mainly from Eastern Kentucky.  Months earlier, 12 locals from Floyd County traveled out of state to bring methadone and pain pills back home.  Kentucky’s Pill Mills were just getting started.

On March 5, 2014, Kentuckians made a nostalgic reenactment of the Dr. M.L. King, Jr. and Jackie Robinson march to the Kentucky Capitol steps.

March 5, 2015, Lieutenant Clifford Scott Travis, Bullitt County Detention Center, suffered a fatal heart attack while clearing snow from the walkways in front of the Bullitt County Detention Center.

March 5th, 2015, Lexington received 10” of snow, a March record and #5 all-time for the city.

March 5, 2016, the GIII $400,000 Gotham Stakes for three-year-olds ran at Aqueduct.  The winner Did Not Finish (DNF) the Derby.

March 5, 2019, as locals in older neighborhoods bickered over tearing down older, unique, well-built homes for new box homes, Papa Johns and John Schnatter agreed that John would step down from the company’s board.  John relinquished the CEO position in 2017 and Chairman of the Board in 2018.  The Jeffersonville, Indiana native got caught up in “racism” scandal.

March 5, 2020, in Governor A. Beshear’s 1st coronavirus update, he wore a coat, tie, and no mask.  The Kentucky Department of Health announced they could conduct 800-1,000 coronavirus tests if needed.  Meanwhile, Dr. D. Brix, sitting next to V.P. Pence, told Congress, “Wearing a mask as a healthy person will not protect you.”

On March 5, 2020, the Wild Lights Asian Lantern Festival opened in the Louisville Zoo for the nation’s largest Lantern festival.  Meanwhile, West 5th Street Brewery opened a store in UK’s Cornerstone Eatery, the 1st time the university offered beer in a public campus setting.

On March 5, 2021, Governor A. Beshear arrived in a National Guard helicopter at Beattyville.  He surveyed several hard-hit counties in Eastern Kentucky, where over 200 homes flooded in Breathitt and Lee Counties.  Meanwhile, coronavirus positives declined for the 10th straight day.  The vaccination count stood at 789,000.

On March 5, 2022, locals discussed what it meant to have long COVID.  Patients used fatigue, shortness of breath, and weakness to describe it.  Meanwhile, ApartmentAdvisor.com had ranked Louisville the best foodie city in the U.S.

On March 5, 2022, a Florida-bred horse won Gulfstream Park’s GII $400,000 Fountain of Youth Stakes and finished 4th in the Derby; no other starters made it to Derby Post Time.

On Tuesday, March 5, 2024, hundreds of locals gathered on the Capitol steps in Frankfort to commemorate the 60th anniversary of Kentucky’s historic civil rights march, where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Jackie Robinson led 10,000 participants advocating for equal treatment.