Kentucky Trivia ● Kentucky Tweets

March 6, 1750, Dr. Thomas Walker left Castle Hill, Virginia, with Ambrose Powell, William Tomlinson, Colby Chew, Henry Lawless, and John Hughes.  Their mission; to explore the Western Wild Lands of Kentucke for the Loyal Land Company.

March 6, 1777, Native Americans killed Thomas Shores and William Ray at the Shawnee Spring.

March 6, 1836, Logan County native James Bowie died in the Alamo.

March 6, 1848, Lexington received its 1^st telegraph message from Louisville.  The Squire’ Sketches of Lexington by J. Winston Coleman, Jr.; pg: 43

March 6, 1876, Kentucky incorporated Whitesburg in Letcher County; locals settled the town 34 years earlier.

March 6, 1882, one of the 1^st documented Kentucky lynchings took place for an alleged rape in Simpson County when Robert Sarver, a black male, hanged.

On March 6, 1898, two men died at a dance in the bawdy house belonging to “the Hawkins woman.”  Only Mr. Dickey seemed upset.  The next day, Dan Woods, son of saloon-keeper Reuben Woods, shot Young Hensley, but not fatally.  All part of Clay County’s notorious feuding.

March 6, 1920, Deputy Sheriff Marvin Franklin Cummings, Clinton County Sheriff’s Department, died from gunshots by eight men he had arrested the previous week during a liquor raid.  Despite being mortally wounded, Deputy Cummings killed two of the suspects.

March 6, 1922, Sheriff John T. Roach, of the Graves County Sherriff’s Department, died from a gunshot by a former deputy who was upset that he was not appointed to another term by the sheriff.

Localtonians wish a Happy Birthday to Neon native Opal Jean Amburgey, born in 1925 in Letcher County.  Better known as Jean Chapel, the country music writer published over 170 songs.

March 6, 1931, Patrolman Clarence G. Rapson, Jefferson County Police Department, died in a motorcycle accident on Hikes Lane.  His motorcycle skidded and then fell on him.

On March 6, 1940, the U.S. Congress increased the debt limit from $65 billion to $125 billion, the largest limit in history, while President Roosevelt signed the largest appropriations bill, over $32 billion.  In three years (1941-43), the military received $142 billion.

March 6, 1967, the American Basketball Association (ABA) awarded the franchise that became the Kentucky Colonels to Don Regan for $30,000.  Later that year, Joseph Gregory, Mamie Gregory, and William C. Boone bought it.

March 6, 1968, Army SSG David L. Ray from Louisville died in the Vietnam War.

March 6, 1969, Army SFC Theodore C. Hall from Louisville died in the Vietnam War.

March 6, 1971, Army CW3 William P. Milliner from Louisville died in the Vietnam War.

March 6, 1976, coach Fran Curci looked on with his star, Warren Bryant, as the Wildcats opened their spring practice.  Bryant, an offensive tackle, became a cornerstone of Kentucky’s 1976 SEC co-championship team.

March 6, 1978, a gunman shot Lakeville native Larry Flynt while waking to the Gwinnett County, GA courthouse to battle obscenity charges.  The gunman stood near an alley across the street from where Flynt dropped.  The shooting left Flynt partially paralyzed with permanent spinal cord damage.

On March 6, 1979, in one of the worst rides a good horse had to endure, Spectacular Bid won the Florida Derby by 4 ½; many say it should have been 20.

March 6, 1981, Walter Cronkite anchored the news for the last time after 19 years of the CBS Evening News.

March 6, 1985, Robert Todd Biggs, an eighth-grader from Calvert City, won the National Junior Division of the hunter essay safety contest against 2,000 entries.  Robert received $2,000 in U.S. Saving Bonds and an engraved .22-caliber rifle.

March 6, 1990, UK’s Board of Trustees voted to block Missouri’s Arch Mineral Corporations plan to strip mine on the edge of the school’s Robinson Forest by asking for 4,000 acres declared unsuitable for mining.  The company said if they didn’t mine in Breathitt, 375 people would lose jobs.

March 6, 2001, Henderson native Darrell A. Posey passed over.  An anthropologist and biologist, he vitalized the study of traditional knowledge of indigenous and folk populations in Brazil and other countries.  He called his approach ethnobiology.  It combined research with respect for other cultures, especially indigenous intellectual property rights.  An obituary described him as an “anthropologist who gave up scholarly detachment to fight for the rights of native peoples.”

March 6, 2006, Donald Trump on ABC’s The View, “… she does have a very nice figure. I’ve said if Ivanka weren’t my daughter, perhaps I’d be dating her.”

March 6, 2009, the government announced the U.S. lost 651,000 jobs in February, bringing the three-month total to two million.  The recession, well into its 2^nd year, stood at 4.4 million lost jobs.  Meanwhile, unemployment hit a 25-year high on this date.

March 6, 2011, UK hired their 1^st remotely based professor.  Scott McLeod, an educational technology specialist, who worked mostly from his Iowa home, also had to teach one course per semester.  The school paid him $115,000 for nine months.

On March 6, 2012, Louisville native Claude Norman “C. J.” Spillman, Jr. signed a $6 million three-year contract with the 49ers.

On March 6, 2016, Nancy Reagan passed over and Brad Calipari announced he would walk on as a UK Wildcat basketball player.

On March 6, 2018, four law enforcement officers and a doctor testified to lawmakers against legalizing medical marijuana.  Eric Crawford, who has quadriplegia and favored passage, said the hour-long debate reminded him of the movie Reefer Madness.  Rep. John Simms – Flemingsburg sponsored the bill.  The pharmaceutical industry had no comment.

March 6, 2021, a Kentucky bred won Oaklawn Park’s GIII $300,000 Honeybee Stakes for three-year-olds.  Stewart Dallas grabs the win.

March 6, 2022, Kentucky Women’s’ basketball stunned #1 South Carolina to win its 1^st SEC Tournament championship in 40 years.  Dre Edwards nailed a three-pointer with just over 4 seconds to secure the win.