Kentucky Trivia ● Kentucky Tweets

March 11-15, 1775, settlers returned to James Harrod’s fort and occupied it continuously from that point on.  Many of the 50 men who came back were the same members of Harrod’s expedition the previous year.

Localtonians wish a Happy Birthday to Louisville native John Speed, born in 1812.  John grew up on Farmington, surrounded by enslaved people, who produced the labor-intensive cash crop of hemp.  He would acquire other businesses as well.  By his death in 1840, he had become one of Kentucky’s most prominent enslavers with 54.

March 11, 1829, while drilling for salt brine in Burkesville in Cumberland County, men hit a gusher that shot “to the top of the surrounding trees.”  The gusher became one of the earliest commercial oil wells in the U.S. after the owners bottled the petroleum and sold it as medicine.

March 11, 1862, the state legislatures declared that any person serving in the Confederate army or any service who gave aid against the Union should no longer be considered a citizen.  It Happened Today In Kentucky History by Robert A. Powell pg: 25

March 11, 1896, tensions in Kentucky General Assembly had reached a point where armed Democratic supporters stood outside the statehouse in an attempt to intimidate lawmakers and discourage them from entering.  The General Assembly was appointing the next U.S. Congressman, and tensions were high.  The state banned observers from the gallery, and searched everyone entering the statehouse for weapons.

March 11, 1910, in the season closer, Central University beat State University, Lexington (UK) 51-9 in the “old” Boyle Humphrey Gymnasium.

March 11, 1914, Frankfort unveiled William Goebel’s statue, “Kentucky’s martyred Governor.”  Ten years earlier, the General Assembly appropriated twenty thousand dollars for the monument.

March 11, 1920, Will Lockett died in the electric chair at the Frankfort State Penitentiary in Eddyville, known as “Castle on the Cumberland.”  Lockett was the confessed killer of Geneva Hardman, a ten-year-old white girl, in Lexington a month earlier.  His trial at the Fayette County courthouse, occurred five days after the crime, lasted barely thirty minutes, and the judge sentenced him to death.  The WWI veteran admitted to several more murders before he died.

March 11, 1926, Deputy Jailer Joe West, Knox County Detention Center, died in the Knox County Jail as he locked prisoners in their cells for the night.  One of the inmates suddenly pulled a gun and shot Jailer West, killing him.

March 11, 1944, Paducah native Irvin Shrewsbury Cobb died in New York City.

March 11, 1950, Deputy Sheriff Bill Baker, Perry County Sheriff’s Office, died while attempting to arrest a man for being drunk in public near Hazard.  Deputy Baker and his partner were checking roadhouses in the area when they encountered the man coming out of one of the establishments.

March 11, 1951, Army PFC Glenn H. Gipson from McCracken County died in the Korean War.

March 11, 1967, Army PFC Harvey R. Chambers from Leitchfield in Grayson County and Army SP4 Richard B. Sams from Southgate in Campbell County, both died in the Vietnam War.

March 11, 1969, Army SGT John R. Jackson from Paintsville in Johnson County died in the Vietnam War.

March 11, 1976, Patrolman Michael T. Smith, Jefferson County Police Department, died in a motorcycle accident at Minors Lane and Ireland Drive while attempting to catch up to a speeding motorist.  Another vehicle pulled out in front of his motorcycle.

Localtonians wish a Happy Birthday to Louisville native Dan Uggla, born in 1980.

March 12, 1988, the house voted to propose a constitutional amendment allowing a state lottery.  The 1^st ticket sold 13 months later.  Also on this day, Federal regulators closed Paducah’s 1^st Federal Savings and Loan.

March 11, 1996, Highlands guard Jared Lorenzen called a play during an opening round game in the Boys’ Sweet Sixteen.  Henderson County rallied to stun Highlands, 62-60, ending Lorenzen’s high school basketball career.

March 11, 2001, Tubby’s Cats crushed Ole Miss to win its 23^rd SEC Tournament.  Meanwhile, the headlines addressed the OxyContin addiction that hit Eastern Kentucky hard and still does to this day.

On March 11, 2008, the Federal Reserve announced that it would lend $200 billion in Treasury notes to bail out bond dealers stuck with mortgage-backed securities and other collateralized debt obligations that they couldn’t resell on the secondary market.  The subprime mortgage crisis had dried up the secondary market for these debt products.  Wall Street knew the government would bail them out, and they did.

On March 11, 2010, a Senate committee, for the 1^st time, approved a proposal to expand gambling at racetracks.  The bill would allow all eight existing racetracks to add electronic gambling, called Instant Racing.

On March 11, 2011, an 8.9 earthquake and tsunami hit Japan, the largest ever for the island nation. Nearly 150 businesses in Kentucky, primarily auto suppliers, were owned in whole or in part by Japanese companies and employed 31,868 full-time workers.  As a result, the natural disaster disrupted supply chains for several weeks at the Toyota plant.

March 11, 2015, Police Officer Burke Jevon Rhoads, Nicholasville Police Department, died in a vehicle collision at the intersection of U.S. 27 and Rogers Road, in Garrard County.

March 11, 2017, Santa Anita ran the GI $751,035 Santa Anita Handicap for four-year-olds and upward.

March 11, 2018, two booms, a cloud of dust and iconic Frankfort’s Capital Plaza Tower was no more.

March 11, 2021, President J. Biden signed into law the $1.9 trillion relief package, the 3^rd one in less than a year.  The state announced 37 new deaths for a state total of 4,921.